Day 3 TMB — les Chapieux to Rifugio Maison Vielle

On Day 3 of Tour du Mont Blanc we woke up slightly stiff but our bodies were starting to get used to the dramatic elevation changes every few hours. Our morning routine was to check the TMB route in the guidebook and then check the weather conditions for the day. Our nice host told us that it would be a nice sunny day and to put on lots of sun cream (they obviously knew we were Irish and very pale).

The skies were clear but as we were in a valley it was still cold. Auberge de la Nova put on a communal breakfast of Meusli, cereal, toast, and coffee, all the other hikers seemed to come down at different times so there was only a hand full of people having breakfast with us.

We walked out of the town following the road uphill parallel to the river, the road was quite small and only one car would fit at a time, so we would have to stand into the side if a car was coming. The scenery on the road was very nice and we had views of a dam below and we saw some of the biggest boulders ever.

The road walk from Les Chapieux to the end of the road was about 3-4kms long. Care should be taken here as tour operators seem to offer a service to drop people to the end of the road in minibuses. The minibus driver didn’t seem to care too much for the people walking the road as they never slowed down for us. The people in the minibus didn’t realise that they were missing some amazing sights, we even walked through the middle of a farm that was moving their cows.

The road cuts through the edge of the mountain to one side, the road starts to lead into a small area with houses and LOTS of cows. We were bravely walking through the group of cows being lead down the road by a farmer, when we spotted a bull in the middle of the cows, we froze immediately but thankfully the bull kept on walking, I don’t think he cared because he had all his women around him. Scary stuff though.

We turned right off the road and onto a wide walking trail that looks like a water torrent has been coming down quite hard over time. The trail continues following the valley up towards the bottom of a mountain, only now on an opposite side of the road. We pass an old stone derelict building and huts before the hike gets relly steep.

The trail starts to rise slowly, we were walking uphill and it didn’t seem too bad of a pull. Over this section, small wooden portable bridges have been put over the streams to keep everyone’s feet dry. They even supplied wooden footpaths in small sections over boggy ground, you gotta love the effort they put into this hike, they truly know how to keep the TMB in good condition.

We seemed to walk towards a hostel in the valley then the trail started to climb through the mountain, zigzagging up through the hill at a very steep gradient.

The pictures above show a Refugee in the valley and the second photo shows the zigzag trail leading up the side of the mountain. This is the first time that we have ever seen a marmot, we don’t have these in Ireland, so for most of the day we were amazed by them and a lot of our pictures and videos from this day on the TMB consist of us trying, unsuccessfully to photograph them.

The trail is quite narrow in places leading to the top but when we left the zigzag sections, we eventually got to an open area that was not as steep which lead to the top of the mountain.

The top of this section on the TMB is called Col de la Seigne, the Col is 2512m high and the Col is steeped in history as far back as Roman times. The Col has a bronze compass waymarker on the ground that is easily missed. We now cross the border into Italy from France.

We decided to get a quick bite to eat from our supplies, as the view on top of Col de la Seigne was worth just stopping and taking it all in. We were really lucky with the weather, when we were at the Col, as we were able to sit there in our tee-shirts without getting cold.

We started walking back down into the valley on the other side of Col de la Seigne, it wasn’t as steep of a descent as we were expecting. The first part of the descent we started to walk down through the snow, which was quite steep for about 100m and tricky to keep footing but also very fun.

We descend pretty quickly into the valley below. We crossed some small footbridges on the way down that were pretty cool.

The trail leading down into the valley is only a small footpath but it is in good condition.

The base of the valley is reasonably flat with small streams dotted around the bottom. We enjoyed using the stones in the water to avoid wetting our feet.

We walked along the bottom of the valley until we could see Rifugio Elisabetta up a very steep lane. It was 1 o clock and we decided this morning that we were going to stay in Rifugio Elisabetta as this was an end to a stage according to our guidebook.

When we got to the bottom of the road to Rifugio Elisabetta, we felt extremely good still and felt it was too early to stop walking for the day, as it was only 1pm. We walked up to the Elisabetta along its VERY steep road for lunch and to consult the guidebook on options for Rifugio’s if we continued walking.

We got lunch in Elisabetta which consisted of deer and bread, to me it tasted like soggy bread and boiled meat but maybe that’s what it’s meant to taste like. The views from the Rifugio were unbelievable and well worth the extra climbing. We relaxed here for about 45 minutes and then continued back toward the trail.

Under the Rifugio, the trail turns into a small road for cars with lots of old ploughed up snow on both sides, that has water running underneath the snow.

The TMB trail doesn’t stay on the disused car road long, it starts to cut back up the side of another mountain. The trail is slightly overgrown in small sections but it’s not long before it turns into another great mountain climb, filled with amazing mountain rivers, ruins of old houses and an abundance of breathtaking views.

At this stage of the day it was tough to climb another peak but this time we got outstanding views of the valley in Italy and it was well worth the tired legs. Italy’s hills on Tour du Mont Blanc seemed to be filled with a lot more wildflowers and amazing smells, this could have been the sheer exhaustion speaking but we were loving the Italian side of the Tour du Mont Blanc and day 3 was not disappointing.

At the top of this section, we decided to have a small break and some snacks. As always with us, we didn’t rest too long as we didn’t book accommodation for the night and we needed to keep walking to secure a bed for the night.

One great thing about Tour du Mont Blanc is the quality of the signage and their locations. Whatever organization is in charge of the signage, they are doing a top quality job as they literally put location signs on every rock.

We started to descend into a wooded area but it supplied very little shade from the blistering sun. It was soon evident that we were walking into a ski resort as we started to walk under cable car lines and large open fields.

We walked down through the end of another wooded area still descending down towards another valley. We then see some buildings in the middle of a ski resort, we were very tired at this stage and were happy to be stopping soon.

The trail seems to skirt around the Rifugio but we are so tired now that we decided to walk down the middle of the meadow. When we walked into the Rifugio we saw some French people that we had met along the trail over the last few days, needless to say, we were maybe 20-30 years younger than most of them and we think they were here 1-2 hours here before us (these walkers were hardcore and needed to be admired).

Our first impression of Rifugio Maison Vieille was that it seemed quite old but it was perfectly situated with some great views from the balcony outside of our bedroom. Rifugio Maison Vieille is sitting at a height of 1956 meters and seems to be made up of old buildings, the toilets are not what we expected but the showers were clean and it had warm water so that’s always a bonus especially when you arrive late.

We washed up and went down for a quick drink with some French people that had zero English but it was fun trying to talk using a real-life game of charades.

We went into Maison Vieille dining room for our communal dinner. The pub/dining room was full of sports memorabilia, flags, and poster.

The dinner consisted of fruit and yoghurt for starters and pork peas and gravy for the main course, I know this doesn’t sound appealing but we still talk about how nice this dinner was, the desert was a flan.

The dorm rooms were old stone halls filled with over 15 beds but we all had good space to keep our bags private and loads of room to have a good sleep in the comfortable beds.

Overview of Tour du Mont Blanc Day 3

Day 3 of the TMB was the hardest day for me personally as it was our longest day we hiked. This was our own decision, as our guidebook recommended stopping a lot sooner than we did but we felt very fresh and decided to keep walking.

We walked over 2 peaks today while walking into Italy and trying to capture photos of Marmots along with eating deer and soggy bread stew.

Maison Vieille is a very nice Rifugio that is a little rough around the edges but the friendly staff and amazing food well overcompensate for the old building. We had heard stories about this Rifugio being run down but we really enjoyed it and we would recommend it as it is full of character and amazing morning views.

Tour du Mont Blanc Day 3 – Walking time

• You would want to allow 9-10 hours including breaks.
• We started walking out of Les Chapieux at 8:00 am and we arrived at Rifugio Maison Vielle at 5:30 pm.