G and I hiked the Tour de Mont Blanc at the end of July, 2010. This is a well-known 100 mile (160km) hiking route through France, Italy and Switzerland.
Timing
We did the tour anticlockwise in eight days, which included tackling the higher passes (Col Des Fours & Fenetre d’Arpette). That was pretty comfortable for us, arriving at our destination by mid afternoon on most days. There is an ultramarathon in which the winners apparently finish in about 20 hours, with a cut off of 46 hours; though this route is slightly different. The guide book suggests 11 days.
Our itinerary
1 Les Houches (1007m) – Refuge de Miage – Les Contamines (1167m)
(via Col De Voza 1653m; Col de Tricot; 2120m;)
2. Les Contamines (1167m) – Refuge Des Mottets (1870m)
(via Col de Bonhomme 2329m; Col Des Fours 2665m)
3. Refuge Des Mottets (1870m) – Courmayeur (1226m)
(via Col De La Seigne 2516m; Col Checrouit 1956m)
4. Courmayeur (1226m) – La Fouly (1610m)
(via Ref Bertone 1989m; Ref Bonatti 2025m; Grand Col Ferret 2537m)
5. La Fouly (1610m) – Champex (1466m)
6. Champex (1466m) – La Forclaz (1526m)
(via Fenetre d’Arpette 2665m)
7. La Forclaz (1526m) – Argentiere
(via Col de Balme 2191m; Aig des Posettes 2201m)
8. Argentiere – Les Houches (1007m)
(via Ref La Flegere 1875m; Le Brevent 2526m; Ref de Bellachat 2152m)
Because the guide book is excellent, I’m not going to give you a day-by-day account of the walk. But it was beautiful – most days began in a valley, climbing up to a mountain pass in the morning, to descend to the next valley by mid afternoon.
Guide and maps
The essential guide is Tour of Mont Blanc by Kev Reynolds. This describes the route in both directions, describes the possible variants, suggests places to stay, and picks out key sights along the way. It includes a map of each stage, which is sufficient for most purposes.
We also took with us the two IGN maps (3630OT and 3531ET) which cover all but about 500m of the route. Though not strictly necessary, we enjoyed spreading them over the breakfast table and planning our day able to see the bigger picture.
You certainly don’t need a person to guide you. The route is very well signposted all the way round.
Accommodation
There is plenty of accommodation – at mountain refuges, in bed and breakfasts and in good quality hotels. Some of the mountain refuges have only dormitories; some have a mixture of rooms and dormitories. Most provide a good, substantial evening meal.
We did not book our accommodation in advance: we simply phoned ahead each morning. Even though we were there at high season, we had no difficulties finding rooms. We only came close to a problem on one day, arriving after a long day in La Fouly, where we had not booked ahead. We managed to get the last hotel room in the town’s two hotels; if we had not got that, we could have slept in the dormitory.
In retrospect, I wish we had stayed in more of the mountain refuges.
How hard is it?
Apparently 25,000 people do the Tour de Mont Blanc each year, and you don’t need to be a marathon runner. Some people will want to take longer than 8 days; and some will do it faster. We saw lots of people quite a bit older than us out on the trails.
There are a couple of long ascents (especially Fenetre d’Arpette) but these can be avoided by sticking to the main TMB route.
Do we need to carry food and water?
Although a lot of the walking is quite remote, there are mountain refuges every couple of hours where you can get a drink (in my case, a cappucino) and food. We each carried a water bottle, and a sports bar for emergencies. Obviously if you plan to camp, you may need to carry food and water.
What to carry with you
People say that their only regret was that they carried too much. Try to keep your pack to below 10kg. I suggest that before you leave home, you should walk around town with your backpack carrying what you propose to take. You may find when you get home that you want to take out some surplus. Here is what we carried:
Walking boots
Clothes for hiking: 2 prs shorts; 1 short sleeved shirt; 1 long sleeved shirt; waterproof jacket; scarf; gloves
Clothes for evenings: zip off trousers; long sleeved shirt; fleece; sandals
Underwear: 3 pairs pants and bras; hiking socks
Toiletries, and travel towel
Compass, guidebook
Sun-glasses; small tube of sun cream; sun-hat
Penknife
Passport, money, credit cards
Mobile phone and charger
Kindle (or book)
Camera
First aid kit
25 Comments
Tom Zeppenfeldt · August 11, 2010 at 4:12 pm
Hi Owen,
Nice reading, seems not a lot has changed since I did it as a youngster (12 years old), starting and ending at Champex (good raclette eating!)
Tom
Trish & Dan · August 13, 2010 at 2:53 am
Thanks for the information! We depart US for Tour de Mont Blanc – self guided – on Sept 3. Start Las Houches, have the “bible” Cicerone publication. Looking forward to this, our honeymoon. Did your Kindle work on route?
Owen Barder · August 13, 2010 at 5:33 am
Trish & Dan
Yes, my Kindle worked en route. I switched off the 3G to save power; but it worked when I switched it on briefly in some towns. And what a splendid change from carrying a book. I read a couple of books on holiday which I simply would not have been able (or wanted) to carry.
Owen
Cynthia Hammer · August 15, 2010 at 6:04 am
How did you call ahead to make the next day’s reservations? Did your cell phone work in the mountains and did you need to buy any special program? We only speak English–will that prove to be a problem in trying to make our own reservations?
Owen replies: Yes, our cell phones worked wherever we tried them. (Though we left them switched off most days, both to avoid being disturbed and to be sure of having a full charge in case of emergency). I speak French, so I did the reservations in French. My guess is that English would have been OK, though.
Dick Everard · November 29, 2010 at 6:55 pm
I notice that you didn’t carry a sleeping bag. Did all of the Refuges have douvets?
I walked the GR5 this summer and carried a sleeping bag but only used it a few times. Some in the south of France only had blankets not douvets which is when I ended up using a sleeping bag for comfort.
Dick
Owen Barder · November 30, 2010 at 3:43 am
We carried a silk sleeping liner and used that with blankets in the refuges.
Isabelle Straka · January 15, 2011 at 2:36 am
Hi,
I am planning a trip of my own in the Alps, more specifically along the same trail, and am debating whether to go privately or with an organized group. The agency had a set price of around 1800 Euros, b ut I was wondering about how much every refuge cost per night.
Thanks
Isabelle
Tricia Hoyt · January 15, 2011 at 7:23 pm
Isabelle, my husband did TMB unguided, no need. Buy book by cicerone, it has it all, maps, refuges, hotels in villages. A must stay, Refugio Elano. Have fun!
Regards, Tricia Hoyt
Pat Holmes · June 21, 2011 at 3:24 pm
I did the TMB last Sept, anti-clockwise route. Great trek for my first time trekking in Alps.
Arpette col a highlight, magnificent walk with great weather that day.
Will do again and take in few alternate routes.
I hadn’t time to buy wall map of TMB and was wondering if yellow
GRTMB route map you have at top of web page is available for purchase / download??
Regards, Pat Holmes
Steve · April 9, 2012 at 8:21 pm
Running in that terrain. Incredible but looks good for a hike.
peter stock · June 23, 2013 at 8:33 pm
Sorry to drag you back to a long past trip, but we are heading off for an abbreviated TMB in mid July, many stages of which (indeed even chosen accommodation) match your itinerary.
I am surprised by the distances you seem to have been able to cover. For instance, you say you did Courmayeur – La Fouly in one day. According to the Reynolds Guide that’s a 4.5h (to Bonatti) plus 6.5h = 11h day. 13km + 20km = 33km.
(autourdumontblanc.com calls this a 10h stretch.)
Your Day 3 progress also interests me as we are starting at Mottets and plan to overnight in Courmayeur. But that is 3.75+ 5.5h = 9.25h; 10km+ 18km = 28km
(the AutourduMontBlanc.com site calls it a 7.5h day)
We plan to take the skilifts down from Maison Vielle and save a chunk of time there.
How did you manage to cover so much ground that day?
Did you not find the Reynolds time estimates accurate?
How much do you think fit but otherwise relatively inexperienced hikers should discount your benchmarks?
Owen Barder · June 24, 2013 at 4:24 pm
Hi Peter
Yes, the fourth day from Courmayer to La Fouly was a long day (but there wasn’t an obvious way to shorten it without making it too short).
The day into Courmayeur was fine – we were there in plenty of time (and we walked down, rather than taking the ski lift). Courmayeur is lovely so do try to get there with time to enjoy it.
Owen
Aisling · May 7, 2014 at 9:46 pm
We managed to camp and carry all food and water for the trip with packs less than 15kg each. We wrote about it here: http://bigadventuressmallbudgets.wordpress.com
One more thing: I’d really recommend bringing at least one walking pole per person- the downhills can be tough. Your knees will thank you!
Marla · August 20, 2014 at 2:43 am
We are going to do the TMB and wondered if the refuges had vegetarian food available or is it mostly meat entrees for dinner?
Owen Barder · August 20, 2014 at 4:39 am
Marla – yes, we are vegetarian and we were fine. Owen
Alejandro Figuerola · December 15, 2014 at 9:33 pm
Hello
Your post has been a great help.
If I may ask a questions.
Would I need some type of permit or referrer anywhere before I start. Or do I just book my hotel and Gîtes and just go?
Thanks in advance
Alejandro Figuerola
Owen Barder · December 17, 2014 at 8:41 pm
You don’t need any kind of permit.
Soumya · January 3, 2015 at 8:28 pm
Hi Owen,
My husband and I want to do TMB this year in july. We would love to walk the whole way but we have only 7 days to do it. But to do that we might have to walk for 15-16 miles per day. Out fitness level is normal and we will train for it. But did you meet anyone who did the hike in 7 days? Is it possible or will it be too strenuous? Will we be restricted by the location of the huts?
peter stock · January 7, 2015 at 1:05 pm
Soumya, I don’t mean to steal Owen’s thunder here bbut my wife and i did an abbreviated TMB 2.years ago and i worked hard at planning it. Ill add our itinerary and thoughts here later. But email me directly if you want for mire info.
peter
midtownee [at] gmail [dot] com
peter stock · January 8, 2015 at 5:48 pm
With Owen’s permission (pending), here is a link to my brief notes on how we (normal people, not trained marathoners) did about 75% of the TMB (and I think the best segments) in just 7 days/6 nights, including specifics on the key ShortCuts available.
http://www.hostedcycling.com/blog/archives/01-2015
Soumya · January 8, 2015 at 11:36 pm
Thanks a lot for the link Peter. Your link really helps me. I will email you if I am any more questions. I bought the Key Reynolds book which is also helping me plan.
Annie · February 17, 2015 at 3:40 am
Thanks to Owen and Peter!
Like Soumya, my husband and I will be attempted an abbreviated TMB in 7 days (with the additional consideration of jet lag!). Thanks for the itineraries. Very helpful for planning.
Ryan Hughes · March 23, 2015 at 3:08 pm
Hello I am going to do the tour of Mont Blanc and wondering what the best time to go is. Is September slower traffic? Also it seems that there are so many variations of hiking this trek it almost seems silly to try and make reservations at refuges in advance is this accurate? Also is there a way to find out which refuges are more accomidating then others to try and make those the ones you stay at? Is it worth planning on staying a night in chamonix? Or just pushing through to les houche and starting your trip? I have ample time and want to make sure I get to see and do the best of all this joke has to offer. Any tips would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Ryan Hughes · March 23, 2015 at 3:10 pm
Sorry I mean hike*
Tobi · December 8, 2015 at 10:01 pm
It’s still an amazing hike! I did the trek in 7 days too in September 2015. I even wrote a free little travel magazine about it. If you want to have a look at my trip: Tour du Mont Blanc