Summer Trip - Day 17 - TMB to La Balme

Our Tour of Mont Blanc started today. We got up early and parked the campervan in the Prarion chairlift car park in Les Houches. It was hot and sunny when we set off at 8.39am.

The path went steeply up to Col de Voza, with good views back down the valley.

At the Col there was a train line and station.

Then down the other side, through some hamlets and over glacial torrents.

We arrived at the village of Les Contamines before 1.30 and had our lunch. In the Cicerone guide book we were following, this was the normal end point of day 1. We decided it was too early to stop so we carried on. We followed a river for a while, then climbed steeply up to a meadow.

We arrived at Refuge La Balme just before 5pm. We'd walked 24km, with 1550m of ascent and 900m of descent.

Since we hadn't booked we were lucky to get the last two places. This led us to phone to try and book accommodation for the following night. Our first choice was full but we got booked in to Refuge Elisabetta, a bit further on.

We had showers in cold water, as the boiler was broken. Dinner was at 7, soup, chicken and creamy potatoes followed by cheese and apple. We went to bed in the dormitory at about 9.30pm. Cost was 39 euros each, total 78.