After just over a week with our guided & self guided groups out on the TMB we have a trail conditions update. Its warm here & things are looking a lot better since our last news blog, however there are still areas that need to be avoided.
Day 1 - Chamonix to Les Houches via Col du Brevent & Brevent summit: Still lots of snow with steep slopes below, it's not advisable to go this way for another couple of weeks. Our advice would be to take the two stage cable car to the top of the Brevent and start walking from there. Ther are still snow patches on the descent to approx 2000m, but easily passable.
Day 2 - Les Houches to Contamines via Col de Tricot: no problems, snow free.
Day 3 - Contamines to Chapieux via the Col du Bonhomme & Croix de la Bonhomme: Still an amount of snow on the way to the first col, however; this section is much improved from 10 days ago. Once at the Col du Bonhomme the traverse still has large sections of snow with big slopes below. A fall and slide here could result in a bad injury. Microspikes & poles are essential on these sections. The descent down to Chapieux is ok.
Col des Fours: This route is still not advised, the descent from the high col is very steep and a slip or slide on the descent could be fatal. Steep river gullies below can be very probematic. We believe there was a fatality on this section last week.
Day 4 - Chapieux to Courmayeur: Snow patches but passable. River crossings require boots off but are passable with care.
We will provide an update for the easterly half of the TMB when our first guided group has passed though in the next few days.
However...
Day 5 - Courmayeur to Bonatti & Val Ferret: avoid the high route via the Mont Saxe ridge. Lower traversing route from the Rifugio Bertone, no problems.
Day 6 - Val Ferret to La Fouly: still snow patches, care needs to be taken when crossing the gullies and on the final traverse into the Grand Col Ferret.
Day 7 - La Fouly to Champex: No problems.
Day 8 - Champex to Trient: Bovine route is snow free.
It is still not advised to go via the Fenetre d'Arpette, this is similar to the Col des Fours, very steep with lots of snow on the Valley d'Arpette side. A slip here could result in serious injury or worse.
Day 9 - Trient to Argentiere: the route directly over the Col du Balme is still recommended rather than via Catogne.
Day 10 - Argentiere to Chamonix: Summer conditions on the main trail. No problems to Lac Blanc via Lac Chesereys.
Travel while on the TMB
For more information on cable cars in the Chamonix Valley, see here: https://en.chamonix.com/informations-remontees-mecaniques-en-temps-reel
Bus travel in the Chamonix Valley, see here: https://www.montblancbus.transdev.com/en/reseau/chamonix-bus/
Bus transport in the Italian Val Veny & val Ferret, see here: https://arriva.it/app/uploads/sites/3/2023/06/000931-CourmayeurValVeny-1.pdf
https://arriva.it/app/uploads/sites/3/2023/06/000924-CourmayeurValFerret-1.pdf
Bus travel in the Swiss Val Ferret, see here: https://www.postauto.ch/en
Weather forecasts
Chamonix Valley: https://chamonix-meteo.com/chamonix-mont-blanc/weather/forecast/morning/5_days_weather_forecast.php
Courmayeur area: https://www.courmayeur-montblanc.com/en/weather-cam/
Swiss Valais: https://www.meteoswiss.admin.ch/local-forecasts/champex-lac/1938.html#forecast-tab=detail-view
Other good weather apps: Windy & Meteo Blue
Suggested navigation phone applications
Iphigénie: French IGN mapping
Swiss Topo: Swiss Topo mapping
Alltrails: Downloadable mapping with preloaded gpx routes of the TMB
Gaia GPS: Downloadable mapping with preloaded gpx routes of the TMB
