Tour du Mont Blanc Stage 8: Champex Lac to Le Peuty

This guide to Tour du Mont Blanc Stage 8 will help you plan the route from Champex Lac to Le Peuty in southwestern Switzerland.

Cloud-covered mountain peaks visible through gap in forest on Stage 8 of the Tour du Mont Blanc.

The morning after finishing Stage 7 of the Tour du Mont Blanc, we woke up to rain and fog. This meant it was decision time for Stage 8. Which route would we take, given the weather?

Tour du Mont Blanc Stage 8: Activity Profile

11 miles
2,687-foot ascent
3,675-foot descent

Here are some ideas for the necessary gear for the TMB, as well as our top lessons learned.

The Goal

We needed to move from Champex Lac to Le Peuty, either via the Arpette variant (with amazing views) or via the original trail.

Tour du Mont Blanc Stage 8: Original or Variant?

The Stage 8 Arpette variant is supposed to have some of the best and highest views of the trail. It cuts off a little distance on the TMB, though it likely doesn't save any time.

However, it's also highly challenging, as it involves route-finding and scrambling over an avalanche field. It’s highly discouraged in poor visibility or otherwise bad weather.

We’d planned to do the Arpette variant for this section of the TMB, but the weather wasn’t cooperative. It was rainy, cold and foggy, so we opted to do the main stage 8 route.

We later heard that it was sleeting and snowing at the top of the Arpette variant, and that the hut wardens were urging people not to do the route this day. So it seems we made the right choice when we headed out on the original stage 8 route.

Hiking the Original Stage 8 from Champex Lac to Le Peuty

As we started out on the trail, we quickly reached a foggy forested area.

We couldn’t help but think it looked a bit creepy, and wondered if we were wandering into the Fire Swamp from the Princess Bride. For the record, we didn’t see any Rodents of Unusual Size. I don’t think they exist.

Backpacker traversing muddy trail through foggy landscape on Stage 8 of the Tour du Mont Blanc.

This day on the main route was a wet and muddy uphill slog.

Backpacker dressed for rain climbing rocky uphill trail on Stage 8 of the Tour du Mont Blanc.

We had lots of creek crossings, including crossing this small waterfall.

Backpackers crossing small waterfall on Stage 8 of the Tour du Mont Blanc.

Despite the gloomy day, there were occasional glimpses of gorgeous mountains in the distance and the Rhône valley below. Whenever we saw the fog clear, we’d pause to take a look.

Trail down steep mountainside with cloud cover drifting across.

And then of course, we continued our uphill hike.

Trail strewn with large rocks up hill on Stage 8 of the Tour du Mont Blanc.

We stopped at Alpage de Bovine and got soup, cake and a beer, and then continued on. It was a perfect day for soup.

Bowl of soup, slice of chocolate cake, and bottle of beer.

While we sat here to eat, the clouds lifted in the distance for some really beautiful views.

Gap in distant clouds showing snow-covered mountain peaks on Stage 8 of the Tour du Mont Blanc.

Wooden picnic table overlooking foggy valley.

And then we carried on, mostly downhill.

As the fog continued to lift, we got more excellent scenery.

Backpacker using trekking pole to walk downhill on dirt trail.

Hiker on dirt path viewing cloud-obscured alpine mountainsides across the valley on Stage 8 of the Tour du Mont Blanc.

And of course, we saw more cows with cowbells. (More cowbell!)

The downhill section today turned into a muddy downhill slip-and-slide, so we had to be careful with our footwork.

We stopped for beer and fries at Hôtel du Col de la Forclaz, which is technically the end of Stage 8. We continued on a short way to the refuge at Le Peuty to stay for the night.

We had to walk along the metal walkway pictured below.

Metal walkway overhanging alpine valley.

If I hadn’t been so tired, this would’ve freaked me out. Since I was so tired, I just continued on, trying to use the metal grate to scrape mud off my shoes.

From the metal walkway, we could see the campground down below. (The photo below shows the field of tiny-looking tents below us in the lower left.)

View of small campground in alpine valley.

We set up our tent and noticed the nice view of the glacier in the background.

Backpacking tent pitched with view of forested mountainsides.

At the reception area we made a reservation for a yurt dinner and also booked a picnic lunch for the next day. The dinner was a cozy addition to all the other great food and drink we'd had on the TMB.