Thinking of tackling the Tour of Mont Blanc? We'd absolutely recommend this hike to anyone who enjoys hiking and is fit enough to do it. We heard that the recommended fitness level before doing the tour is the ability to run 10K or race a 5K; that felt about right if you want to complete the tour without cheating and without trouble. It is not a technical hike nor does it require any super-athleticism (afterall, we've done things like squash two stages in one day), but it's also not just a day hike.
While climbing up and down peaks in a series of day hikes with a weighted backpack over varied terrain for a week and a half is not trivial, there are many options for making the complete tour more or less challenging to accommodate different fitness levels. However, the less challenging and more pampered options will generally cost more in terms of both time and money.
While the Kev Reynolds guide divides the tour up in 10 - 11 stages, there were groups taking more than 10 - 11 days to do the tour. Extra break days will allow for extra recuperation. Les Contamines, Courmayeur, La Fouly and Champex are all little resort towns where one can pamper oneself with hotels (read: private rooms with private bath), restaurants and shops for supplies. The endpoints of the latter stages like Col de la Forclaz, Tré-le-Champ and La Flégère are near resort towns which can be accessed by public transportation. Obviously, the more fit you are the more you'll be able to enjoy the hike and there's lots of pride in tackling the entire tour on foot without cheating (e.g. catching rides, hiring a mule to carry luggage).
On the other hand, if you're up for lugging around your own tent, tent floor, sleeping bag, gas stove and what not (we didn't), you can save a bundle on lodging. Might be nice to stay indoors if it's raining or if you need to dry anything out. Food is generally cheaper at a grocery store in one of the towns than at the refuge restaurant. Food is significantly more expensive in Switzerland.
While we're sure it was not fun for our British friend to hobble for hours up and down rocks to get to the nearest public transportation point, it is comforting to know that public transportation and help is not necessarily a four-day hike away in the case of injury. Towns like Les Contamines, Courmayeur and the towns in the valley near Chamonix are ski towns with either buses or cable cars leading to them. Much of the trail in Switzerland was not too far from a road with a bus route.
Given that, it's good to be aware that there are long swaths of the trail where the only choice of shelter for kilometers is a dingy mountain hut with no road access and where food and supplies need to be brought up either by mule or even helicopter (which explains why a shared dortoir filled with other stinky hikers can still go for 40 euros/night per person demi-pension, or even higher in Switzerland).
There are plenty of potable water sources along the way and with the exception of the last day (La Flégère to Les Houches), we never felt the need to carry more than 2L at a time. Note that drinking water is not free at La Flégère and the next free water stop is not until about four hours later at Refuge de Bellachat. Although Plan Praz is not far along the way, it does not open until 11am and the water is not free at Le Brévent.
As far as what to bring on the trip goes, there's the fairly obvious:
A comfortable, properly-fitted rusack to carry everything.
Water.
Technical clothing for varied weather: waterproof shell, a fleece/sweater layer, technical long sleeve, multiple technical short sleeve layers; hiking pants, Gortex backpacking boots, hiking socks all essential; hat or some sort of head protection as the sun is strong and there's less atmosphere protecting you; on the same note, sunglasses; gloves would have been nice, but we forgot to bring them.
Clothing and flip flops for cold nights in the dortoir- actually, the fleece/sweater layer was used more for this.
Basic toiletries: toothbrush, toothpaste, hand sanitizer, napkins, soap for bathing and handwashing clothes, sunscreen.
Technical towel: Mountain refuges and dortoirs do not have towels for you. Technical towels are nicely light, absorbent and they dry quickly.
The Kev Reynolds guide is immensely informative. We used it all the time.
First-aid kit: we used bandages, moleskin, alcohol pads, Neosporin/bacitracin, Swiss Army knife, allergy medication, ibuprofen. Basically, our first-aid kit was pretty well used; the mylar blanket was probably the only thing we didn't need to bring (thank goodness).
Flashlights to get around the dortoir at night.
Wallet (some refuges take only cash), identification, passport (some hotels require it and you'll probably have it on you anyway), etc...
Hiking poles are highly recommended. It's almost a must-have if you have any knee problems.
We had a Mont Blanc area map and compass and we used them, though the trail is marked well enough for the most part for these to not be a neccessity.
Don't forget the camera!
Anyhow, that's more or less it! There was little need to pack extra diversions as by the time we reached our endpoint for the day we were either too busy socializing with our fellow hikers or looking to just wash up and catch some z's.
Happy trails!
We've been to the Mekong River (แม่น้ำแม่โขง) which is the border between Thailand and Laos many times, but we've always stayed on the Thai side of the border. Joyance's dad grew up in Bung Kan right along the Mekong and has roots in both Thailand and Laos. In spite of a lot of sneering by Thais toward Laos, we really wanted to waddle over to the other side. Towel to get his flippers on some Beer Lao; Sam to explore the old temples; Joyance to discover the formerly closed and scarredland of her paternal grandparents.
