Our “Fastpacking the TMB in 5 days” journey started at Les Houche. This post covers our adventure on TMB Day 1 Les Houches to Refuge de la Balme.
We flew in to Geneva from Bristol airport the day before, and stayed overnight in Gîte Michel Fagot, just a few steps away from the official starting arch. To get to Les Houches, we used Alpy Transfers to get from the airport directly to the gite.
We were slightly late arriving in the evening, but a phone call ahead to our hosts confirmed they would hold dinner for us.
Other posts in this series:
The night before starting, at Gîte Michel Fagot, Les Houche
On arrival, our hosts led us to set down our packs, and see our room. The room itself consisted of 4 x beds in bunk configuration. Perfect for the four of us. We were each assigned a pair of crocs to walk around in. Leaving our shoes downstairs, we quickly settled outside to have our meal. Sausages of some sort with rice, aubergine, and a tasty sauce. To celebrate the start we combined that with a small beer. I usually don’t drink alcohol at all, and certainly didn’t want to start the next day feeling off.
The meal was tipping over my standard choice, since I eat a predominantly vegan diet, though I am willing to make exceptions here and there where choices are tight. Last year I learned that meal choices in France can be very difficult for a mostly vegan diet, so this was expected.
Setting off anti-clockwise on the TMB
We paid a fee to leave our travel bags at Gîte Michel Fagot for the 5 days we were out on the route.
Breakfast was in a light and airy dining area, and had plenty of choices, from cereals, to fruit, yogurts, and toast with various toppings. First off was a black coffee though!
With breakfast done, we double checked our packs and walked up the stairs to the main road. We set off from the arch. Weather was looking great, a bit cloudy, but sunny otherwise.
The first stretch of the route is about 2km of road before hitting gravel road which meanders its way up alongside a ski resort for 5km, and 800 meters of climbing.
Beautiful Alpine Forest and Trail
After reaching the 7km mark, the route kind of flattens out a little bit. This is at roughly 1800 meters above sea level.
The route exits off the gravel track and becomes more single track, meandering through some beautiful alpine forest, with spectacular views of the mountains directly ahead of you and off to the side.
This was our first chance to do a bit of the ‘fast’ bit of fastpacking, running at an easy pace along these sections.
There are some chain hand holds along here where it gets narrow, and a bit of entry-level technical footwork required in parts to get over or around rocky sections.
Eventually we came to a cool little suspension bridge, which had a lot of foot traffic, as everyone else on the trail was stopping here for photos.
Video of the crossing:
After a total distance so far of 10km, the flat and slightly undulating bit ends, and you begin another steep climb up toward Col du Tricot. This would be our highest point of the day.
The climb is another mile or so (1.6 to 2km), and involves another 300 meters of ascent.
Col du Tricot
At the top we were greeted with a pretty breathtaking view.
Sitting at 2100 meters above sea-level, we sat on the grassy bank behind us, and enjoyed the view while we munched on our packed lunches we purchased from the gîte that morning.
Lunch was a tuna mayonnaise bread roll, an apple, and a cookie. Not my ideal choice, but beggars can’t be choosers, and it was good to refuel now after the climbing.
Personally the running for me had flared up my IT band on one side. I was really hoping this wouldn’t happen, but it did, and to be honest it made me very nervous, as this was only 1/16th of the entire Tour du Mont Blanc route done!
Regardless, I pushed on with the group, not saying too much at this point so as not to put any dampeners on the great vibes we had going otherwise!
Refuge de Miage
We descended from Col du Tricot, and after 2km of steep downhill, we found ourselves in a very picturesque setting, which is Refuge de Miage. There is a small stream meandering its way around the place, and of course the refuge itself.
As our lunch stop at the top of Col du Tricot was quite short, we sat here at a table enjoying the warm sun, along with a slice of blueberry/berry pie with a delicious compote sauce. Added to that we also had a strong coffee and cokes. Double the caffeine!
Epic Views at Mont Truc
What followed was a steady 4-5km descent, passing a bunch of chalets near Mont Truc along the way.
The trail was really easy on this section, and offered some of the best views of the day (in my opinion!)
Matt and Jonny were up ahead, with George and I hanging back a bit, distracted by the epic view to our backs. It’s really worth while turning around every now and then as you follow the trail down to look at the mountains behind.
You can tell how epic the view was from the size of the grin on George’s face (video)…
After this section the trail followed a bit of fire track or gravel road and had a sharp turn off to the left.
We slowly spread out with Matt and Jonny running on ahead, and George following on. I was lagging a bit behind due to my IT band trouble. I hadn’t yet figured out that although it was painful, it wasn’t going to ‘suddenly break’ or anything like that, so I was being extra cautious.
As I was winding my way through the shade covered forested trail, Matt and Jonny suddenly appeared behind me.
Turns out they had missed the sharp turn and ran all the way to the bottom of the valley, having to double back and add some unecessary elevation.
They pressed on ahead as I continued my slow and steady hike down.
Easy flats along Les Contamines
Just before the bottom, I entered the town area around Les Contamines and made a quick stop at a shop to buy some snacks. Chocolate bars and a bunch of processed sweet bread/pastries.
I continued on and met up with Matt along the trail. Soon we were all re-united at a junction point in the resort area. Even though the terrain was really flat and easy, we all just kind of relaxed into a fast paced hike along the bottom.
It was really good to just enjoy looking at the resort, water ways, rock climbing off to the sides and chat at an easy pace, while still covering a lot of ground pretty quickly.
It’s flat along this section for a good 4km.
La Gorge up and a climb up to Refuge de la Balme
With George and Jonny up ahead, Matt and I stopped to admire the views at Notre Dame de la Gorge.
At this point there was only another 4-5km of distance left till we reached Refuge de la Balme, with around 500 meters of elevation gain to go with that. So a slightly steep hike up to end the day.
The trail up is wide and open, mostly gravel. There is forest and green all around to the sides to enjoy, along with the river off to the side and one or two amazing waterfalls to stop at and admire near the top.
Refuge de la Balme
We arrived at the refuge around 3pm in the afternoon. Maybe 6-7 hours after starting earlier that morning. It was a pretty relaxed day, covering a total of 27km and 2000 meters of elevation.
We were assigned a room with 4 beds in bunk configuration. Perfect for us.
We each got a plastic tub outside, and were asked to keep any dirty or wet gear outside in the drying room, and to bring any items for the room in the containers.
Jonny (top of the bunk!) was kind enough to offer me the bottom one due to my IT band troubles. They were pretty sore at this point, the pain concentrating on the sides of my knees.
It was pretty cold at the elevation we were situated at, but a hot shower and synthetic fleece jackets helped the situation! We spent the afternoon relaxing outside at the picnic tables, looking out to the mountains and chatting away.
Dinner was on schedule, and the hot butternut soup was a treat, as was the dessert.
The night was pretty comfortable. We rested up and recharged after completing TMB Day 1 Les Houches to Refuge de la Balme. Ready for our start of TMB day 2 the following morning…