Trekking in Mont Blanc Massif

The Tour du Mont Blanc is the trek every other European trek is measured against, and it earns the reputation honestly. You walk a full circle around the massif — France, Italy, Switzerland and back — roughly 170 kilometres with something close to 10,000 metres of climbing spread across the fortnight. Nothing about it is technical. The difficulty is simply doing it, col after col, day after day.

What sets it apart is the rhythm. Most mornings you climb to a high pass — the Col de la Balme, the Grand Col Ferret, the balcony trails above Courmayeur — and the whole massif rearranges itself in front of you: the Grandes Jorasses, the Dent du Géant, glaciers hanging over the valleys you slept in. Each afternoon drops you into a different culture and language.

The nights are half the point. You sleep in refuges perched on the slopes, at long shared tables, eating whatever the guardian has cooked, then start again.

No permit, but the huts are the bottleneck — most open bookings in winter for the following summer and the popular ones fill within days.