If you are thinking about the TMB, the time to start planning is NOW
Sylvia and I completed the Tour du Mont Blanc in 2018…it remains the most impressive adventure we’ve ever taken together.
If you are considering doing the trek yourself this year, it’s time to make that decision and — if in the affirmative — start your planning. We have a lot of resources which may be of help to you in both the decision and planning. Check out our Tour du Mont Blanc pages…We don’t have anything for sale, it’s just information.
One of the major stories on the tour when we hiked was that the Lac Blanc Refuge, considered to have some of the best views on the Tour, was closed due to some some of legal squabble. This impacted out plans and forced us to change to the almost equally great refuge at La Flégère instead.
in 2019, the Lac Blanc re-opened under new management…but the La Flégère was closed due to construction at the nearby cable car station. In fact, whole sections of the trail were closed, at least on certain dates, severely impacting the tour.
From what we can tell at this point, both the Lac Blanc AND La Flégère will be open for business next year and the construction is complete. However we would urge anyone planning to do this trek to contact the refuges directly (we had a lot of trouble contacting both..Lac Blanc appears to have a website now) or go to https://www.chamonix.net/ for the latest news.
We also urge anyone who hikes this trek to have one or two or even three backup plans in place in case your itinerary breaks down. A lot of things can happen on a trek as long and complex as this one.
Don’t have enough time for the full tour?
We did the trek in eleven hiking days, with two rest days in the middle…we still debate if we even needed that second rest day. However, those who wish to do the full trek should plan on blocking out at least 10-12 days to complete it.
It is possible to do the hike in less than this; many people do it in eight, and we met a few along the way who were attempting it. Most of these ‘express trekkers’ make at least some creative use of alternative transportation options (IE, cheating.)
Brian outlined a hypothetical eight day itinerary last year. However, our recommendation is not to attempt the full hike in just eight days, no matter how strong a hiker you are. The TMB is simply too outstanding an experience to be rushed. Running from place to place, pressed for time and continually under the gun might give some people a false sense of accomplishment, but that will come at the price of enjoyment.
Our recommendation to hikers with limited time is to cut out the less interesting sections of the hike and focus on just the best parts of it. This will involve some substantial cheating, to be sure, but we feel it is better to fully enjoy the best parts of the route than half enjoy the whole of it.
The best parts of the TMB, in the opinion of virtually everyone who has hiked it, are the section around/above the French city of Chamonix and (our personal favorite) almost the entire Italian section. Our suggestion would be as follows:
Start the Tour in Les Contamines de Montjoie instead of Les Houches. In fact, start as far down the end of the road near the Chapel of Notre Dame de la Gorge as you can.
From there, continue along following the counter clockwise route described by Kev Reynolds in his guide The Tour of Mont Blanc (Cicerone.) Take the high option over the Col de la Fours if at all possible. By this route a relatively strong hiker should be able to cross through the entire Italian section to the Swiss Frontier in just four days at reasonable pace.
At the first Swiss Town of note, La Fouly, leave the Trail and take the bus ahead to Champex du Lac. From here, follow the high Route described by Kev Reynolds (The Fenetre d’Arpette) if at all possible. From here, you should be able to make it through the rest of the hike and back to Chamonix (by cable car or by foot) in just four days. If bad weather ruins your plans above Chamonix, simply descend by cable car to the city (as Kev himself suggests) and, if the weather clears the following day, complete your hike.
Is it cheating? Yes, but ultimately, you are the hiker, and each of us must hike his or her own hike. Completing the entire TMB on foot is a point of pride for many, including us; but ultimately, the reason most come here is not pride, but the pure enjoyment of hiking in one of the world’s great mountain ranges. We would urge any hiker to chose enjoyment over sticking to someone else’s rules any day.
Speaking of that rest day…
In 2018 we spent a Sunday marooned in the tiny Swiss hamlet of Trient, trying to figure out bus schedules that would take us somewhere…anywhere…of note. We eventually were able to make it down to the city of Martigny in the Rhone Valley, where we were able to spend just a couple of hurried hours wandering about. Brian was second guessed rather sharply by a second member of the party for the decision to take a rest day in this sleepy, almost completely isolated hamlet.
What we had really hoped to do was to make it over to Chamonix…just a few miles away as the crow flies over the mountain…where there is plenty to do, see, eat and drink. But we could not figure out how to do it…a train connection from Martigny was possible but complex, making sense only if we started early enough in the day. The Swiss bus schedules baffled us. I felt at the time there had to have been an easier way which we were simply ignorant of.
Well. Researching the Swiss Haute Route, Brian discovered what he had always suspected…there was an easy way to get to Chamonix that was right under our noses. In fact, the manager of the hostel we stayed at, which will remain nameless, must have known this; he simply did not tell us out of hopes we would agree to ‘share’ a ride to Chamonix with him for a measly — I think it was sixty bucks.
The man neglected to tell us that, just two miles down the road outside our hotel window was a train station with a direct connection to Chamonix (The ‘Mont Blanc Express.’) I had asked him where the bus going that way took one, and he had answered, nonchalantly, that bus takes you to the border. Well, true, but he hadn’t mentioned anything about that train station.
All we’d have need done was hopped the next bus headed to the border, which we would have reached in ten minutes…then boarded a trail that would have put us in downtown Chamonix in thirty minutes. Hell, we could have walked…on a busy road with a steep curve, true, but Brian saw others doing it. there would have no need to fret about aligning our schedules to catch to last bus…had we missed it we could easily have walked back so long as we caught the last train.
Live and learn. Next time I am in Trient, which might yet happen, I am going to keep that connection in mind. And beware Swiss hostel managers.
