Tour du Mont Blanc

In the spirit of sharing info (and inspiring pictures) of great hikes further afield, here is a write-up of a fast-packing hike my wife and I did on the Tour du Mont Blanc route in September 2013.

I would highly recommend the route as an accessible intro to the Alps. The paths are ridiculously well-made, to the point of feeling a bit highwayish at times, but the route gets you up onto the high ridges and saddles with magnificent views of the high alpine peaks. It is also quite a rewarding route, circumnavigating 160km around Mont Blanc and passing through 3 countries (Italy, Switzerland and France). While the route sticks to the "foothills" (max altitude is about 2,700m), there are numerous 1000m+ climbs to get over, which adds up to a hefty 10,000m of ascent for the full route. The hut and accommodation network is also very good, which allows you to travel light as bedding and meals are provided at relatively affordable rates at regular points along the route (furthest distance between huts is probably 10km).

Fran and I were on a 16-day trip in Italy and to round the trip off nicely, she suggested we try and do the TMB in 5 days. As you can imagine, this idea did not require much insistence on her part, so we found ourselves in Courmayeur (NW Italy), leaving most of our luggage at our accommodation there, hoping to complete the whole route in time for our flights back to SA 6 days later. We packed light (12kg between us) and were hoping to jog some of the easier stretches to make up the longer distances required each day. In hindsight, I'm not sure the jogging helped too much, as we probably still did 80-90% of the route at a hiking pace. Nice to pretend you're a Euro trail-runner though!

I've copied in the details from my training log below:


Wednesday Sep 18, 2013
Trail Running (TMB Day 1) 6:26:54 [2] 32.0 km (12:05 / km) +1925m 9:18 / km

So we're aiming to do the 160km Tour du Mont Blanc in 5 days of hiking/jogging. Somewhat slower than Xavier Thevenard's 20h34m UTMB record but somewhat faster than the 11 days which most hiking groups take.

Day 1 was from Courmayeur in Italy to La Fouly in Switzerland via 2 big climbs (Bertone and Grand Col de Ferret). We started in the rain with some gloomy conditions, but got some pretty spectacular views throughout the day. Plenty of snow and mud around as well, which made the going a little slower. I am carrying 10kg in a 30l pack for both of us so the 50/50 running-hiking strategy is working well

Weather is supposed to be glorious for the next 4 days!






Thursday Sep 19, 2013
Trail Running (TMB Day 2) 6:10:11 [2] 32.0 km (11:34 / km) +1300m 9:37 / km

La Fouly to Trient via Champex-Lac and an unexpectedly steep climb called Bovine. Had some easy runnable terrain early on but we were mostly hiking the 2nd half. The weather opened up a bit with some epic views of the surrounding peaks covered in snow.

Tomorrow it's over the Col de Balme into the Chamonix Valley and the Brevent Ridge.


Friday Sep 20, 2013
Hiking (TMB Day 3) 10:20:34 [2] 39.0 km (3.8 kph) +2895m

Trient to Les Houches via Col de Balme, La Flegeres and Le Brevent. Big day with epic views of the alpine peaks (including Mont Blanc) all around us. Hardly any running today due to all the ascent. Had a long day out - 12h20m door to door. I'm only logging our moving time.









Saturday Sep 21, 2013
Hiking (TMB Day 4) 8:31:23 [2] 36.0 km (4.2 kph) +2390m

Les Houches to Les Chapieux via Col de Voza, Les Contamines and Col du Bonhomme. Met Fi at 11am and she joined us for the last 2 days. Very pastoral day but got our alpine dose again over the final col. Fran recovered impressively overnight - she could barely walk when we finished in Les Houches at 8pm the day before!





Sunday Sep 22, 2013
Trail Running (TMB Day 5) 6:01:05 [2] 28.0 km (12:54 / km) +1470m 10:13 / km

Les Chapieux to Courmayeur via Col de la Seigne. Fi had to catch the bus from Courmayeur at 14:30 so we did quite a bit of jogging again. Another spectacular day with more snowy peaks and glaciers as far as the eye could see.

Really enjoyed the hike/run and would highly recommend it - pack light and enjoy 10000m ascent total!

That last image is one that i remember from a mountaineering book. Do you recall the name of the needle on the rhs? Great images by the way.

Thanks for sharing

Great write-up

I have added TMB to the bucket list, still need to get some decent hikes under the belt before attempting a huge one like this.

Scenery looks unreal

@ST - The needle on the horizon far right is the Dent du Geant, an impressive spire which has apparently been dumbed-down somewhat from a climbing perspective by the massive fixed rope all the way down the main face and standard route.

The large peak on the ridge coming down from Mont Blanc is the Aiguille Noire or something like that and forms part of one of the most challenging traverses in the Alps: The Peuterey Integrale. It summits Mont Blanc by traversing that entire ridge from bottom right to top left. Usually takes competent alpinists 3-4 days, but as usual, Uli Steck has shown that it can be done in 20h, solo, all the way down to Chamonix on the other side!

@Stijn - Thanx for the info. Well there is only one Uli Steck, he is phenomenal climber!