The Tour of Mont Blanc: Complete two-way trekking guide

by Kev Reynolds

Every year thousands of walkers embark on the Tour of Mont Blanc, a 170km route that is recognised as one of the world's classic walks. This guidebook contains in-depth route description for both the classic 11 day anti-clockwise circuit and an alternative 10 day clockwise trip.

The guidebook is packaged with a map booklet containing official 1:25,000 IGN mapping that covers the entire TMB route, and urban maps for the major centres of Chamonix, Courmayeur, Les Contamines and Champex.

Complete with a French-English glossary, comprehensive notes about accommodation options and transport details, this guide provides all the information needed for planning and completing a trip around the spectacular Mont Blanc massif.

Genres: Travel, Mountaineering, Walking, Nonfiction

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1983

About the author

A lifelong passion for the countryside in general, and mountains in particular, drives Kev Reynolds' desire to share his sense of wonder and delight in the natural world through his writing, photography and lectures. Claiming to be The Man with the World's Best Job, he has enjoyed a fruitful partnership with Cicerone since the 1970s, producing more than 50 books, including guides to major trekking regions of Nepal, and to numerous routes in the Alps and Pyrenees, as well as walking guides for Kent, Sussex and the Cotswolds. His collection of autobiographical short stories, A Walk in the Clouds, is a record of 50 years of mountain travel and adventures, while Abode of the Gods tells of eight of his many trekking expeditions in the Himalaya. The Mountain Hut Book, on the other hand, is a celebration of those alpine refuges perched in remote places, brought to life through joyful tales and exciting photographs.

Kev is an honorary life member of the Outdoor Writers' and Photographers' Guild (OWPG),and an honorary member of both SELVA (the Société d'Etudes de la Littérature de Voyage Anglophone) and the British Association of International Mountain Leaders (BAIML). When not away in the mountains, he lives with his wife in view of what he calls 'the Kentish Alps' with unrestricted walking country on his doorstep. But he also travels throughout Britain and abroad during the winter months to share his love of the places he writes about through a series of lectures.

Reviews

[Valentijn de Groot · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like what you expect when you buy a Cicerone guidebook: a very good overview of the trail with detailed descriptions of the sections. Only minor point is that it is focused on refuges and not on walking with a tent. Better options for campers could be included, like walking past Refugio Bonatti and ending the stage when the trail descends and hits the public road, where you can take a bus back to a campsite. This would save you 400 m elevation gain. However a must have when walking it!

PS: Do NOT buy the 2015-2019 edition of it (like I did)! The maps of the sections are childishly drawn, the elevation gain is always underestimated and it had wrong information (like for instance a food store in Trient??). However, this is all fixed in the 2020 edition with an extension of a 1:25000 mapbook alongside the guidebook!

[Andrew Penning · Rating 1 out of 5]

Maybe it's better counter clockwise but his directions were really quite hit or miss going clockwise and I found that the layout of the variants was confusing having to jump around to connect the variants to the main path. I was also disappointed the variant near les contamines that goes through refuge Tre La Tete and refuge de Miage.
That being said there were times when it was definitely helpful.

[Melissa · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was helpful for booking rifugios and was great to see your elevation ascent and descent for the day. However, we did the trail clockwise. His directions to find the trails from towns are not adequate. I don’t think he actually hiked it both ways, and it seems as if he just tried to flip the directions around. For example, he would reference street signs you could only see if you were walking counter-clockwise, but these were not visible from the other way. Also, the time estimates on his trail descriptions often didn’t match those on the signs.

[Turkeyphant · Rating 2 out of 5]

As others have said, not very helpful for those camping and completely useless if wild camping or hiking off-season.

The clockwise directions are an afterthought and weigh the book down and the interleaving of some variantes is illogical and confusing. Some minor errors too.

Generally maps were useful at least and time estimates reasonable.

[Mary K · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good trail descriptions, but outdated refuge information

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

Comprehensive guide to the TMB, the only thing missing are some suggested campsites. You literally do not need a map if you have this book. Go to Ann Nelson's blog for tmb campsites.

[Gal Sivan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent guidebook only issue was too heavy - ended up taking photos of everything and giving it away to another backpacker. Still an excellent guide!

[David C · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you plan on doing TMB, this is a must read

[Wendy · Rating 4 out of 5]

thank u daddy kev for writing our TMB bible

[ngọc · Rating 3 out of 5]

This provides a glimpse of what the TMB would be like. It's pretty descriptive and informative but obviously lots of things have changes since its publication so it's better used along with more up-to-date materials.

[Lorraine · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent guidebook that we are using to help plan and prepare for our Tour de Mont Blanc

[Patricia Murphy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading this guide made me even more excited about going on this trip! I love the descriptive details about each section of trail. It's nice to know all of the options while hiking.

[Lucy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent guide. We used this guide plus the 1:20000 maps and were successfully able to walk the TMB.