Tour du Mont Blanc Camping Trek

Random comments on the TWB trip transpiring 7/7/17 to 7/21/18: Participants: Seven, plus guide and support driver/cook. All Brits, except for one US (me). The weather was exceptionally good. During the day, it sputtered a couple of times, but no heavy rain at all. Clouds had only a minor impact on views. Periods of rain on a couple of nights. All in all, far better than I expected. Only one morning I would call cold. (And I get cold easily.) Nothing approaching freezing, AFAIK. Photos here: https://len5742.smugmug.com/Len/2018-Tour-du-Mont-Blanc/ Campgrounds: Les Marmottes campground is said to be three-star rated. You will spend four of your fourteen nights here. - No toilet paper. No toilet seats. (Not a hole-in-the-ground squat toilet, just no toilet seat.) But you do have toilets! Bring a roll of TP. - Couple of the sinks have liquid hand-washing soap dispensers. Bring a bar of soap. - Crowded, at least at the Exodus-designated area, next to the toilet/shower building. (See photos.) Expect a fair amount of noise and kids running around until about 11pm. I arrived early from the US, and stayed at an auberge in Les Houches, before moving to the campground. After we finished the hiking and returned again to Les Marmottes, I bailed back to the auberge instead of spending the last two nights in the campground. I highly recommend moving to more peaceful accommodation for the last one or two nights, if you can afford it. All of the campgrounds had toilets, even the so-called wild camps. Some even had TP and toilet seats. There was at least one with squat toilets. Showers, when available, were at least adequately warm. We went to a refuge-prepared dinner at at least one of the two wild camps, can't remember about the other. 'Wild camp' = lack of showers and wifi? Certainly there was no lack of other campers. Showers: Some are free and as long as you want, a couple are pay-to-play. Protip: Note that for one shower we were given a card to use (for a fixed number of minutes), without further explanation. Turns out, you hold the card up next to sensor box that's in the shower, thus activating. Wifi: worked pretty well most of the time. I think I remember one camp where it didn't. Of course, each has its own connection ritual. At one place, you had to pay a euro or two. Food: Breakfast: - Tea and coffee. Also, orange juice and milk. I asked for hot chocolate mix, supplied w/no problem, but then I realized water plus mix tastes like hot chocolate water, so I gave that up. (Needed powdered milk.) - Muesli, all the way down. This particular mix was primarily uncooked oats, plus some unchewable things I think were raisons or similar. And a few clumps of not-oats. Mixing thoroughly with yogurt saves the day. Should do better here. Lunch: After you wolf down breakfast, you race to prepare your pack lunch. What I would call, in my lack of sophistication, 'French bread' (not sliced bread), is the base for make-your-own sandwiches. Sliced ham plus various cheeses, plus lettuce, onions, mayonaisse, etc. (Peanut butter and sliced bread available for US-passport-carrying participants only.) Also, bananas, oranges, apples, etc. Dinner: Either prepared by our support driver, or taken at a refuge/restaurant. The dinners prepared by the support driver I rate as pretty good to great. A couple of the refuge meals were just meh, otherwise good enough. One special note: The pizza we ordered out at an Italian campground was unequivocally the worst I've ever seen or eaten. Protip: Bring Clif bars or similar. My stomach was off the entire trip. It was suggested that it might have been due to the excessive consumption of dairy products. Something to keep in mind. Tent: The tent Exodus uses appears to be a Quechua '2 Seconds XL Air'. Never heard of this brand before, but saw a fair number of their tents and backpacks on the hike. The tents have what is, to me, a novel design. The trip instructions tell you you're gonna have to pack up your tent. I envisioned just extracting some collapsible poles and rolling up the canopy, shoving in a stuff sack. Wrong. You need to watch and study this last 20 seconds of this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAtckY8Vejs&list=PLIZaXMUrOOZcqXogjXImTYrpSsSvZsSSJ&index=233 The Exodus tents are an older version of the tent in the video, I think. In any case, you get to gather up, wrestle the tent into a figure 8, and fold up, without any assistance from straps shown in the video. But the video does give you a general idea what to expect. I'd guess on average it took three-four morning rituals to become adequately proficient in packing the tent. Protip: For the first couple of days, work with a partner to wrestle with this thing. Protip 2: If the tent is really wet, wear rain gear during the wrestling match. Typical Trekking day: 7-7:30 Individual packup 7:30-8 Breakfast, lunch prep 8-8:30 Wash dishes, pack support van 8:30-16:30 Walk Includes 'second breakfast' and lunch breaks, and a few other rests, combined or separate from two or more breaks at refuges. >16:30 Teatime? 19:00 or 19:30 Dinner, then wash dishes if not dining out The trail: Busy, busy, busy, busy. The trail tread itself is not that rough. I wore trail runners. Worked just fine. Heavy boots and their 'ankle support' not needed. Because the trip notes said otherwise, I asked for special dispensation for my footwear, and was allowed to proceed at my own risk. The last three days do have some steep climbs. The views/scenery: Nice enough. Spectacular? Hmm...For me, Val Farret col was the only place that came close to a knock-your-socks-off view. You never really get high enough to get a layers-and-layers type of mountain views. I rode up to Aguille du Midi before the start of the trek, and the views from up there kind of deflated the hiking views, at least for a while. I guess the repeated combination of strenuous hiking for a few hours, followed by sitting a refuge deck and drink lattes while enjoying mountain scenery makes for an enjoyable experience. Do not find Mont Blanc itself aesthetically appealing. I am reminded of a combination of the Michelin Man and the Pillsbury Doughboy. Extra credit activities: Ride up to Aguille du Midi makes for great views. Also enjoyed Montenvers train to the glacier. Personnel: Driver/cook: Very friendly, good sense of humor (laughed at my jokes). Perpared generally great meals. Guide: Very knowledgeable about flora/fauna, geology, etc. Set a reasonable hiking pace. She said at the beginning we didn't have to hike in a cheek-by-jowl configuration, but the majority seemed to prefer that. I generally hung back in my own space, as did a couple others. It seemed to work OK. Note re: The guide vs. the itinerary. The two descending cable car rides on the last two hiking days listed as optional (you have to pay for them) are really 'optional'. That is, particularly for the one on the second-to-last hiking day, you will be verbally brow-beaten into submitting to riding the cable car down. 'I don't know why anyone would want to walk.'...'will absolutely ruin your day'...'terrible trail tread'...worst of all...'takes two hours'. The whole group was sort of shocked at the level of vehemence. The excoriation of this particular section of trail was so over the top, I asked to walk down. Just had to see this awful no good really really bad section of trail. One other guy who had also initially expressed an interest in walking rather than riding first gave in, but then when I persisted, joined in again. So the guide and us two descended by foot, while the others rode down. It turned out to be a decent enough hike, with terrific views up and down the Chamonix valley initially, and then dropped into a cool (temp-wise) downhill walk in the forest. The trail tread was well-maintained. There was a short steep bit that required a minor amount of care, but was not at all outside the realm of prior experience on this trail. As it was of moderate downhill grade, could easily jog parts of it. Best of all, WE WALKED FOR AN HOUR AND SAW ONLY A COUPLE OTHER HIKERS. An absolute impossibility anywhere else on this trail. We finished in an hour. There was also another place earlier in the trek where the guide said 'I don't know why anyone would walk here', and yet some of us did walk, and enjoyed it. You will ride enough buses and cable cars as an aleady-fixed part of the itinerary, why add to it? I can sympathize with the guide getting bored after several years of guiding multiple groups each year, and wanting it to be overas quick as possible. But for the rest of us, this is a one-time experience. Maybe pick a new trek to guide? Random last thoughts: Bring electrolyte tabs, especially if you don't have a lot of experience full-day, strenuous, warm weather hiking. Bring a pee bottle if you're old like me. The tents have zipable windows on the side which make it easy to dump out. Bring shock cord or similar to rig a drying line for your always-wet towel.