The Tour du Mont Blanc (TMB) is probably the most popular hiking route in the world. Thus, the sooner you get started planning the hike, the better. Typically, the season starts from June 15th and ends somewhere after mid September, with the most crowded period occurring in July and August. No matter when and how you plan to do the hike, you should start training at least a few months before in order to fully enjoy the trip.
There are more ways to do the tour, depending on how much you want to get involved in the planning and how much money you can or want to spend:
$$$ – Guided tours
You hire a guide that comes with you and don’t need to worry about anything along the trek, from the route planning to booking acommodation and finding a good place to eat. You also usually get bag transfer along the tour, from one hut to the next one, so you can do the actual hike with a very light backpack. In many acommodations, the agencies book some places in advance, making it a bit easier to do the tour in the high season if you decide to do it very late (spring-summer of that year). The price for a full tour (10-12 days) can get to 3000-3500 euros per person. It can be lower if you decide to do just a part of the hike or if you do it in less days, but not all agencies offer “fast paced” tours. Guided tours usually sell out quickly (many months before), so it’s a good idea to book as early as you can.
If you are a solo hiker and want to meet other hikers, going for the guided tour also definitely helps connecting. The only downside if you go with a large group is that getting all the people with the same fitness level is usually impossible, so you might feel pressed to keep up the pace if the average group fitness level is high or you can get annoyed (or enjoy the views more) when the other people go slower.
The mountain guide that leads the way is usually very knowledgeable about the wonderful sights you have during the hike, about the villages’ history and about the fauna and flora (which is amazing especially during early summer).
There are many tour agencies that offer guided treks on the TMB. Some of them are:
- Adventure Base – local company, based in Chamonix
- Mont Blanc Treks
- Alpine Hikers
- Wild Land Trekking
$$ – Self-guided tours
You have the freedom to hike on your own, but a guide or an agency takes care of the planning for you. Pretty much the same perks as the guided tour, only without the mountain guide that would come along during the hike. The price for a full tour (10-12 days) can get to 1750-2000 euros per person.
$ – Self-guided, DIY
You are in charge of everything, from how you split the stages to where you eat and where you sleep. The price for this kind of trip can vary a lot, depending on your choice of accommodations along the route. Sleeping in mountain huts or medium hotels (not luxury) and skipping the fancy restaurants can set you for about 100 euros per person per day.
In case you want to make your own plan, the easiest way is to start from the planner on Mon Tour du Mont Blanc, choosing the starting point and the direction and than doing some of the bookings directly from their platform. Unfortunately, some of the refugees along the TMB are on the platform and you need to book them individually. An updated list of all the mountain huts, opening/closing dates, prices and food options along the route can be found on La Chamoniarde, where you can apply the filter tour to “Tour du Mont Blanc”.
Tips for planning for early or late season
- Between the planner and the list of the mountain huts from La Chamoniarde, you can get a better overview of the earliest or latest day you can start in order to find all the places open.
- If you don’t find a place in the “regular” mountain huts from the villages, there might be apartments available on Booking or Airbnb.
- You can do 2 stages of the route while staying in Chamonix (Le Tour – Flegere – Les Houches) and move along the valley with the train. In this way you can skip spending the night in Le Tour, Flegere and Les Houches and you can also do the hike with a light backpack, leaving the rest in Chamonix.
Where you can skip the path by car/bus
In case you get tired or injured or the weather is simply too bad to make the walk pleasant, there are some places where you can skip a part of the trail by taking the public transport. During the high season you can also find a shuttle or a line bus available.
- Les Chapieux – Refuge des Mottets
- Lac Combal – Courmayeur
- Courmayeur – Chalet Val Ferret
- La Fouly – Champex Lac
Snow conditions and weather on TMB
You can check current forecasts for some of the spots along the Tour du Mont Blanc on our weather page.
The winter of 21/22 was one of the driest winters in the last 10-20 years, so the amount of snow on the route at the beginning of the season was very low when we did the hike compared to the previous years. Still, on the beginning of June, we encountered many patches of snow. Most of them were on north facing areas and/or altitudes above 2000m.
One of the best places to check the trail conditions (including the amount of snow) on the route is Office de Haute Montagne, in the center of Chamonix. We highly recommend going to this place before starting the hike, no matter how or when you are planning to do the route.
For weather forecast, we used a few apps:
Summer
From late June to the beginning of September the weather is usually hot in the valleys, with daily temperatures above 20°C or even 30°C and night temperatures falling to around 10°C. At higher elevations the temperature will be cooler and you may often be encountered with strong chilly winds. There might also be front colds coming in from time to time, making the temperatures to drop below 0°C. Although in the last years it didn’t happen so often, the front colds might even bring snow in the higher passes on the route, even in August.
Autumn
The weather tends to be more stable and you have higher chances to get good days with clear skies. You just need to be careful when planning, because many accommodation options are closing after mid-September.
Winter
Doing the TMB in winter is a great challenge, as there are many more objective dangers along the route: avalanches, rock falls or blizzards. Finding the route is also challenging, as most of the marks are on rocks and tend to get covered quickly when the season turns. If you are lucky to get some days with good weather, doing the route (or a part of it) with touring skis or snowshoes might be possible, but you should have solid experience in winter in the mountains. Hiring a guide would also be very recommended.
Spring
The spring is typically safer than the winter, with solid snow, longer and warmer days and better weather overall. If the winter season is not completely dry, the winter will persist in many places until early summer. If you decide to do the trip early in spring, touring skis or snowshoes are definitely better than hiking in boots.