[UPDATED TO INCLUDE LINK TO PICTURES
https://plus.google.com/photos/108233647022346135490/albums/6037172146713160449%5D
A quick summary of our trip:
I took my two teenager boys, and a friend took his teenage son (so 5 of us total) on a 7 day hike around the Tour Mont Blanc this July, a combination of camping and refuges (mountain huts/dormitories). BPL was a fantastic resource to help me plan this trip, so I’d like to thank everyone for their helpful advice and some great deals on Gear Swap.
Day1: Started at Les Houches, France and took the cable car to Bellevue which saved 2 hours of steep hiking so we could have an easier first day. There was a 105 km race that day which was partially on the TMB path, so things were pretty crowded (lots of guys running past us with small day packs). Our original plan was to camp near Auberge du Truc but the layout there was odd (we would be camping just next to the TMB path with no privacy) so we decided to continue on to Les Contamines which had a decent campground. We also got to watch the Belgium/Argentina match at a nearby restaurant :-)
Day 2: Hiked from Les Contamines to Refuge Col de Croix de Bonhomme. This was a long but beautiful stage, with the Refuge high in the mountains near the border with Italy. For 45€ each we had a hot dinner, dormitory sleeping and a breakfast.
Day 3: Hiked over the Col de Bonhomme and Col de Fours which was incredible …. walking through snow at the Col (saddle) between two mountains. But then it started to rain and the hike from Col de Seigne to REfuge Elisabetta was really tough. We camped next to Elisabetta (in Italy), but the night was full of rain wind and sleet, and in the morning it actually snowed!A pretty tough night, we didn’t sleep much.
Day 4: A cloudy and partially rainy hike to the Italian resort town of Courmayeur (their version of Chamonix) where we treated ourselves to a nice hotel with pool and sauna. The hike down to Courmayeur (which is in a valley) was a killer on the knees.
Day 5: The plan was to hike to Refuge Elena and do some wild camping near there, but a storm came in, and we decided to not risk it, and slept at Refuge Bonatti (incidentally the best refuge of the trip!). Crossing Col de la Seigne we ended up in a full-blown snowstorm which was amazing (zero visibility, high winds, and we could barely find the path). Crazy weather for July … the snowball fight was fun.
Day 6: Since we only had 7 nights instead of the typical 10-11, we had to take some shortcuts and on this day we hiked to the tozn of Ferret where we caught a bus (now in Switzerland) to Champex where we camped at Relais D’Arpette. This was an excellent campground about 30min outside of Champex.
Day 7: Hiked over the very difficult Fenetre D’Arpette (most challenging stage of the trip) to the very remote Refuge Les Grands. Highly recommended, this is a bit off the typical TMB path but great fun. The refuge is a two-room stone building which is staffed by a volunteer from a local alpine club (when we were there, it was an older man and his teenage granddaughter), we were the only ones there, and it was real cozy — no food is provided so you need to cook your own meals.
Day 8: Hiked to Col du Balme and then to Argentiere where we met up with the rest of our family and had a great alpine lunch of fondue, tartiflette and raclette. FYI, we read about some horror stories about the Refuge de Balme, and I can assure you the truth is even worse! Do not stay there! It is run by an old angry couple and while every other refuge was staffed by friendly and accommodating people, this woman started yelling at us (and some other travellers too) from the minute we walked inside. My friend, who is French, felt obliged to apologize (on behalf of his country) to the other travellers who happened to be Americans, for the rudeness of the Refuge and assured them that was not indicative of the rest of the TMB experience.
An excellent trip, despite the shitty weather (we didn’t see the Mont Blanc once), and I look forward to doing it again.
Feedback on some of my gear:
– TarpTent Rainshadow was great, super light and easy to set up. I did find quite a bit of condensation on the inside which dripped onto us during the night. Not sure if that is common or if there’s anything to do about it
– MSR superfly stove — loved it, fit well on French gas canisters
– Kelty Ignite DriDown 0 sleeping bag. Loved this bag, if anything it was a little hot
– Granite Gear Vapor Trail. I had a love hate relationship with this backpack: I didn’t like the roll top closure or the optional top pouch (it didn’t clip well to the main bag) or the way the compression straps cover the side pockets; I did like the light weight and the simple design. I think the GG Crown VC might be better for me.
– Thermarest Pro Lite sleeping pad. Loved it, no complaints
– Marmot Precip, loved it
– Columbia convertible titanium pants – these must be 10 years old and still going strong, the fit is much better than the new version (Silver Ridge I think)
– REI mid hiking socks – felt great but took forever to dry. Anyone suggest a quicker-drying hiking sock??
– TrekSilk sleeping bag liner bought from Vietnam on eBay – loved this, came in real handy when we stayed in Refuges, and MUCH cheaper than the S2S models
– Gerber mini knife – Loved it, it was in my pocket the whole time and now I’m tempted to continue to keep it with me
– Bought freeze-dried food from http://www.lyophilise.fr, it was a mixed bag depending on the vendor but I really liked the food from mx3 a French company
Oboz Yellowstone boots — Loved them. Was originally thinking of Salomon light hiking trail shoes but very glad I went with the Yellowstones, there were a lot of very rocky parts that required a solid boot
Stuff I would do differently:
– Bring RockTape. I use this for marathons, so I should have realized it also works amazing for blisters. Luckily my friend brought some, it was a life saver. Better than athletic tape!
– Bring a ground cover for under the tent. It rained about half the nights and luckily my friend had an extra ground cover which we used under our tent. I know it adds some weight but it kept the tent drier and cleaner.
– Replace the platypus and sawyer filter with aquamira. I know it’s a question of personal preference but I find it easier to drink from a 1L water bottle than mess with the bladder.Next time I’ll bring some aquamira in case we need to clean some water (we needed to do do that one day when we ran out of water)
– Bring more energy bars – we went through so many of these (especially with 3 teenage boys), next time I will bring lots more
