Vallée du Trient — Valle di Chamonix
Tour du Mont Blanc — Stage 7: Trient → Tré-le-Champ
Advertencias
- Snowfields possible on the passes until early July
- Check the weather: long high-altitude stages with few escape routes
- Book overnight stops in peak season

21.9 km
+1679 m
−1959 m
13 h
Nivel físico
Mapa y ruta
Traza GPX — verifica sobre el terreno antes de caminar
Descripción
Puntos clave
Salida
Trient · 1514 m
Llegada
Tré-le-Champ · 1398 m
From Trient and Le Peuty climb to the Col de Balme (2,191 m) by the spectacular high variant of Les Grands, a balcony above the Trient glacier. At the pass, on the French-Swiss border, the whole Chamonix valley crowned by Mont Blanc suddenly opens ahead; descend via Charamillon and the village of Le Tour to Tré-le-Champ (1,417 m).
From the small cluster of Le Peuty you climb the high variant of Les Grands: a panoramic ledge cut into the valley flank, looking straight down on the tongue and moraines of the Trient glacier — far wilder country than the normal route. The Col de Balme, its historic refuge set exactly on the border, delivers the TMB’s most famous coup de théâtre: the whole of Mont Blanc filling the horizon above the Chamonix valley. The descent passes the Charamillon alps and the mountaineering village of Le Tour down to the hamlet of Tré-le-Champ.
Puntos clave
Col de Balme
2191 m · 15.1 km from start
Ciencias de la Tierra
Geología y paisaje
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.
Historia y cultura
The Col de Balme refuge, on Swiss soil a step from France, has served travellers since 1879: for decades it was run by the legendary “mamma” Frasserand of Le Tour.
Fuentes de agua
Water at the stage's support points (Trient, Tré-le-Champ). On the high ground and at the passes springs are not guaranteed: fill bottles in the valley and at the huts.
Cómo llegar
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.
Aparcamiento
Galería de fotos
Photos are published immediately. JPG/PNG/WebP, max 6 MB.
Etapas contiguas
AEditado y verificado por Andrea Rama
Fuente de datos: Tour du Mont Blanc — itinerario internazionale segnalato · Traccia calcolata su rete sentieri OpenStreetMap (ODbL); verificare sul terreno
Última verificación:
Vallée du Trient — Valle di Chamonix
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