I left Chamonix on 12 September 2018 with an ambitious goal: to walk the Haute Route to Zermatt, alone, on foot, carrying everything I needed to sleep outside. I’d been to Zermatt many times before—weekend ski trips from Geneva, familiar restaurants, familiar streets, familiar views. What I wanted this time wasn’t familiarity. It was an expanded and earned perspective. By the time I reached Zermatt eighteen days later, I’d logged 480,805 steps and 292.8 km, crossed 11 high mo