Video - Jonas M and Jakob N - Haute Route

Video: Stunning, Five Day Ride Along The Haute Route

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The Haute Route runs between Chamonix in France, to Zermatt in Switzerland, for 180 killometres (that’s 112 miles, or over seven million inches). It’s been around for a century and a half, and is bucket list material, as amply demonstrated by the video below, made by the mysteriously named Jonas M, Jakob N, and a third, unnamed mystery man (edit: He turned up in the comments. Hello andreoha!). There are actually two routes, this video is the “walkers” Haute Route, so called because it doesn’t require crampons, ropes, harnesses or any other climbing equipment (this route also means looking at glaciers, rather than climbing or traversing them).

The video came to us via our forum rather than newsdesk, and it really is a cut above most. It takes a little while to get going; normally a full minute of scene setting and preamble would eliminate a video from being posted here, but in this case, it’s worth the wait. There’s hike-a-bike, then there’s hike-a-bike so steep you use chains bolted to the rocks to pull yourself up with one hand. A bit of map poking and bike carrying gives way to some amazing views, well executed POV footage, and some nicely thought out drone footage. We’ve occasionally seen paid, professionally made videos that aren’t this good.

The video also has English subtitles. If you’re not familiar with YouTube’s interface, you can turn those on with the leftmost icon, shown in this screenshot:

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If you too like to measure and consider every bit of kit you carry, they have kit nerds like you sorted out too. There’s preparation for a trip, then there’s this kitlist showing everything Jonas was carrying, down to the gram (no word on whether that’s claimed weights or measured though, for you absolute perfectionists out there). Visit the forum thread and go down a few posts to find map links to every stage of the route.

Video - Jonas M and Jakob N - Haute Route
“Yeah, but, apart from stunning views, hanging valleys; terminal, medial and lateral moraines; cooling the earth by reflecting sunlight back into space, and creating tarns by carving cirques… what have glaciers ever done for us?”
Video - Jonas M and Jakob N - Haute Route
The drone footage in this video is better than most.
Video - Jonas M and Jakob N - Haute Route
In summer taking shoes off for this is worthwhile for the experience. In winter or at high altitudes, it’s a necessity to keep your shoes out of it.
Video - Jonas M and Jakob N - Haute Route
If this doesn’t get you fired up, check yourself for a pulse.
Video - Jonas M and Jakob N - Haute Route
It’s been dark all day here in Todmorden. Several of us started pawing at the screen when the video got to this point.

David started mountain biking in the 90’s, by which he means “Ineptly jumping a Saracen Kili Racer off anything available in a nearby industrial estate”. After growing up and living in some extremely flat places, David moved to Yorkshire specifically for the mountain biking. This felt like a horrible mistake at first, because the hills are so steep, but you get used to them pretty quickly. Previously, David trifled with road and BMX, but mountain bikes always won. He’s most at peace battering down a rough trail, quietly fixing everything that does to a bike, or trying to figure out if that one click of compression damping has made things marginally better or worse. The inept jumping continues to this day.

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