The Tour du Mont Blanc circles the massif through France, Italy and Switzerland. It is one of the most walked long-distance routes in Europe, and yet the practical questions come back every season: where to fill your bottles, where to sleep when the huts are full, where you may pitch a tent, and how to reach the start without a car.
This post answers with OnTrace data, read along the whole route. The sheet below is worked out again every day: each water point, hut and station sits at its kilometer, in the classic direction, from Les Houches.
The TMB at a glance#
- A loop of about 170 km, depending on the variants, around the Mont Blanc massif, through seven valleys and three countries.
- Around 10,000 m of ascent. The exact figures of the route above are in the sheet, worked out from the altitude of the ground.
- 10 to 12 days for most walkers, in stages of 15 to 20 km. Trail runners finish it in a few days, the fastest in a single race.
- The classic direction starts in Les Houches and goes anticlockwise: Les Contamines, the Col du Bonhomme, Italy over the Col de la Seigne, Courmayeur, the Grand Col Ferret, Switzerland, Champex, then back to Chamonix over the Col de Balme.
- The season runs from mid-June to mid-September, while the huts are staffed. In June, snow can still cover the north-facing passes.
The route of this post follows the main itinerary as mapped in OpenStreetMap. The variants (Col des Fours, Fenêtre d’Arpette, Lacs des Chéserys) change the distance, the ascent and sometimes the difficulty: open the trace in OnTrace to compare it with yours.
Water: there, but not everywhere#
The TMB is not a dry route. Villages have fountains, huts sell water and drinks, and many streams cross the path. But the climb to a pass often goes for hours without a spring, and a sunny summer afternoon empties a bottle faster than you think.
Three simple habits:
- Find the longest stretch without a known water point before each day. The sheet gives it to the kilometer.
- Do not drink stream water without treating it below the pastures: flocks graze along much of the route. A tablet or a filter weighs a few grams.
- Do not count on a fountain nobody has confirmed lately. On OnTrace, each water point carries walkers’ dated reports: one reported dry leaves the calculation.
Where to sleep#
The TMB is walked from hut to hut, in gîtes, in village hotels, or under canvas at campsites. In July and August, book your nights well ahead: the busiest huts are full months in advance, and many ask for a booking for any night. A full hut is not a guaranteed shelter for the night.
Campsites are down in the valleys, near the villages: they let you split the stages differently, at the cost of a heavier pack. The list below gives the staffed huts, cabins, gîtes and campsites within a kilometer of the route, in route order.
To get a feel for the days, here is a split worked out on these same places: each evening near somewhere to sleep, 12 to 22 km a day, the hilliest days kept shorter. It is not a schedule: full huts, the weather and your own pace decide.
Camping: three countries, three ways#
Camping rules change from one country to the next, and often from one commune or protected area to the next. On the French side, the route crosses nature reserves where camping is regulated: read the rules of each before you go. In Italy and Switzerland, the rules depend on the region and the communes.
The sheet lists the known zones the route crosses or passes near, with their periods. They come from the parks, open data on protected areas and OnTrace contributors. Where nothing is drawn, nobody knows: it does not mean anything goes. Ask the huts and tourist offices, and when in doubt, sleep in a hut or at a campsite.
Getting to the TMB without a car#
The TMB suits the train very well, and it is often simpler than parking a car for ten days.
- On the French side, the Saint-Gervais-Le Fayet, Chamonix, Vallorcine line serves the whole valley, including Les Houches station for the classic start. Saint-Gervais-Le Fayet is linked to the rest of the rail network.
- On the Swiss side, the Mont-Blanc Express carries on to Martigny. From Martigny, a train climbs to Orsières, where buses leave for Champex and the Swiss Val Ferret.
- On the Italian side, buses link Chamonix and Courmayeur through the Mont Blanc tunnel.
- Les Contamines is served by bus from Saint-Gervais-Le Fayet.
These links also let you shorten the tour, skip a stage in bad weather or start from another valley. The stations within 5 km of the route:
Plan your own version#
Nobody walks exactly the same TMB: variants, stages, nights in huts or in a tent. Open the trace in OnTrace, then choose Duplicate this trace: you get your own copy, to add your zones, supply points and notes without touching the original. You can also import your own GPX file and find the same information along your route.
Before you go, check the mountain forecast and the local bulletin: the sheet tells you where water and shelter are, not whether the pass will be clear.
Route: © OpenStreetMap contributors, under the ODbL. Altitudes: EU-DEM terrain model (Copernicus), through OpenTopoData. Places: OpenStreetMap, refuges.info and walkers’ reports on OnTrace.