Tour du Mont Blanc Day 4: Charamillon to Forclaz

jana meerman tmb tour du mont blanc switzerland (9)

This is the blog post about our fourth day hiking the Tour du Mont Blanc. Check out my summary post with all my tips for planning your own TMB!

The Tour du Mont Blanc is a 165km hiking loop around Mont Blanc, with nearly 9km of elevation gain into the sky, through 3 countries: France, Switzerland and Italy. You can go as fast or as slow as you want, staying in your choice of the many refuges (mountain huts) along the way at night. I know people who've done the whole loop in 3 days, and others who take it slow and go for 12 days. Connor, a friend and fellow hiker from Vancouver, and I planned a 9-day trek on the TMB.

Day 4: Charamillon to Forclaz

Total distance: 8.92km

Total elevation gain: 477m

Total elevation loss: 864m

Refuge we stayed at: Hôtel du Col de la Forclaz

Countries: France and Switzerland

Our shortest day on the trail. We left Charamillon in the cool shade of the early morning, completing our steepest climb before the sun could get to us, sweat streaming down our faces regardless. The promise of the first international border crossing of the trip awaited us - today was the day we would walk from France into Switzerland. Marked by a subtle and small stone pillar, the border is home to one of the most popular refuges of the TMB - the Refuge du Col de Balme. From this hut, we had sweeping views of France to the west and our first sighting of Switzerland to the east, the wind rustling through the golden grass of the ridge. We paused, feeling the significance of this moment, knowing that our feet alone could carry us over mountains and across borders, achieving milestones that some may only ever dream of. Reaching the first border crossing of the TMB felt significant. It felt like progress was being made. It felt like we were going somewhere, even if the destination was exactly where we had begun.

After a morning of steep switchbacks down the mountain from the French border into Switzerland, we arrived at our refuge for the night before it even reached 11am, facing an empty day ahead in the tiny little Swiss mountain town of Forclaz. Situated on an utterly idyllic bend in the road above Trient, we actually didn’t mind the short day, given our next 3 days would each see us hike more than 30km.

And so, we spent our fourth day on the trail shmoozing around Forclaz where we spent a ridiculous amount of money on lunch (thanks Switzerland), made friends with the waitress who then agreed to look after our packs while we explored (thanks Lisa), ate ice cream from the local tourist shop, visited one of the countless bunkers leftover from WWII, machine gun and all, and then took an afternoon nap in a meadow overlooking the Swiss alps. We were able to check in at 3pm, whereupon we each took a deliciously hot shower and promptly took another nap in our dorm bunks. That evening over dinner, we were seated with Morgan and Claire, which is when everything about our plan for the TMB changed. We realized, while sharing tales of the trail so far, that we had booked a practically identical trek, even including which refuges we were staying in along the way - a rare thing given that we were all doing the TMB in reverse, not the usual way of going at it. It looked like our party of 2 was about to double in size…

Jana Meerman

Hi! I’m Jana, a Dutch-German-British-Canadian with a dream of seeing every country in the world. I am a storyteller, photographer and adventurer passionate about documenting and sharing my travels.

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