TMB Days 9 & 10: Rifugio Maison Vieille to Courmayeur - July 28th to 29th, 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 day 9 on the trail and day 10 off the trail, from Rifugio Maison Vieille to Courmayeur, with a two night stay in Courmayeur, all in Italy.

Monday was our shortest hiking day yet on the TMB, just 3.5 miles from Rifugio Maison Vielle to Hotel Berthod in Courmayeur. And it was all downhill, yay!

Breakfast at the rifugio that morning was pretty basic, yogurt, fruit cocktail, muesli, corn flakes, bread, meat, cheese, juice, tea, and coffee. At breakfast, we learned that one of our table mates had gotten sick during the night. Oh no! His partner was trying to figure out what to do. Their next night’s stay was planned to be Rifugio Bonatti, about 18 kilometers (11 miles) and a lot of elevation change away. There was a chair lift that could take them down to Courmayeur. The other couple at our table heard about a free shuttle from Courmayeur to a place not too far from Bonatti. We hope our fellow hiker recovers quickly and that they figure out a plan to get them through the next day or two. Best wishes!

After breakfast, Ann gooped up her little toe with petroleum jelly this time, hoping it would help with her blister. It did seem to help, but we didn’t hike very far to put it to a good test. Ann’s OK with that.

We hit the trail around 8:30 am. The morning started out with drizzling rain. However, once we got below tree line, there was enough cover that we could take off our rain jackets to keep from overheating. It was a steep trail down, with lots of switchbacks. But Ann was grateful that it was downhill instead of up, so it didn’t drain her energy.

We heard later that people at higher elevations woke up to 10 centimeters (4 inches) of fresh snow that morning. We dodged that bullet! We’ll take a little drizzle of rain over hiking in snow.

We first entered Courmayeur in the Dolonne area of town, with its very narrow streets and buildings full of character. The thick slate roofs seemed to be the norm. After crossing the Dora Baltea River, we entered the busier part of Courmayeur where most of the hotels, shops, and restaurants were. However, it still had a lot of character.

By the time we reached Hotel Berthod, we covered 5.6 kilometers (3.5 miles) with an elevation gain of only 53 meters (174 feet), but an elevation loss of 796 meters (2612 feet). It took us two hours and 21 minutes to complete. We counted it as hike number 36 of our 52 Hike Challenge for 2025.

It was only 11 am when we arrived at our hotel, so it was too early to check in. However, they did let us leave our backpacks there until check in time at 2 pm. Just like Rifugio Cabane du Combal (TMB Days 7 & 8: La Ville des Glaciers to Rifugio Maison Vieille - July 26th to 27th, 2025), the hotel checked our passports. We heard that is pretty customary in Italy.

After dropping off our bags, we walked around town, running some errands, waiting for restaurants to open up for lunch, at noon. Ann bought a new pair of trekking poles. She really didn’t care for the ones she bought in Les Chapieux after accidentally leaving her original poles in Bourg-Saint-Maurice. The straps of the trekking poles were held together by a buckle and the strap kept falling out of the buckle. It was very annoying. So she picked up a nicer pair from one of the many sporting goods stores in town.

Then we headed over to the pharmacy (farmacia). We were out of electrolytes and wanted to continue using them to prevent muscle cramps. They didn’t sell the tablets that you dissolve in water, just the little packets of powder to add to the water. So that’s what we bought. It contained sugar, which we don’t care for, but we didn’t have a lot of options.

The hotel gave us a map of town along with restaurant recommendations. Pizza sounded good, so we went to one of the hotel’s recommendations, La Padella. Keith ordered the prosciutto e funghi (ham and mushrooms), while Ann had the calabrese (spicy sausage, eggplant, and red onions). They were both delicious.

We still had some time before check-in, so Ann ordered dessert and Keith had a coffee. Or at least that is Ann’s excuse for ordering dessert. She tried the Frittelle Valdostane Antica ricetta artigianale, on the waiter’s recommendation. That mouthful of words translates to Aosta Valley fritters, an ancient artisanal recipe. They were apple fritters, similar to beignets filled with apples, cinnamon, raisins and walnuts, topped with powdered sugar. Two thumbs up from Ann! Since Keith ordered a “caffè”, he got an expresso. An expresso is the default coffee in Italy.

We returned to the hotel around 1:15 pm. Our plan was just to hang out in the lobby until our room was ready. No sooner did we sit down, the receptionist came over and told us our room was ready.

After taking showers and washing our clothes, we hung out in the room until dinner time. Ann was thankful to stay off her feet, hoping to heal up the blister on her toe.

After our wonderful lunch, we were not that hungry and thought a nice salad would be nice for dinner. We tried venturing out before 7 pm and finding a place, but we couldn’t find any place that served food until 7 pm. We ended up at La Luge, a bar and hamburger place, but they had a variety of salads. Keith ordered the salad with smoked salmon, while Ann had the “Summer Salad” with eggplant, semi-dried tomatoes, cheese, and pesto. The salads really hit the spot.

Keith had a beer with dinner, a local beer called Aiguille Blanche from Birra Courmayeur Monte Bianco. It had been a while since he had a beer. He normally has one beer every evening, so he enjoyed renewing his habit.

Tuesday was day 10 of the TMB, but it was a “zero day” as we didn’t hike anywhere, staying in the same hotel in Courmayeur as the night before.

Breakfast at Hotel Berthod was wonderful. There was a large variety of items. There were scrambled eggs, green beans, cold cuts, cheeses, pancakes, several different types of croissants, several types of yogurt, cereals (including muesli), breads, and an array of sweets.

But what Ann appreciated the most was the variety of cut fresh fruit like strawberries, nectarines, blueberries, watermelon, and grapes.

After breakfast, we hung out in our room for a little while, then went for a short walk in town. Ann needed to pick up some more Ricola cough drops, since she still hasn’t quite gotten rid of her cough. Then we stopped at Creme et Chocolat for a cappuccino and an ice cream cone. We’ll let you guess who had which. The cone was one dip of menta (mint) and one of lampone (raspberry). Delicious!

Then it was about time to go to our reserved trip up to Punta Helbronner via the Skyway Monte Bianco. We had reserved an ascent for 1:15 pm, so we needed to arrive at the base station at 1 pm. We could have walked there from the hotel, as it was only 3.4 kilometers (2.1 miles), but Ann was trying to rest to gain energy and let the blister on her toe heal. So we took the free shuttle bus.

Figuring out which bus to take was a little confusing. We walked over to the main bus stop in town, Courmayeur PMB. There were several bus stands there. Google Maps didn’t make it clear which bus stand to go to and the signs posted at each stand were confusing to us. So we walked inside the tourist information office, located right at the bus station, to ask. They told us that the next bus to the Skyway was at 12:15 pm from bus stop #3. From Google Maps, we could see that was bus 947. While we were standing there waiting, a bus labeled 947 came into a different stop, so we went over to ask. No, it was not the bus to the Skyway. So we waited and got on the one they told us to. Bus 947 is a local bus, taking a non-direct route with lots of stops, so it took about 25 minutes to reach the Skyway. We arrived in plenty of time.

We went ahead and got in line for the gondola, even though we were about 15 minutes early. We waited in line close to half an hour before we were on the gondola and heading up the mountain.

The first gondola took us to the Pavillon station (The Mountain), at an elevation of 2173 meters (7129 feet). The gondola itself was pretty cool. It was circular and rotated a full revolution on the way up, so everyone had a good view in every direction. All gondolas should be like that!

At the Pavilion station, we transferred to another gondola which took us up to Punta Helbronner station (The Sky), at an elevation of 3466 meters (11,371 feet). Again, it took us about 30 minutes to get on the second gondola.

The second one was similar to the first one, as it also rotated a full revolution as it went up. We were limited in time at the Punta Helbronner station to a little over an hour before we had to return to the Pavilion station. At the top, it was cold and icy. There was an observation area with a glass floor inside, but the better views were from the 360 degree observation deck outside. Luckily, we thought enough ahead to bring our puffy coats, gloves, and hats.

Even though it was a clear day, clouds liked to cover the mountain peaks. The views from Punta Helbronner came and went quickly as the clouds rolled through. So we had to be fast with the shutter to capture the scenery.

We actually had our fill of the cold and the crowds and were ready to go back down before our scheduled time. We went into the bar and ordered a cappuccino and a Coke to kill some time. There wasn’t any place to sit, so we leaned up at a counter to consume our drinks.

Then we got in line to go back down to the Pavilion station. It was a long line. Again we waited over half an hour to get on a gondola.

We spent some time at the Pavilion station. It was sunny and warm outside there. The gondola ticket got us into the botanical garden (Giardino Botanico Alpino Saussurea) there. Keith didn’t last very long in the garden, so he found a place to sit in the shade and wait for Ann to get her fill of pictures in the garden. Quite a few of the flowers in the garden were familiar, as we had seen them along the TMB trail. However, others Ann had never seen before, so she found it interesting. She also found the garden relaxing, away from the crowds of people along with the sound of running water that flowed through the garden.

Then we got in line one last time to wait for a gondola to take us back down to the base station. Again, another half an hour wait. It was amazing how many people they could fit into one gondola, with everyone still having a good view out.

When we reached the bottom, we must have just missed the shuttle bus back to town, because we had to wait close to an hour for the next bus. This time Google Maps failed us, because it thought there was another shuttle on the half an hour, but there wasn’t. The bus ride back to Courmayeur PMB was much faster, only about ten minutes, as it took a more direct route with only one or two stops along the way.

So, after leaving the hotel at 11:30 am, our gondola experience took the majority of the day, as we returned to the hotel around 5 pm. That was a lot longer than we expected it to take. It was an expensive, but cool experience, despite the crowds and long waits.

After taking showers and relaxing in the room, we headed out for dinner at 7 pm, when most of the restaurants opened for dinner. We went to another restaurant recommended by our hotel, La Terrazza. The restaurant had a lovely atmosphere and an extensive menu.

Keith settled on the Filettino di cervo (venison fillet) which came with caramelized onions, sour cherry compote, mini brioche bun, and potato mille-feuille (a thousand leaves or layers). Ann opted for the spaghetti integrali (wholemeal). The pasta came with cherry tomatoes, basil air (looked like soap bubbles), and nduja (spicy sausage) flakes.

For dessert, Keith had the Strudel tiepido alle pera, cioccolato e rhum bianco (warm pear and chocolate strudel with white rum), which also came with vanilla ice cream. Ann ordered the Crema bruciata ai chiodi di garofino, mousse al genepy e croccante al cioccolato al quinoa (clove burnt cream, an herbal liqueur mousse, and crunchy chocolate quinoa). Everything was very tasty.

Now that we had a day of rest, we went to bed feeling ready to tackle more of the Tour du Mont Blanc trail the following morning. Ann’s blister was still there, but feeling a little better. She applied zinc oxide to the blister before going to bed, hoping it would help the blister heal faster. The plan was petroleum jelly in the morning to help get her through another day of hiking. Bring it on!

Check out our related video: TMB Days 9 & 10: Rifugio Maison Vieille to Courmayeur

(Ann)