First day on amazing Tour du Mont Blanc!
We plan to complete the entire TMB trail in 8 days camping only. This day we plan to hike to Les Contamines-Montjoie and stay at the Camping du Pontet. We select a variant via the Col de Tricot pass.

We start our Tour du Mont Blanc trekking in Les Houches, on a cloudy and rainy morning.
We delayed the start by more than an hour to wait out the heavy rain in the morning. We leave the car at the parking place next to Lac des Chavants, we put our rain jackets on and start hiking!

Unfortunately, the weather does not promise to be scenic, but in the afternoon it is expected to clear up and with this hope in a gentle rain we start hiking. Our first goal is the Col de Voza pass, which is about 700 m up from Les Houches. Along the way, from time to time, between the clouds we see amazing peaks of Aiguille du Midi, Aiguille du Goûter and Aiguille de Bionnassay. At the moment, we do not think that in about 4 weeks, when we go to Mont Blanc, we will be able to see them from above. We enjoy looking at this peaks and just before the Col de Voza pass, we fall into the clouds again and the views disappear. At the Col de Voza pass we get some water, eat a quick breakfast and move on.

At the Bellevue, we turn right and traverse the mountain slope, walking through a climatic forest immersed in clouds. Then we get to the crossroads. In a few weeks we will take the left trail leading to Mont Blanc, but now we are turning right following the TMB trail. We cross the suspension bridge over the stream coming from the Bionnassay glacier and ascent another 400 m towards the Col de Tricot pass (2120 m), which is the highest point today. The whole area is covered in clouds and we miss many spectacular views here. We were hoping for a quicker weather improvement, but I like such a mountain atmosphere and I'm not very sad :)

The descent from the Col de Tricot pass is quite steep, you quickly lose 500 m of height. It is slippery after rain. Aga once lands beautifully on her ass and her pants are all in mud. I save myself from falling with the help of trekking poles. We descend into the valley and head to Refuge de Miage for rest and lunch. Going towards the Refuge, we have a view of the slope in front of us, which will be the last ascent of the day. On the right we see the Mont Truc peak (1811 m).

At Refuge de Miage we order Fondue and Coke. The Fondue is delicious, and the portion is so big that we are not able to eat all of it.

After about 1h break, we move on. After a 200-meter ascent, we get off the Tour du Mont Blanc main trail for a moment to climb to the top of Mont Truc. We leave our backpacks and climb quickly to the top. The views, despite the clouds, are amazing.

We descend from Truc and now we have to descend to the city of Les Contamines.
The weather improves, there is more sun, and we descend through a stunning alpine forest.

We walk around the charming town of Les Contamines-Montjoie for a while. This is one of the largest towns on the TMB trail, with many sport and grocery stores. We get some supplies at the grocery store and head to the campsite, where we arrive around 7 pm. We pitch the tent, eat dinner, drink beer, bath, make a quick laundry, charge some electronics and go to sleep.

Weather forecast is very good for following days and we expect the next day of the Tour du Mont Blanc to be stunnning.

0:00 Start from Les Houches
2:14 Viewpoint before Col de Voza
2:40 Col de Voza
3:07 Traverse in a misty forest
4:21 Crossroads at Le Plat de l'Are
4:58 Passerelle de Bionnassay
5:25 Ascent to Col de Tricot
6:24 Col de Tricot (2120 m)
6:40 Descent to Refuge de Miage
8:04 Refuge de Miage
9:18 Ascent to Mont Truc
9:55 Mont Truc (1811 m)
10:30 Descent to Les Contamines
12:36 Les Contamines Montjoie
13:12 Camping du Pontet
13:24 Tour du Mont Blanc map
13:40 3D TMB day 1 map

🗺️ 3D Map create using Relive app ➡️ https://www.relive.cc/

Tour du Mont Blanc | Day 1 | Les Houches - Les Contamines | TMB July 2022

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