Vallée d’Entremont — Vallée du Trient
Tour du Mont Blanc — Stage 6: Champex-Lac → Trient
10.2 km
+657 m
−709 m
5.5 h
Fitness level
Map & route
GPX track — verify on the ground before hiking
Description
From Champex-Lac the classic route via the Bovine alp (1,987 m) crosses pastures and larch woods with views over Martigny, the Rhône plain and the Bernese Alps, before dropping to the Col de la Forclaz and the village of Trient (1,300 m).
The Bovine route is the classic, gentler way from the Entremont basin to the Trient valley. Past the hay meadows of Champex d’en Bas the path climbs through forest to the Bovine alp, where a stop is mandatory: the buvette serves memorable cakes and the meadow drops a sheer thousand metres to the Rhône plain, from Martigny to Lake Geneva on clear days. You crest at Plan de l’Au and descend to the Col de la Forclaz on the Forclaz road, before the last stretch among some of Europe’s highest vineyards down to Trient.
Earth sciences
Geology & landscape
The Mont Blanc massif is a Hercynian granite batholith (~300 million years old) uplifted by the Alpine orogeny: the pale Mont Blanc granite — the “protogine” — forms the Peuterey and Géant spires. At its feet the tour walks on older crystalline basement rocks (gneiss and micaschist) and, in Val Veny, on the Mesozoic limestones of the Pyramides Calcaires, a sliver of sedimentary cover pinched between the granites. The Miage and Brenva moraines are textbook examples.
History & culture
At the Col de la Forclaz the dry-stone walls along the 1825 road supported some of Europe’s highest vineyards; the Bovine alp still sells cheese and cakes to TMB walkers, as tradition dictates.
Water sources
Water at the stage's support points (Champex-Lac, Trient). On the high ground and at the passes springs are not guaranteed: fill bottles in the valley and at the huts.
Getting there
Cross-border stage: on the foreign sides local public transport applies (PostAuto in Switzerland, line buses in France/Piedmont). Check seasonal timetables; in peak season several access links run by reservation only.
Warnings
- Book overnight stops in peak season
- Check the weather: long high-altitude stages with few escape routes
Start & end
Start
Champex-Lac
1478 m
Finish
Trient
1508 m
Adjacent stages
ACurated and verified by Andrea
Data source: Tour du Mont Blanc — itinerario internazionale segnalato · Traccia calcolata su rete sentieri OpenStreetMap (ODbL); verificare sul terreno
Last verified:
Vallée d’Entremont — Vallée du Trient
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