Tour du Mont Blanc Map Poster

The Tour du Mont Blanc is a 170 km (106 mi) loop around the Mont Blanc massif, walked through France, Italy and Switzerland, with about 10,000 m (32,800 ft) of climbing and as much descent along the way. From Les Houches in the Chamonix valley the trail crosses the Col de la Seigne into Italy, the Grand Col Ferret into Switzerland and the Col de Balme back into France, and finishes along the high balcony of the Aiguilles Rouges with Mont Blanc straight across the valley.

Most people walk it anticlockwise over seven to eleven days, refuge to refuge: the pastoral French side first, then the Italian valleys beneath the Grandes Jorasses and Courmayeur, the only town on the route, then the quieter Swiss villages around Champex, and finally the ladders of the Aiguilles Rouges before the summit of Le Brévent. Eleven named cols and high points set the rhythm of the walk, and three of them are borders.

The paths are old — shepherds' routes between the valleys, walked as a circuit since the eighteenth century — and the TMB is now the most-walked hut-to-hut trek in the Alps. Three countries, one loop: relive the whole Tour du Mont Blanc on a map poster.