After a session of hasty planning and map printing, Jen and I headed off Wednesday evening for Chamonix. There we'd stay the night before starting the Tour du Mont Blanc by mountain bike. The Tour du Mont Blanc is normally a walking route taking between 10 and 12 days to complete. It is roughly 170 km and some 10,000m of climbing. By bike, however, the climbing is closer to 8000m due to slight differences in the route. There is some debate as to the preferred direction (clockwise or counter-clockwise). Counter-clockwise is the direction taken by the majority of the hikers, but is said to be more difficult by bike. For this reason we decided to take the clockwise direction, starting in Le Tour in France, heading towards Champex (Switzerland), followed by Grand Col de Ferret, then Courmayeur in Italy, back into France by Col de la Seigne, another climb to Col de la Croix du Bonhomme via Les Chapieux, through Les Contamines to Col de Voza, descending into Les Houches and riding back to Le Tour via the Chamonix Valley.

Below is the GPS track as recorded by me. You can mouse-over the elevation profile to see the position on the map. The track was recorded with my Nokia N810 and Locosys BGT-31 GPS. These two gadgets were fixed to the handlebar of my bike and helped us stay on track.

Below is the table of distances, climbs, descents, and a rough estimate of the time taken. To access the .GPX files associated with each day, or for the .GPX file containing the entire trip, click on the corresponding day or Total below.

Day 1: Le Tour (France) to Champex (Switzerland). We camped the night before just outside of Chamonix in the van (Jen finally got to test the new bed platform that Mike and I devised while he was visiting) and got up at around 8h30 to eat and do some last minute shopping. I needed some new bike shoes since my old ones are very awkward and slippery when walking on uneven ground, making me feel like a clumsy mountain goat when I push my bike up unrideable sections. I found a nice pair at Zero-G in the village and by 10h30 we were at Le Tour and ready to start the first day of climbing.

Above, the campsite. Jen arranges some items inside the van.

The start of the first day in Le Tour.

So fresh, clean, and naive!

Above, the view down the Chamonix Valley from Le Tour. The climb from Le Tour follows fire roads that summit Col de Balme, above several ski lifts. The climb is abrupt and painful. Jen voiced concerns about her ability to complete the tour early on, and I was secretly worried because we had only been riding for 20 or 30 minutes.

This was our only view of the Mont Blanc Massif in the four days. The other days it was covered in cloud.

Jen giving it her best just before Col de Balme. Depending on fitness and technical ability, the track is theoretically all rideable. There are some very steep sections, requiring rests, and others with some loose rock.

Above, the view from my handlebar down to the Swiss town of Trient. The saddle on the opposing side of the valley is La Forclaz. The descent was technical in some sections and fast in others.

One of the good things about Jen being slower on the descents was that I could entertain some mushroom searching while I waited. I wasn't able to identify his little orange one...

...but at this particular spot, several hundred metres below Col de Balme, I happened across a few small chanterelles!

Jen looking Tina Turner-esque, stretching at the water trough in Trient.

I brought a section of cucumber to eat with lunch, above is a picture of me having just washed it.

From Trient we climbed slowly toward the Glacier de Trient, and then traversed towards La Forclaz.

Above, the flat traverse towards La Forclaz was a nice change from climbing. However, we crossed many hikers doing short walks from the village. From La Forclaz, following the advice of the guy at Zero-G who sold me my shoes, we opted to descend to Les Rappes and climb to Champex via road, because the Bovine crossing consisted of much bike carrying, which we decided to avoid. In hindsight, it may have been shorter and easier than the nearly 1000m climb by road back up to Champex, which took probably just as long.

A white chicken with an unfortunate poo-bum situation.

Some vineyards near Le Brocard.

Above, a rest stop partway up the long climb to Champex.

On arriving at Champex d'en Haut, we checked into the very clean and well-run Gite Bon Abri. We finished the day at around 18h30, making around 8 hours of riding time, nearly 2000m of climbing, and 37km of distance. We opted for sleeping in the teepee for the night, having packed our sleeping bags. This reduced the cost of our stay, which ended up being 59€ in total for the both of us, which included dinner and breakfast. Pictured above is our spot in the teepee at Gite Bon Abri in Champex d'en Haut.

Above, the Gite Bon Abri.

Dinner! The Gite Bon Abri is very vegetarian friendly.

After dinner we went for a short walk in the nearby forest to forage for berries, mushrooms, and cats. The strange fungi pictured above is Pseudohydnum gelatinosum, a jelly fungi with teeth-like spines. It is apparently non-edible, and being a jelly mushroom I wouldn't want to eat it even if it were.

Fat juicy blueberries.

Trumpet chanterelles! If only I had known at the time what they were, I would have picked them.

Ahh, the trusty hedgehog mushroom. They were in short supply and didn't look very tasty.

Jackpot, chanterelles. These three small mushrooms caused me great delight.

I was unable to identify this strange little one.

Ants nest!

The bounty.

The above and following photos depict the interactions between a slutty auberge kitty and one who likes slutty auberge kitties.

Mid-snuggle contemplation.

That's right, back at it.

Day 2: Champex (Switzerland) to Courmayeur (Italy). We started by just before 9h00, and started the descent from Champex-Lac towards La Fouly.

A little step riding on the pedestrian trails that join the switchbacks of the roads. It was here that Jen had a little accident due to loss of brakes. Apparently her front hydraulic brake developed an air bubble, and was very ineffective, leading to a mild tumble into the bank, preceded by "Aaaaahhh!".

We stopped at the local Champex mechanic and asked for help. They tried in vain to fill the reservoir, but the brake was in need of a proper bleed kit. After 30 minutes of spilling brake fluid and farting around, they sent us down to Orsières where another mechanic was said to repair bikes. This caused us to deviate slightly, missing the nice downhill from Champex (taking the roads instead). By a stroke of luck, the mechanic had a used front disk lever and caliper, all ready to install! He charged us 50 CHF for the piece à l'occasion and 25 CHF for his time diagnosing the issue. Within an hour we were back on track!

Above, shortly after rejoining the Tour du Mont Blanc track.

Near Praz-de-Fort in Val de Ferret.

Jen pushing up.

Some shaggy parasol mushrooms were spotted from the trail!

Here we are getting farther up the Val de Ferret, nearing La Fouly.

The climbing got technical when we got back on the single track. Lots of rocks and obstacles, but mostly all rideable!

The village of La Fouly. We arrived at 13h45 and were going to stop for lunch, but decided to push on to Gite La Léchère for lunch nearer to the Grand Col de Ferret since we were already a bit behind schedule.

Passing through Ferret. From Ferret we decided to take the true TMB trail, rather than the roads which would have been more gradual. In hindsight this was a good decision. You will see why a few photos down...

Jen pushing up a steep section with the village of Ferret in the background. The first 200m of the walking track required pushing, but after that it was a reasonable traverse to the refuge for lunch.

Blueberries! Fat ones!

Appetizers.

Above, Jen enjoying her croûte au fromage.

And me with my omlette au fromage.

Above, Jen pushing up a steep section with the opposing side of the valley in the background.

Finally, the Grand Col de Ferret is in view!

Jen pushing, and always smiling.

When Jen gets tired, she threatens to quit and "get David to come pick me up." Because she is always smiling during these tough times, it is hard to take her seriously. Her neck also gets weak, because her head flops from side to side as she utters complaints.

The Grand Col de Ferret, finished! Phewf.

Jen appears through the clouds on the top of the saddle.

The descent into Lavachey (Italy) looked amazing...

...for some more than others.

Above, the view down the valley towards Courmayeur.

Having descended into Italy, we passed the Refugio d'Elena and headed down the road towards Courmayeur, where we would meet a friend Julien who was joining us for the next two days. The 10 to 15 km to Courmayeur went very quickly as it was all downhill. We arrived in La Saxe at about 19h30, right on time!

Above, the navigation setup. The device up top is the Locosys BGT-31, connected by Bluetooth to my Nokia N810, which provided the many street and terrain maps, as well as the GPS track we were (mostly) following. Amazingly the Nokia remained in place, even during the rough descents!

Julien had found a great hotel (Hotel Meubli Emile Rey) room for 90€ with breakfast. Above is the view from our room.

For dinner we walked down to Courmayeur and ordered some pizzas and large beers. In the end the second day wasn't as physically hard as the first, but we still climbed 1900m and covered a distance of about 55km, riding (and pushing) for a total of about 9 hours.

Day 3: La Saxe to Les Chapieux. We had a fantastic breakfast at the hotel and were on our way just before 9h00. The climb out of La Saxe by road was reasonable. The first destination was just near Chercrouit, at about 2000m, so first thing in the morning we climbed about 800m. But it didn't end there. By traversing the southern ridge, following the hikers path of the TMB, we had to climb more, to about 2430m, before descending into the valley and starting the climb towards the Col de la Seigne, at 2500m.

Ouch, I burned my leg on my hot brake rotor!

So sweaty, tired, and still naive.

Julien!

This part of the trail required pushing in a few areas.

Above, the ubiquitous Tour du Mont Blanc trail marker.

Above, the view up the valley towards Col de la Seigne, where we will cross the border from Italy back into France.

Above, the valley road, with Col de la Seigne visible in the background.

Some cows greeted us as we passed. Mooo!

Nearing the end of the valley, we were confronted with a final 500m climb towards Col de la Seigne.

This refuge had the strange duty of providing weather services. Two unlucky guys were inside looking quite bored.

Above, looking back down the valley with the aforementioned weather refuge in the foreground.

Arriving at the saddle at about 3pm, we began to have serious doubts about our goal to summit Col de la Croix du Bonhomme in the same afternoon, which included a 800m descent into Vallée des Glaciers followed by a 900m climb to Bonhomme. In addition, it had just started to rain.

Finally, the cold but exciting descent to Vallée des Glaciers. We arrived at the Refuge des Mottes and went inside to warm ourselves up. It was a rustic refuge, with a grouchy caretaker who was too anal to let us light the fire (in the interest of everyone else's comfort). Julien kept trying to light it, and finally he scolded us as worse than children, or something to that effect.

Above, I ordered a vegetable soup and threw in my stash of chanterelles. Very tasty!

So after wearing out our welcome at this refuge, we descended into Les Chapieux in hopes of finding lodging for the night at Auberge de la Nova. Upon our arrival, the staff were very welcoming, the facilities very clean and dry and warm! The cost for staying the night there in the dorm rooms was 34€ each, including dinner and breakfast (demi-pension). Why do I feel like Claire's budgeting wore off on me?

The numbers for the third day were about 1700m climbing, 1700m descent, 34km distance, in 7.5 hours.

Day 4: Les Chapieux to Le Tour. Breakfast! Muesli with yoghurt! Jen brought her dirty mittens to the breakfast table. Julien and I know how it works: two bowls hold twice as much.

Julien discussing route options with some other cyclists who were doing the TMB in the opposing direction.

Above, Auberge de la Nova, with a Where's Waldo version of Jennifer waiting inside for bike repairs to be completed before departure.

For the first time we were ready to start riding (pushing) at 8h00. We performed some routine bicycle maintenance as the bikes needed some care from the rainy descent the night before, and then headed up towards Col de la Croix du Bonhomme, at 2550m. Pictured above is the view down the valley, with Les Chapieux just out of view in the lower left.

We started the first 300m on roads and fire roads which was good. By the time we needed to start pushing we had already covered one third of the climb.

And pushing we did do...

This dog was guarding a large flock of sheep and goats, whom were all enclosed inside a fence.

This rough section of shale would have been nice to ride down.

The rolling grassy hills reminded us of New Zealand.

The Refuge Croix du Bonhomme, at about 2450m.

We hadn't passed the Col de la Croix du Bonhomme yet, however, another 100m to climb.

And finally the saddle!

From the saddle it was a very technical descent to Col du Bonhomme, where it got slightly easier for the descent to the Contamines Valley.

A small abri at Col du Bonhomme, some 200m below Col de la Croix du Bonhomme.

Jen arriving at the saddle.

There were a few more very technical sections below Col du Bonhomme, but nearly all were rideable.

We stopped for a three course lunch at the first refuge we came to and were back on our bikes by 14h30 to continue the descent into Les Contamines. The steep rocky road was an excellent ride down, but we were dodging hikers everywhere.

Above, following the fast and flowy trail next to the river through the valley to Les Contamines.

We arrived at Quy, at which point we had to get into the climbing mindset again, as we were at 1050m and had to climb to 1650m at Col de Voza.

The climb had some extremely steep parts, that even for me were impossible to ride. I suppose that is why this sign above says "Special vehicles only".

We encountered some donkeys that were available for hire on the climb. These two fellows were curious of Frenchie.

A self-portrait during a much-needed rest just before I spotted a white kitty (not pictured). He meowed at me loudly, as if to beckon for snuggles, but as I approached he quickly changed his mind and darted into the mysterious forest. I was too tired to engage in a pursuit.

Col de Voza! Finally, the last major climb of the trip (so I thought).

Still smiling! At Col de Voza we decided to separate as I wanted to take a downhill track to Les Houches and Julien and Jen opted for the fire road.

We met back up in Les Houches and then started the ride up the Chamonix Valley to return to Le Tour and the van.

Above, the Glacier des Bossons.

On our way to Argientière. We left Jen to eat at MBC in Chamonix and Julien and I continued up to retrieve the van. This was definitely the most tiring part of the whole trip. I had to stop several times to rest. Julien was able to push all the way back to the van.

The view from the bottom of the parking lot at Le Tour. My final rest spot, the photo was only an excuse to stop.

And as every great ride finishes with a kitty, there it is. She ran away before I was able to get snuggle pictures, but I did get snuggles.

Day four was a very long one. We covered 2100m of climbing over 56km in more than 10 hours, finishing at just before 20h00.