Returning to the Alpes and the Tour du Mont Blanc

I first thru-hiked the Tour du Mont Blanc (TMB) in the European Alpes back in 2018, and I had always wanted to return to it someday. In July of 2024 I made that a reality, and this time I wasn't going alone: my partner joined me on this classic European trek in order to introduce them to the hut-to-hut backpacking lifestyle.

We were treated with great weather on this trek with a couple days of rain later in the evening (well after we had arrived at our places of stay for the day), and only one day of light drizzle on us as we crossed from Italy into Switzerland.

Overall the trek was much like I remembered it, and it was a nice trip down memory lane as we walked along the trail. It was a bit of a struggle in some parts due to us living in the flat lands of Chicago, but we managed to conquer each tough segment and relax at the end of the day with a couple of beverages.

You can read about my 2018 experience of the TMB here.

We followed the same route as 2018, and stayed at nearly all of the same places. The only differences were La Fouly and Trient, where we stayed at Hotel Edelweiss and Hotel Forclaz, respectively.

Stages

Every thru-hike is different, and while some may necesitate the need to follow the guidebook stages, others require the need to be flexible. For this thru-hike some of the stages are by-the-book, while others are a combination of two or more:

• Day 01

  Les Houches to Auberge le Truc

  Distance	10.09 mi
  Elevation gain	4,781 ft
  Elevation loss	2,440 ft
  Time	7 h 17 m

• Day 02

  Auberge le Truc to Refuge de La Croix du Bonhomme

  Distance	11.46 mi
  Elevation gain	4,455 ft
  Elevation loss	2,015 ft
  Time	6 h 51 m

• Day 03

  Refuge de La Croix du Bonhomme to Refuge Robert Blanc

  Distance	9.57 mi
  Elevation gain	3,988 ft
  Elevation loss	3,046 ft
  Time	6 h 38 m

• Day 04

  Refuge Robert Blanc to Maison Veille

  Distance	15.92 mi
  Elevation gain	3,919 ft
  Elevation loss	6,461 ft
  Time	8 h 3 m

• Day 05

  Maison Veille to Rifugio Bonatti

  Distance	11.2 mi
  Elevation gain	3,587 ft
  Elevation loss	3,446 ft
  Time	6 h 7 m

• Day 06

  Rifugio Bonatti to Hotel Edelweiss

  Distance	13.02 mi
  Elevation gain	3,141 ft
  Elevation loss	4,471 ft
  Time	6 h 6 m

• Day 07

  Hotel Edelweiss to Gite Bon Abri

  Distance	10 mi
  Elevation gain	1,988 ft
  Elevation loss	2,364 ft
  Time	4 h 33 m

• Day 08

  Gite Bon Abri to Hotel Forclaz

  Distance	7.91 mi
  Elevation gain	2,669 ft
  Elevation loss	2,405 ft
  Time	4 h 8 m

• Day 09

  Hotel Forclaz to Auberge la Boerne

  Distance	9.72 mi
  Elevation gain	3,672 ft
  Elevation loss	4,054 ft
  Time	5 h 43 m

• Day 10

  Auberge la Boerne to Refuge de lo Flegere

  Distance	5.67 mi
  Elevation gain	3,388 ft
  Elevation loss	1,812 ft
  Time	3 h 45 m

• Day 11

  Refuge de lo Flegere to Les Houches

  Distance	11.65 mi
  Elevation gain	2,899 ft
  Elevation loss	5,759 ft
  Time	6 h 21 m