The Full Loop | Four days around Mont Blanc
Temple Running Girona invited us to run the full loop around Mont Blanc in four days, not the race, just the route, done properly, at our own pace, sleeping in a tent along the way. Call it curiosity, call it madness; either way, this is the story of four days, three countries, and lots of baguettes.
The route we followed is the Tour du Mont Blanc, and it didn't start as a race, it started as a trade route. Long before hikers or runners ever eyed it, shepherds and traders used these high passes to move between the valleys of France, Italy, and Switzerland, ducking under Mont Blanc's summit rather than over it. The trail was formally mapped and popularized as a long-distance walking route in the 1930s, and today it's considered one of the great classic treks of the world, walked over 7 to 11 unhurried days by most, with a night in a different rifugio or gîte every stop.
UTMB, the Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc, took that exact circuit and asked a different question: what if you didn't stop? Since 2003, the race has sent runners around the full loop in one continuous push, and it's since become the unofficial world championship of trail running, the race every mountain runner circles on their calendar.
So a week out from UTMB, while the race waited to send its runners around that same circuit in one continuous push, we set off to cover the same ground our own way, spread across four days instead of one continuous effort, with time to actually enjoy the views.
Route | Tour du Montblanc |
Location | France · Italy · Switzerland |
Start and End points | Chamonix → Chamonix |
Total distance | 155 km |
Total elevation | 9,000 m+ |
Major passes | Col du Bonhomme · Col de la Seigne · Grand Col Ferret · Col de la Balme, among others |
Best season | Mid-June through mid-September, when the high passes are clear of snow and refuges are open |
Places to stay | Campsites, refuges or gîtes along the way |
OUR ITINERARY
Day 1: Chamonix to Les Chapieux
42.48 km · 2,485 m climbing
We left Chamonix at 6am under a sky just starting to color over Mont Blanc, and the first real climb began almost immediately out of Les Houches, setting the tone for what the next four days would demand. A resupply in Les Contamines meant bread, bananas, and candy, fuel for the valley trail down to Notre Dame de la Gorge. That chapel is no random landmark; it's the spot where hundreds of spectators gather every year to send UTMB runners off with bonfires and cheering that echoes up the valley, and we walked through it a week early, quiet by comparison. Then came the day's real test: a 1,400 m climb up to Col du Bonhomme, dropping back down into Les Chapieux for pizza and our first night sleeping outside. Somewhere in there, the shoes went missing.
Passes crossed: Col du Bonhomme
Highlights: Sunrise over Mont Blanc from Les Houches · Notre Dame de la Gorge, the UTMB crowd point · Pizza in Les Chapieux
Day 2: Into Italy, Rain and All
38.47 km · 2,078 m climbing
Thunderstorms woke us before the alarm did. Coffee, then movement: first, the climb to Col de la Seigne, the pass that marks the crossing from France into Italy, and the rain didn't wait to welcome us. The descent into Courmayeur brought what we're calling the best focaccia of our lives, a well-earned reward before another 7 km climb to that night's campsite, where we ran into our friends Marta and Javi . Pasta for dinner, rain on the tent, and, by our count, over halfway done.
Passes crossed: Col de la Seigne (France to Italy)
Highlights: First views into the Aosta Valley · Focaccia in Courmayeur · Finding Marta and Javi at the campsite · A wet camp, over halfway around
Day 3: Mud, Switzerland, and a beautiful lake
37.54 km · 1,669 m climbing · 6h33 moving
Still raining when we woke up. We waited a while to see if it would break. It didn't, so we left anyway, a small, honest detail that says more about ultra-distance mentality than any stat line could. A 10 km climb over Col Ferret took us out of Italy and into Switzerland, sliding through mud the whole way up and down, before a supermarket resupply in La Fouly. One more downhill, one more climb up to Champex-Lac, and finally, finally, the rain eased enough to let the mountains reappear behind the clouds. Rice and lentils for dinner, our last night outside.
Passes crossed: Grand Col Ferret (Italy to Switzerland)
Highlights: Mud-slicked switchbacks on the way to Ferret · Resupply in La Fouly · Champex-Lac, and the first clear mountain view in two days
Day 4: Back to Chamonix
37.50 km · 1,829 m climbing
Chilly at the start, then sun, at last. Two climbs stood between us and Chamonix, and we watched the sun rise from the first one, a small mercy after a full day of rain the day before. A second breakfast came on the steps of the pink church in Trient, before the final push up to Col de la Balme, where Chamonix and Mont Blanc came back into view, waiting for us exactly where we'd left them four days earlier. On the way down we stopped in Argentière for a tarte au citron, non-negotiable at this point in the trip, before the last stretch back into Chamonix, running the whole way in. We arrived at the same church where the whole thing had started.
Passes crossed: Col de la Balme (Switzerland to France)
Highlights: Second breakfast on the steps of Trient's pink church · First sight of Chamonix from Col de la Balme · Tarte au citron in Argentière · Running it out to Chamonix
160 km. 9,000 m of climbing. Four days, three countries, one continuous loop.
Day 5: One More Climb,
4 km · 1,000 m climbing
Most people would call four days and 155 km enough. We added a fifth: the ACG vertical event, 4 km and 1,000 m+ straight up, finishing with the best views of Mont Blanc all week.
We ran the full loop the week before UTMB started, not as competitors, just as a crew who wanted to know the route and make an adventura properly before the race took over Chamonix. By the time the starting gun went off without us, we'd already covered every metre of that course once, at our own pace, rain and all. Sometimes that's the better version of the story.
