Tour of Monte Rosa

Overview

The Tour of Monte Rosa circles the second-highest massif in the Alps through two countries and one glacier, and it remains strangely uncrowded next to its Mont Blanc cousin. Over nine days you swing from Zermatt's Matterhorn theatre into Italy's Walser valleys — Gressoney, Alagna, Macugnaga — where wooden houses on stone staddle-stones have faced the Monte Rosa east wall, the biggest mountain face in the Alps, for six centuries. The Colle del Turlo, climbed on a beautifully preserved military mule road, is the quiet masterpiece. The defining obstacle is the Theodulpass: the classic line between Zermatt and Cervinia crosses the Theodul Glacier at around 3,300m. It is crevassed and requires either a guide, genuine glacier competence, or the honest cop-out of the cable car over the top — decide before you go, not at the moraine. Stage lodging is mountain huts and village inns, half board almost everywhere, so packs stay light. Access from Zermatt (train from Geneva or Zurich) with escape valves by bus at several cols. Mid-July to mid-September; around £950 for nine days of half-board huts, or £1,600+ with a guide for the glacier day.

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Prefilled for 1 July 2027 — the next best-season window. Search on partner sites — opens in a new tab.