Stage 2 – Les Contamines to Refuge des Mottets

Start: Hotel Gai Soleil in Les Contamines
End: Refuge des Mottets
Route: Col de Fours variant
Difficulty: Hardest of the entire trip
Duration: 10 hours, including lunch at Refuge de La Croix du Bonhomme and getting lost during the Col de Fours portion….

Oof. Well this day started out nicely enough. I made the mistake of taking the Col de Fours variant early in the season without crampons, which we will get to later.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

The ascent out of the valley floor was nice enough. The day starts out quite flat until you start the climb about 1.5 hours in. You pass Refuge Nant Borant and Refuge de la Balme in this early portion.

Eventually as it started to get closer to the top, it became necessary to walk uphill in other people’s snow tracks. This was totally fine when taken slowly, though I imagine it would be quite tricky any earlier in the season. I would have felt more comfortable with crampons but this portion was fine overall.

Once I got to Col de la Croix to Bonhomme, I ate lunch at the Bonhomme refuge. This was one of the meals I didn’t like very much during the trip so I recommend getting a packed lunch for this day.

At this point, the route splits. You can either walk to Les Chapieux, which is the typical way, or take the Col de Fours route directly to Mottets. On the map it looks like it’s a shortcut to take the Col de Fours route but that is highly dependent on the conditions. In my case it would have been faster and safer to take the traditional route via Les Chapieux.

There was another mild ascent up to the high point of Col de Fours, and from there lots of downhill in the snow. This part was fine. I slipped a couple of times and slid down in the snow but it was no big deal.

Please note that the Col de Fours is totally fine later in the season, it was a recommendation from a friend that I do it in the first place. However, I made the mistake of doing it earlier in the season than was warranted. There was a dump of snow in May so it was snowier than normal in late June.

Anyway, after some of the initial descent it suddenly seemed like there was no one around anymore. There were lots of rivers crossings on icy snow. Normally this wouldn’t be a problem, but many of said rivers turned into waterfalls within a short distance. So slipping would be very dangerous because of the risk of falling down an entire waterfall.

Eventually I found a group of older folks and the guide was chaperoning them one by one across the stream. He was extremely careful with the ice pick, because ice that looks stable to stand on will often crack, causing you to fall into the river.

Later on I got ahead of that group, which I ended up regretting because there was no one around and very little signage. This was where I learned that the copious signage that most of the TMB has is not always present on the variants. It probably didn’t help matters that there are two ways to ascend down into Mottets.

I ended up trying to cross a river and losing my pole there. Some nice French guys that were camping there helped me get it out!! I still needed to jump across that river, and it was quite scary because it was another one that quickly turned into a waterfall. They helped me do it but the experience was quite unsettling.

It turned out that almost everyone else staying at Mottets that night was cautioned against doing the Col de Fours variant, especially without crampons. I just didn’t get the memo because I was solo and not part of a group. However, there are warnings elsewhere about having crampons, I just was stupid and didn’t think it would be necessary. Don’t be stupid like me, check with local guides before doing the Col de Fours! It was a scary experience and the only time I felt in danger during the TMB.

Mottets was a great refuge overall, with lots of really good food. It is quite remote, like many of the other refuges. I stayed in a 4 person room. The 4 person room was tiny, with 2 bunk beds, whereas the dormitory felt more spread out despite having more beds. There was a very loud snorer in my 4 person room so I eventually bailed out to the dorms at midnight. It was definitely my poorest night sleep and next time I would definitely prefer to stay in the larger dorm.

Here I met the other two female solo travelers that I would hike with from Mottets to Courmayeur the next day!

Previous: Stage 1 – Les Houches to Les Contamines
Next: Stages 3,4 – Refuge des Mottets to Courmayeur