The Euro Journey Coach Workforce not too long ago accomplished the Tour du Mont Blanc. It was a really superb expertise. The hike was a problem, each bodily and mentally, with unimaginable rewards together with spectacular views, incredible camaraderie, and the sensation of accomplishment once you’ve achieved a aim you’ve been planning for months and months.
We’ll be posting new blogs on the Tour du Mont Blanc, however it’s price reposting this one, initially written in September 2019, just some months earlier than we ever heard of coronavirus. The hike described right here was the inspiration for us to finish the tour all collectively. It’s one thing we talked about throughout lockdowns attributable to the pandemic, and dreamed about earlier than we may journey freely once more.
The important thing to creating this journey profitable is nice planning. Plan forward, ebook your refuges early within the fall and early within the spring for a tour the next summer season. Additionally, pack gentle, carry blister bandaids and get your digicam able to take superb footage and create reminiscences that may stick with you the remainder of your life.
We hope you get pleasure from this reposting of Chelsea’s weblog from her first time on this space.
4 days on the tour du mont blanc
My husband Sam and I stay in Bristol, UK, and we sometimes select our trip locations based mostly on flight value and timing. After we had been looking out Skyscanner not too long ago for a spot to go over the August financial institution vacation, a cheap flight to Geneva popped up that left on a Friday morning and returned on a Tuesday night time. We knew it was meant to be! Sam solely had to make use of two days of trip and we bought almost 5 full days of journey time. We knew we didn’t need to spend the entire time in Geneva – it’s a fantastic metropolis however it may be costly and there’s not all that a lot we wished to see within the metropolis itself – so we began brainstorming choices close by. We mentioned renting a automobile and testing the Jura wine area, and exploring the Vanoise Glaciers (each issues that I’d nonetheless actually love to do), earlier than finally deciding on doing a portion of the Tour du Mont Blanc (TMB). The TMB is a 170 kilometer climbing route that passes via Switzerland, Italy and France, encircling the Mont Blanc massif. The total tour sometimes takes round 7-10 days to finish. Since we had been restricted on time (we hiked for 3 and a half days, and spent our remaining day in Geneva) we had been solely capable of full about 1/3 of the route (plus somewhat detour), from Les Houches to Courmeyeur. It was an unimaginable option to spend our lengthy weekend!
Practicalities
We used Cicerone’s The Tour of Mont Blanc Full Two-Means Trekking Information by Kev Reynolds each prematurely of our journey to assist plan our schedule and through our time on the path. It was completely invaluable and I might suggest it to anybody within the TMB. We stayed at mountain “refuges” whereas we had been on the path, that are lodges dotted across the TMB which offer beds (most have dorms and personal rooms out there), water, and meals. We packed every part we would have liked into two climbing backpacks and carried them with us on the path. There are corporations that may present baggage transfers, but it surely does restrict the place you possibly can keep, because the lodging have to be accessible by automobile. If doable, I might extremely suggest carrying your personal pack – pack gentle and do sink laundry if vital. You might at all times retailer bigger baggage in Geneva should you’re incorporating the TMB into an extended European journey.
