Day-by-day trail itinerary

Tour du Mont Blanc: 9-day itinerary

The whole day's climbing is done in the first two hours. From Les Houches the route goes straight up on village lanes and then wide ski-area track, about 650 m to Col de Voza at 1653 m, where the rack line of the Tramway du Mont-Blanc is crossed. None of it is technical and none of it is interesting underfoot: hard, broad, mostly shadeless. Past the col the character changes completely, into a descending path through birch and spruce above the Bionnassay torrent, past the hamlet of Bionnassay and down to the floor of the Montjoie valley. From there to the end of the section it is low, undulating walking on forest tracks, farm lanes and short stretches of tarmac, threading hamlet after hamlet. It never settles into a rhythm and it is the least alpine ground on the circuit, but it is also the most populated, so nothing is far away. The section stops on the wooded rise just short of Les Contamines.