After breaking my elbow while trail running in Colorado Springs in June, I was certain my dream trip around Mont Blanc was off the table for 2025. My elbow would need 8-10 weeks to heal, and there was zero chance my orthopedist was going to give me the thumbs-up to run this steep 105-mile European trail before then.
But after filing my travel insurance claim in July, I had an epiphany. Running the Tour du Mont Blanc (TMB) in 2025 wasn’t possible, but doing the TMB as a thru-hike *might* be feasible.
Like most high-elevation routes, the TMB’s season is short: late June to mid-September. The earliest I would be healed enough even to consider attempting this endurance hike was the beginning of September, which was cutting it close.
Several of the bus routes reduced their seasonal schedules beginning on 1 September. And many of the huts would be shuttered by mid-September. How realistic was it for me to hike the TMB with so little lead time?
Planning my (new) TMB
Competition for lodging along the TMB can be fierce. Each year, roughly 20,000 people attempt to thru-hike this alpine route. The most popular huts around Mont Blanc can fill up a year in advance. Thus, most (sane) people plan their TMB thru-hike at least 6-12 months before their trek.
I’d avoided any logistical planning for my original TMB trip when I’d paid for a spot on a Vagabond Trails trail-running tour. Their team handled all the lodging reservations, baggage transfers, and all details for this multi-day adventure.
Unfortunately, I didn’t have any local connections like them. And I was coming to the table late in the game. If I really wanted to hike this trail in 2025, I would have to book everything myself. This meant figuring out my new itinerary, which towns I planned to stop in, and where I would stay each night (since I didn’t intend to camp).
If I wanted to succeed, I’d need to be very flexible and creative.
To Carry? or to not Carry?
The first thing I did in my TMB planning was nix the idea of a baggage transfer. The Mont-Blanc Tunnel, which runs between France and Italy, would be closed for 15 weeks beginning on September 1, 2025 (i.e, when I intended to do my trek). So I couldn’t rely on a luggage transport service to get my bag back and forth to my accommodations. I’d need to carry all my gear for this trek in my backpack.
This tunnel closure turned out to be a blessing. Yes, carrying all my gear would undoubtedly make me slower on the big ups and downs on the TMB. But it also provided me with a lot of freedom and flexibility. With everything on my back, I could plan to stay in whatever towns or huts I wanted. I wasn’t limited to locations where a shuttle driver could drive. I was 100% in charge.
But now, I needed to figure out which TMB huts and local inns still had vacancies for a solo hiker. For that, I turned to the following tools to help me build my new TMB plan.
Sample itineraries
My biggest challenge in planning a last-minute adventure was deciding how to approach the TMB. There are several feasible starting points in France, Italy, or Switzerland. And since the TMB is a circuit route (like the Tahoe Rim Trail and the Timberline Trail), I could choose to hike it clockwise or counterclockwise.
To keep things as simple as possible, I chose Les Houches, France, as my starting point. And I committed to hiking the TMB in the traditional counterclockwise direction. This would allow me to use public transportation to/from the trail, and I could easily model my trek after the most popular itineraries available online.
Now that I was planning to hike the TMB, I couldn’t just follow my tour group’s original 6-day trail running itinerary. Those mileages would be unsustainable for a hiker carrying a full backpack.
But, how far did people realistically hike each day on the TMB?
To find this answer, I scoured several of the more established self-guided tour operators, like Macs Adventures, Bookatrekking, and Alpine Exploratory. After browsing their itineraries, I felt that a 9-day hike was my best bet. That pace didn’t go overboard physically, but I’d also get a very full day of hiking most days.
I had numerous sample itineraries and the list of the common towns and refuges (huts) where hikers typically stayed while hiking the TMB. My next goal was to determine whether I could replicate one of these itineraries on my own.
Was it too late to book accommodations for a 9-day trek in early September? For that answer, I turned my attention to two online tools: Mon Tour du Mont Blanc and Booking.com
Mon Tour du Mont Blanc
A few years ago, an aggregated online booking platform named Montourdumontblanc.com was launched to help visitors plan their TMB adventures. Hikers no longer had to reserve each hut or inn separately by email or via the location’s website.
MonTMB’s online reservation platform lets hikers build an itinerary using its interactive planning tools. Hikers can book their accommodations individually or build an entire itinerary that reserves everything in one go. The platform shows the location of each hut along the route, its capacity, availability, and distance from other huts.
I found this website to be incredibly user-friendly. For example, there might not be any beds available at a specific hut on Monday, but there might be some available on Sunday or Tuesday if I just shifted my itinerary by a day or two. The website also showed the distance to the nearest huts. So, if my first choice was fully booked, I could see whether another hut, a little closer or farther away, still had beds available.
After playing around with the website and potential dates in early September 2025, I realized there were a few places where lodging was very limited and would pose a challenge.
- Italy-Switzerland Crossing. There was plenty of lodging in Courmayeur, Italy, and in La Fouly, Switzerland, but none of the huts were available in the 35-kilometer (21.7 miles) stretch between them, where I’d have to cross the border over the Grand Col Ferret (the TMB’s high point).
- Switzerland-France Crossing. There was plenty of lodging in Champex Lac, Switzerland, and the outskirts of Chamonix, France, but none of the huts were available in the 54 kilometers (33.7 miles) between them. Most hikers stop in Trient, Switzerland, directly before crossing the border over the Col de Balme. But, there was nothing available there either. Everything was already booked up no matter which dates I tried to use.
With these two gaps in my itinerary, I had to shift gears to see if I could arrange something other than the TMB huts to fill my overnight lodging needs.
Booking.Com
Whenever I’m traveling in Europe on a pilgrimage route like the Via Francigena or Camino de Santiago, I rely heavily on the Booking.com app. This platform is a great resource for local inns, B&Bs, and hostels. The TMB takes hikers through or past several small towns that rely on tourism, and there are accommodations on Booking.com to suit nearly every budget.
I solved my first 35-kilometer gap by booking a hotel on the edge of Courmayeur for two consecutive nights, and using the free bus to get me back and forth to the TMB. I could hike from Courmayeur to Val Ferret in one day and take the bus back to my hotel in Courmayeur. Then I could take the bus back to Val Ferret the following day and pick up where I left off, hiking the rest of the way over the pass into Switzerland and on to La Fouly.
I solved the second 54-kilometer gap by booking a hotel in Martigny, Switzerland, and another in Argentière, France. When I reached the fully booked huts in Trient, I could take a one-hour bus ride down into the valley to stay in Martigny overnight before returning to the TMB by bus the following morning. And when I reached the fully booked huts in La Flégère, I could take the gondola down the mountain to Les Praz and catch a local bus to a hotel in Argentière.
My New TMB itinerary
Planning this trek with less than 90 days’ notice forced me to embrace a different kind of hike than I originally envisioned. But I was thrilled with my self-guided 9-day TMB hiking itinerary.
Here’s an overview of my new plan for the Tour du Mont Blanc:
Air travel. I adjusted the dates on my original (mid-July) plane tickets to Geneva to the same flights in late August. I didn’t have to worry about any fees with this change. This is why I always book directly with the airline. My new fare was actually less expensive because I was no longer flying during the peak European travel season, so I ended up with a $480 travel credit from the airline.
Lodging. My TMB accommodations were a mix of private hotel rooms and dorm-style huts. It would have been exciting to stay in huts 100% of the trek, but I wasn’t overly upset that I couldn’t achieve that goal. I always enjoy a break from shared sleeping spaces. Having some single rooms during my trek would help me sleep better. And it would give me days with extra space to hang my gear to dry if the shoulder-season weather were stormy.
Bus Travel. In addition to my hotel and hut reservations, I also pre-booked bus tickets between the Geneva Airport and Chamonix (the gateway to the TMB). This transportation could not be booked at the airport; it must be booked in advance. So, I used the Omio App to book the bus tickets that best fit my preferred travel times (I rode Alpy Bus to get to Chamonix and Swiss Tours to get back to the airport, and tickets for both were available for purchase in Omio).
The remainder of my travel to and from the TMB was coordinated on the day that I needed it, including:
- Local French buses between Chamonix and Les Houches cost €1,70 for a single-trip
- Local Italian buses around Courmayeur and to/from Val Ferret were free
- Local Swiss buses from Trient to Martigny cost CHF 12,50 or €13,50 each way
- Gondola between La Flégère-Les Praz cost €24 roundtrip
- Local French buses between Les Praz and Argentière cost €1,70 for a single-trip
Here’s my final itinerary and lodging for the TMB.
| Date | Start | End | Distance Hiked | Lodging |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aug. 30- Aug 31 | Home (USA) | Geneva, Switzerland | B&B Hotel (Geneva) | |
| Sept. 1 | Les Houches, France | Les Contamines, France | 18 km | Hotel Christiania (Les Contamines) |
| Sept. 2 | Les Contamines, France | Les Chapieux, France | 19,5 km | Auberge-Refuge de la Nova (Les Chapieux) |
| Sept. 3 | Les Chapieux, France | Courmayeur, Italy | 30,6 km | Hotel Shatush (Courmayeur) |
| Sept. 4 | Courmayeur, Italy | Val Ferret, Italy | 19,5 km | Hotel Shatush (Courmayeur) |
| Sept. 5 | Val Ferret, Italy | La Fouly, Switzerland | 15,5 km | Auberge Maya-Joie (La Fouly) |
| Sept. 6 | La Fouly, Switzerland | Champex-Lac, Switzerland | 17 km | Chalet La Grange (Champex-Lac) |
| Sept. 7 | Champex-Lac, Switzerland | Trient, Switzerland | 15 km | Martigny Boutique Hotel (Martigny) |
| Sept. 8 | Trient, Switzerland | La Flègére, France | 22,2 km | Hotel La Couranne (Le Argentière) |
| Sept. 9 | La Flègére, France | Les Houches, France | 18,4 km | Langley Hotel Gustavia (Chamonix) |
| Sept. 10 | Chamonix, France | Chamonix, France | Langley Hotel Gustavia (Chamonix) | |
| Sept. 11 | Chamonix, France | Home (USA) |