Dufourspitze | High altitude ski tour with mountain guide

• Procedure and meeting place

  • Meeting place

    09:00 am, Zermatt railway station at the kiosk

    We meet at the railway station in Zermatt. After a welcome from the mountain guide, our tour starts with a leisurely cable car ride.

  • Day 1 - Zermatt via the Schwarztor to the Monte Rosa Hut

    600 Hm- 1000 Hm

    1600 Hm - 2000 Hm

    WS

    Our adventure begins in Zermatt, where we take the mountain railway into the fascinating world of the Monte Rosa massif. During the ascent to the Klein Matterhorn, we enjoy the breathtaking view of the surrounding four-thousand-metre peaks before taking our first steps on skis in the high alpine landscape. Depending on the conditions and the motivation of the group, we climb the Breithorn, an impressive summit with magnificent views. The subsequent descent through the Schwarztor offers pure skiing pleasure in the midst of an impressive glacier world. A short ascent leads us to the Monte Rosa hut, our base for the next few days. Here we end the day on the sunny hut terrace and enjoy the view of the mighty icefalls and rock faces of Monte Rosa, a perfect prelude to our ascent of the Dufourspitze.

  • Day 2 - Dufourspitze

    1800 metres altitude

    1800 metres altitude

    ZS

    On the second day, we face the big highlight of our tour, the ascent of the Dufourspitze, the highest peak in Switzerland. On skis, we climb over the mighty glacier to the Silbersattel before climbing the final, impressive ridge with crampons to the main summit with the Madonna. The view over the mighty Valais mountains is simply overwhelming. For the particularly motivated, there is a detour to the northern end before a long, dreamlike descent across the glacier landscape takes us back to the Monte Rosa hut. Here we enjoy a delicious piece of cake, savour the experience and look back proudly on an unforgettable summit day.

  • Day 3 - Departure for Zermatt

    800 metres altitude

    1800 metres altitude

    After the unforgettable summit experience on the Dufourspitze, we’ll stay another night in the hut. This means we’ll not only have plenty of time for the ascent and can leisurely reflect on our experiences, but we’ll also have this third day as a valuable ‘wildcard’ day up our sleeve. The grand finale is a shorter, scenically stunning tour up the Stockhorn, followed by a fantastic descent down the Sulz. We carve our way down across vast glaciers to Zermatt. Depending on snow conditions, our route will either take us through the spectacular glacier gorge to Furi or over the Riffelberg, from where we’ll glide comfortably down into the valley by cable car. A perfect finale to these intense days of ski touring, allowing us to look back with great pride on what we’ve achieved together.

  • Conclusion

    approx. 15:00, Zermannt

    We end the tour days together in a cosy café in Zermatt before setting off on our journey home.

• Requirements

  • Solid ski touring technique including hairpin bends.
  • Safe downhill technique in open terrain and in different types of snow.
  • You have experience with ice axe and crampons.
  • You have experience in climbing in a rope team on a ridge.
  • Stamina for ski tours of around 1500 metres at a normal pace (~300-350m/h).
  • Altitude acclimatisation: we will ascend to 4,634 metres above sea level.

  Splitboarders: We look forward to sharing our enthusiasm for the high mountains with splitboarders. For this tour, we want a hard boot set-up as it offers significantly more precision, stability and efficiency on longer ascents, steep passages and in combined terrain (firn, ice, rock). It also makes it easier to walk with crampons and to move safely in demanding alpine terrain.

  Key point of the tour: are the length and altitude metres on the summit day. On the summit ridge, you will be guided by the mountain guide on a short rope.

• Price and services

  • CHF 2190.-
  • Rope team with 2 guests per mountain guide.
  • Including accommodation costs with half board.
  • Including professional planning and realisation with a mountain guide and his travel expenses.
  • Excluding travel expenses, possible train tickets, personal consumption.

• Material and equipment

  • For this tour you need the material from this PDF. We carry our equipment with us the whole time. Only pack the essentials.
  • General material and packing tips we have also put together for you.

Impressions: Dufourspitze