Stage 9 – Trient to Argentière

Start: Hotel La Grande Ourse in Trient
End: Le Dahu in Argentière (Tré-le-Champ)
Route: Variant via Refuge Les Grands
Time: 7.5-8 hours (including a long lunch at Col de Balme)
Difficulty: Moderate

The variant starts at Col de la Forclaz, whereas the main route starts nearer to Trient. As a result, this variant is even less trafficked than the average variant, because most people staying Trient don’t want to trek back up to Col de la Forclaz again.

As a result, it was extremely empty of other hikers, and so highly worth the extra effort if you like solitude. It meets up with the main trail at Col de Balme about two thirds of the way through.

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The ascent back up from Trient started out a bit boring, but then it turned into a nice path called the Bisse du Trient that went along nicely for a bout 45 minutes. Then it leads to a nicer view of the Glacier du Trient, which was a cool sight!

The uphill to Refuge Les Grands is only about 600 meters, so pretty easy by this point. It also was filled with lots of great views of the glacier and there were barely any others around! Note: it was unclear if the Refuge Les Grands had drinkable water, it is a self-catering refuge only and no one was there when I arrived. So make sure to bring some extra this day if you do the variant.

Then, as the book promises, there is an undulating path leading from Les Grands to Col du Balme. This was fun albeit pretty rocky in some places. Then I got to revisit snow crossings, something hadn’t happened for a view days. Some of them were pretty steep but luckily none of them spilled down into waterfalls! Lots of great views along the way.

Eventually, Refuge du Col de Balme appears on the horizon and that is where the variant converges with the main route that most people are on. The refuge says they cannot guarantee the quality of their water, not sure if that is a tactic to drive sales of bottled water? Their charcuterie plate was pretty good but I was still missing the food from Bovine from the day before!!

Once you get to Col de Balme the spectacular scenery of the French side is finally back! The Swiss side was nice but to be honest the French and Italian sides had much more dramatic views. At Col de Balme it’s like you get hit in the face with the difference and can see both sides from a single vista.

At this point, the most obvious trail down to Tré-le-Champ is actually the bad weather variant. As a result most of the hikers I saw took that way down. It was too bad, because the less obvious traditional route seemed a lot more scenic. There was a slight descent and one more minor ascent for the day to Aigullette des Posettes, a really nice vista.

Finally from Aigullette des Posettes, the descent down to Tré-le-Champ is fairly monotonous. It’s an additional 30 minutes or so down to my hotel Le Dahu in Argentinère, which was a nice place to stay. However, hikers looking to avoid backtracking the next day should stay in Tré-le-Champ at the refuge.

I stocked up on some hiking food at the Argentinère grocery store and ate dinner at the Stone Bar. Their duck confit tagliatelle with truffle oil was truly divine, especially after a day of hiking.

Previous: Stage 8 – Champex to Trient
Next: Stages 10, 10.5 – Argentière to Chamonix