Category: International Walking

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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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Tour du Mont Blanc Day Three – Refuge de Nant Borrant to Les Chapeiux

If day one of the Tour du Mont Blanc was an hors d’oeuvre and day two a starter, day three is the 16oz steak and chips. Today we finally enter the land of big mountains with two high cols, the Col du Bonhomme and the Col de La Croix Bonhomme to get over and one one iconic mountain hut, Refuge Col de La Croix Bonhomme to visit.

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Tour du Mont Blanc Day Two – Refuge du Fioux to Refuge de Nant Borrant

The Tour du Mont Blanc and the Alps in general are perfect for hut to hut walking. In France they are generally called Refuges, in Italy Rifugios and in Switzerland Auberges. They are often located right in the heart of the mountains among the most spectacular scenery and provide you with dinner, breakfast and a bed for the night. They also have showers, of varying degrees of efficiency. Last nights was by means of a token, which gave me maybe fifty seconds of mildly warm water before stopping altogether whilst in mid soap. We shared a room with an older German couple, the lady spoke reasonable English, the man none, which matches the extent of my German.

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Tour du Mont Blanc Day One – Les Houches to Refuge du Fioux

The storm eventually passed over in the early hours leaving behind a dry but overcast morning. Steve slept right through it all, not a care in the world, that’s an Irishman for you. Although it’s dry now, more thunder and lightning are forecast for the afternoon, just as we will be at our high point on the Col de Voza, so there is some urgency to our efforts to get out of Les Houches and on the trail in order to beat the storm.

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The Tour du Mont Blanc – An Introduction

It’s been a long two days in the driving seat, it turns out the Alps are a long way from the UK but at 5pm we roll into Bellevue Campsite in Les Houches. Dark, brooding, rain filled clouds are hanging low over the Chamonix valley cloaking the mountains. The atmosphere is still and electrified, awaiting the coming storm. The driving has stopped but walking the Tour du Mont Blanc is just about to begin. I’m tired but excited in equal measure and I can’t wait for the next twelve days.

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Port de Pollença to Cala Sant Vicenç via Coll de Siller

The walk over the Coll de Síller begins in the attractive tourist resort of Port de Pollença with its bars, restaurants and sun worshipers and ends in the smaller but equally busy resort of Cala Sant Vicenç with its bars, restaurants and sun worshipers. In between there is a slice of Mallorca that would be alien to most of the bikini clad beach dwellers who tend not to venture beyond the resorts. It’s only a short walk but can be lengthened if you decide to return over the pass after spending time in Cala Sant Vicenç. It holds interest for walkers because of the views along the Cavall Bernat ridge and down to Port de Pollença and the way, in only a mile, it connects ‘holiday resort’ Mallorca with a bit of ‘walking’ Mallorca. 

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