Bucket List · Bucket list route
Tour du Mont Blanc
The Tour du Mont Blanc is one of the great walking routes on earth, and it's also the line UTMB races. You can run it yourself, in your own time, sleeping in mountain refuges and eating enormous dinners, and never enter a lottery at all.
- Distance
- ~170 km~105 miles
- Climbing
- ~10,000 m
- Countries
- 3
- Trail-running stages
- 3 to 6 days
- Refuges
- Book by January
- Season
- Late June to Sept
The TMB circles the Mont Blanc massif through France, Italy, and Switzerland, roughly 170 kilometres with 10,000 metres of ascent. Hikers take 7 to 11 days. Trail runners, carrying little and staying in refuges, do it comfortably in three to six days, which is one of the best trail-running holidays available anywhere.
The advantage over the race is enormous. You get the same terrain, the same passes, the same views of the Grandes Jorasses and the Aiguilles, but in daylight, at your own pace, with a three-course dinner at Refuge Bonatti or Rifugio Elisabetta at the end of each day. Runners who've done both often say the tour was the better week.
How to get in
- Self-supportedRun it in stages
No permit, no fee, no entry. Pick your stage lengths, book refuges, and go. Most people run anticlockwise from Les Houches, which is the traditional direction, though UTMB races it clockwise and doing it that way means you're not passing hikers head-on all day.
- PermitThe refuge problem
This is the real constraint. Mountain refuges book out months in advance, often opening reservations in January for the summer. Popular huts like Bonatti and Elisabetta go within days. Book the refuges first and design your stages around what you get.
A four-day running itinerary
One common trail-running split, anticlockwise from Les Houches:
| Day | Section | Roughly |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Les Houches to Rifugio Elisabetta (via Col du Bonhomme, Col de la Seigne) | 45 km |
| 2 | Elisabetta to Rifugio Bonatti (via Courmayeur) | 35 km |
| 3 | Bonatti to Champex or Trient (via Grand Col Ferret) | 45 km |
| 4 | Trient to Les Houches (via Catogne, Col des Montets, Le Brévent) | 45 km |
Add a day or two if you'd like to actually enjoy the dinners, and note that variant routes over the Fenêtre d'Arpette and the Col des Fours are harder and better.
What to carry
- A 15 to 20 litre pack with a sleeping liner (refuges provide blankets), a shell, insulation, and a change of clothes. Refuges provide meals, so you carry snacks only.
- Poles for 10,000 metres of vertical.
- Cash in euros and Swiss francs. Some refuges do not take cards.
- Weather can be severe above 2,500 metres in any month. Alpine layers are not optional.
Questions runners actually ask
Do I need a permit for the Tour du Mont Blanc?
No. It is a public trail through three countries with no entry requirement. The constraint is mountain refuge availability, which books out months ahead.
How is it different from running UTMB?
Same terrain, completely different experience. The TMB in stages is daylight running with real meals and real sleep. UTMB is the same course non-stop, in one push, mostly at night, against a cutoff.
When should I book refuges?
Reservations typically open in January for the summer season, and the popular huts fill within days. Book the refuges first, then design your stages.
Go to the source
Entry rules, dates, standards, fees, and odds change every single year, and the interesting races change them the most. Use this guide to build the plan; use the official site to confirm the details before you book anything.
If this is your kind of thing
Need the races in between? The hard part of a bucket list year is everything else on the calendar: the qualifier, the tune-up, the long run with a bib on.