TMB Days 11 & 12: Courmayeur to Rifugio Walter Bonatti - July 30th to 31st, 2025

The Tour du Mont Blanc (TMB) is a 165 kilometer (103 mile) hiking trail which encircles Mont Blanc, the highest peak in the Western Europe, through France, Italy, and Switzerland. Our original plan was to complete the hike in 21 days, but we extended it to 22 days before we even started, because Ann was recovering from a bad cold. This post covers days 11 and 12 on the trail, from Courmayeur to Rifugio Walter Bonatti, with an overnight stay at Rifugio Bertone, all in Italy.

Wednesday, Day 11 of the TMB, we were back on trail. We were up at 7 am, eating a big breakfast at Hotel Berthod at 8 am, and checking out of the hotel by 9 am. On our way out of town, we stopped off at the small grocery store, Affiliato Carefour Express. We had forgotten to resupply our trail food, so we picked up four fruit and nut bars.

Ann left the trekking poles that she no longer wanted in the hotel room (the ones she bought in Les Chapieux - TMB Days 7 & 8: La Ville des Glaciers to Rifugio Maison Vieille - July 26th to 27th, 2025), as she bought ones in Courmayeur that she liked better. We posted on the TMB Facebook group asking if anyone who needed poles was in Courmayeur, but no one responded. Hopefully, the hotel found a good home for the trekking poles and they didn’t go into the trash.

Our route for the day was not long, but it was all uphill. Ann still had a cough, but was coughing much less frequently. She felt pretty good for the first half of the climb. Surprisingly, we were not the slowest hikers on the trail and we even passed one or two hikers.

However, about halfway up, Ann slowed down her pace. Even though she was going slower, it did not feel like a struggle, like it had on our previous uphill climbs on the trail.

The trail started out on paved roads in town before gradually turning to a gravel road. Quite a few hikers were getting rides up to where the trail became a real trail.

We were in the woods for most of the climb, but views of the surrounding mountains, including Monte Bianco (Mont Blanc) would open up every now and then.

It was almost lunch time when we reached Rifugio Bertone, our destination for the day. We covered 5 kilometers (3.1 miles) with an elevation gain of 749 meters (2457 feet) with an elevation loss of only 7 meters (23 feet). It took us two hours and 45 minutes to complete. It was hike humber 37 of our 52 Hike Challenge for 2025.

First we ordered a couple of drinks, a Coke and a cappuccino, while we waited for lunch to start at noon. Even though we couldn’t check in yet, they assigned us a number, number 1, so we would be the first ones to be checked in at 4 pm.

At noon, Ann ordered a penne all’arrabbiata (pasta with a spicy tomato sauce). Keith had the minestrone soup. The soup was served with croutons and cheese, which he added to his soup. Minestrone is a thick, vegetable soup.

We hung out outside until it was time to check in. We had reserved a private room for two. It was located in a separate building, a short hike up the hill from the main lodge. As Ann was walking up, she was a little concerned about having to hike down to use the bathroom in the middle of the night. But when we were shown the room, her worries disappeared. The large room had an ensuite bathroom with a sink, toilet, bidet, and shower. Wonderful!

We took our showers, washed our clothes, and hung them outside on a drying rack that we found in our room. However, by dinner time, our clothes were not quite dry. Hopefully they would finish drying overnight in the room, but the room was rather cool.

We were assigned a table for dinner. Dinner wasn’t until 7:30 pm, later than most of the refuges we’ve been in so far. There were four other people at our table. One couple was from the Netherlands. Another person was from Denmark, and the fourth person was from California. One of them was doing the Tour du Mont Blanc (TMB) in four days, as he was training for a trail running race. Again, the lovely conversations at the dinner table are what make the refuges special.

Dinner was pretty good. As was typical in the Italian rifugios so far, the first course was a pasta. This time it was rotini with a tomato sauce. The main course was roast beef, sweet and sour white beans and onions, along with polenta with cheese. For dessert, they served us panna cotta with a fruit sauce.

Thursday, Day 12 of the TMB, was our easiest hiking day yet. Breakfast at Rifugio Bertone was very simple, just bread, butter, jam, prepackaged toast (more like croutons), and prepackaged cookies. There were no coffee mugs, so tea, coffee, and hot chocolate was served in cereal bowls. It was a rather disappointing breakfast, but it gave us some calories to hike with.

Our clothes did not completely dry overnight, so we hung them out on the clothes line, in the sun, for about 45 minutes before hitting the trail. We were the last ones to leave the rifugio that morning. As a reward, we were treated to a mother ibex and her baby. They grazed on the mountain side not too far from the rifugio.

The trail was pretty flat, relatively speaking. It is called a balcony trail, because it follows along the side of the mountain. It was a beautiful, sunny day. On the opposite side of the valley was Monte Bianco and the peaks surrounding it. We had wonderful views almost the whole way to Rifugio Walter Bonatti, our destination for the day.

In addition to the views of mountain peaks, glaciers, mountain streams, and waterfalls, the trail was lined with a large variety of wildflowers. Hiking doesn’t get much better than that!

We reached Rifugio Walter Bonatti around noon, just in time for lunch. Our hike for the day was 7.9 kilometers (4.9 miles) with an elevation gain of 350 meters (1148 feet) and an elevation loss of 256 meters (840 feet). It was hike number 38 of our 52 Hike Challenge for 2025.

It was a little cool outside, so we sat at a table inside for lunch. Keith had the lentil soup while Ann chose the pasta ragu. Ann decided to splurge and have dessert with lunch. It was a chocolate and pear cake. She had seen that before on the menu at Rifugio Maison Vieille, so she was intrigued to try it. It was delicious.

Check in was normally at 3 pm, but they started allowing people to check in around 2 pm. When we checked in, they informed us that they had a private room available and we could upgrade for an additional cost. Yes, please! Even though they took credit cards for food, we had to pay cash for the room. We had set aside enough euros, as they had warned us ahead of time. Luckily, we had enough cash to cover the additional price of the private room.

Some of the toilets were squat toilets again. This time Ann used them once, as her sister-in-law shamed her into it. Her sister-in-law travels to Europe often and prefers the squat toilets as you don’t have to touch anything. However, since Ann has experience going in the woods during hikes and backpacking, she knows how easy it is to get your pants or shoes wet. To be fair, out in the woods, the ground is uneven, liquids run downhill, and vegetation on the ground likes to splatter things. Ann managed to use the squat toilet without getting anything wet.

The rifugio was modern and clean. The private room was nice, with two twin beds and our own outlet to charge our electronics. There were two “normal” toilets down the hall with a large sink. The was a room downstairs to store our boots, but we were allowed to take our backpacks to our room. There were showers in the basement, that required a token to get two minutes of hot water, along with large sinks to hand wash your clothes in freezing cold water. One shower token per person was included with the room.

After checking in, we took our showers, to allow plenty of time for our clothes to dry. There was a drying room in the basement near the showers, where we hung up our clean, wet clothes and towels. However, by morning, everything was still pretty wet. Bummer!

Dinner was at 7 pm. We didn’t have assigned tables, but they sat people at tables as they arrived for dinner. The rifugio had a capacity of about 80 people, so the dining room was pretty loud.

We sat next to a couple from France. They said they didn’t speak English very well, but they spoke much better English than we spoke French. We had a lovely conversation despite the language barrier and the noisy atmosphere. They were completing the Tour du Mont Blanc in five days. That’s a pretty fast pace!

For dinner, the first course was some type of vegetable slaw. For the second course, we had a choice between pasta with tomato sauce or soup. Keith chose the pasta, but Ann went with the soup, since she had pasta for lunch. The soup was a nice cabbage soup with potatoes. For the main course, there was sliced roasted pork with mashed potatoes and gravy. Watermelon was dessert. It was a nice, ripe, sweet watermelon. It really hit the spot. The meal was tasty and very satisfying.

The stretch of trail from Bertone to Walter Bonatti was our favorite so far. It was relatively easy hiking with stunning views the whole way. We both felt good and were ready to continue to discover what the rest of the trail had in store for us.

Check out our related video: TMB Days 11 & 12: Courmayeur to Rifugio Walter Bonatti

(Ann)