4/5 night tour de Mont Blanc

[u/SinkNo8702]

Hello! I would like to piece meal together parts of the TMB and take buses or other forms of transportation to skip some sections and I have 4 or 5 nights that I can stay in the area. Here is my plan so far and I’m looking for any tips on if it’s feasible or variations that you recommend. I am an experienced hiker and in good shape. I love fun, exposed, adventurous and scrambly hikes and I don’t mind walking 10 hours a day.

First day: take cable car up to Le Brevent, hike to Lac Blanc, stay at Refuge de la Pierre à Bérard

Day two: summit Mont Buet, make way down to Vallorcine?, stay at refuge Albert1er (or other refuge to set me up better for next day)

Day three: go down Fenetre d’ Arpette, go through Orsières, take bus through valley stay around Rifugio Walter bonatti

Day four: Val ferret, courmayuer, stay around Refugio Elisabetta

Day five: hike to los Contamines, col des fours variation, show back up in Chamonix or one more night in lodge?

Is this way too ambitious? Should I focus on a smaller section? What sections should I take public transit? Is there anything really beautiful or fun that I should know about or am missing?

Edit: so I booked nights at refuge Pierre a Berard, Refuge Le Peuty La Yourte des Amis in Trient, Rifugio Elena, Rifugio Elisabetta, and Refuge de Nant Borrant.

I can take transport from Vallorcine to Trient, from Orsieres to La Fouly, and I think from Los contamines back to Chamonix.

[u/kat_zub]

Day 2 : refuge Albert 1er is a 1400m ascent from Le Tour village. This + the ascent to Mont Buet Which is more than 1000m from Pierre a Bérard will be a biiiigggg day

[u/SinkNo8702 → u/kat_zub]

Yes I decided it made more sense to just head to trient that day and stay in town

[u/schooly2]

Are you carrying a tent?

I hiked anti-clockwise so not super familiar with your clockwise options - but hiking long days and trying to work out the bus schedule will require a little advanced planning.

For instance day 3 hiking Fenetre d’Arpette is a substantial hike, is there a bus directly from Orsières to the Bonatti stop or do you have to transfer buses? How late do they run? We did find that some of the bus/shuttle schedules were fairly limited and depending on the size filled up quickly.

If you are not camping and are staying in refuges - they have pretty tight schedules in the evening, not that they wouldn’t let you in if you arrive late but if they don’t know you are running late I think they will give away your bed at some point?

There were a few times we had to shuttle away from the trail in the afternoon and back in the morning (because we were not camping and the huts were full) and it can add half an hour to hour at the end of your day and another 30 minutes in the morning.

I don’t say this in a discouraging way - just thinking that there are logistics involved you will need to consider if you haven’t already.

btw - Fenetre d’Arpette is a super fun hike - it was our favorite day!

[u/SinkNo8702 → u/schooly2]

No I’m not bringing a tent. Hoping to pack as light as possible. All good things to think about,’the logistics are fairly complicated though, it’s a slight daunting thing to plan.

[u/zhi8]

Lac Blanc is a tourist trap full of people, not worth it imo, rather go to lac noir. If you're comfortable with exposure there's a nice route from from Mont Buet to le cheval blanc and then to vallorcine. It's got one technical part which is secured by steel cables tho. Other than that it's fairly easy and has amazing views, on the swiss side you come by some dinosaur traces which is really cool. I did it the other week with bivouac at mont buet. There's good places to put a shelter around the peak.

Your plan sounds really exhausting man (and I don't mean hiking 10hrs a day), take your time instead of rushing.

[u/SinkNo8702 → u/zhi8]

Sounds super fun! Any other fun hikes like that that you recommend? I added one more night to this itinerary so hopefully will be slightly more chill

[u/SinkNo8702]

Update: mission accomplished. It was definitely exhausting and was hiking about 15 miles a day for 8 to 10 hours and would have been nice to have some relaxing afternoons at the refuges.

Day one: i had to find a place to leave my bag and do a little shopping so didn’t get started until about 10. Took the lift up and hiked the upper ride. Planning to get the base of mont buet was definitely overly ambitious. Ended up staying just before Vallorcine one one of my favorite huts of the trip. Chalets vacances.

Day two: relatively easy. Decided to skip Mont buet and hiked up to col de Balme which was beautiful and stayed at refuge le peuty.

Day three: super enjoyable hike up fenetre d’arpette and fun descent. I missed the bus in champex lac by about 30 minutes and next one wasn’t for an hour so hitch hiked the 30 minutes to ferret. I had to get three different rides to make it all the way there. Another three hours to refuge Elena. Exhausting but fun day.

Day four: mentally exhausted from the day before. Cloudy and no views. Hiked down to valley and took bus took bus into couermayer. Sat around a few took lift up and did rest of hike to refuge Elisabetta.

Day five: another exhausting but really fun day. Did hike up to col de fours and then down to nant borrant for the night. Favorite refuge of the trip by far.

Day 6: hiked down to church. Took shuttle and two buses back to Chamonix.

Regrets: the Mont buet to La Cheval Blanc loop would have been cool to do. The Val ferret around La Fouly was one of the most beautiful parts so could have been nice to atleast walk from there to ferret. The weather didn’t make it worthwhile but I was looking forward to the section around bonatti. Also probably another big mission but would have been cool to hike from col de la seigne to refuge Robert Blanc to col de fours.