TMB Days 7 & 8: La Ville des Glaciers to Rifugio Maison Vieille - July 26th to 27th, 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 7 and 8 on the trail, from La Ville des Glaciers to Rifugio Maison Vieille, with an overnight stay at Cabane du Combal, starting in France and crossing into Italy.
Saturday, Day 7 of the TMB, we woke up to our alarms at 6 am. We got dressed and packed everything up, so we were ready to go right after breakfast. Our hotel in Bourg-Saint-Maurice (L’Angival) had heated towel bars, so we were able to get our hand wash dry by morning.
The breakfast buffet started at 7 am and we were there promptly at 7. There was yogurt, baguettes, muesli, cheeses, meats, fresh oranges and apples, hard boiled eggs, juice, coffee, tea, croissants, and pain au chocolat. We filled our bellies and were checked out of the hotel by 7:30 am.
We reached the shuttle bus stop in plenty of time to catch the 8:10 shuttle bus. There were a few others waiting there who had not pre-purchased tickets for the shuttle. There are only so many seats on the shuttle, but it did not fill up, so the ones without tickets were able to purchase ones from the driver. The 6:45 am shuttle may have been a different experience.
As we approached Les Chapieux, Ann noticed she didn’t have her trekking poles. She must have left them at the shuttle stop in Bourg-Saint-Maurice. Luckily, Keith remembered that the mini market in Les Chapieux sold poles. So, during the ten minutes we had between shuttles, Ann ran over to the mini market and bought a pair of trekking poles. They weren’t as nice as the ones she had, but it was better than hiking without them.
When we reached La Ville des Glaciers and used the toilets there, it was about 9 am by the time we started hiking. Most of the trail that day was uphill. The first mile, to Refuge des Mottets, was not very steep, but then the trail turned into steep switchbacks. Ann still hadn’t totally gotten rid of her cough and she noticed her lack of normal energy on the steep climbs. It was almost three miles to Col de la Seigne (a mountain pass), with an elevation gain of about 600 meters (2000 feet). It was a struggle for Ann, but she just set a slow pace and made it to the mountain pass in a little over two hours.
Col de la Seigne is right at the border between France and Italy. It was rather cold and breezy at the col (pass), so we didn’t stay there long, just long enough to take a few pictures. It got warmer and less windy as we started to descend.
Now that we were in Italy, instead of greeting the hikers we passed with “Bonjour”, we switched to “Buongiorno”. However, half the people answered back with “Ciao”.
Now that we were going downhill, Ann could keep a better pace. About a half a mile down the trail was a building, a former military barracks called La Casermetta. We stopped there to have a snack, as the building sheltered us from the wind. We were not there alone, as others had the same idea. We just had a cereal bar and some cashews, as we were hoping to get lunch at Rifugio Elisabetta.
It was another couple of miles to reach Rifugio Elisabetta, but it was all downhill. So we reached the rifugio by 1:30 pm. Lunch was served until 3 pm, so we made it with plenty of time.
Rifugio Elisabetta is in a gorgeous setting, with mountain peaks in every direction, not far from a couple of glaciers, with gushing streams and waterfalls flowing down from the glaciers. It is a popular place and we had a hard time finding an open table. A family of three agreed to share their table with us, but the people at the next table said they were about to leave and gave us their table. Shortly afterwards, a couple from Australia joined us at our table.
It took about 40 minutes for the wait staff to reach our table and take our orders. However, the food was ready fairly quickly, in about five to ten minutes. We both had the pasta ragu. Ragu is a meat and tomato sauce, the same as bolognese sauce.
We had a lovely conversation with the Australian couple, Doug and Sam. It was a good thing we didn’t have far to go after Elisabetta because it was almost 3 pm by the time we left there.
As we left Elisabetta, it started to rain. We just put on our rain jackets and Ann covered her camera with a ziplock bag and we continued on our way. The two remaining miles were downhill, but the trail flattened out for most of it, so we made good time. We reached Cabane du Combal by just a little after 4 pm.
This was our longest day of hiking so far. We covered a total of 13.8 kilometers (8.6 miles) with an elevation gain of 799 meters (2621 feet) and an elevation loss of 603 meters (1978 feet). It took us just over seven hours to complete, including the hour and a half we spent at Elisabetta. It was hike number 34 of our 52 Hike Challenge for 2025.
Cabane du Combal turned out to be an excellent rifugio. In fact, it was hard to call it a rifugio; it was more like a hotel. Most of the rooms were shared rooms of four, but each room had an ensuite bathroom with a shower, two sinks, a toilet and a bidet. Towels were provided along with soap and sheets. No sleeping bag liner needed. Like other rifugios, there were bins outside to store your backpack and poles along with cubbies for your boots. There were bins to carry the items that you needed for the night up to your room. They had crocs for you to use and there was a large drying room.
The rifugio held 23 guests, so it was on the smaller side. They used a generator, which they turned off at 9 pm, so they wanted you to take showers and charge your electronics before dinner. So we obliged. The shower was wonderful, with plenty of hot water. We shared our room with a couple from Israel.
For dinner, we were assigned to tables by room number. There were a few tables that were only for two people. Unfortunately, we were assigned to one of those tables. That meant that we couldn’t carry on a conversation with others, one of the things we like the most about rifugios. However, that was our only complaint. Everything else was top notch.
Dinner was also wonderful. The first course was penne pomodoro (tomato sauce). The main course was sliced roasted pork with mashed potatoes and mixed vegetables in a tomato sauce. Dessert was panna cotta with a caramel sauce. It was all delicious and filling.
Ann’s hamstrings cramped up a little bit on her that evening, but they didn’t last long. That was the first time she’s had muscle cramps since she started on Day 2 to add electrolytes to her first bottle of water every day.
Sunday, Day 8 of the TMB, started out pretty similar to the other days. Breakfast was at 7 am. There were hard-boiled eggs, yogurt, canned pears, bread, jam, juice, coffee, and tea. However, there was no muesli, so Ann settled for some corn flakes instead.
Ann had developed a blister on the bottom side of her little toe. She taped it up with a band-aid, hoping that would help alleviate the friction and the pain. The band-aid fell off by the end of the day, but it did seem to help.
We hit the trail a little after 8 am. Surprisingly, we were not the last ones to get started that morning. We didn’t have as much distance to hike that day, but half of it was a steep climb. Again, Ann struggled some on the climb, keeping a slow, but steady pace. The spectacular views helped motivate her to continue. We identified the mountain peak on the other side of the valley from us as Mont Blanc (or Monte Bianco in Italian).
We started out the day by greeting the hikers we met with “ciao”, but then half of them answered with “buongiorno”. So we switched back to “buongiorno”, unless they said “ciao” first. Perhaps the ones saying “ciao” were young locals and most of the people saying “buongiorno” were foreigners like us, not Italians. Who knows? We’re just guessing. At least we’re trying to adopt the local culture.
We reached the top of our climb in about two hours. Then it was mostly downhill from there to Rifugio Maison Vieille, our destination for the day. Ann had a much easier time on the way down. We even made a small little detour to walk around the other side of a pond to get a nice reflection of mountain peaks on the surface of the water. There were tons of little tadpoles swimming around in the water.
We reached the rifugio around a quarter past noon. Our goal was to get there while they were still serving lunch, but we weren’t sure what hours their kitchen was open. We thought that sometime between noon and 2 pm was a good guess. We believe their kitchen stayed open until 2:30 or 3 pm, as check-ins for the rifugio didn’t start until 3 pm.
Our hike for the day was 8 kilometers (5 miles) with an elevation gain of 499 meters (1637 feet) and an elevation loss of 504 meters (1654 feet). It was hike number 35 of our 52 Hike Challenge for 2025.
The sun was shining when we arrived at the rifugio, so we grabbed a table outside to have lunch. The service was a little faster than at Rifugio Elisabetta the day before. This time, Ann ordered the polenta e salsiccia while Keith had the spaghetti alla carbonara. Polenta is boiled cornmeal and salsiccia is the Italian word for sausage. Carbonara has fatty cured pork (bacon), cheese, and eggs. Both dishes were delicious.
After lunch, we had some time to kill before we could check in. There were some lounge chairs to soak in the sun, but they were all taken. So we found a little bench and table up against the building. After about half an hour, some lounge chairs opened up, so we went over to claim them. We weren’t sitting there very long before the sun disappeared, the wind picked up, and it started to rain. Oh well, so much for lounging in the sun. Back to the little table we went. There was a little canopy over the table which offered us some protection from the rain, but it wasn’t raining very hard.
When we checked in, they offered to upgrade us from a dormitory to a private room for two for a small fee. We accepted. It looked like there may have been about three private rooms in two outbuildings. The disadvantage was that we had to go outside to reach the bathrooms, bar, and dining area. However, we could take all of our belongings into the room, including our packs, poles, and boots. There was a little heater inside to keep us warm and the place was pretty quiet. Again, Ann found the mattress a little too firm, so she was tossing and turning as her hips ached.
The bathroom facilities were not the best that we’ve seen, so we skipped taking showers and washing our clothes. Three of the toilets were squatting toilets, where the toilet bowl is at floor level. You place one foot on each side of the toilet and squat. Luckily, we found the one remaining toilet that was a sit toilet before Ann had to use it. Yes, it would have been an experience to use a squat toilet, but it’s one experience that Ann would rather skip, especially after a day of hiking.
Dinner was at the typical time of 7 pm. We were assigned a table with four other hikers. Two were from Australia and the other two were from England. We had a wonderful time chatting with them. It is our favorite part of staying at a rifugio.
It was another two days on trail with stunning scenery and now we were in our second country along the trail, Italy. It was interesting to notice that the cuisine at our lodging had definitely switched from French to Italian along with the change in language. We were excited to see what else Italy had in store for us along the TMB.
Check out our related video: TMB Days 7 & 8: La Ville des Glaciers to Rifugio Maison Vieille
(Ann)