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Packing list for high alpine tours
The gear question is often the first one new guests ask. What do I need to buy? What can I hire? What do I really need, and what’s just over-the-top outdo...
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Crampons on ice, the first crunch under your soles, crevasses dropping away into the depths to your left and right, and between them your mountain guide, keeping the rope taut: glacier trekking is one of the most intense experiences the Swiss Alps have to offer. Not because it’s especially dangerous, but because it opens up a world that otherwise stays closed to hikers.
Glaciers aren’t hiking trails. They change every day, they move, they open up crevasses and close them again. Anyone heading out onto a glacier without prior knowledge or a guide is underestimating the terrain. Anyone going with an experienced mountain guide gets exactly what they imagined: a silent, vast, gleaming piece of high mountain landscape.
In this article we show you the most beautiful glacier routes in Switzerland for guided treks, and what you should bring along for a safe and unforgettable tour with Exped Tribe.
On a glacier trek you move across glacier surfaces with crampons, an ice axe and a rope. Unlike a classic high alpine tour, the focus isn’t necessarily on a summit but on the glacier world itself: walking across wide firn fields, crevasse landscapes, blue ice and that very special light you only find at high altitude.
Technically, glacier trekking is well within reach for most people. You don’t need any climbing training, but you do need solid fitness and a feel for walking carefully in crampons so you don’t trip. You’ll learn the rest as you go, together with one of our mountain guides.
The good news: you don’t have to be a pro to get started. The Swiss Alps have plenty of objectives within reach of ambitious mountain hikers with good fitness – often on your very first high alpine course or on a guided day tour.
Difficulty: L (easy)
Length: 8 to 15 km depending on the route
Starting point: Jungfraujoch (3454 m) or Märjelensee
Season: June to October
Region: Bernese Oberland / Valais
If you’ve never set foot on a glacier, this is the best place to start. The Great Aletsch Glacier is 22 kilometres long, up to 900 metres deep and the largest ice stream in the Alps. A UNESCO World Heritage Site. And it can be explored on various routes, depending on your time, fitness and ambition.
The most classic option starts at the Jungfraujoch and crosses the wide, flat firn plateau of the Jungfrau region towards Konkordiaplatz, where the great glaciers of the Bernese Oberland flow together. The terrain is open and easy to read, the crevasses clearly visible, the panorama simply overwhelming: Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau behind you, the Aletschhorn ahead.
Less well known but particularly scenic: the descent from Konkordiaplatz to the Märjelensee hut on the Valais side, from where the view opens up across the Märjelensee to the glacier. A combination of glacier, hut and viewpoint that no other route in Switzerland offers in such density.
Ideal for: beginners, families with mountain experience, anyone who wants to try glacier trekking for the first time.
Difficulty: L to WS
Starting point: Zermatt (1608 m) or Rotenboden (2815 m by train)
Walking time: 3 to 6 hrs depending on the variant
Season: June to September
Region: Valais / Zermatt
The Gorner Glacier lies quite literally in front of the backdrop of the Matterhorn. From Zermatt you can already see it from the village street: the ice pushing down from the Monte Rosa massif into the valley. Being out on it on foot is a completely different experience from looking at it from the mountain railway.
From Rotenboden or straight from Zermatt, the route leads onto the glacier, through a landscape of ice-polished rock and moraines, past deep-blue meltwater pools. The middle sections offer varied crevassed terrain that’s ideal for teaching technique. If you’re unlucky, you won’t see the Matterhorn because it’s hidden in the clouds. If you’re lucky, you’ll see it for hours from every angle.
There are two good options for the way back: either return to the train or carry on over the moraine down to Zermatt, which gives you yet more views of the glacier’s edge.
Exped Tribe tip: the Gorner Glacier is excellent preparation for a subsequent high alpine tour, for example on the Breithorn or Allalinhorn.
Difficulty: L to WS
Starting point: Steingletscher car park (1860 m) or Göscheneralp
Walking time: 4 to 6 hrs
Season: July to September
Region: Uri / Bernese Oberland (Susten area)
The Steingletscher lies on the Susten Pass and is one of the most accessible yet most impressive glaciers in Central Switzerland. It has retreated dramatically over the past few decades. What was still ice twenty years ago is now scree and bare rock. That’s exactly why a guided tour here is especially worthwhile: a mountain guide won’t just show you how to move safely, but also how the terrain has changed and what that means for the glacier’s future.
From the car park on the Susten Pass you first follow hiking trails to the edge of the glacier, then put on your crampons and step onto the ice. The route leads through an open glacier field that’s easy to read, from where the view of the Sustenhorn and the surrounding 3000-metre peaks makes every bit of effort worthwhile.
If you’d like to combine the Steingletscher with a traverse of the Sustenhorn, you get a complete high alpine tour with a glacier trekking warm-up.
Ideal for: beginners interested in glaciology and climate change, anyone who hasn’t done a high alpine tour yet but wants a taste of glacier air.
👉 To the guided Sustenhorn high alpine tour with Exped Tribe
Difficulty: WS
Starting point: Göscheneralp (1792 m)
Walking time: 2 days with an overnight stay in a hut
Season: July to September
Region: Uri / Central Switzerland
If you’re looking for solitude, you’ll find it here. The Dammafirn lies in the backcountry of the Göscheneralp and is one of the large, still-intact glaciers of the Uri Alps. It flows down from the Dammastock (3630 m), the highest peak in the region, and forms a wide, silent firn plateau where you can walk for hours without seeing another rope team.
The two-day version includes a night at the Trift Hut of the SAC Basel section and heads deep into the glacier basin on the second day. The route is more demanding than Aletsch or the Steingletscher: the terrain is harder to read, the crevasses wider, and navigation without local knowledge is prone to error.
With an experienced mountain guide, however, it’s one of the most impressive glacier tours Central Switzerland has to offer. If you like, you can carry on up the Dammastock on the second day – and your glacier trek becomes a full high alpine tour.
👉 To the guided Dammastock high alpine tour with Exped Tribe
Difficulty: WS
Starting point: Furka Pass (2429 m) or Tiefenbach
Walking time: 4 to 6 hrs
Season: July to September
Region: Uri / Valais (border)
The Tiefengletscher is the least known of the five routes in this article, and that’s exactly why it’s one of our favourites. It lies on the Furka Pass, right next to the much-photographed Rhône Glacier, yet hardly anyone visits it. No souvenir shops, no ice grotto, no queues.
From Tiefenbach, the route first crosses moraine terrain to the edge of the glacier. Then the ice begins: an open, moderately steep glacier surface with few crevasses in the lower part and an imposing icefall higher up, which is bypassed. The objective is the Galenstock (3583 m), which combines nicely with the trek.
What stays with you is the silence up here. While the Rhône Glacier, just a few kilometres away, draws hundreds of day visitors, the Tiefengletscher is almost always deserted.
Ideal for: more experienced hikers and novice mountaineers looking for something off the beaten track who don’t fancy tourist routes.
Glacier trekking doesn’t require any climbing or high alpine training, but it does require the right preparation:
Fitness: you should be able to walk uphill for 4 to 6 hours without difficulty. Glacier tours often lack even terrain, and because the ground is more demanding, fatigue hits differently than on a normal hike.
Gear: mountain boots with stiff soles (no trainers or approach shoes), warm layers, glacier sunglasses (category 4), sun cream and enough water. Crampons and ice axes are provided by us or can be hired.
Sure-footedness: you should feel confident on uneven ground. On the ice itself your mountain guide leads the way, but the approach often crosses scree and boulder fields.
A head for heights: more exposed traverses and nearby crevasses shouldn’t throw you off your stride.
Swiss glaciers are shrinking every year. What’s still accessible today will be considerably smaller in ten or twenty years. If you want to experience a glacier up close, you shouldn’t wait too long. At the same time, shrinking glaciers are changing the routes. Approaches are getting longer, traverses more demanding, crevasse fields more active. Local knowledge is becoming more important, not less. That’s exactly why a guided glacier trek makes more sense today than ever before.
We take you on guided glacier tours all over Switzerland. Our mountain guides know the current conditions first-hand. Whether it’s a first taste on the Steingletscher, peaceful solitude on the Dammafirn or the big loop on the Aletsch: we tailor the tour to your level and your schedule.
👉 Enquire about glacier trekking with Exped Tribe
Exped Tribe is a mountain guiding school based in Erstfeld, Uri. We take guests on guided high alpine tours, glacier treks, ski tours and expeditions worldwide.
