Monterosa East Himalayan Trail 2026

5:00 AM. Headlamp on 🔦. The Anzasca Valley is still asleep 😴, and you are already there, staring into the dark at a wall of ice and rock that touches the clouds ⛅️. Welcome to the Monterosa East Himalayan Trail 🏔️.

Does the name sound big? It is. The east face of Monte Rose, 4,634 m, the first summit of Switzerland 🇨🇭 is the only wall in the entire Alpine arc that climbers compare, without exaggeration, to the great Himalayan faces. Generations of climbers 🧗 from around the world have left their marks here. And in August, it's you who will run at its foot for the trail of a lifetime. The MEHT starts from Macugnaga, a Walser village perched at 1,327 m of altitude in the north of Piedmont in Italy 🇮🇹. Four distances are offered, the "EPIC 58K", the "SKY 39K", the "SCENIC 21K" and the "ZMAKANA' 13K" along with a Mini Trail of 2 km for children on Sunday morning 🎉. Something to bring the whole family into the adventure 🧑‍🧑‍🧒‍🧒. One figure sets the scene: the highest point of the "EPIC 58K", the Passo Mondelli, rises to 2,886 m.

Say goodbye to wide, paved avenues of urban marathons ❌. Here, the terrain is made up of real mountains ✅. Trails, pastures, rocky passages, moraines, and that alpine sky that can change from cobalt blue to black clouds in twenty minutes flat ⏱️. The organizers state clearly: every participant must be self-sufficient in extreme conditions: cold 🥶, heat 🥵, rain 🌧️, wind 💨, snow ❄️. In August at high altitude, anything can happen: the mountain makes no concessions 😬. All races start and finish in Macugnaga, where the MEHT Village 🏘️ is located. The routes dive into the heart of the valley, crossing charming hamlets, Pestarena, Isella, Fornarelli, before climbing and, for the two longest distances, reaching the Passo Mondelli at 2,886 m. This pass marks the Italian-Swiss border with the Valais canton 🇨🇭. In other words, on the "EPIC" and "SKY", you cross from one country to another while running 🏃. Not many trails can boast that 🤔. And then there's Mont Rose itself 🏔️. Running al cospetto of the highest face of the Alps, this Italian phrase meaning "in the presence of", almost "under the watchful eye of", resets the scoreboard. Runners say the sunrise over the east face 🌄, after the first hours of running in the dark, is one of the most memorable moments of their sporting life. No marketing pitch behind it. Just rock 🪨, ice 🧊, lakes and you 🫵.

Macugnaga is not just a trail decor in the middle of nature. It's a living village with 800 years of history behind it 🏡, founded in the 13th century by the Walser, a people of Germanic origin who crossed the Passo del Monte Moro from the Swiss Valais to settle in this remote valley. Their language, Titsch, a Germanic dialect still spoken by a few elders, their larch wood architecture, their agricultural traditions: none of this has evaporated with mass tourism. The Dorf, the historic village core, will charm you with its typical houses. As well as the Old Church from the 14th century ⛪️, with its old lime tree, it has a certain solemnity 🌳 and we sincerely recommend you have a look 👀.

After the physical effort 😮‍💨, the Lago delle Fate (Lake of the Fairies) in the Quarazza valley offers a visual reward worthy of its name 🧚. And if you want to go even higher without the strain, the Macugnaga cable car will take you up to 3,000 m at Passo del Monte Moro, exactly where the "EPIC" runners pass in sweat. Guaranteed view of the Swiss side of Monte Rosa, with the Matterhorn visible in clear weather as a bonus. On the culinary side, the region offers some of its best arguments 🍽️. The alpine cheeses ripened at altitude are the pride of the valley, with a pronounced character that lowland cheeses can't imitate 🧀. The Walser rye bread, dense and aromatic, has been part of local culinary heritage for centuries 🍞. The region's holy grail is the Bettelmatt 😍: a very rare alpine cheese, produced only on a few pastures above 2,000 m in the neighboring valleys of Formazza and Antigorio, mentioned in medieval documents from the 15th century for its exceptional quality 👌. If you find it, don't let it slip away! 😉

Maybe you'll see la vie en rose after running this trail 🎀.