Tour du Mont Blanc
Tour du Mont-Blanc · Tour du Mont-Blanc · Giro del Monte Bianco · Трек вокруг Монблана · סובב מון בלאן · ব্ল্যাঙ্ক পর্বত ভ্রমণ
OSM hiking route circling the Mont Blanc massif across France, Italy, and Switzerland (166 km loop) from Les Houches. Vertical figures sampled from Copernicus GLO-30. Days (14) is a placeholder from round(lengthKm/12), not the published 7–11 day window (unverified).
Byline
- The Hiking World editorial · author
Desk byline for seed records. Named surveying editors replace this once a trail is verified.
Figures marked provisional are seed data and still need verification. Source and last-checked date sit under each cited value.
Editorial v1 · Provisional catalog
- SAC T2
- Mountain hiking. Continuous trail, some steep ground, sure-footedness helpful.
- YDS Class 1
- Class 1. Walking on an established path; low fall risk.
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Ingested from OpenStreetMap relation 9678362 (ODbL). The mapped line and 2D length are derived from that geometry. Ascent, descent, and high/low points are sampled from Copernicus GLO-30 (copernicus-dem:glo-30) and remain provisional. Water, permits, and hazards were not taken from OSM tags and must be verified.
OSM 2D length is 166 km (relation 9678362; Tour du Mont Blanc - Itinéraire principal, ref TMB-IP, roundtrip=yes, Wikidata Q24777). The OSM way-bag vertex-closes (start–end 0.00 km) after rotating the loop so the vertex nearest Les Houches is first. This is the main loop, not the named variante relations (Col de Tricot 9678267, Col des Fours 9678296, Tête Bernarda 9678375, Fenêtre d'Arpette 9678380, Grands 9678437, Tour 9678501, Vallorcine 9678726) and not the CCW stage superroute 6436417. Published ~170 km / ~10 days / 10,000 m (https://www.autourdumontblanc.com/en/, checked 2026-08-24; Wikipedia Tour du Mont Blanc infobox ~165 km / 10,600 m, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tour_du_Mont_Blanc, checked 2026-08-24, CC BY-SA) are cross-checks only, not this DataPoint. Filed under France (Les Houches start) like Peaks of the Balkans under one country code; the walk is three-country.
DEM high 2,534 m sits in the published high-col band (~2,500–2,660 m; Wikipedia Col des Fours / Fenêtre d'Arpette 2,665 m, same page, checked 2026-08-24). GLO-30 cumulative ascent 10,205 m is in the same order as the official 10,000 m figure (https://www.autourdumontblanc.com/en/, checked 2026-08-24). High point left as Copernicus.
typicalDays 14 is Math.round(lengthKm/12), a placeholder. Published thru-hike windows are 7–11 days (official ~10; Wikipedia 9–14); that stamp is not this field. The ingest difficulty grade was not overwritten.
Water was not mapped to named WaterSource points (no honest atFraction). Refuges and villages exist along the loop; they were not positioned from an official named list this pass.
Water
No water sources recorded.
Permits & fees
No permit required.
Getting there
Sourced legs to the Les Houches (OSM line start) base start station — where this trail record begins. This is not a route planner: durations are approximate and marked provisional until an official transport page confirms them.
Bus · Geneva (GVA) → Chamonix
Geneva Airport is the usual international air gateway to the Chamonix valley (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geneva_Airport, checked 2026-08-24). Coaches and trains continue to Chamonix; confirm current operators before travel.
en.wikipedia.org · 2026-08-24 · wikidata · official · provisionalBus · Chamonix → Les Houches
Wikipedia: usual TMB start points include Les Houches in the Chamonix valley (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tour_du_Mont_Blanc, checked 2026-08-24, CC BY-SA). Local bus from Chamonix.
en.wikipedia.org · 2026-08-24 · wikidata · official · provisional
The loop also has usual starts at Les Contamines, Courmayeur, Champex, and near Martigny (same Wikipedia page, checked 2026-08-24). This record's OSM line is rotated to Les Houches. Carry a passport — the walk crosses France, Italy, and Switzerland (https://www.autourdumontblanc.com/en/, checked 2026-08-24).
Plan from your location
Type a city, then pick a match. These links open external search tools — they do not fetch fares or timetables.
Trailheads
- Les Houches (OSM line start) car-free: unknown
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Hazards
- The circuit crosses France, Italy, and Switzerland — carry a passport (https://www.autourdumontblanc.com/en/, checked 2026-08-24, "3 countries"; Wikipedia Tour du Mont Blanc, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tour_du_Mont_Blanc, checked 2026-08-24, CC BY-SA).
- Alpine weather and sustained daily elevation change: the official site cites about 10,000 m of altitude and ~60 hours of walking over ~10 days (https://www.autourdumontblanc.com/en/, checked 2026-08-24). Wikipedia: mountain weather can change very rapidly; walking experience in mountain country is vital (same Wikipedia page, checked 2026-08-24).
- Swiss rockfall diversion: the path between Prayon and Branche (Treutsebo) is rerouted from 11 July 2026; the old route is closed. Camping and bivouacking are prohibited in that area (https://www.autourdumontblanc.com/en/, checked 2026-08-24).