UKC

Interested to hear from anybody that's done a relatively fast walkers Haute Route and any tips, looking at doing the majority of the Swiss section in a maybe 3 days, so 2 nights out but wondering if the logistics of huts work or if its just a push too far between them.

Light and fast wild camping/bivvy would be the best option but seems a bit difficult in some areas, basically as far as Arolla as its all nature reserve and i don't fancy getting busted.

Pretty comfortable with 15-20 mile days over 3 or 4 decent sized passes as have done this numerous times before on circular routes so know its within limits.

I think that if your discrete and choose your spots well you're unlikely to get busted.

Thanks, getting busted directly is a very unlikely but seemingly more likely that somebody reports you to a hut guardian where things start to get troublesome, i suppose if you do get caught its just play polite and ignorant to some respect.

Does the hut guardian really give a crap if you are miles away from their hut? Sounds as if the Valais is potentially full of snitches!

I think I've enough experience to know what constitutes taking the piss re wild camping and kinda get the point about nature reserve areas as they would fall under different legislation vs the rest of upland areas in the Alps.

Just curious about this one rather than aiming to start an argument, especially if people have real life examples.

Didnt do it fast but wild camped along the way (high up and discreet, arrive late leave early etc ) with no problems. It was about 10 years ago now but we camped below fenetre d'arpette, below cabane de mont fort, above lac moiry and near hotel schwarzhorn somewhere.

I still shudder at that name. In a fit of not-actually-that-youthful enthusiasm I carried my bike over it. It was day 1 of an attempt to ride most of the Walker's Haute Route. We had to cut the day short but with a bit of planning of sensible alternatives the rest went much better.

No real world examples, just reading a few articles here and there which are probably just trying to do the decent thing and warn of consequences and the right way to do things. I think the issue is with the locals, lets say they are out for a walk to a hut in an evening and see a tent they may get a bit up tight about it and snitch, you know what the Swiss are like with rules

The way i interpret it is as long as it above tree line and discrete sounds like it should be OK, there is a few unmanned huts along the way so may see if they work distance wise to give an option.

Sounds about right.

A quick WHR does seem an excellent plan though... all the best to the OP if you have a go. I would love to do something in the Alps in a similar vein soon as well.

https://alpsinsight.com/ could be of use or just good inspiration I do know that Dan who is involved in this site has also written a great deal on running some of the higher 3000ers and less technical 4000ers as well. Nice to know that you don't need to be a Killian or Andreas Steindl to be able to embark on those sorts of endeavours.

I've done quite a bit of that sort of stuff over the last few summers. There's lots of things you can do in that style and it's definitely not just for the Killians of this world.