Le Tour du Mont Blanc, Day 1

Saturday, September 1st

Sue Priest, Colleen Sinnott and I waited anxiously at the Gite (hostel) Michel Fagot in Les Houches, France, on the evening of August 31st for the last member of our hiking group, Nancy Brian, to enter. She arrived during a delicious dinner, after her long travel from Flagstaff, and we all cheered her entrance. Our hiking group was complete and we could begin our two-week trek around Mont Blanc!

Nancy, Sue, Mindy and Colleen ready to begin our trip!

Le Tour du Mont Blanc (TMB) is the most popular hiking route in Europe, so going around the massif is a crowded adventure. Roughly 10,000 hikers set off to complete the circuit each summer. Of course, twice that many try to gain the summit, but that is a riskier proposal with many deaths each climbing season. Going around is a safer choice and the views are still fantastic! The poster below advertises the route: 3 countries, 10,000 meters (32,808 ft) in altitude - both up and down - and 170 km of discovery.

Official Poster of the Autour du Mont-Blanc consortium

 Mont Blanc (White Mountain) is the highest mountain in the Alps and in Europe. At 4,808.7 m (15,777 ft) tall it is the queen of the Mont Blanc massif. The core of the massif is granite and is overlain in some areas by gneiss. This ancient rock was lifted up by the subduction of the African plate below the European plate roughly 20 million years ago. (For all my great geek geology friends you can learn more about the geology and geomorphology of the massif here.) The massif is 25 km  (15.5 miles) long with around 400 summits and more than 40 glaciers. Precipitation flows into seven valleys in three countries. Hikers journey up and down from cols (the lowest point between two peaks) to valleys and often back up each day.

While many hikers complete the circuit in 7 to 10 days, we opted for a longer, more relaxed schedule. Last spring, Sue and I sat down at command central (two large computer monitors in her home office in Flagstaff) and began designing what we hoped was a reasonable schedule for four women "of a certain age". Sue's skills with mapping were invaluable as she rotated map images and calculated elevation changes and distances so we could see route options. After determining a reasonable route, we started booking our huts. While some people camp along the route, the majority stay in huts that include a "half-board" option - meaning you get dinner and the next morning's breakfast included with your bunk. Not to mention you can order a cold beer and enjoy an amazing view after your hike.

Colleen enjoys new acquaintances and the view at Rifugio Walter Bonatti

While many huts are part of a TMB consortium where you can book online, that is not the case for all the huts. And, to compound the difficulty, some of the huts don't take reservations via e-mail so you need to call. Considering our poor language abilities we enlisted the help of my Swiss friend Richard who speaks fluent French and decent Italian, among other languages. It took us about six hours, after our initial research, to determine our trail and book all the huts. Some huts were already booked and we had to make changes as we went. This was completed in early April for a hike beginning September 1st. We saved all the e-mailed correspondence and then followed up before our trip to confirm with the huts that we were still coming. Note that some people work through tour agencies but that is a pricey option. If you book the huts yourself, the cost is only about 50 euros per night before adding any "happy hour" costs.

Deluxe dessert at the Gite Michel Fagot - included in the half-board price! (Photo credit NBrian)

Sue and Colleen both arrived in Bern early to explore this area and adjust to the 9 and 10 hour time advance from their normal Arizona and Alaska time zones. The three of us left Bern together on Friday, September 31st taking four trains, progressively smaller and on steeper terrain, to the traditional start of the TMB in Les Houches, France. We arrived around noon and dropped our backpacks at the hostel, then walked around town in the rain. All the shops and most businesses were closed for lunch, but folks were setting up for the Ultra-Trail TMB (UTMB) runners to come through town on the first stage of this 171 km (106 mile) race. The first runners arrived with the band playing and all of us cheering around 6:30 pm after leaving the start in Chamonix at 6 pm. We hung out and watched about 2,000 more runners as they passed by. The winner ran this grueling course in just over 22 hours. So, doing the math - 106 miles/22 hours = 4.8 miles per hour. Up and down mountain passes. And this isn't even the most difficult or longest mountain race near here.

Cheering on the first racers as they arrive in Les Houches, France

The next morning, after coffee, bread and jam, we caught the first gondola of the morning with some other early hikers. We weren't alone in our decision to avoid a steep uphill and reduce the mileage on our first day of hiking, though there were others that hiked up the rain-soaked path -  either to ensure they completed the entire route with no help, or because they didn't want to pay the 15 euro price for the ride!

Each day, there are usually two alternative routes to hike - generally a higher route and a lower route. We hiked the higher routes whenever possible to get the closest to the glaciers and the best alpine views. The high route today was too misty for great views, though we did see the lower part of the Bionnassay Glacier as we approached the Col de Tricot at 2120 m (6,955 ft).

Misty walk through the woods

Sue with a view of the Glacier de Bionnassay

From the col, it was downhill on a steep, wet, slippery slope all the way down to the Refuge de Miage. Kev Reynolds, author of the popular TMB guide wrote: "The gradient is very steep in places and caution is advised, for it's on descents like this, tackled in the early stages of a long trek, that knees can be damaged." We used hiking poles to brace ourselves and I was the only one to fall, but it was a challenge for all of  us. We couldn't help but think of the racers in the UTMB running in last night's rain up and down the cols and valleys of their route.

We were able to book a private cabin (our only one) at Refuge de Miage and I felt like Heidi climbing into the loft to sleep surrounded by green pastures, woolly sheep, dairy cows and mountains in the mist...

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I'll continue the Tour in future posts, but I'll include our summary statistics here - courtesy of Sue Priest.

Saturday, Sept. 1 - Walk from Les Houches to Refuge de Miage (France)

Recap: Gondola ride (2523' up), then 5.77 mi, another 1491’ up/2185’ down, 5 hrs on trail

Sunday, Sept. 2 - Walk from Refuge de Miage to Refuge de Nant Borrant (France)

Recap: 6.98 mi, 1535’ up/1918’ down, 5:31 hours on trail

Monday, Sept. 3 - Walk from Nant Borrant to Refuge de la Croix du Bonhomme (France)

Recap: 5.46 mi, 3400’ up/169’ down, 5 hours on trail

Tuesday, Sept. 4 - Walk from Bonhomme to Rifugio Elisabetta Soldini (Italy)

Recap: 11.11 mi, 3451’ up/4332’ down, 9 hours on trail

Wednesday, Sept. 5 - Walk from Elisabetta to town of Courmayeur (Italy)

Recap: 9.22 mi, 1542’ up/4707’ down, 7:35 hours on trail

Thursday, Sept. 6  - Courmayeur layover day

Recap: 6734’ up and down Skyway gondola

Friday, Sept. 7  - Bus to visit Aosta, then Taxi/walk from Courmayeur to Rifugio Bonatti (Italy)

Recap: Taxi ride: 7 miles, 1580’ up/35’ down; hike: 1 mi, 1023’ up/0’ down, 00:52 min on trail

Saturday, Sept. 8  - Walk from Bonatti to Maya Joie (Switzerland)

Recap: 12.43 mi, 2691’ up/4078’ down, 8:32 hours on trail

Sunday, Sept. 9 - Walk from Maya Joie to Au Vieux Champex (Switzerland)

Recap: 9.83 mi, 1528’ up/2004’ down, 6 hours on trail

Monday, Sept. 10 - Walk from Au Vieux Champex to Hotel Col de la Forclaz (Switzerland)

Recap: 8.72 mi, 2344’ up/2181’ down, 7 hours on trail

Tuesday, Sept 11 - Walk from Forclax to Gite d’Alpage de Charamillon Refuge (France)

Recap: 7.20 mi, 2466’ up/1205’ down, 7 hours on trail

Wednesday, Sept. 12 - Walk Gite d’Alpage Charamillon to Auberge La Boerne (France)

Recap: 2.92 mi, 88’ up/1768’ down, 2 hours on trail

Thursday, Sept. 13 - Walk Auberge La Boerne to Les Houches (France)

Recap: 12.44 mi, 811’ up/2109’ down, 7 hours on trail