TMB Days 15 & 16: Gîte Alpage de la Peule to Champex-Lac - August 3rd to 4th, 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 15 and 16 on the trail, from Gîte Alpage de la Peule to Champex-Lac, with an overnight stay at Hotel Edelweiss in La Fouly, all in Switzerland.

Sunday, Day 15 of the TMB, seemed like our easiest hiking day yet. It wasn’t quite the shortest, but it was all downhill, mostly on gravel roads with easy footing.

We got up at 6:30 am and had breakfast at 7 am. Gîte Alpage de la Peule is a working dairy farm. They milked the cows the evening before and they were milking them again early in the morning. Breakfast at Gîte Alpage de la Peule was decent. There was flavored yogurt, oats, bread, butter, jam, coffee and tea. No juice.

Since we didn’t have far to go, we took our time getting ready. We left after 8:30 am. Again, leaving late meant we had the trail mostly to ourselves, especially starting out.

Unlike the cloudy, cold, rainy day the day before, the sun was shining and the skies were clear. We could now see the views that we had missed the day before. Wildflowers lined the trail, still wet from the rain and dew. Cow bells from the grazing cattle were ringing on the far side of the valley.

The trail started out on a gravel and dirt road, then it cut down a rocky path to get down to the valley floor. After crossing the Dranse de Ferret river, we were following a road again.

We stopped at Alpage des Ars for drinks. We were making good time and didn’t want to arrive in La Fouly before lunch time. After passing through the cute little village of Ferret, the trail crossed the river again and followed an actual trail for a while.

Then we crossed back over the river as we approached La Fouly. La Fouly was a cute ski village. A chair lift was taking mountain bikers up the mountain. Our accommodations, the Hôtel Edelweiss, was at the far end of the village.

By the time we reached the hotel, we had covered 7.2 kilometers (4.5 miles) with an elevation gain of only 83 meters (272 feet) and an elevation loss of 558 meters (1831 feet) which we completed in two and a half hours, including the time we spent at Alpage des Ars. It was hike number 41 of our 52 Hike Challenge for 2025.

It was too early to check in, but we put our backpacks and poles in the boot room, then walked back through the village to find a place for lunch.

There was a nice outside patio with a view at Auberge des Glaciers (Hostel of the Glaciers), so we went there. Keith ordered the pizza Valaisanne. It came with lard (bacon), jambon cru (raw ham), viande séchée (a dried meat), and onions. Ann ordered the rösti jambon fromage. A rösti is grated potatoes, layered with toppings, then baked. In this case, it was covered with ham (jambon) and cheese (fromage). The rösti came with a lovely salade mêlée (mixed salad). After our tasty lunch, we returned to Hôtel Edelweiss.

We changed out of our hiking boots and put on our sandals/shower shoes so we could walk inside the hotel (no boots allowed). It was still too early to check in, so we sat down in the bar for a beer and a tea.

After finishing her tea, Ann went down to the boot room to grab her laptop. When she came back, she almost sat on her camera and she broke the cold shoe off which attached the microphone to the camera. The camera did not come with a cold shoe, so Ann had attached one with super glue.

To fix her camera, she walked down to the Supermarché (super market) to find some glue. She bought what looked like super glue, made by Uhu. Later that evening, she reattached the cold shoe with the glue. She used rubbing alcohol (that she carries for deodorant and disinfectant) to clean the surfaces, and used duct tape from her first aid kit to hold it in place overnight. Ann could tell when she attached it that it was not as fast acting as super glue, so her hopes were not very high that it would work. However, she was pleasantly surprised the following morning when she took the tape off. Yay!

We had a private room in the hotel, with an ensuite bathroom and a balcony with a view. It felt good to have a nice shower and wash our clothes. However, we had to put dry, but dirty clothes on after our shower. That will get remedied the following day as we had another hotel reserved.

The balcony turned out to be a great place to hang out our laundry and get it dry in the sun. Ann also put out her warm headband and warm gloves in the sun, as they were still damp from the rain the day before.

Dinner was at 6:30 pm, at least for the private room guests. There were also dormitories at the hotel, and the guests in the dorm didn’t come to dinner until 7 pm. Our dinner was a wonderful salad followed by chicken on rice with roasted zucchini and tomatoes. Dessert was a fancy frozen treat of ice cream and chocolate.

The private rooms were seated at individual tables by themselves, but the dorm guests were seated at large tables together. We noticed that their meal started with soup instead of salad. We didn’t stay long enough to know whether the rest of their meal was the same as ours.

The beds were comfortable and we both got a good night’s sleep. We needed it, because the next two days would be our longest days of hiking.

Monday, Day 16 of the TMB, was a long day of hiking. Breakfast at Hotel Edelweiss in La Fouly started at 6:45 am. We wanted to get an early start, but decided that getting up at 6:30 am and having breakfast at 7 am was early enough.

Breakfast was a pretty nice buffet, with yogurt, muesli, cut fresh fruit, bread, rolls, butter, jams, hard boiled eggs (or you could boil your own), sliced meats and cheeses, tea, coffee, juice, and some sweets.

By the time we finished breakfast and packed up, it was about 8:15 am when we hit the trail. The trail started out relatively flat, following along the valley. It crossed over a few mountain streams with waterfalls. There was a short uphill section that followed along a narrow cliff with chains. However, we didn’t feel the chains were necessary. Of course, the chains might be necessary if the trail is covered with snow and/or ice. It was dry when we passed through.

We stopped at a little Café called La Kabana for drinks and a crêpe. To Ann’s surprise, they even had chai latte, so that’s what she had. We split a classic crêpe, with sugar and cinnamon.

Not long after La Kabana, the trail goes right through the town of Praz de Fort. It was a cute little village, with narrow streets and old homes and barns. The trail continued through another cute village called Les Arlaches.

The last village we passed through was Issert. This is where we stopped for lunch, at Le Châtelet. We both had the omelette complète, which included jambon (ham) and fromage (cheese). The omelettes were served with a lovely mixed salad. It was too much food for us to eat, but we managed to eat it anyway, as it was very tasty

From there, the trail climbs up to Champex-Lac. Nothing like a long, steep, uphill climb at the end of a long hiking day. Ann was having trouble with her Peak Design camera clip. It seemed to be jammed up. So she grabbed a spare carabiner and attached her PowerShot camera to the chest strap of her backpack. Since it was attached to the Peak Design clutch strap (paid link) on the camera, it didn’t hang down very far and was comfortable to carry that way.

There were various wood carvings along the trail to entertain us during our climb. Ann felt strong as we started out, but she lost her energy about half way up. It felt like the energy left her legs and she was breathing pretty hard. She shortened her steps, stopping often to catch her breath. She tried to keep her pulse rate below 140 beats per minute in order to maintain a more sustainable pace. It became a struggle to reach Hôtel Splendide, our destination in Champex-Lac.

It must have looked like Ann was struggling during the climb. A local hiker stopped briefly and chatted with us. Then we could see him further up the trail, drawing a heart in the dirt. We came across several other hearts during the rest of the climb. Ann appreciated the nice gesture to keep up her spirits.

Part way up the climb was a small cave. We briefly ducked inside to check it out. You really needed a headlamp to see anything, but we were too lazy to pull ours out of our packs. Instead, we just relied on our cell phones and light from others. After a couple of quick pictures, we were back on the trail.

We covered 14.6 kilometers (9.1 miles) that day, with an elevation gain of 626 meters (2054 feet) and an elevation loss of 672 meters (2205 feet). It took us six and a half hours to complete the hike, including all of our stops along the way. It was hike number 42 of our 52 Hike Challenge for 2025.

Hôtel Splendide was built in 1938 and has been family run for four generations. It has a grand presence. We could see it from the valley below before we started our ascent. That also means that there are spectacular views from the hotel.

We had reserved the family double room, not because we needed that kind of space, but because it was the only room left on the date that we wanted. The one room was on the corner, with two balconies, along with an adjoining room with two twin beds, which we did not use.

The views from our room were stunning. We felt like we were living in luxury, and the price of the room matched.

After taking our showers, Ann hung out in the room while Keith went down to the outside patio to have a beer. It was a warm, sunny day, so we were able to set out our laundry near the open windows in the sun. Everything dried in no time.

Dinner was also elegant. Since we had a private room, we were seated at a separate table. The starter was a smoked salmon salad. The main was a pork steak with a mushroom sauce along with zucchini, carrots, and roasted potatoes. Dessert was a layered cake with a chocolate mousse filling. Everything was delicious.

After offloading her footage for the day, Ann went straight to bed. We had another long day of hiking ahead of us and she wanted to try to regain her strength.

We went from the easiest day of hiking to one of the hardest. We were a little concerned about Ann’s stamina for the following day, since it was another long day of hiking. But, like any challenge, we were just taking it one day at a time.

Check out our related video: TMB Days 15 & 16: Gîte Alpage de la Peule to Champex-Lac

(Ann)