Tour du Mont Blanc (TMB): Col de Balme to Chamonix
Wow. We are here on Cold Bomb. What a view. Can see the valley of Shamani down there. Here’s Mlon. Amazing. You’ve been here, Mark, before. This is actually the best view we’ve had of the entire trip. There’s the Shaman Valley. We can see Shaman down there. This is the Igui Rouge. Uh so we we go see that sort of green peak in front. We’re going down there this afternoon down to Ashantier. And then underneath the I rouge you, you can maybe just about make out a faint line going along the side edge of cliffs. That’s the GR balcon which is the last day of the todd. Today it’s going to be tomorrow it’s going to be crappy weather. So, we’re debating whether to do it the following day instead on our rest day or failing that you’ve got the petty balcon which is down through the forest there. Much easier for a rainy day. So, yeah, an amazing view. A great end to the trip. Amazing view here. Mlon and there are gu and that’s the bomb refuge. Amazing. What do you think? Amazing. Amazing. Wow. Can I have enough of this view? So can see probably this one is over there on the left audlong. Amazing. This is the best view to so far this trip. What a treat. Here we climbed up another coal. It was our second climb today. We’re saying the middle is over there. So, let’s go. Let’s go. And this is the Auette Zet 2,200 m. That’s the sort of view down. But that’s the border up there called Balm called Balm. We came that way that there is. And these are the IU Rouge. And somewhere down there, I don’t know if you can see it, but there’s a trail zigzagging all the way up the side. That’s the GR Balcon, which we are supposed to do tomorrow, but the weather is atrocious. We have a couple of alternate plans. So we are in Aier uh the last day and it’s raining hard and up there it’s very cloudy. So we’re going to take the lower route into Shamine. Um but see what the weather’s like tomorrow. We could come and repeat the um pay route. Okay, let’s go. Let’s do it. He’s in Argentina. We are going to our last stretch of the route to the Mlong. Let’s see how it goes. Good morning. Leaning Argentine on our last stretch, but it’s raining today. First day of bad weather on our last day. But we might come back tomorrow here to do the high roots. Okay. Let’s go now to Shami. Oh, hello there. And here we are back above Shamani on the petty balcon suit and just crossing under the cable car that we rode up on all those few days 10 days ago. closed now. Now we um head down to the bright lights of Shaman. Well, we’re here at Trail Shamp that the pass above Vontierre. The weather hasn’t actually improved much since yesterday. It was it was a nicer forecast, but now it’s, as you can see, it’s still cloudy and bit wet. But nevertheless, we’re going to brave the uh brave the ladders of the Gro Balconud. Now we are arriving at the ladder section. Bit of tricky part, but it’s okay. Good. A little bit more. Not much. I think the the hardest part is over. Here is San Shimoni Valley. And the weather is not so clear today, but well, it’s not raining. Bit more up. Okay, all done. So that’s the ladder section done. It’s down the other side of that rock and then we’ve come up these this wooden staircase of logs. And now I think it’s just a short hike up to the summit of the text or something. And just when we thought we were done with the ladders, there’s a load more with a lot more people on them this time as well. So, might be a bit of a delay. this place called Lac Blanc. We’ve followed the the app, the route given by our tour operator rather than the one given by the guide book. And it’s actually quite a substantial diversion we’ve taken really high up to this high lake. Um, so it wasn’t quite where we wanted to go. Probably turned a 7 and 1/2 hour day into 8 and 1 half or 9h hour one. But we are here and to cap it, it’s just started snowing. Hopefully we’re not going any higher. up there. High on the hill is plan PR where we started the track. So it’s just got this long curving path around to where we started and it’s pushing down again. Okay. play on broads. We coming finally closing the loop the tour. It was a bit more than we expected and the weather was not very nice. So, be glad to finish. Here’s me coming back there. Two brown blood. Here’s Mark rushing past me. I’m so glad it’s done. Yeah. Tru de Mumblang accomplished. Done. Done and dusted. Here we are back at Plan Pra where we started 10 days ago. Today was a bit gratuitous. Uh we actually got back to Shaman yesterday. We decided to do went by the low route. We decided to do the high route again in case the weather was better today, but as you can see, it isn’t really. It’s misty and we’ve had heavy rain. Um, but we made it back and now it’s about 1,000 m down to Shia and hot showers.
As we crossed the border from Switzerland into France at 2,191m Col de Balme, we were greeted with the best view of the TMB. We gazed down the valley towards Chamonix, with the icy crowns of Aiguille Verte and Mont Blanc on the left and the jagged cathedrals of Aiguilles Rouges on the opposite side.
We traversed the ridge to our right, across the colourful slopes of Aiguillette des Posettes, and examined the trails beneath the Aiguilles Rouges from afar, pondering which route to take into Chamonix. Then we descended below the pass of Tre-le-Champ into the village of Argentiere for the night.
The next day the weather was abysmal, the first bad day of our Tour. Thick grey clouds lay over the mountains above and the forecast was for heavy rain. We opted to take the lower Petit Balcon Sud route into Chamonix that day, on a sheltered forest trail a hundred metres or so above the valley floor.
We had an extra day to pass before our flight home, and we were keen to complete the higher route into Chamonix, up and over the ladders and via ferrata of the Grand Balcon Sud, which many people consider to be the highlight of the TMB. The weather wasn’t much better, but we decided to bite the bullet and get a taxi back to Tre-le-Champ to complete the circuit. Damp mist and showers were the order of the day, and we missed out on the views across to Aiguille Verte and Mont Blanc, but the ladders were exhilarating. We arrived back in Chamonix for a second time with a much greater sense of having completed the TMB.
For a trip report see: https://www.markhorrell.com/blog/2024/the-great-balcony-in-the-clouds-the-tour-du-mont-blanc-to-chamonix/
For related photographs see: https://www.flickr.com/photos/markhorrell/albums/72177720320677999/
Music: Modern minimalism by Alena Smirnova is licensed under a Attribution 4.0 International License: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/alena-smirnova/my-film-music/modern-minimalismmp3/