Day 1: Les Houches to Les Contamines

I imagine that, centuries ago, when the first French farmers decided to settle in the village of Les Houches (literally in English plots of farmland) they probably would be baffled by the attention this little place now gets from people around the world setting off for, and completing, their Tour du Mont Blanc.

Arriving there last night, I took the precaution of taking my picture at the official start and end point, after the throngs of finishers for the day, so as to avoid the inevitable queues in the morning of those setting off. If I’d been really smart, I would have taken two pictures- one looking keen and bright, and one sweaty and exhausted, and saved myself the trouble at the end of the Tour too.

This morning, bright and early , I set off, taking my first cheat of the Tour. To be honest, this is the only time I could see that you can usefully take a cable car to save some climbing on this hike, certainly in September, and it seemed everyone else had had the same idea. I was reassured to see that many of my fellow hikers in the queue for the Belle Vue telepherique were as old, if not older, than me. I wonder how many of them will stay the course, me included?

The first day was a relative gentle introduction, with the majority of it a steep descent on stony roads, short sharp climbs, pretty little Alpine villages and riverside paths.

I knew it would be popular, and it looked at first as though I would be walking alongside throngs of Americans and Australians (there seemed to be at least one guided group in the cable car), but by the time I had faffed around getting my Garmin devices working, they were either way ahead of me, or listening to their guide give them a lesson on glaciers. In fact, like the West Highland Wayback home, people soon seemed to find their own pace and straggle out.

One lady hiker who I spoke to briefly had her right arm in a sling. Apparently she’d slipped right at the beginning of the trail. Undaunted, she made it to the end of the first day at least. I imagine most though, like me, were pleasantly surprised by the ease of this first day (using the cable car of course), but remain daunted by the prospects of the next few days. To put it in perspective, today I hiked 14.5km, climbed 360 metres and descended 989 metres. But tomorrow it will be over 1400 metres up and down (more than Ben Nevis) and the day after around the height of a Scottish Munro (900 metres). The distances will be greater too.

This is my first time in the Alps in four years, since I spent six weeks hiking the Alpe Adria trail, through Austria, Slovenia and Italy in summer 2022. While we’re now settled in Scotland, and I take every opportunity to get outdoors and enjoy the Scottish scenery, it is nice to be back here in the Alps too. In some ways it feels as if I’ve never been away.