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Day 1 on the Tour de Mont Blanc – Les Houches to Refuge de Bellachat

Our first day of walking above the Chamonix Valley on the path of the Tour de Mont Blanc or TMB started in a rather more leisurely fashion than most serious walkers would allow. Our boutique Hotel Slalom in Les Houches was so pleasant that my friend Julia and I lingered over the croissants and muesli, then popped into the sports shop to hire some walking poles to save our knees on the walk ahead. We leafed through the brochures in the tourism office and posed for photos by the water pump outside – then only another brief stop at the tabac to buy maps and some water and we were finally ready to set off.

At the start of our walk in Les Houches
At the start of our walk in Les Houches

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Clutching my Cicerone Tour de Mont Blanc guide book, I read the instructions carefully to make sure we didn’t take a wrong turn, crossed the bridge over the busy main road, across the railway track and up to the start of our steep climb out of Les Houches. At breakfast we’d been asked why we were going the ‘wrong way’ on the Tour de Mont Blanc. We soon found that although you can walk the TMB clockwise as we’d planned as well as the more popular anti-clockwise route, the climb out of Les Houches was particularly punishing and not ideal when your legs are just getting acclimatised for the walk.

Need a guide book for the Tour de Mont Blanc? We recommend the Cicerone Trekking the Tour of Mont Blanc by Kev Reynolds

We zig-zagged up the forest trails and as the sun was hot, we were glad to be walking on these cool shady paths with an occasional glimpse across the valley through a break in the trees. The trails were well marked with regular signs or the white and red painted stripes to signify the TMB route. As we climbed steadily, we debated the clockwise/anti-clockwise choice.

Andi-clockwise means that you will be going with the flow and seeing the same faces in the refuge most nights, but you may have other walkers regularly passing you or you passing them, and you may find yourself tagging on to other groups following the same paths. Clockwise means that you still meet other walkers but they’re more likely to be coming the other way and you’ll be meeting different faces in the refuge each night and perhaps get advice on the conditions of the path you’ll be walking the next day.

At the Statue of Christ the King above Les Houches
At the Statue of Christ the King above Les Houches

After 45 mins we reached the enormous concrete statue of Le Christ Roi or Christ the King and took a short break to admire the view. By this time it was mid-day and just as we were leaving, the bells hidden away in an adjoining wooden shed started to creak and then to ring, making us jump at the sound. Continuing on, we emerged from the forest and the way became more rocky with a couple of mountain streams to hop across and a precarious section to negotiate with metal hand rails and foot-treads, embedded into the rocks. After tackling this steep section the way emerged into an open section of brush and heather with butterflies and beetles with crimson wings flitting around.

View from the statue of Christ the King above Les Houches, Chamonix
View from the statue of Christ the King above Les Houches, Chamonix
Walking from Les Houches to Refuge de Bellachat
Walking from Les Houches to Refuge de Bellachat

As we raised our eyes to the way ahead we could make out a winding path rising up to the crest with little coloured dots of other walkers coming down towards us. Many of them, we discovered later, were walking for the day and had come down from the cable car at Brevant, and we could distinguish these from the TMB walkers by the smaller size of their rucksacks& and their cheerful bonjour and air of having just jumped out of the shower, in contrast the hot, weary, sweaty beings that we had become after 5 hours of up-hill walking. Fortunately, the etiquette seemed to be that on narrow paths the descending walker would give way to the ascending walker.

Finally after a seemingly never-ending climb, we reached the crest and the Refuge de Bellechat came into view. The lady looked a little surprised to see us so early at 4pm as we were the first to arrive and most of the other guests wouldn’t turn up for another hour or so. She showed us where to leave our boots at the entrance and offered us a selection of plastic clogs to wear in the refuge. The wooden Refuge de Bellachat consists of a downstairs dining room with cheerful orange checked cloths and curtains, and pretty flowers and window boxes that turned out to be imitation, as the only flowers that could grow at this altitude were the miniature alpine varieties.

Dining room at Refuge de Bellachat nr Chamonix
Dining room at Refuge de Bellachat near Chamonix
Dortoir at Refuge de Bellachat nr Chamonix
Dortoir at Refuge de Bellachat near Chamonix

Upstairs we were shown the ‘Dortoir’ with space for up to 28 guests, and immediately any memories of comfort and luxury at Hotel Slalom faded away. The single room had bunk style arrangement on both sides with mattresses side by side and a pillow and 2 woollen blankets per bed space. There was no separation between men and women, and over dinner we wondered whether that the dreadlocked walker who smelt of stale cigarette smoke would end up on the mattress beside us (he ended up above us).

There was an outside toilet and the ‘sale de bain’ was a double sink with 2 cold taps in a small wooden shed with lace curtains at the window, but no shower in sight. In fact most of the refuges do have hot showers and a little more comfort but if you can’t cope with this very basic accommodation and the communal sleeping arrangements, then this walk may not be for you…

Refuge de Bellachat nr Chamonix
Refuge de Bellachat near Chamonix

What the Refuge de Bellachat lacked in amenities it more than made up for in location, with a terrace that offered a grandstand view of Mont Blanc and its surrounding peaks and of the glaciers further down the valley. As we sipped our very welcome cold beer, we felt incredibly lucky to have been transported from Bristol into this stunning mountain environment in only 24 hours.

We had left Les Houches around 11am and arrived at 4pm – 5 hours walking albeit with a stop for lunch and a few other rest breaks – a route that the guidebook had given as 3.5 hours. Our walk had been just the right length for us, but the prescribed TMB walk continued for another 4 hours on to Flegere and we were thankful that we had decided to break up the stage to take it at a more comfortable pace.

On the terrace at Refuge de Bellachat nr Chamonix
On the terrace at Refuge de Bellachat near Chamonix

Once we had relaxed for a little I decided to walk up behind the refuge, following the path we would take the next day and soon got a view down on the small Lac du Brevant looking beautiful in the evening sun. Although I had packed my swim suit, I was happy just to gaze from above and then turned back to the Refuge de Bellachat where it seemed that almost all the 28 bed spaces were taken.

Supper was included in the €40 half board price and we all sat down together at the long tables for a meal of soup, pasta with mince and a puree apple desert. Soon after 9pm the company started to thin out and settle down in the dortoir to sleep. After a long day of walking we were all happy to get an early night and to be honest there was not much else to do – with rucksack weight pared down to the minimum, even packing a novel would seem like a luxury.

The next day we continued past Lac du Brevant, climbed up to the Brevant peak and then walked on the next Refuge at Flégère

Read about Day 2 of our walk on the Tour de Mont Blanc Trail from Refuge de Bellachat to Refuge la Flégère

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Resources for those walking the Tour de Mont Blanc

We used the Cicerone Tour of Mont Blanc guide by Kev Reynolds – we found it to be an excellent guide for both the clockwise and anti-clockwise route with detailed route guide, maps, accommodation information and points of interest along the route.

We stayed at the modern, stylish, budget boutique Hotel Slalom that is perfectly placed in Les Houches for summer walking opposite the start of the anti-clockwise TMB route and close to the ski lifts for winter ski-ing. Double rooms in the summer season €86-99 plus €10 breakfast.

We booked our transfer from Geneva airport to Les Houches through Chamexpress and found them to run an extremely efficient airport to hotel service – cost was €25 + tax per person each way.

Need a guide book for the Tour de Mont Blanc? We recommend the Cicerone Trekking the Tour of Mont Blanc by Kev Reynolds

Bookings for Refuge de Bellachat can be made only by telephone (04 50 53 43 23) and it has 28 dortoir places and is also open in the day for refreshments of drinks and light meals. To avoid disappointment and a long walk, you should book your place in all refuges but can normally do so a day or two before, or from the previous refuge.

The walkingthetmb website has useful information to help you plan and prepare for your Tour de Mont Blanc walk, with a packing list that we found invaluable even though we forgot half the stuff and some links to other people’s photographs and on-line diaries to inspire you.

P.S. Many thanks to the Heading There travel blog for featuring this post in their recent carnival about Slow travel Do head over to Heading There to read some other inspirational slow travel posts, from walking the streets of NYC to taking the 48hr ferry from Japan to China.

Other Stories from my mini-Tour de Mont Blanc

Up the mountain and down again – on the TMB near Chamonix
Planning my mini Tour de Mont Blanc – French Alps
Day 2 on the Tour de Mont Blanc – Refuge de Bellachat to Flégère

This article is originally published at Heatheronhertravels.com

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Tobi

Wednesday 9th of December 2015

Yes it is an amazing trip! Ok great!

Tobi

Tuesday 8th of December 2015

Nice blog post! I did this tour in summer 2015 and loved it! If you want to check out my trip: http://www.worldtrip-blog.com/tour-du-mont-blanc/ You're very welcome! Cheers!

Heather Cowper

Tuesday 8th of December 2015

@Tobi It's a great trail isn't it, I'll take a look at your article too

Laurel

Wednesday 31st of July 2013

Glad to hear that TMB is well signed. We've got a different guide book in English - hope the distances we have planned won't be too much. We're doing between 6-9 hours of hiking a day and doing it in 8 days due to a tight schedule. Your photos are making me very excited!

calories in chicken

Saturday 20th of August 2011

Hi! Someone in my Myspace group shared this website with us so I came to check it out. I'm definitely loving the information. I'm bookmarking and will be tweeting this to my followers! Excellent blog and amazing design.

The Schafburgbahn steam train at St Wolfgang in Austria - video | Heather on her travels

Saturday 2nd of July 2011

[...] familiar with these high mountain huts as I’d stayed in a couple while walking part of the Tour de Mont Blanc Trail in France with my friend Julia, and they provide basic accommodation for walkers as well as a hot [...]