If you missed Day 1 - read about the start of our Tour du Mont Blanc adventure here!
I woke up at 6:20 AM and was happy to find blue skies perfect for getting everything ready outside in the fresh air – which was not always the case during our Patagonia trip. Prior to 7:00 AM breakfast, I was pretty much all set to go.
Breakfast during TMB was a little lacking to me, most mornings. On the O-Loop in Patagonia, we were given hot eggs almost every morning which was not the case on the TMB. Breakfasts typically included bread with butter and jam and cereal & milk, plus coffee. Occasionally there would be yogurt which would THRILL me. Once in a while there was some cheese (but usually the kind I didn’t love).
After breakfast we picked up our picnic lunch for the day, which you usually have to order when you check in! We did a mix of picnic lunches and lunch stops at refuges during the trip, but we knew that Day 2 wouldn’t have a great lunch opportunity.
We hit the trail at 8:00 AM!
The first climb of the day started immediately, and it was a rough one for me. In hindsight, I think it was the hardest climb for me mentally and physically because it was early in the trip and I wasn’t used to the first thing I did every morning to be climbing 1,000 ft/mile for like 3,000+ feet.
That little dot the furthest left is me, slow and steady.
This climb brought us up to Col du Bonhomme, which had some beautiful views! My favorite part was the little lake you could see off in the distance.
We were taking the variant route that day to Col de Fours (the “regular” route has you go through the town of Chapieux) and made a left at the top of the Col du Bonhomme viewpoint (after a significant photoshoot break) and continued to climb (in a lot less steep and demoralizing manner!)
Once we reached the Col des Fours viewpoint, we took some time to figure out where the trail was vs. the side quest and eventually dropped our big bags off and went lightweight up to the Tete des Fours viewpoint. It felt like we were so high up! We enjoyed our picnic lunch up here with 360 degree views – we had been given a hard-boiled egg, couscous salad, bread and cheese, an apple and a chocolate chip cookie.
Towards the end of our time at the viewpoint, we saw a map that helps you orient yourself / figure out what mountains and peaks you’re looking at. I’m glad we stopped to look at it, because we realized we were staring straight out at Mont Blanc!
Once we got down and found our bags, it was time to start the descent to La Ville des Glaciers. What I remember most about this descent is the way the rock was shimmering – it almost looked like water.
And these two lush, green…humps? They made me want to go sledding and I liked keeping an eye on them and how they changed from different angles.
The descent was about 2 hours, and that might sound nice, but trust me, going downhill for two hours is worse than going uphill for two hours. Especially when the descent is full of dry, loose rock and sand and you’re in constant fear of slipping!
In fact, I did take a big slip and slide down some rocks which gave me a scare AND some painful bits of…something…in my fingers. I managed to pull most of it out (not sure if it was invisible flecks of shale? Microscopic plant pricks?)
At that point I was ready for a pick-me up and ass we walked alongside the Tufs stream, the water was calling my name. I found a spot with the perfect Lauren-sized dunk spot and submerged myself. It was perfect and felt amazing. It gave me the renewed energy to finish the walk (which did level out eventually) into La Ville des Glaciers.
When we got there, Soma got some ice cream and I waited patiently for a 1 euro yogurt while the woman in front of me asked about 10x “is this made with cow’s milk?” as if we hadn’t been seeing cows non-stop, couldn’t hear the cow bells, etc. We thought we might be able to jump on a bus to Refuge des Mottets, but nothing seemed to be coming so we set out on the final 30 minute walk. It was a sliiiight incline the whole way, and I actually preferred it to pancake flat.
When we got to Mottets there were lots of people sitting outside and the views were amazing. We were pleasantly surprised to find out that we had a private room for the night! We booked so long ago (at the end of November for an August trip) and all of the confirmations were in French, so we weren’t entirely sure what we had booked. Every night at check in was a fun surprise.
The private room was quite nice – with our own shower and toilet (though we didn’t have a wall or door for said toilet).
We sat out reading, journaling, and chatting to a woman who was on a guided tour and had sat out the hike. It turns out she lives in Stockholm, so I was obviously down to talk. Though at a certain point, I just wanted to journal and read my book!
Soma got us beers and the most delicious ham and cheese crepe as our second lunch? First dinner?
We both showered before dinner, where we sat with Americans, Canadians, and a couple from England. We had good conversation with the Californian couple (apparently we need to go do this backpacking route near Mammoth Lakes that is named after his father.)
Dinner was really good soup that had potatoes, veggies, kidney and garbanzo beans. Then there was sausage, potatoes and rice and a flan-like thing for dessert.
There was also a fun moment during dinner where one of the refuge women played an old-fashioned hand-crank music box and some of the French hikers got down on the floor and started crowd surfing people – it was wild.
We sat out for a little bit to read and watch the horses before our typical 9 pm bed-time!
Day 2 Statistics
Mileage: 9.31 Miles
elevation: 3,773 feet
*I found a lot of useful trails on Wikiloc as opposed AllTrails which I don’t think is as popular in Europe. There is a free trial, which I started before our trip and then cancelled when I got home!