We flew into Geneva on a Friday evening and made our way to our base in Chamonix. We had two nights booked into Chalet Whymper to acclimatise and for last minute preparations (maybe a beer or two as well!), before beginning the Tour du Mont Blanc on the Sunday morning.

We followed the Cicerone guide fairly closely, taking the anti-clockwise route round.

I came down with food poisoning or something mid-route and we had to stop in Courmayeur for some recovery time. We were able to continue the walk though and still in the 11 days we’d planned.

Overview of stages:

Refuge log:

Here are some photos taken on the trip, not in any particular order!

This was another practice hike for the Tour du Mont Blanc, this time heading up to Glenridding with Paul and tackling Helvellyn. A very pleasant day out, nothing too crazy and not the baptism of fire that the Fairfield Horseshoe was!

This snap looks suspiciously photoshopped, but is genuine I promise! 🙂

To prepare for our trip to the Alps to do the Tour du Mont Blanc, myself and my friend Paul went to the lakes in March 2010 to do the Fairfield Horseshoe. This was my first proper hike in years, and even though I considered myself reasonably fit, this proved to be a wake-up call because it was rather tough! Anyway, despite this the walk was truly spectacular; there was considerable snow coverage and the weather was clear enough to give some great views.

We set off from the campsite at Rydall Hall and picked up the route in Ambleside. To approximate the load I’d be carrying in the Alps I filled my bergen with all my gear, which sounds like a good idea but the difficulty of the walk and snow coverage meant I was in for a treat… Anyway, we got to the first rest stop, had some lunch, and took in the views.

Once I’d got into a steady rhythm it was alright, but I’ll freely admit up to this point I was having a lot of trouble. My legs kept cramping up at one point, requiring me to lie down and stretch out, but this didn’t last for long (you lose legs!). I suspect if I’d had my bergen on properly it might have been slightly easier (you can clearly see here I’d let one strap loosen up).

This is me walking off into the distance:

And this is one of Paul:

The views as the sun was setting were beautiful, they more than made up for the pain of the ascent!

The descent was quite tricky, we were running a bit later than expected and ended up walking off the hills in darkness. We took it slowly and had torches with us so it was reasonably safe, though not the most enjoyable part of the walk. The beers and food once we’d showered and hit Ambleside however were awesome 🙂 The total duration of the walk was about 9 hours.