Tour du Mont Blanc


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Europe » France » Rhône-Alpes » Chamonix-Mont-Blanc
June 15th 2013
Published: December 23rd 2013
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The circumnavigation of Mont Blanc has been on my trekking wishlist for a long time, so it was great to finally tick the box with a guided Utracks 10-day trip. There was still so much snow and ice that we attempted the trek in a clockwise direction, instead of the usual counter-clockwise way, in the hope that the snow would melt enough to give us a chance of crossing the high passes. As it was, we had to walk on the lower trails, and missed the high passes of Col du Ferret and Col d’Arpette as they were too icy and treacherous. Whilst the trek was more challenging than usual given the extreme conditions, it was still an exhilarating experience walking through the three countries of France, Switzerland and Italy - with a glass or two of vino to celebrate the end of each day of course.


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day 1 - start of Tour du Mont Blanc day 1 - start of Tour du Mont Blanc
day 1 - start of Tour du Mont Blanc

With our trusty French guide Nicole (who has hiked the Mont Blanc trails for 20 years!) from Chamonix (1030m) to Le Tour (1459m) - 429m ascent
day 2 - to Trient Switzerlandday 2 - to Trient Switzerland
day 2 - to Trient Switzerland

800m ascent to Col de Balme, and then 800m descent to Trient
glissadeglissade
glissade

Had to be careful on the downhill, but it was faster to snow slide (glissade) in our trekking boots - awesome fun
day 3 - to Arpette, Switzerland day 3 - to Arpette, Switzerland
day 3 - to Arpette, Switzerland

Too much snow on the Col d'Arpette so we had to go another way via Chaux de Bovine - still steep ascents (825m up) & descents (615m down) today
divine choccy cakedivine choccy cake
divine choccy cake

zero chance of losing any weight on this trek...


Tot: 0.382s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 36; qc: 161; dbt: 0.1849s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1; ; mem: 1.4mb