Tour du Mont Blanc Days 1 – 3 (June 25 – 27, 2023)

This June, our family had the opportunity to spend a month in Europe. We knew we wanted to spend the second half of our trip backpacking, and late June is an ideal time to visit the Alps. We settled on hiking the Tour du Mont Blanc (TMB) because of the relatively simple logistics: it is a loop that can be accessed from France, Switzerland, or Italy. Covering a distance of 170 kilometers, it would be just the right length for us to finish within ten days. Because we flew into and out of Milan, we chose to begin our hike in Courmayeur, Italy, typically the midpoint of the journey for those who begin their tour in Les Houches, France. Les Houches, a small town outside of Chamonix, is the most popular starting point for the TMB. While the trail can be hiked in either direction, it seems to be slightly more common to hike counter-clockwise, which is what we chose to do. We opted to hike counter-clockwise largely because, if you start in Courmayeur and hike clockwise, there is a long stretch (~28 km) with no good camping options, and we didn’t want to start off our trip with a long day before we had our trail legs!

For a quick overview of the trail, and a few of my general impressions, go here. For a detailed trip report, keep reading!

Day One: Courmayeur to Val Ferret

We arrived in Courmayeur on a bright green Flix bus moments before the stroke of midnight. I’d found an accommodating hotel with late-night check in and the ability to hold our extra bags for the full ten or eleven days we planned to spend on the trail. So our hike started off with late night drinks (and delicious biscuits for S) in a swanky hotel bar.

It wasn’t until we awoke in the morning and stepped out onto the little stone patio adjoining our room that we were greeted by our first proper view of the Alps in all their glory. Having spent the better part of my life in the northeastern corner of North America, high peaks haven’t lost their capacity to take my breath away. Love at first sight!

We filled up on a hearty hotel breakfast, bought a day’s worth of food at the Carrefour Express across the street, picked up a fuel canister for the stove, and then fumbled around the center of Courmayeur in search of a TMB blaze! This is perhaps the trickiest part of starting out on a trail in a place where you’ve never been before, especially when you’ve chosen to start in a place that is, for most hikers, the midpoint of the journey. 

Once we were on our way, the trail was a relentless climb and a relentless delight. We passed by (and through!) fields of dairy cows, lizards skittering over rocks, and an eye-popping cornucopia of wildflowers. The soundtrack consisted of cuckoo birds, lowing cattle and their cowbells, over the exhilarating crash of meltwater cascades. There are few places along the trail, at least early in the season, where you aren’t treated to the sound of rushing waterfalls. (Be sure to click through the gallery below for full-size images!)

Having started midday, we arrived at Rifugio Walter Bonatti in the late afternoon with, we hoped, enough time to descend via a side trail and figure out the shuttle bus system to the campgrounds in Val Ferret. While the TMB’s refuges are gorgeous and can make for a slightly lighter weight hiking experience, we opted to tent for the entirety of the trail. Space in the refuges can be competitive and it’s advisable to book your beds in advance. Since this was a fairly spur-of-the-moment hike for us, we didn’t want to rely on the refuges having beds available, and we also wanted flexibility, which you lose if you book your beds in advance. Not to mention, the cost of refuge stays for a family of three adds up quickly! 

On the way down the side trail, we fell in with a spry older woman walking her dog. Despite the fact that we were in Italy, she was fluent in French and confirmed for us that the trail we were on would take us to the main road through Val Ferret, assuring us it wouldn’t take more than an hour to descend, or less if we skipped the switchbacks and went straight down (the zig-zaggy trail was laced with steeper herd paths). She also told us that tenting the TMB was a wise idea, warning us that bed bugs were common in some of the refuges, especially the ones in France (I can’t vouch for whether this is true or not! But it’s definitely something I heard repeated a few times over the course of the trip). 

The scenery in the valleys of the Alps is every bit as spectacular as it is up on the ridges. On our descent, we couldn’t stop marvelling at the cascades and rushing streams, the water that beautiful milky turquoise of glacial meltwater. We made it in plenty of time for the shuttle bus, but lucked into a ride from the dog-walker we’d met earlier. I told her we were planning on staying at Camping Tronchey (marginally closer to the trailhead), but she advised us that Camping Grandes Jorasses, just down the road, was a lot nicer and dropped us off there instead. Never discount the benefit of local intel!

Camping Grandes Jorasses is a bustling, family-run place, fully equipped with a playground, a ping-pong table, a bar, and a pizza restaurant. The staff assigned us to a grassy patch next to the playground and S managed to play with a few Italian kids despite the language barrier. We treated ourselves to pizza for dinner and picked up extra food for the next day in the camp store. 

Day Two: Camping Grandes Jorasses to La Fouly, Switzerland

To get back to the trail, we waited by the roadside for the free Val Ferret shuttle bus, which runs every thirty minutes or so from roughly 8 in the morning til 7 at night during the summer months. Pretty much everyone else waiting at the bus stop was a TMB hiker, and it was fun to chat about itineraries with them. Most of them had started in Les Houches, going counterclockwise like us, meaning they were a bit more than halfway through. We met a Dutch gentleman with a beautiful, clever little Border Collie named Jade, who immediately hit it off with S.

The climb back up to Rifugio Bonatti was (surprise surprise) every bit as steep as the climb down, and we had an even bigger climb ahead of us. Day Two would feature the highest point on the traditional TMB route, the Col Grand Ferret. Once we crossed this high pass, we’d descend into Switzerland! 

Col Ferret turned out to be a long, gradual climb with patchy snow at higher elevations. While it was too warm for ice, the slushy snow was quite slick and a wrong step could’ve meant quite a long slide down the slopes. Crossing into Switzerland, we spotted our first marmots of the trip as we began the long switchbacked descent into a heavily agricultural valley also called, confusingly, Val Ferret. My guidebook mentioned an auberge-slash-dairy-farm that sounded interesting, so we decided to stop for a bite. We treated ourselves to incredible vanilla frappes, fresh beer on tap, and our first croute — Switzerland’s famous baked cheese toast. We were a bit concerned about payment since we only had Euros and no Francs yet, but every cash-only establishment we visited on the Swiss section of the TMB accepted both Francs and Euros. 

Refueled and refreshed, we made our way down through cow pastures, meadows, and woodlands until we reached the village of La Fouly, where we spent the night at Camping des Glaciers. Compared to Grandes Jorasses, this campground felt quiet and orderly. S found a group of Swiss kids to play with on the playground and while they were predominantly German-speaking, they managed to put together enough French and English between them to include S in their game. We opted to cook our own dinner since the options in La Fouly were pretty limited, but we did grab some cold drinks and ice cream from the camp store to enjoy while we pitched our tents and took in the stunning views surrounding the campground.

Day Three: La Fouly to Champex Lac

Since we hadn’t made it to the grocery store the night before, we needed to wait around for it to open at 8am, but it was worth it! The little supermarket in La Fouly was pricey (welcome to Switzerland) but had perhaps one of the best food selections we encountered on the trail: excellent breads delivered fresh from local boulangeries, a big cheese selection, interesting instant soups, trail mixes, tinned pates, and a new type of Goldfish cracker for S to try.   

The morning’s trail was mellow in comparison to the previous two days’ climbs, beginning with a long, gradual descent further into the valley. We wound our way through two charming villages, Praz de Fort and Issert. We stopped to take a peek at a very sweet chicken coop and the owners invited S to come in and pet the chickens and feed them some snacks. We chatted with the owners for a while — not about chickens but about cajun accordions!

Some hikers complain that the Swiss section of the TMB is uneventful, featuring more roads than mountains, but the roads are so quiet and the towns so picturesque that I would’ve been hard pressed to complain. After the exposed, treeless ridges and intense sun of the Italian section, the tall shady trees came as a welcome break. Perhaps the most startling thing we encountered on the trail today was a snake sunning itself on the trail. With a wedge-shaped head and zigzag pattern on its back, I’m pretty sure it was either an adder or an asp, but didn’t get a close enough look to identify it for certain. After years of hiking in the northeast without ever encountering a venomous snake, it was pretty exciting to come across one in the Alps!

I was eager to reach our afternoon destination, Champex Lac, because I had the impression that the lake might provide an opportunity for some swimming. Champex Lac is a beautiful little lakeshore town with a bit of a resort/vacation vibe. There were indeed some swimmers and paddlers on the lake when we arrived, despite the brisk breeze and cool temperatures. The campground being up the road a way, we all agreed it would be best to grab a tent site, clean up, and charge our phones before exploring the town (and the lake!). 

We were still caught up in the same hiker bubble we’d met at Grandes Jorasses, consisting of everyone who had chosen to tent camp rather than stay at refuges. Because wild camping is more or less prohibited on the Italian and Swiss sections, folks with tents are on a fairly set itinerary for this stretch, hopping from one developed campground to the next. We were having a great time getting to know the other hikers, and each day S was eager to see if we’d be reunited with Jade the border collie again. When we got back to the lake, Jade was indeed there, playing fetch with her owner. I joined her in the water while S stayed on shore and tossed her toy for her, cementing their bond even more firmly. The water was cold but not unbearable, and better than any campground shower! 

We enjoyed some fries and beers (and a sirop for S) at a lakeshore restaurant, where we met another really charming dog, and even had the wherewithal to buy our groceries for the next day before the small supermarket closed for the evening.

Read about Days 4 – 6 here.