Tour du Mont-Blanc

A classic hiking tour through France, Italy, and Switzerland

Around Mont Blanc, the highest peak in Europe

By Pat and Dick de St. Croix in 1975.

Planning the trip

During the winter of 1974-75 plans were made to attend the Swiss Five-day Orienteering Competition near Wil, Switzerland. To make the trip to Europe really worthwhile some additional challenging activity was required. An article in the National Geographic Magazine describing the Tour du Mont-Blanc provided the answer. This tour is a 100-mile hiking trail around Mont Blanc, a 4807-meter peak near Chamonix, France.Travel plans were made; maps and a guidebook were obtained. The name of the guidebook was "Guide Pédestre, Tour du Mont-Blanc". An excellent book but of course it was in French.

The trip from Canada

The overnight flight from Canada took us to Amsterdam. A long train ride through The Netherlands and Belgium brought us to Paris, France in time to catch the overnight train to Gervais in the South of France. Since it was Friday night, the train was very crowded. Pat had to squeeze into a seat and Dick sat on his bag in the aisle all night. We arrived in Gervais at 9:15 am. A short train ride from there took us to Chamonix. We got off the train, both of us with swollen ankles, and changed into hiking clothes in the train station. We shipped our extra clothes on to Frauenfeld, Switzerland, which was near the Orienteering competition. We then bought some food in the market and took another train to nearby Les Houches where we had some lunch.

 Day One - Starting the Tour

Instead of climbing up from the valley at Les Houches we took the Telepherique to the Hotel Bellevue and our Tour du Mont-Blanc was started. After a short sleep in a sunny field we hiked for about three hours and then camped. This was our first full nights sleep in three days. We carried full camping gear, including a small red tent, which is shown in some of the many slides that were taken on this trip. The inspiration for writing this trip memoir came after showing the trip maps to some friends and also viewing the many beautiful scenic slide pictures of the trip.

  Day Two - Sunday

This was another clear day and we hiked off in bright sunshine to Les Contamines where we saw a ski area on the other side of the valley. In Les Contamines we bought some food and then hiked up (it was always up or down) through some woods, crossing a few streams on the way, and we had lunch beside a roaring stream at a bridge. After lunch we hiked through more woods and set up camp beside a noisy stream at a gorge. The Glacier De Trélatête high above us fed this stream.

 Day Three - Monday

We left the campsite beside the stream and stopped at Nant-Borrant where we purchased milk, ham sandwiches and some cheese. A little later we stopped to have this lunch in an alpine meadow just past Chalet de La Balme. It was at a place like this where we saw an older gentleman spread a small white cloth on the ground or on a rock and have his lunch. It was a long hike up to the Col-du-Bonhomme and then up to the Refuge du Col-de-la-Croix du-Bonhomme where we stopped for a rest. We were hiking through snow on this part of the trip but the weather was very bright and sunny. After a short rest we continued on to Les Chapieux where we camped overnight.

Day Four - Tuesday

We enjoyed breakfast at Auberge de La Nova and then bought a few groceries. After that was a hike up a long road to Ville-des-Glaciers where we bought two loaves of bread with the rest of our French money. The hike to Col-de-la-Seigne and the border to Italy was a long climb. Along the way were people that we had seen during the last two days. There were beautiful alpine flowers in profusion all along the way, some of them poking through the snow. We passed the Refuge Elizabetta and found a campsite on a hill overlooking the flood plain from the Glacier de la Brenva. A thunderstorm caught us at supper and we found that storms in the mountains in a small tent are a little frightening.

Day Five - Wednesday

We awoke to bright sunshine with a wind blowing down the valley. We are now in Italy and we hiked to Courmayeur by trail and road where we bought some money and food. After getting a time change straightened out we took a short bus ride to La Vachez. The Italian end of the Mont Blanc tunnel is at Courmayeur.Somewhere along here we were a little short of bread and we met two girls, one with a long loaf of bread sticking out of her pack. Dick asked if we could buy a half of the loaf and we paid her partly in French money and partly in Italian money. The language spoken was either French or sign language.After the bus ride we hiked along the road and camped beside a stream opposite the Glacier de Greuetta. Supper that evening was of course Italian food and wine!

Day Six - Thursday

The sun woke us again today. After breaking camp we hiked up to the Grand-Col-Ferret and walked into Switzerland. There may have been some marker at the border but nothing more than that. We did notice that everything seemed neater and cleaner, the trail was better-marked all the way in Switzerland. We met a guided group from Great Britain. This group of ten included one girl from New York, one from Scotland and one from Australia. They would stay in a small hotel each night, which was more comfortable than tenting, especially when it rained as we later found out that night when it rained heavily. Later on we found a place to camp near the small village of Seilo. None of the places where we camped were campsites or campgrounds and we wondered sometimes about this but nobody questioned us during our whole trip. There was nothing at the borders between the three countries. Sometimes along the trail we would meet groups of children out hiking in a group and as we met each one they would greet us with a polite bonjour or the equivalent in their language.

Day Seven - Friday

When we left our wet campsite the weather was cloudy but with glimpses of the sun. Later in the day there were thunderstorms. We hiked into the village of Seilo and took a bus to Orsières and then to Champex-en-bas. It was raining when we arrived but we started hiking to Col-du-La-Forclaz where we found a room at the hotel there. We then enjoyed a nice dinner with Valais wine.

Day Eight - Saturday

We enjoyed breakfast at the Hotel du Col de La Forclaz, where we had stayed overnight, then we mailed some postcards. We set off down the trail and across a stream flowing from the Glacier du Trient to the small village of Peuty. This was probably the place where Dick lost the trail map crossing the stream. The picture of Pat is in the fog and we could hear cowbells in the distance but could not see the cows. Then the steep trail took us up through dense forest to the Col-de-Balme and the border back into France. Arriving at 1:15 we had lunch at the hotel at the top of the Col. From here we could see that top of Mont Blanc was covered in cloud.After lunch we continued down the trail to Le Tour. Beside the trail was a gondola lift and in places it was almost overhead. After arriving in Le Tour we found a small hotel called Les Céracs where we enjoyed a quiet dinner and stayed for the night.

Day Nine - Sunday

This was a nice sunny day and it was much appreciated after the rain on some of the previous days. The small hotel was close beside a small farm. While eating breakfast we watched in fascination as small groups of one or two people arrived at the farm. As we watched, two men left the barn leading a cow or two. Since it was June and the snow was leaving the upper Alps we realized that these people, who were mostly men, had arrived to help the farmer take his cattle to the higher pastures.After leaving the hotel we started up the trail to Montroc stopped at the Montroc train station for information. Here the trail crossed the road and then it climbed steeply through heavy forest.Near the top of this climb we came across a group of rock climbers. It appeared to be a rock climbing school. They were at the bottom of a high rock tower. We watched as one of the group, perhaps the instructor, climbed to the top. A little further on the trail was so steep in places that there were steel cable handrails. Looking down the very steep mountainside we could see Chamonix. We hiked a little further to LaFlegère where we took the telepherique down to Les Praz then continued on foot to Chamonix.While we were walking around Chamonix we saw a hang glider flying overhead. We stayed in the Grefon Hotel that night and left by train the next morning at 9:24 am to Valorcinne-Martigny-Lauzanne and then Zurich. Our trip notes did not say how many separate trains this was, but it was at least three, possibly four. And all keeping to a schedule measured in seconds.