Le Chable - Verbier - Clambin - Cabane du Mont Fort
- Distance: 13km
- Duration: (with breaks): 5h 00min
- Elevation gain/loss: 900m/20m
The awesome B&B La Poste hostess also offered us a free cable car day pass, to which we said sure! I had a choice of either being stubborn about “we need to walk all the way to Zermatt” or making shortcuts in places where it seemed reasonable to save my energy. Energy it is!
We decided to get up to Verbier and hike from there to have more views and shorten a steep climb in a forest. Although a heavy fog was obscuring any views while in the cable car, once in the town we could definitely see that it’s quite a posh town with fancy hotels and chalets spreading across the hills. We did not linger in the town and hiked to Clambin to reunite with our trail.
The plan of starting higher to have more views did not really work out as we were constantly in a cloud. And after passing Clambin, a steep forest hill hike was still waiting for us… I was convinced without a doubt that taking the cable to cut some of this climb was a great decision as it was really tiring and we had no views, nada!
The climb leveled around Les Ruinettes station, where we surpassed the low clouds. It seemed that with every step more and more of a grand scenery was unfolding in front of us. Low clouds were filling the valley like a foamy river as far as we could see with white-capped mountains shaping the shores of this spectacular river.
I kept on stopping and soaking in the views, feeling super grateful for the place I’m in. It is true that this section is badly scarred by cable cars, but it is quite easy to ignore the surrounding infrastructure and look past it to the beautiful peaks surrounding the area.
We arrived at our destination, Cabane du Mont Fort, quite early, so I got some free time to enjoy the mountains and walk on my own around the area without my house aka backpack on my shoulders, which was awesome.
Although I remembered to take my e-reader and camera, water was not a priority for some reason… So I ended up hand-drinking (if that’s even a word) from the bisse next to the trail trusting that the water is fine. And it was 🙂
Back in the hut we met two fellow Walker’s Haute Route hikers from Belgium, Yves and Jonas, and hung out with them the rest of the evening. They became our hiking buddies and we spent a few evenings together playing card games and sharing our experiences from the trail. It was nice to have someone else who is following the same trail at the same time.
In the hut we had a cute room for ourselves which was super nice (and very Corona-proof). The hut itself is very cosy and we felt like home. In the evening we even got a treat of a spectacular sunset. By the way, the keeper of the hut has two super cute dogs, I almost convinced them to join us in the hike. Almost.
Day 5 tips
- In Cabane du Mont Fort you need to pay extra (2 euros, I believe) for the showers that have a pressure of a firefighters hose, so be prepared.
- Cabane du Mont Fort is also the place of super tasty hotdogs, which are served only in the afternoon. Well deserved treat after a hike!