Tour du Mont Blanc

The Tour du Mont Blanc circles the Mont Blanc massif through France, Italy and Switzerland, staying in mountain refuges and gites along the way. Most member huts book through the official Tour du Mont Blanc platform, while several independent refuges take bookings on their own pages or by email. Stages fill within days of reservations opening, so the usual advice is to book in October or November for the following summer.

This page is the circuit itself: the stages, the huts on each one, and how far apart they are. Every walking time below comes from our own terrain-aware routing between the huts, the same numbers the map uses. For the booking side, which is where most plans actually fail, read how to plan a hut-to-hut Tour du Mont Blanc. For whether a full circuit is still bookable this season, day by day, see TMB availability right now.

The circuit in numbers

• Around 170 km and roughly 10,000 m of ascent, usually walked in 10 or 11 days.
• Three countries, seven or eight passes above 2,000 m, and a high point of about 2,665 m, at the Col des Fours or the Fenêtre d'Arpette, both of them variants.
• Anticlockwise from Les Houches is the classic direction and the one below. Clockwise works too, and the huts are the same.
• The trail itself is waymarked and well documented. What makes it hard is that roughly eleven refuges absorb almost everyone on the circuit, each has to have a bed on a specific night, and they have to work in sequence.

Stage by stage, with walking times between the huts

Times are hut to hut on the routed path, for a steady walker without long stops. Where a stage starts or ends in a village rather than a hut, the valley section is not timed here.

• Stage 1, Les Houches to Les Contamines. Over the Col de Voza, or the Col de Tricot variant for a bigger first day. Sleep in the village, at the Refuge CAF des Contamines-Montjoie (1,164 m), or push on up the valley to the Refuge de la Balme (1,706 m), 7.7 km and about 3h from the CAF refuge, which shortens tomorrow.
• Stage 2, Les Contamines to the Col du Bonhomme. From the CAF refuge to the Refuge de la Croix du Bonhomme (2,443 m) is 13.3 km and about 5h40, the longest climb of the tour. From La Balme it is 5.7 km and about 2h35.
• Stage 3, Croix du Bonhomme to the Vallée des Glaciers. Over the Col des Fours to the Refuge des Mottets (1,870 m): 7.4 km, about 2h30. The standard route drops to Les Chapieux instead and walks up the valley road, which adds a couple of hours and a possible bus.
• Stage 4, Mottets to Italy. Over the Col de la Seigne into the Val Veny, to the Refuge Elisabetta (2,195 m): 7.8 km, about 2h35. Many people combine this with stage 3 for a long day.
• Stage 5, Elisabetta to Courmayeur. Along the Val Veny balcony to the Refuge Maison Vieille (1,956 m), 10.1 km and about 3h50, then down to Courmayeur, or stay at Maison Vieille and skip the town.
• Stage 6, Courmayeur to the Val Ferret. Up to the Refuge Giorgio Bertone (1,970 m), then the balcony path to the Refuge Walter Bonatti (2,030 m): Bertone to Bonatti is 9.8 km and about 3h55. From Maison Vieille straight to Bertone, bypassing the town, is 10.1 km and about 3h35.
• Stage 7, Bonatti to Switzerland. To the Refuge Elena (2,061 m), 7.3 km and about 2h50, then over the Grand Col Ferret to the Gîte alpage de La Peule (2,071 m), 5.9 km and about 2h20, and on down to the Gîte de la Fouly (1,600 m), another 7 km and about 2h20. Bonatti to La Fouly in one day is about 20 km and 8h.
• Stage 8, La Fouly to Champex. A valley day through the Swiss Val Ferret villages to Champex-Lac. Accommodation here is hotels, gites and a campsite rather than mountain refuges.
• Stage 9, Champex to Trient. Either the Bovine path or the harder Fenêtre d'Arpette, which is as high as the tour gets. Sleep in Trient or at the Gîte du col de la Forclaz (1,527 m).
• Stage 10, Trient to the Chamonix valley. From the Forclaz gite over the Col de Balme to the Refuge du Col de Balme (2,190 m), 6.4 km and about 2h55, then down and across to Tré-le-Champ or Argentière. For the classic high finish, continue to the Refuge du Lac Blanc (2,352 m), 12.3 km and about 4h30 from the Col de Balme, or the Refuge de la Flégère (1,807 m), 12.4 km and about 5h10.
• Stage 11, the Aiguilles Rouges balcony to Les Houches. From La Flégère along the Grand Balcon Sud to the Refuge de Bellachat (2,152 m), 9.2 km and about 3h05 via Le Brévent, then the steep descent to Les Houches to close the loop.

Shorter versions

The two halves are the usual way to split it. The French and Italian half, Les Houches to Courmayeur, is stages 1 to 5 and has the big passes. The Italian and Swiss half, Courmayeur to Chamonix, is stages 6 to 11 and has the balcony paths and the Aiguilles Rouges finish. Each is five or six days, and both ends have public transport. If a single hut in the middle has no space on your night, the app will tell you which runs of huts do still chain together, which is usually a better answer than giving up on the whole circuit.

The map

Every hut in the list below is on the map with the routed paths between them, so you can see the actual stage lengths, swap a refuge for its neighbour, and check availability on consecutive nights without opening a dozen booking sites. Open the region in the map, tap a hut, and the calendar shows what the hut's own booking system is showing. A finished itinerary exports as a GPX file with the huts as waypoints.