We’ve had a few questions about the TMB. The Tour du Mont Blanc is one of the world’s great hikes, with many adventure seekers tackling all or part of it and its myriad variations each year.
Mont Blanc is the highest mountain in the Alps at 15,781 feet. As you can see by the map, the hike goes AROUND the Mont Blanc mountain range, as opposed to scaling the height of Mont Blanc (saving those elevations for Kili next month 🙂
The Mont Blanc region of France and Italy has been alternately swapped between the two countries (and local princes) for hundreds of years. Most recently, in 1860, the locals in the Chamonix valley were given the right to vote on whether they should go back to France. They voted 130,533 YES to 235 NO, and Chamonix became part of France for good.
We have been traveling counter-clockwise on the TMB. If you want to follow along on the map, we started in Chamonix Saturday, hiked through Les Contamines to Refuge Nant Borrant. Sunday we skipped les Chapieux due to thunderstorms and came on to Courmayeur where we dayhiked yesterday and today. Our next stops are rifugio Bonatti, La Fouly, Champex, and la Forclaz before ending back in Chamonix on Sunday. On our hike on Thursday, we will see Mont Dolent, the peak that marks the convergence of Switzerland, Italy and France.
