Tour de Mont Blanc 2003

I arrived at Les Houche railway station (950m) at 12:30pm. I looked at my map, got my bearings and set off to find my first ‘refuge’. The TMB trail passes the station entrance. I had decided to do this circular route anti-clockwise as my guidebook suggested this was the preferred direction.

I crossed the bridge over the river L’ Arve, through the village centre, where I bought a salad baguette for lunch, then on up the hill towards the Gite d’ etepe. After booking in, I went and sat in the shade because it was so hot. I spread my maps out on the garden bench to look at the following days route. In the distant mountains I heard what sounded like half a dozen rifle shots in quick succession, followed by a rumble. I looked towards the direction of Aiguille de Midi to see a huge avalanche rolling onto Glacier de Bossons. I learned later, that after such a hot summer much of the snow and ice above the permanent snowline had become unstable and dangerous to those venturing into the high peaks. Therefore, the local authorities had taken the decision, in the interests of safety, to set off controlled avalanches to reduce the risk.

Over the evening meal I struck up a conversation with a group from Holland who, it transpired, were on their first trip to the Alps. They were a friendly bunch. We spent much of the time discussing the merits of being in the mountains and of our aspirations. One Dutchman made up his mind that his ambition was to climb to the highest point of each Western European country, though we could name most of the mountains, Holland posed a bit of a problem. Someone thought that the highest point was actually a scrap yard somewhere near Enschede!

Day two saw me setting out at 7:00am as I wanted to get as much distance behind me before the hottest part of the day. The climb to the Col de Voza (1653m) follows a road, then a gravel track, though both are steep and unrelenting.

On reaching the top there is the choice of either following a road down to Contamines via Bionnassay or via Col de Tricot (2120m) to Contamines. I felt fine and decided to have a go at Col de Tricot on the other side of the valley. There are also plenty of ‘escape routes’ back down to Bionnassay if I had felt it to be too much. On reaching the ‘Himalayan’ style suspension bridge at the bottom of the valley (1600m) which crosses the Torr de Bionnassay, a raging torrent of melt water from the snout of Glacier de Bionnassay, a French girl was stuck half way across; it seemed she could not let go of the hand ropes on either side through fear. Her companion spent about fifteen minutes talking to her trying to coax her to the other side. On crossing the bridge myself I could understand why. There were three-inch gaps between the deck timbers!

After the long winding path to the Col, I was rewarded with spectacular views of the glacier on the other side, and Chalets de Miage (1559m) on the other. I stopped at Chalets de Miage for lunch. Feeling refreshed, I headed uphill to Chalets de Truc (1720m), then onto Contamines (1160m) where I booked into another Gite d’ etape.

Day three started with a lot of road walking through Contamines up Val Montjoie. This eventually turns to gravel tracks, first through forest, then pasture, and finally the rocky paths leading to Col de Bonhomme (2329m). Near the top there was a sudden down pour of rain so I had to stop and pull on my waterproofs. Within twenty minutes I reached the CAF refuge at Col de la Croix (2483m). I had only just booked in when a terrific thunderstorm started and lasted for about an hour or so. I felt lucky not to have been caught out in it.

The refuge was almost filled to capacity with guests. I met a couple, Nils and Barbara during the evening meal. Nils, who was Swiss, spotted the altimeter I was wearing on my wrist and asked about its accuracy. I went into great detail of how it worked, how and why you had to adjust it to cater for the changing air pressure at sea level etc. I was able to tell him this as I had only read the instruction manual the night before! I signed the guest book and noted the fact that I was a member of HRFC, even though I had only joined the week before.

Day four started with a short walk up to Col des Fours (2665m), which according to my guidebook, was one of the high points of the TMB. When I reached it I had intended to walk up to Tete Nord de Fours (2756m) to see the famous view, though I decided against it as the summit was shrouded in low cloud. Though no doubt due to the weather conditions, I thought this to be a very bleak place, no vegetation, only loose shale and numerous stream crossing, that made the walk down the other side precarious. Eventually, the path turns into a gravel road, which lead me down to La Ville des Glaciers (1789m). I then headed for Les Mottes (1850m) where I stopped for lunch. From here there is a long up hill path to Col de la Seigne (2516m), which is where the TMB crosses into Italy. At the Col it was very windy so I did not hang around for long. I headed down to Refugio Elizabetta Soldini (2210m), which was to be my accommodation for the night.

On the way down Vallon de la Blanche, I spotted what looked like a gypsy encampment in the bottom of the valley. There were probably half a dozen caravans and an assortment of vehicles. Getting closer, I could see a large herd of cows grazing nearby. I later learned that this was in fact a ‘dairy’, whereby the cows are taken to the summer pasture in early summer to graze the local flora. For generations, each valley has produced its own unique cheese. In order for the cheese to be ‘traditional’, it must be made from the milk of cows that have grazed summer pasture. The logistics of running a dairy so far up a valley that has no amenities and is only accessible via miles of rough gravel tracks does not bear thinking about.

Refugio Elizabetta Soldini was filled to capacity with mainly, not surprisingly, Italians. Do Italians have the noisiest kids in the world? I think they do.

Day five led me down Val Veni where, after a few miles, the TMB leads up the southern side of the valley to give an outstanding view of Glacier du Miage, which gives the sort of view that you would only expect to be able to see in the Himalayas. It was at this point that I, and probably everyone else in the valley at the time, heard what sounded like a long roll of thunder which, for a while, echoed through the mountains. The sky was clear and blue. After a few minutes, looking up the Glacier de Miage, a dust cloud could be seen rising from one of the many gullies that open out onto it. We had in fact witnessed a massive rock fall. We hoped that no one had been near the gully at the time.

On reaching Col Checoui (1956m), which is a winter ski area, I found the road down to Courmayeur (1210m) to be very steep. At Courmayeur I had to stop for a rest as my legs had become very stiff as a result of the constant pounding coming down the hill carrying a heavy rucksack. I had a pizza at the first restaurant I found then headed for Refugio Bertoni (1971m), which was to be my accommodation for the night. The path was steep all the way. The climb I estimated would take me one and a half-hours, took me three. Not helped by the very hot weather and the fact that I ran out of water, and no where to refill, half way up.

Looking at my maps that evening, I was dismayed to find that I would probably not pass a cash machine until I reached Champex in three days time. I only had enough money for one…

Day six began with a return trip to Courmayeur 761 meters below, though this time minus heavy rucksack, to visit the cash machine. The round trip back to Refugio Bertoni took just over two and a half hours. I made myself promise that my forward planning would be better in future!

I met up with Nils and Barbara again and trekked towards Refugio Bonatti (2036m) with them. On the way we stopped for a picnic lunch at the top of Tete de la Tranche (2584m). A short while later we were joined by a father and son who, as it turned out, came from my native Northumberland. After chatting for a while we ended up talking about mutual acquaintances, they even knew the chap that had taught me to ski (ahem) 27 years ago!

It was over the evening meal that I learned that Nils was a Physicist at the University of Marseilles, while his girlfriend Barbara was a Professor of Mathematics at the Berlin Institute. I wondered whether my description of the workings of an altimeter a few days before had impressed them. I didn’t like to ask.

Day seven found us walking in rain for most of the day, we had intended to walk to La Fouley (1593m) in Switzerland, though decided to stay at Refugio Elena (2062m) in Italy. No point it getting even more soaked walking over Grand Col Ferret (2537m) and not being able to appreciate the view that would be obscured by cloud.

Day eight dawned still raining, albeit lighter than the day before, so we headed off for the col. As we reached the top the cloud lifted to give us an impressive view of the TMB down to La Fouley and beyond. On the way we passed a small dairy and stopped to buy some cheese, which to me tasted very much like cheddar. We reached La Fouley at mid day and stopped for lunch.

We then headed for Champex (1486m) further down the valley. I had not walked far when the waist bet on my rucksack suddenly broke putting all the weight onto my shoulders. This was not good, as there were still a lot of miles to walk. Nils told me he was sure that there was a comprehensive outdoor shop in Champex and if we made good time we should arrive before closing time. My shoulders started aching but I pushed on. It is surprising what can be achieved with a bit of determination!

As we passed through Issert, a small hamlet, a runner overtook us. We heard later that he was participating in the first ‘Mont Blanc Marathon’. When he passed us, he had, we were told, covered in eighteen hours what had taken us seven days!

We arrived at Champex at 17:20 hrs, too late for the shop we thought. I was lucky; they had a customer trying on new boots, which had kept them open later than usual. I bought some webbing and bodged a repair to my rucksack as best as I could. At least it took most of the weight off my shoulders. As we arrived at the Gite d’ etape, we were greeted by some Germans, who we had met a couple of nights previously with, “ah, the mountain Mafia is again reunited!” Who said Germans don’t have a sense of humour?

Day nine brought us heavy rain, so we decided to have a day off. We had wanted to walk via Fenetre d’ Arpette (2665) to Trient, but this would be a wasted and hazardous trek in inclement weather. Nils suggested taking the bus and rain to Martigney for some site seeing. This proved to be a pleasant country town in a wine and fruit growing area of Switzerland. We visited an art gallery and a museum, which filled the day.

Day ten was overcast, but at least it had stopped raining. We headed up Val d’ Arpette, which was long up hill trek, which lasted until the col at Fenetre d’ Arpette at lunchtime. Part of the route up wound its way through a boulder field. I was glad we had not tried this the previous day. Once at the top there was still a lot of cloud, which, for the most part, obscured the Glacier du Trient. From here it was a long walk down to the Gite d’ etepe at Trient (1280m).

Day eleven was clear and sunny. We headed part of the way back up towards the Glacier du Trient before crossing the river and up the other side of the valley to Les Grands (2113m). We stopped at the unmanned mountain hut for lunch, then continued to Le Tour (1453m) via Col de Balm (2131m) and L’ Aigillette des Possettes (2201m). We overnighted at the CAF refuge at Le Tour.

Day twelve started off as a road walk down to Tre-la-Champ (1417m), then up onto Aiguille d’ Argentierre Echelles (1893m) which involved numerous metal ladders, fixed wire rope and scrambling, to reach the top. We continued to Lac Blanc (2352m), where we had lunch. Then continued to La Torelaz where we stayed for the night.

Day thirteen took us to Le Brevent (2525m), through a large winter ski area, then the long decent to Les Houche and the railway station.

John Stafford
10/11/2003