Queen of ski tours | Valais Haute Route | from Chamonix to Zermatt

Nhe photographer and adventurer Joni Hedinger did not see the "DOK" film "Todesfalle le Haute Route - Rekonstruktion eines Dramas", which was broadcast on Swiss television on 27 April this year. But his wife Aurelia did, at home.

Joni Hedinger is out and about in the Alps in April, for seven days, often without mobile phone reception. With skis and skins on a legendary high-altitude tour. Between Mont Blanc and the Matterhorn, between Chamonix and Zermatt - the Haute Route, the queen of ski tours.

The mountain drama five years ago in April, in which seven alpinists died on the Haute Route, is only briefly mentioned. Frozen to death from exhaustion in the snow and ice, just 550 metres from the Cabane des Vignettes, the hut that saved them.

On the fifth day, after the Glacier d'Otemma, the route climbs up to the Col de Charmotane and another short ascent to the intended stage destination - this very hut: the Cabane des Vignettes at 3157 metres.

The Haute Route is a fantastic visual experience for Joni Hedinger. He loves this vastness, this remoteness in the midst of the highest mountains in the Alps. Travelling from one hut to the next bivouac and on again early in the morning. In between, there are tough ascents and extremely steep descents.

Sometimes Joni Hedinger is a bit scared. On the rock-hard descents, where you can't fall or slip under any circumstances. That's where he sometimes reaches his limits. But that has nothing to do with his fitness, which is good.

Joni Hedinger started skiing late in life, at the age of 16. After the seven adventurous days from Chamonix to Zermatt, he is convinced that nobody takes on the Haute Route because of the descents on skis.

On the Haute Route, Joni Hedinger is part of a group of ski tourers that includes three women and six men, led by two Swiss mountain guides, the experienced Florian Bosshard and the aspiring Simon König.

We travelled to Chamonix by train and back in civilisation in Zermatt, we say goodbye over a pizza and look back on the highlights. The impressive glacier cave, the almost meditative, eight-kilometre-long experience on a glacier in thick fog. The toughest, third day and the evening's pride at having completed it.

The run on the Haute Route - March and April are considered the best time - is fairly limited. Other rope teams and groups from the Czech Republic, Poland and Austria are mainly encountered at narrow sections of the route that have to be passed. It goes without saying that the huts are all full to bursting.

That's why the group with Joni Hedinger switches to an uncatered bivouac on the second day, which mountain guide Florian Bosshard knows. However, this means a steep ascent, tying on skis, fitting crampons and slowly abseiling down a steep couloir on skis. In the bivouac you are and eat for yourself.

The meal, carried from the first hut, becomes a small feast thanks to the cooking skills of one of the tour participants. No running water means melting snow in pots over the fire. The next day, the tour continues early in the morning in the dark, with headlamps on over a glacier.

For Joni Hedinger, the Cabane de Chanrion is one of the most beautiful mountain huts on the Haute Route. Recently renovated and enlarged, you quickly notice in the cosy main room that great attention has been paid to detail here. The marbled enamel crockery, for example, is beautiful.

A packed rucksack for the Haute Route should normally weigh between 8 and 10 kilos. Joni Hedinger's weighs just over 20 kilos because, in addition to warm, weatherproof clothing, ice axe, helmet, crampons, crampons, climbing harness, avalanche transceiver, shovel, probe, etc., it also includes cameras, three lenses and a drone with remote control.

Not all 10 participants in the group manage to complete the 110 kilometres with over 8000 metres of altitude, 3 of them drop out early. One because of several blisters on his feet and one exhausted couple. At some point, enough is enough, which is easy to understand.

The long ladder up to the Bertolhütte is not everyone's cup of tea either. Joni Hedinger estimates it at over 50 metres. It goes without saying that you need to be free from vertigo on the Haute Route, even if there are no very extreme climbing sections. But every now and then you have to scramble up steep snow flanks in ski boots and with your skis on.

The group is lucky with fairly stable weather. Of course, they were surprised once by fresh snow in the morning, but it was only really miserable once, on the last day. In lousy visibility, after the Tête Blanche, everyone is now roped together, they slowly descend over the rugged Stockji glacier with its concealed crevasses towards Zermatt.