Hiking the Tour du Mont Blanc from Courmayeur to Chamonix

In August 2012, partway through a backpacking trip through Italy and France, I needed to get from Italy to France and decided to walk. A friend and I started in Courmayeur and hiked the Tour du Mont Blanc counterclockwise to Chamonix, through Switzerland, in seven days. We carried a tent, a stove and a big bag of muesli, and ate it with cold water every morning.

The route

The full Tour du Mont Blanc is a loop of roughly 165 to 170 kilometers (about 105 miles) around the Mont Blanc massif, through France, Italy and Switzerland, with around 10,000 meters of climbing and descending along the way. Most people take 10 or 11 days. Mont Blanc itself, Western Europe's highest peak, was measured at 4,807.81 meters in 2021, and it shrinks a little as its summit ice changes.

The half we walked, Courmayeur to Chamonix, has a reputation as the most beautiful stretch, and it earned it. Counterclockwise also saves the big views for the end, so you finish with the best of it.

Mont Blanc's glaciers above the green Chamonix valley under a blue sky — Mont Blanc over the Chamonix valley.

What I remember

It rained two of our seven days. On the second wet day we found a small mountain café that wasn't on our map, and it was the best meal of the trip. We forgot a rain cover for one pack and used a garbage bag instead. In Switzerland it was fondue and about fifty flavors of Ricola. In France, a baguette cost almost nothing, so we lived on them.

A picnic table with bread, cheese, juice and a trail map in the Alps — Lunch on the trail: bread, cheese and the map.

The one hut I still recommend is Rifugio Bonatti on the Italian side, right on the trail, with good beds, good food and a drying room for wet gear. Make the climb to Lac Blanc above Chamonix too. It's steep, and the view of the massif from the water is worth every step.

How I'd plan it now

Go from late June to early September, when the passes are usually clear. Mountain weather changes fast, even in August.
Book huts and hotels early. The popular rifugios fill months ahead in summer.
Choose your style: hut to hut with dinner and breakfast included, or a self-guided trip with your bags moved between hotels each day.
Bring trekking poles. Most days have long climbs and longer descents.

These days I'd do it with a hotel in Chamonix at each end, luggage transfers in between and a good bottle of Valle d'Aosta wine in Courmayeur. If the Tour du Mont Blanc is on your list, I'd love to help you plan it.