National Geographic Traveller (UK)
forging new paths
Now in its second year, France’s HexaTrek spans one country, five months, six stages and almost 1,900 miles of terrain. Founder Kevin Ginisty lays out its appeal — and what to expect from the hike’s Alpine sections
What inspired you to create the HexaTrek? My travels in the US. I was aiming to hike and hitch-hike from Patagonia to Alaska, though my journey was halted at the Canadian border during the Covid pandemic. When I arrived at the Mexico-US border, I decided to also hike part of the Pacific Crest trail, which runs for 2,654 miles through California, Oregon and Washington. It was my first experience of through-hiking, and it was one of the most beautiful of my life. Many of the people I bumped into along the way were from Europe. I wondered why everyone was crossing the Atlantic to have this type of adventure.
How does the HexaTrek fit within France’s wider hiking scene?
France has an amazing network of old trails, but they aren’t particularly long. In the last 20 years, we’ve started seeing longer paths created — the GR5 or GR10, for example, which cross the entirety of the Alps and Pyrenees, respectively. But I wanted to make a proper through-hike, covering mountain areas and places where bivouacking is possible, similar to the Pacific Crest experience.
Why ‘HexaTrek’?
France has the shape of a hexagon, and this trail starts at the top right corner and ends at the very bottom left corner — hence, HexaTrek. Initially, I thought it would be impossible to find a path of this length in a country of 70 million people, but I’ve managed to plot a route where 90% of the trail passes on mountainous terrain.
What’s the Alpine section like?
It’s a bit more technical than the GR5. That’s known as the ‘highway’ of the Alps, but I decided to go for something scenic rather than straightforward. It’s 1,885 miles long and physically demanding, with some 459,317 feet of ascent — that’s a lot of up and down. But last year, we had everyone from 18-year-olds to 69-year-olds complete the route.
How do the six stages of the trek vary?
The first section, from Vosges to Jura, is through forests high in the hills. Stages two and three are the Alpine sections, split into Northern and Southern Alps. Huts, villages, remote corners of wind and rock: whatever comes to mind when you think of the Alps, it’s here. After that, stage four winds through gorges and canyons from Cévennes to Languedoc, and stages five and six are the Pyrenees. You can hike the whole way or just one stage. Resupply points are every four to five days, which means you might have one day where you see civilisation, then two or three where you’re in pure wilderness. My favourite spot is Cheval Blanc, near Chamonix.
What do you see for the HexaTrek’s future? Around 400 people started the hike last summer, and 250 made the full distance. I think seeing 1,000 people complete the trail is a good goal for now. A lot of walkers like to be alone, but others want to experience the community side of through-hiking. It’s one of the best memories I have from the time I hiked the trail myself — the time spent with those I shared the route with for weeks on end. You create friendships for life.
For maps, information on the stages and the HexaTrek charter, listing 20 rules to encourage travellers to be responsible, head to hexatrek.com
Backlit by the setting sun, which is casting tremulous spotlights through the gathering steam, Teresa Altamura moves around the sauna with the grace of a swan. In one hand, she holds a large white fan, waving it like a wing through the humid air; with each movement, the scent of Alpine larch wafts over me. “Breathe deeply,” she whispers. I’m perched on the sauna’s wooden steps, which are arranged like a small amphitheatre in front of a bowl of fizzing hot rocks. But with the woodland aroma, I can’t help but feel connected to the outdoors. Outside a window, I can just about make out the spruce garden through the steam and, beyond it, a mountain like a witch’s hat.
Daily themed saunas, like this mediation infusion, are just one of the relaxing experiences offered at Sensoria, a family-run Alpine lodge in the Dolomites. In 2022, it was completely reinvented into a wood-and-glass wellness resort: there’s equine therapy, yoga and even new moon wishing — the practice of manifesting your thoughts and desires by writing them down during the new moon. And while skiing, climbing and adventure hiking remain the bread and butter of this Italian range, it’s hoped these activities will appeal to a wider audience, as more visitors are brought into the region with new SkyAlps flights from London to gateway town Bolzano.
But of course, the biggest draw lies in the outdoors, in the UNESCO-inscribed landscapes. Sensoria has been designed with Japanese architecture principles in mind: sight lines around the lodge lead to purposefully framed views of the mountains, where one of the Italian Alps’ most famous profiles rears just above the sun loungers.
The Sciliar Massif is a sheer wall of grey that ends with the splintered granite of Mount Santner — the great witch’s hat. Indeed, locals say the Sciliar is home to a coven who use woodland stones as launchpads. With a height of 2,414m, Santner is only half the size of some of its more famous neighbours in the Alps, yet what it lacks in stature, it more than makes up for with its presence.
“Santner is the symbol of South Tyrol,” my hiking guide Patrick Mauroner explains the next morning, as we marvel at it from the Alpe di Siusi plateau, which lies a short cable-car
ride above the hotel. The mountain looks completely different from this angle, revealing a long tail and fat rump, like the cows that graze beneath it.
Patrick, a lean local in a baseball cap who works as a fitness instructor when he’s not up in the mountains, is in its thrall as much as I am. “It’s named after the first person to climb it, an Austrian guy in 1880,” he tells me, his eyes still drawn to the massif. “It’s a technical ascent, yet some of the people who were in that expedition team climbed it barefoot.”
Though scaling Santner remains one of the Alpe di Siusi’s most popular hikes, my focus is on much gentler pursuits. The mantra at Sensoria is about connecting with nature, and that’s easily achieved in such surroundings. Patrick has chosen a path that gives us a full survey of the peaks around the plateau, sewn together with smooth meadows, patches of purple crocuses, shallow brooks and rivulets lined with pine, spruce and fir.
At 22sq miles, the Alpe di Siusi is the largest high pasture in Europe, and across the meadows, I can see for miles in every direction. I take deep breaths of clean air in time with my rhythmic steps. As we walk, Patrick points out the humps of Sasso Lungo (3,181m) and Sasso Piatto (2,955m), and eventually we reach a hillock from where we can see the far-off tip of Marmolada (3,343m). A limestone dome of rock with a sliver of snow running down its back, it’s the highest peak in the Italian Alps, known as the ‘Queen of the Dolomites’.
Patrick is convinced these mountains are the key to his family’s wellbeing. “We have a good life here,” he says when we stop mid-hike for coffee at the Edelweiss Hut, a log cabin. Waitresses dressed in dirndls are sashaying out of the small kitchen, bringing steins of beer and tiny glasses of homemade grappa to hikers lounging in log chairs. “As a child, every Sunday we’d walk up a different mountain. Now, I go with my children. We have clean air and they’re in touch with nature.”
The next day, I take a ‘wellbeing walk’ with Sensoria’s co-owner Lea Oberhofer through the forests in South Tyrol’s oldest nature park, the Parco Naturale Sciliar-Catinaccio, which surrounds the hotel. Her instructions are simple: “See things, touch things, feel things — be present.” I let my fingertips trace the dry scaliness of spruce tree bark, the spikes of juniper bushes, the hoofprints in the mud from the horses that graze the forests and the silken heads of grasses that cross our path. “I can disconnect more easily in the mountains because I have to focus on the paths,” says Lea.
I see what she means — the rough trails require concentration. There are thick exposed tree roots, slopes and uneven ground to navigate. While I’m already out of breath, her delicate frame appears to float among the trees like a woodland nymph. “It’s calming; you relax mentally and physically here.”
She tasks me with collecting objects from the forest floor. “Pick things that are attracting you,” she says. “Give them a meaning, and when you’re ready, throw them away.” The very act of choosing focuses the mind, and before long I’m squeezing a pinecone in one hand, feeling calm and contemplative.
Soon, the spruces start to thin as we reach the edge of Laghetto di Fié, a swimming lake where bathers lounge on wooden decks, kids dive-bomb into the water and lunch crowds clink Aperol spritzes at a cafe overlooking the lake. At the water’s edge, I catch sight of the Sciliar, and sense this is the moment I’d been waiting for. I pull back my arm and cast my pinecone into the inky water, watching as it falls from view. My journey is over. Much like the many faces of Mount Santner, I found a completely different side to the Dolomites.
HOW TO DO IT
SkyAlps’ new biweekly service is the first direct link between London and Bolzano, 15.5 miles from Sensoria. Flights take around 2h35m. skyalps.com Doubles at Sensoria from €193 (£165) per person, based on two sharing on an all-inclusive basis, including most wellness and hiking activities but not spa treatments. sensoriadolomites.com