Mont Blanc Walks - A Walker's and Trekker's Guidebook

50 of the regions best walks and 4 multi-day treks are included in this guidebook, covering both French and Italian sides of Mont Blanc and based around Chamonix or Courmayeur. Multi-day treks for Vallorcine to Plaine Joux, the Tour des Aiguilles Rouges, Vallorcine to Servoz and a circuit of the Italian Val Ferret.

Mont Blanc, at 4808m (or thereabouts, as they keep remeasuring it) is the highest mountain in Western Europe. No matter how many times I walk, run or bike the trails around the region, I can never ignore the sight of this huge peak and its equally spectacular neighbours. The major centres of Chamonix and Courmayeur are often busy, invaded by holidaymakers, not to mention the heavy goods traffic that has to come up the valleys to get through the alpine chain. Some people claim the paths are too frequented, there is no wilderness anymore, there are cafés and lifts and signposts... but nothing changes the fact that these valleys have walks equal to anywhere for their views, terrain and variety.

I never fail to be moved by the sublime background of glaciers plunging towards the valleys, high snowy summits glinting in the sun, flower-bedecked slopes and rocky trails tempting me on towards new vistas and hidden valleys. Be it spring, summer or autumn, the sheer beauty and range of the walking here will satisfy any hiker – if it doesn’t they’re pursuing the wrong activity.

There are many famous trails that take hikers to wonderful viewpoints opposite the Mont Blanc massif. There are also lesser-known paths and routes that lead to fairly remote areas where you will see few walkers even in the high season.

The summer of 2003 was one of the driest and hottest on record. The freezing level was fixed consistently above 4000m for weeks, with the result that the glaciers were melting, the crevasses huge, and rocks were falling down gullies and rock faces. The non-glaciated area of the mountains – the moyenne montagne as it is known in France – was particularly attractive, being relatively unaffected by the objective dangers of the high mountains (the haute montagne). Many people are discovering the joys of walking on the high slopes way above the valley, with fantastic grandstand positions opposite the glaciated peaks, but with none of the attendant dangers associated with the high mountains.

The Region

The Mont Blanc massif straddles the frontier of three countries – France, Italy and Switzerland. Whilst Mont Blanc is the peak everyone has heard of, there are many other summits in the massif. It is said that this 25km-long range is made up of around 400 summits with at least 40 glaciers defining the valleys and faces.

The Chamonix valley runs northeast to southwest on the north side of the massif, whilst Courmayeur is situated in the Dora Baltea valley. This heads south from the long Veny and Ferret valleys which define the south side of the massif.

Consider first the Chamonix valley, where the Mont Blanc massif forms the east flank whilst the Aiguilles Rouges form the west side. Previously gouged out by the huge forces of the glaciers, the continuing slow erosion of the valley is now just due to the River Arve, with the additional force of the Arveyron from midway. The valley is headed by the village of Le Tour at its northern end. In descending order down the valley are the villages of Montroc, Argentière, Le Lavancher, Les Tines, Les Praz and the town of Chamonix. Continuing down the valley we then reach Les Houches and Servoz before the River Arve leaves the Chamonix valley for the flat plains of Le Fayet and Sallanches.

On the Italian side the Veny and Ferret valleys are much more sparsely populated, with Courmayeur being the real centre.

The Swiss part of the range is right on the northeastern edge, the nearest big town being Martigny, down on the flat plain of the Rhône valley.

For the purposes of this guidebook the region covered has been chosen for its proximity and views of the Mont Blanc massif, and its accessibility from the major resorts around the massif. The region extends slightly beyond the Chamonix valley on the French side: as far as the Contamines valley to the south, and to the Vallorcine valley to the north beyond the Col des Montets; then into Switzerland just above the Franco–Swiss border; and to the south of the Mont Blanc massif where the Ferret and Veny valleys converge just north of Courmayeur, as well as including the Colle San Carlo further south.

This gives an area that is easily visited by car during a week’s holiday or longer. There is a wide range of walks, varied in both terrain and views. Within this relatively small area there are differences of nationality, language, food, farming, culture and, amongst other things, driving styles – there are plenty of opportunities to compare France with Switzerland and Italy on all these counts.

This book is biased to the French side of the massif. There seem to be two reasons for this: firstly, this side has many of the most famous walks, such as the Lac Blanc walk and the Montagne de la Côte; secondly, I live there and consequently spend more time there. This in no way undermines the Italian region, where there is an equally fine number of superb walks. There is just no getting away from the fact that Chamonix is the place everyone has heard of, so it seems natural to give a certain predominance to that valley.

How it all started

Tucked away amongst the high mountains, cut off from the lower valleys by snow for a good six months of the year, the rest of the time struggling to scrape together some sort of existence, the inhabitants of the Mont Blanc valleys did not attract any attention for many centuries. Traditionally the peaks struck fear into the hearts of the locals: the source of violent storms, avalanches, mud slides, often wreathed in cloud and battered by winds, such places could only be the cursed home of dragons and evil spirits.

The glaciers themselves began to give cause for concern in the 18th century when, due to the so-called ‘Little Ice Age’, these frozen rivers increased in size almost daily and pushed down to the valley, threatening the villagers’ meadows and dwellings. The local priest was called out frequently to exorcise the inexorable advance of these grotesque monsters.

However, not everyone shared this fear of the spectacular peaks. In 1741 a group of wealthy travellers, including the British Richard Pococke and William Wyndham, set out from Geneva to visit the glaciers they had seen glinting far away in the sun. Having made the difficult journey up into the Chamonix valley, rather to the surprise of the locals they continued up to a point level with the biggest glacier, the Mer de Glace. They were stunned by what they saw: ‘like a huge river frozen in time,’ enthused Wyndham in his account of this visit.

Soon the glaciers of Chamonix became a must-do on any well-to-do traveller’s list, and the next 50 years saw an increasing number of people make the pilgrimage to the mountains. The locals were quick to grab the opportunity that this provided to make some cash guiding these travellers to the best viewpoints, and even setting foot on the ice itself.

The Genevan botanist Horace Bénédict de Saussure was the first to dream about standing on the top of the summits. The view of Mont Blanc that captivated him in 1760 when he climbed Le Brévent prompted him to offer a reward to the person who could find him a way to the top. It was to take 26 years before Jacques Balmat and Gabriel Paccard reached the summit on 8 August 1786, overcoming deep-set fears of the inherent dangers of venturing into these high, bewitched places. De Saussure got his ascent the following year. After that it was just a question of time before most of the peaks of the Alps were climbed, often by visiting alpinists accompanied by local guides.

Meanwhile, from the Italian side, Monte Bianco was not ascended until 1865 when a British team with Swiss guides climbed the Brenva spur route.

From then on no longer were the mountains a source of terror and inconvenience – on the contrary, it is thanks to the summits and glaciers that the alpine valleys now enjoy prosperity from tourism. In addition to the summer visitors, the huge and sudden growth of skiing in the early 20th century provided the ‘white gold’ required so that most alpine towns now rely almost totally on tourism for their living.

Today Chamonix sees its permanent population grow from 10,000 to 60,000 in the summer high season. On a good summer’s day 200 people may stand on the summit of Mont Blanc.