UKH

Has any got any experience of doing the TdMB over 4 x 40-50km days?

I know that the standard walking schedule is 11 days and that the race is won in 22 hours or so, but I don't think that either of these are for me.

Logistics look like the biggest obstacle, but I would be grateful for anyone's experience.

In terms of our experience, we are confident walking, running and navigating in the mountains and have both (me and the wife) done ultras with more ascent than any individual day looks like on this.

We did it in four days, with a couple if variants but staying in refuges, it's relatively easy 7 hour days.

Navigation is very easy, food and drink no issues can be very hot and if early in the year lots of hard packed snow, if doing it next year book early.

We did exactly that in a sort of mountain marathon style a few years ago. I'll type up a better reply when I've got a minute.

I did the last half, Courmayeur to Cham in 2.5 days. We wild camped one night and one night in La Fouly. It's certainly not a 10 day hike for a fit person, non-technical trails, not that steep for the most part, no nav, plenty of water available and other supplies. I was running the UTMB a few days later so wasn't pushing it.

I think it makes for a nice pretty low stress tour of a beautiful area. We just wild camped up one of the valleys, pitched late and packed early. You also can easily jump on a bus from a few spots if you are behind time.

I did it solo in two, two day sections with a day off in Chamonix in between in early August 2015. I took the early morning bus to Courmayeur and did the Champex - Col De Balme - Chamonix side anti-clockwise, then a couple of days later took the early morning bus back to Courmayeur again and did the other half clockwise.

My approach was to carry lightweight camping kit and walk until the early evening, stop, pitch up and eat, and then get up early the next morning to repeat the process. Most of the huts I passed looked rammed, and there was a lot of traffic around them as people arrived for their stay, but I often saw hardly anyone else on the the trail after about 5pm, and I was also on my own for a couple of hours each morning as well. I planned it so that I pitched my tent high up, staying just below the Col Des Fours and the Fenestre D'Arpette (on the Champex side). What with carrying about 12 kg of kit and food / water I was on my feet for most of the day, which were in a sorry state by the time I got back to Chamonix.

Great walking over most of the route, although I recall finding the Val Ferret to be a bit of a bore. It was a great experience and the route isn't at all intimidating. (Which is more than I can say about some of the follow up 'bivi walks' I did, as with my trip around Mt Buet via the Frêtes du Grenier. Mt Buet itself is the biggest pile of scary choss I have ever been up, and overnighting in the Combe de Buet was like camping on the moon.) 

I walked it in about 6 or 7 days, following the normal route with one or two of the longer detours. This equates to about ±1000m of elevation gain and drop per day which is pretty feasible when you have all day!

Carrying all the usual camping equipment and using camp sites or wild camping if the weather was good. You dont need to carry a lot of food or water as you are forever passing by water sources and through towns for the essentials (Coffee top ups!) 

We did it over 4 days going anticlockwise starting in Les Houches, where there were higher options we took them. The campsite in Les Houches charges a small fee for leaving a car whilst you're away so that's pretty handy. There were plenty of places to stock up with food and fill bottles. We wild camped 2 nights and did a campsite on one just because it fell in the right place and a shower was nice! We had plenty of time for cafe stops and none of the days were massive although we did 3 longer ones and a shorter one at the end. First night was near the Rifigio Elisabetta, 2nd La Fouly(campsite), 3rd Le Tour. As others have said the refuges were rammed and camping gave a lot more flexibility. We met plenty of people walking it over 6 or 7 days so going lightweight and running means 4 days is pretty straightforward.

Thanks all. Looks quite doable. Lightweight camping option probably easiest logistically.

I'll just add that it was a brilliant few days, busy trails but amazing views and really enjoyable.

My plan for next year is to bimble around solo - with MM style kit - not staying in refuges.  It was where to get food that mainly interested me