This was our first night sleeping in a French Refugee and we expected to be woken up early like Spanish hostels on the Camino, but it was totally different here. The hikers in refugee didn’t start moving until 7:00-7:30 am, if this was in Spain the hostel room lights would have been on hours before sunrise, the extra sleep was a pleasant surprise.
The refugee price included a bed and breakfast. Breakfast consisted of a lot of coffee, baguette toasted and your choice of berry jams or Nutella chocolate spread. As Gina is addicted to chocolate, she was very happy with this type of breakfast, proof in the picture ===>.
One piece of advice that everyone tells you to do before leaving the Refugee every morning is to ask for the weather forecast for the day. Today’s weather forecast on the Tour du Mont Blanc day 2 (TMB) was for a wet and cold day. When we went down for breakfast it couldn’t have rained any harder, so we took out our wet gear for the day.
When we were in Chamonix we visited some of the hiking stores and purchased new ponchos. A poncho is a perfect way to keep the rain off you and your backpack, plus the poncho won’t make you sweat any harder when you’re crawling up the side of a mountain. Here we are below with our lovely new sexy ponchos.
We got our packed lunches from the Refugee and started back on the hike, the first section of today’s hike brought us along the glacier river, which passed Notre Dam pilgrimage Church. We crossed the river at a bridge to visit the church. At this stage of the morning, it was raining really heavy so it was nice to get some shelter.
The trail was reasonably flat up to this point but soon after the church, we started to walk up some very steep hills. A word of caution with these hills, the roads seem to be cut out of rock and vehicles on the lane has seemed to wear the rocks to a very shiny surface, which has made the footing on a wet day very slippery.
Halfway up the hill, we passed a nice waterfall and then another Refugee on the right-hand side with an awesome area for food out to the side with picnic tables that looked over the valley that we just walked out of. We would have stopped here for some coffee but it was not open when we were passing.
Soon after this Refugee, the trail started to level out and we were greeted with some very flat trails through green fields that were filled with cows that had the large bells. These cows were a treat to look at and the seemed very friendly but I’d run a mile if there wasn’t a fence between us.
Don’t ask a cow for directions, I don’t think they speak English
This reasonable flat section beside the lovely green fields only lasted for a few kilometres then the trail started to climb again gradually. The track is very gravely at this sections and an ankle could be twisted very easily (take care). The rain stopped and the sun came out, so we got rid of the ponchos and enjoyed the nice French sunshine.
We walked up to another Refugee that was open this time for Coffee. As can be seen from the picture below, the trail was really going to start increasing in elevation after the Refugee. We decided to take a break and do some reading in the guidebook to see how steep the hill was and then check the weather forecast again, you don’t want to be caught out in a storm up in the mountain. Oh ye, we got more coffee and hot chocolate (it was our honeymoon after all).
We were fuelled up and ready to tackle this mountain, this could have been all the coffee talking. We left the Refugee and started into the steep climb up the mountain. The mountain trail is small and rocky with only room for single file traffic in places. This only becomes a problem when someone in front is going extremely slow and won’t move in for the growing crowd behind.
The track widened out again and surprisingly enough, it was so wide that we could walk beside each other and have a chat when we weren’t struggling to breathe. After this, we saw a helicopter and a team of workers doing repairs to the trail and small stream crossings.
This was also our first time that we saw snow on the trail, we even attempted to have a snowball fight which was pretty unsuccessful.
Soon after seeing the helicopter, the hiking trail turned up toward Col du Bonhomme at 2329m. It’s a long pull up toward the Col as the hut at the top is visible from a much lower height. We had to walk across a large sheet of ice and snow, which was fun as we were still in our shorts and teeshirts.
After what felt like an eternity of hiking up the side of a mountain, we eventually got to the hut at Col du Bonhomme. When we reached the hut, there was a large crowd here, mainly due to the fog and bad weather. After walking up to the mountain hut, we were very sweaty and still in shorts and teeshirts. We noticed a massive change in the weather conditions and the wind chill was hitting us very hard. We used the hut as shelter and put on extra layers to keep warm.
The fog was extremely bad at this part of the day and it was getting harder to see the trail so we sat beside the hut for 20 minutes hoping it would clear, and it did, slightly (don’t go into the hut it seems people are using it as a toilet). We continued walking over the ridge towards Croix du Bonhomme and the fog totally cleared (thankfully we waited). We were walking on the top ridge of the mountain and there was very little shelter from the wind at this point.
This was a great section of today’s hike on the TMB. If you ever imagine walking Tour du Mont Blanc day 2, this section of the hike provides some of the best views of the day, while crossing from one Col to the other but be prepared for the extreme cold here.
We finally got to our high point of the day Col de la Croix du Bonhomme, which give panoramic views. We stopped here for a quick photo with the selfie stick and GoPro.
Just 100m down from the col, was the Refuge de la Croix du Bonhomme, this Refugee was named after the Col that it sits beside. We went straight in to warm up with more coffee and hot chocolate. The Refugee is perfectly located for a nights accommodation or a late lunch, we saw many other hikers stop here.
We didn’t relax long here as we were conscious that it was getting late in the day and we had no accommodation booked for the night, plus the hiking trail was very busy. It would be a disaster if we could not get a room in a hostel.
The next part of the Tour du Mont day 2 hike consisted of walking downhill zig-zagging down 35-45 degree hills through green fields surrounded by streams birds and cows, we tried to soak all this in, as it was heaven.
At the bottom of the green fields, we came to a small stone bridge, before we crossed the bridge we took full advantage of the sunshine and the mountain blocking the wind. We had a small picnic while allowing our feet to breath and dry out.
We crossed the bridge and walked along a small country lane until we reached a sign for Les Chapieux down to the left through a small field.
The trail quickly zigzagged down through the green fields above LES Chapieux. The field was filled with thousands of wildflowers and honey bees. We approached the town of Les Chapieux which sat at a height 1560m. The Refugee was perfectly situated beside a local cheese shop and church. When we walked into the town it was filled with large crowds, we immediately looked at each other and taught crap, we should have booked the Refugee. We looked at our watches and it was 5pm. We were later than we expected but the lovely woman at the reception in Auberge de la Nova said they had 2 beds left in the dorm room.
The dorm room was small with 6 beds but each bed was up against a wall so we all had some privacy. The beds looked very clean and everything looked brand new in our room.
Dinner didn’t get served until 7pm, so we explored the small town. The small shop in Les Chapieux was the first place we paid a visit too, we picked up baguettes, cheese, and salami for tomorrows lunch.
We then went to the local church which was very small and had a semicircular roof inside and on the outside it had an apex, which was very unique.
After exploring the local town we went back to the Alburge and had a quick beer before dinner.
It was a communal dinner with all the other hikers, the staff in the Alburge seat each person. We were put with some other English speaking people and a couple of French Mont Blanc marathon runners and an Australian couple.
The morning hike starts off very gently but the gradient of the hills quickly increases with the majority of the day walking uphill. There are numerous coffee shops and Refugees on the trail so additional accommodation should not be a problem. You should always carry extra food but we passed 5-6 refugees that served lunch and coffee.
From Col du Bonhomme to Croix du Bonhomme the Tour du mont blanc day 2 hike is at it’s most dangerous with large cliff edges and falls to one side but when the weather is clear this should not be a problem. The weather changes very quickly when we were in this section, ensure that you have layers of clothes readily available if you need them quickly.
The final section of the hike is downhill walking for 2 hours through green fields, Gina has hayfever but she had mediation with her. Make sure you have your hayfever medication with you, as you won’t be near a large town for 2 days after this stage of the Tour du mont blanc.
We didn’t book our accommodation at any stage of the Tour du mont blanc but if you are a slow walker or are planning it later in the season, you probably should consider booking in advance. We had a few scary moments while hiking the TMB, that we assumed accommodation might be fully booked, it’s only then that you realise you might have another 10km hike ahead of you to get a bed, that maybe we should have booked in advance.
Overall this section of Tour du mont blanc day 2 provides great views with a mix of snow glaciers and meadows. This is a great stage that should not be skipped.