Tour du Mont Blanc Worth the hype, with the caveat you should take alternates. We took lots of scenic alternates. The alternates are extremely quiet. While we didn’t stay/sleep off the main TMB route, walking most days without the crowds is probably a big part of why I would recommend this. We did not take any cable cars We did not make any reservations in advance. If you camp, particularly outside of the high season (after August 31), there is no need to make advance reservations. It would also be a route that is very amenable to running and staying in huts, like the Alta Via 2. You could still take all the alternates, which I believe are much more scenic than the pure, TMB, but you would want to book accommodation in advance, even out of high season. The variants we took, in the order we took them: Variante de la Fenêtre d’Arpette (out of Champex-Lac) GR Lac Blanc (to see Lac Blanc) Variante Col De Tricot (out of Chamonix, also view of glacier) Variante du Col des Fours (where we bagged a peak. Super quiet relative to the rest of the day) Variante de la Tete Bernarda/Mont De La Sac High Route (the best day of the TMB. See the last point for more info about this.) The locations we stayed in, in order. Note, we went counter-clockwise: Stayed in Martigny, Swizterland the night before. Took trains and buses to Champex-Lac to start the TMB. Bivouac du Peuty (€8/person) Bivouac at Refuge de la Flégère (free) Camping Bellevue in Les Houches (€20 for 2 people) Bivouac at Refuge de Miage (free) Walked to La Ville des Galciers and took a bus to Les Chapieux and stayed at Bivouac des Chapieux. (€5 donation/tent) Camping Grandes Jorasses (walked into Courmayeur, bussed to campsite). The buses are free in this town. We would stay 2 nights at this campsite We bussed to the campsite at the end of the day and bussed back to town at the beginning of the next day to resume hiking Camping Grandes Jorasses. We took the free bus from the end of this day back to the campsite. Tomorrow we would take the bus in the opposite direction, back to the end of this day. (€55 for 2 people for 2 nights) Walked back to Champex-Lac. Took a bus and some trains to stay in Martigny, Switzerland before resuming the WHR after waiting out a day of rain. It is probably easiest and most recommended to start and finish in Les Houches, the small town near Chamonix. We resupplied in Martigny, Switzerland ($$$), Les Houches, France (outside Chamonix, $), and Courmayeur, Italy ($). Some people seemed to primarily eat out, but the food near the campgrounds seemed medicore. France and Italy are much cheaper for resupplies than Switzerland. We should have taken the main route from Le Peule (after Grande Col Ferret) not the road/my GPX track. The scenery is so good. If you only have 1 day, the day out of Courmayeur was probably my favorite. You can stay in Courmayeur, or at a nearby campground, and, hiking counter clockwise, take the Mont de la Sax High Route/Variante de la Tete Bernarda. Take the trail all the way to the Hôtel Chalet Val Ferret, where you can take the free bus back to Courmayeur. You can do this day in either direction. Walker’s Haute Route Hard pass, man. Skip this shit. There are some good views, which you can do in 2 separate day hikes: Lac de Louvie: take a cable car from Le Chable up to the top near Mont Fort. Walk the balcony to Lac Louvie. Stay at the hut there or sleep in one of the abandoned buildings, like we did. Cabane de Moiry: bus to Lac de Moiry. Walk up towards the glacier to Cabane de Moiry and spend the night at the cabane. Leave Switzerland the next day. Overall, the WHR is not worth doing. Save your money, and go elsewhere or just do a few day hikes in Switzerland and then get out of there. I think the best thing Switzerland makes is advertising for Switzerland. They’ve bamboozled us all into thinking it is worth our time and money. It’s nice, just not for the price.
Tour du Mont Blanc and Walker’s Haute Route: Day 15
We were up early to give ourselves plenty of time to hike before the rain was scheduled to arrive in the afternoon. After yesterday, we weren’t taking any chances with the routes. We would follow the new one, knowing that even if it wasn’t the same as it used to be, at least it would go through. We walked next to a road for a bit before starting our climb. We would see almost no one else on the trail all day. Either this trail wasn’t nearly as popular for some reason, or we were way off schedule. ...
Tour du Mont Blanc and Walker’s Haute Route: Day 14
My sleeping pad has a hole in it. I blew it up 3 times in the night. I think I found the hole this morning so I threw a patch on it after breakfast. I’ll find out if it holds tonight, but regardless, tonight should be my last night on it. The Swiss have a very strict recycling system. I was walking all over depositing our various waste items in different bins in different locations this morning. Oddly enough, there wasn’t a compost/organics bin. ...
Tour du Mont Blanc and Walker’s Haute Route: Day 13
Well last night at Cabane de Moiry was a success. Some people we had met the day before showed up and we met some new folks too. It was a good time. The views from the hut were incredible. Today we took an alternate route over a pass that was for “experienced walkers only.” That description made me want to take it. I was looking to spice up the hike since most days were trending towards mediocre. I wasn’t sure we would take it because the regular route took you to the top of a gondola, and the gondola ride down to town was free with our stay at Moiry. At this point I was definitely in favor of cutting out some needless descending. In the end though, we took the advanced alternate. ...
Tour du Mont Blanc and Walker’s Haute Route: Day 12
Perhaps talking with some other folks last night doing the Haute Route at the campground inspired us to keep going. We resumed walking today, as if the planning to quit yesterday hadn’t happened. We walked out of town, up a hillside dotted with houses, which eventually gave way to cow pastures. Eventually the cow pastures gave way to wilderness, and we were above the town. We had seen this pattern before on this hike. The last time though there was a ski lift to get you out of town. This time there wasn’t but on the other side of the pass was a parking lot. ...
Tour du Mont Blanc and Walker’s Haute Route: Day 11
Well I wrote yesterday’s post while sitting in the sun, but as soon as it dropped below the mountains it got cold! Zoë got a forecast that said it was 42, feels like 37 degrees F with an overnight low around 33 degrees F. Definitely cold enough to sleep with our filters to prevent them from freezing, which will ruin them. Also I had no idea it was going to get that cold. ...
Tour du Mont Blanc and Walker’s Haute Route: Day 10
Well my socks didn’t dry overnight. My shoes partly did. Wool is supposed to help keep you warm even when it’s wet so I thought that might help. If it did, I couldn’t tell. Thankfully, as far as I can tell, the mice didn’t touch our stuff last night. This morning started off with low clouds that began to clear as the sun rose. Sometime between 6:30 and 7, the sky was pink and clearing, giving a fantastic photo opportunity that I didn’t take full enough advantage of. Tomorrow I’ll wake up earlier, on the off chance it happens again. ...
Tour du Mont Blanc and Walker’s Haute Route: Day 9
We took yesterday off and I don’t have much to say about it so day 9 is our next walking day. We woke up early in our hotel in Martigny, Switzerland. We had to catch our train at 7:51 to Sembrancher, where we would resume walking. If you buy Swiss train tickets far enough in advance (something like more than 24 hours) you can get a discounted rate. However the discounted ticket is only valid on that specific train, so if you miss the train you technically don’t have a valid ticket. It would be no problem for us to make the train since it was a 10 minute walk from our hotel. ...
Tour du Mont Blanc and Walker’s Haute Route: Day 8
So we got new neighbors last night at the campground and while these ones were much quieter, someone had a very loud sleeping pad that we could hear each time someone rolled over in the night. This morning it seemed like so many people around us were coughing with some illness. I was glad we were outside in our own tent. I really don’t want to get sick. For a few days Zoë had a cold, but she managed to get over it pretty quickly and still do all the hiking. ...
Tour du Mont Blanc and Walker’s Haute Route: Day 7
We had an unideal neighbor last night. The guy continued talking at full volume in his tent well after it was dark. His companion wasn’t so loud, but he never caught on. And then he snored loudly. Thankfully he packed up in the morning so although we’ll be here another night, at least we’ll get to roll the dice with a new neighbor. It rained a bit in the early morning. We closed our tent doors. We have a habit of sleeping with them open. It means there’s more air flow, less chance of condensation, and less wear on the zippers when we get in and out of the tent, which seem to be particularly problematic on Durston tents. Anyway we closed the outer doors, but we didn’t do much else. Unfortunately water made its way into our tent, which we realized after we woke up, because it wasn’t optimally pitched, which is a thing with these ultralight tents. We also had the groundsheet protruding a bit, which acted as a funnel to pull water under the tent. We’ve got rain forecasted on Wednesday so we need to be better prepared. ...