Category: International Walking

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Tour du Mont Blanc Day Twelve – Refuge la Flégère to Chamonix

The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men, Gang aft agley,
An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain, For promis’d joy!
Robert Burns

The best laid scheme of today was to finish our Tour du Mont Blanc on top of Le Brévent and then get the cable car down into Chamonix to celebrate. It started to go awry with the weather forecast of last night and was confirmed in the early hours when the storm rolled in, wind whistling through the gaps in the old wooden frames and rain sweeping across the panes.

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Tour du Mont Blanc Day Eleven – Tré Le Champ to Refuge la Flégère

Stepping onto the wooden balcony that adjoins our room at 6am all is silent in the valley. The cool, still morning air fills my nostrils with the scent of pines and wood smoke. Dew glistens on the grass in the small camping field next to the refuge and people in the tents are stirring. I stand for a while in the stillness, looking up at Mont Blanc and reflecting on our walk so far. We have seen the mountain we are walking around from different aspects, from different countries and in different weather. It has been the central hub and ever present reminder of the reason for our journey, our very own ‘Tour du Mont Blanc‘. Today is our penultimate day and it promises to be a good one.

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Tour du Mont Blanc Day Ten – Trient to Tre Le Champ

Today we have the third and final border crossing of our Tour du Mont Blanc when we say goodbye to the forests of Switzerland and cross back into France at Col de Balme. It’s a Grand Old Duke of York walking day, a long steep walk up followed by a long steep walk down. Hill walking pared down to its simplest form, you’re going up or you’re going down, just keep putting one foot in front of the other and don’t forget to breathe. The reward for all this effort is we’ll get our first sight of Mont Blanc from the French side and we’ll also see the Chamonix valley, the end of our journey for the first time.

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Tour du Mont Blanc Day Nine – Champex to Trient

When we step outside to boot up for day nine of our Tour du Mont Blanc there are ominous dark clouds drifting through the valley. A blanket of grey covers the mountain tops and mist hangs ethereally around the pines surrounding Auberge Gîte Bon Abri. Just as we are about to start walking the heavens open and a torrential downpour sends us for cover under the giant gazebo in the grounds of the Auberge. It’s going to be one of those days.

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A walk up Puig del Vilar, Mallorca

I am back for a second attempt at walking up Puig del Vilar. My first, halfhearted and unprepared effort was abandoned after having my legs scratched by thorn bushes and my hands scraped on the serrated, sandpaper like limestone that forms the Serra de Tramuntana mountain range in Mallorca. Thrust up from the seabed by the collision of Africa 170 million years ago and never ground smooth by any ice age, walking in these rough and rugged hills can be unforgiving, especially in the blazing sunshine.

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Tour du Mont Blanc Day Eight – La Fouly to Champex

For the last week we’ve been in the heart of the mountains. Walking along narrow rugged trails surrounded by snow topped pinnacled peaks with precipitous drops. We’ve gazed in awe at long serrated ridges with sprawling ice blue glaciers creeping down from the heights. It’s been a full on, exciting and immersive mountain experience. The contrast with today’s walk from La Fouly to Champex is stark, the mountains are replaced by meadows and the sound of cow bells replaces the roaring rivers. We will be walking next to the mountains, with glimpses of them but we will not be walking in them.

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Tour du Mont Blanc Day Seven – Rifugio Bonatti to La Fouly

Today we will enter the third country on our walk around Mont Blanc. This country is a land of mountains, cuckoo clocks and precision timing, holey cheese, delicious chocolate and secretive bank accounts. And of course the Swiss Army knife, one of which I have in my rucksack. We cross into Switzerland over Grand Col Ferret. At 2532m (8,307ft) the col will also be the highest point we will reach on our walk as we’re following the regular Tour du Mont Blanc route without variants.

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Tour du Mont Blanc Day Six – Courmayeur to Rifugio Bonatti

“The beauty of adventure is to dream of it, to give air to the imagination, then you also try to give substance to your dreams”.
Walter Bonatti

As I climb up the steep rise above Rifugio Bertone, the noonday sun is beating down, my lungs are busting and I am soaked in sweat. All this is forgotten however when I reach the grassy knoll above the Rifugio and am confronted by a sight of sublime magnificence. Across Val Ferret, so close it can almost be touched is the Mount Blanc massif. Once again, I am astounded by the majesty of this huge mountain range of jagged rock and ice. Its scale and beauty is difficult to describe. It is indescribable. And once again, a balcony path stretches ahead of me ensuring that I get to revel in its awesomeness for the rest of the day.

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Tour du Mont Blanc Day Five – Rifugio Elisabetta to Courmayeur

Dawn brings with it another gloriously sunny day on the Tour du Mont Blanc. We are now in the Italian Alps and the rising sun is shining directly down Val Veny casting long shadows and turning the rivulets and pools of Lac de Combal into silver ribbons and mirrors laid out on the valley floor. Our stay at the iconic Rifugio Elisabetta has been a good one and the experience is stored in the memory for future happy recall.

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Tour du Mont Blanc Day Four – Les Chapieux to Rifugio Elisabetta

The small village of Les Chapieux sits at the western most point of the Tour du Mont Blanc. Although it’s elevation is 1549m (5,082ft), far higher than any land in the U.K. it is surrounded on all sides by higher mountain ranges giving it a somewhat enclosed, protected feeling. It has a shop with attached pizzeria, two functional but not luxurious Auberges, a tourist information office and a large Aire de camping car.

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