Reviews

Stunning Trip

What an amazing trip from start to finish. The weather was perfect which made the trip even more special. One day of mist and drizzle which spoilt the views but not the walking experience. Kieran’s camp was fantastic, not to mention his cooking. It was amazing what he could produce out of his tiny kitchen. Loads of beer and wine. Tents good. Big enough to sleep two but not with bags as well so I paid extra for single use. Sleeping bag, mat and pillow also good quality.

An amazing adventure walking amongst the beautiful alps

What a fantastic trip. I didn’t really know what to expect but I was blown away by the beautiful scenery and camping amongst the Alps. Our group and camp leaders Mike and Kieron were fabulous – fun, helpful and just great to hang out with. I’d do some training for the walk as it can be demanding but our group leader made sure the pace was manageable. We had a great group of people and I recommend the camping tour as we all became quite close pitching in and hanging out together. The tents were roomy and comfortable and the campgrounds we stayed in were also quite comfortable. Kieron made us beautiful meals, we certainly were fed well!! I definitely give this tour 5 stars, it’s challenging, beautiful, and you’ll make some life long friends.

What a Trip!

Before I left my girlfriend was teasing me about spending two weeks camping with creepy crawlies and having to eat tinned spaghetti hoops every night. In truth it could not have been more different. Kieron the camp leader was great, tents were put up for us, beers were cold, the food was healthy, tasty and home cooked and exceeded all expectations. The tents were modern and roomy, I paid extra for a single but they are more than big enough for two. Campsites were good and the mat, pillow and sleeping bag I rented were all just fine. We were really well looked after. The trek was superb too – I’m a really pleased I chose to do the full thing.

How to make it the whole TMB

This trip offers more of the TMB route than most of the trips that I looked into, but it doesn’t do it all. If you read the trip notes carefully you’ll realise that there is a section in Val Ferret which may be missed out, and the section from Courmayeur to Lac Combal is bypassed. When we were on the trip we realised there were two other bits to be missed out. From Les Houches towards Brevent, and from Plan Praz to La Flegere. The good news is that, if you do want to do the whole tour then it can be done within the trip: Val Ferret – get your leader to take the bus all the way back up to Arp Nouva, where you stopped the previous day, rather than at an earlier stop point. There is plenty of time, this is what our group did. From Courmayeur – you can catch a bus to Courmayeur on your day off, walk the route to where it drops down to the path to Lac Combal, & then walk down to La Visaille where you can get a bus back to Courmayeur/the campsite. Les Houches – either persuade your leader to take the bus back to Les Houches & start from there, or walk the missing section on the final day off Plan Praz to La Flegere – add this onto the final planned day. You then take the cable car down from La Flegere rather than Plan Praz (the ticket works for both) & that’s the whole TMB done 🙂

A great trek around Mont Blanc

The TMB is a fabulous tour & is thoroughly recommended. My insights would be:

Going clockwise really does work in terms of getting the hill-legs trained up as the steeper climbs then come later in the tour. Note that this does mean that you have to do some ladders on the first day but if you take your time they are fine.
The weather of course makes a huge difference & we were lucky enough to have mostly sunny days, with just a couple of days at the end which made us take alternative routes. The views are fantastic & there’s lots of wildlife about if you take a bit of time to look for it.
The campsites were generally very good. Just be prepared for toilets without seats, & even some that are the old-style hole in the ground (which we successfully avoided as the campsites weren’t busy when we were there).
The wild camps were lovely, particularly the one in Les Chapieux – this does require a wash in the nearby river, but the water is surprisingly ‘warm’
Most meals were in camp, but there were about 5 evening meals out which were very good.
For the swimmers there are opportunities to swim on the first day in the lake below Lac Blanc, & at Champex Lac.
I guess each leader/trip is different, but to give you a feel for it, a typical day is to wake up about 0630, get your kit sorted/bag packed, take your tent down, have breakfast, make your packed lunch so that you’re ready to go soon after 8. That is usually a ‘soft’ target as you’re generally just walking from the campsite, but one morning you do have to catch a bus. We were generally finished walking between 4 & 5pm.
Charging points for phones etc ! These were available at all campsites but Les Chapieux. I would recommend that you take a power pack & charge that up, rather than leaving your phone/watch on the charging point – only to be safe, we didn’t have anything stolen, but you are on a campsite & losing a power pack would be less distressing than a phone/watch.

Fantastic TMB

Like a previous reviewer I found this much harder that Toubkal or EBC. The walks seem to be up all morning and down in the afternoon. Some of the downs were very hard on the Knees. Despite this the effort was well rewarded with the stunning scenary. Having to put your tent away before brerakfast required some effort, specially if you didn’t master the technique. Camp meals were always filling, and never went hungary. Although breakfast did get a bit repetitive. The group van always contained a cold beer at the end of the day, which was very welcome. I hired my sleeping bag and matt from exodus and the bag was nice and warm, but maybe the matts could have been a bit thicker. Really felt the rocks some nights. Would bring my own next time

Incredible!

Man what a trip!
in equal parts stunning and tough – the TMB absolutely delivered. Every day we were treated with a gruelling ascent, a toe bashing descent and simply incredible views all the way through. The tour guide and the camp manager were just fabulous too – the guide wasnt just an IML but also a trained biologist clearly deeply in love with Mother nature – to learn a little about the local flora and fauna whilst also feeling completely at ease and secure knowing your guide has your back was just lovely – it meant we could concentrate on putting one foot in front of the other and just enjoy the ride. Our camp manager Vega cooked us some seriously delicious food on only 4 camp stoves – it smelled so good she had random campers coming up to ask what she was cooking! The camps where all lovely – some perhaps a little more loud than others but overall, as far as a camping trip goes, it was pretty darn luxurious. Would do this again in a heartbeat

Brilliant holiday

Superb surroundings, excellent company, knowledgeable guide and friendly support staff

2019 TMB Trek

Our recent TMB was excellent. Not only did we have spectacular weather to go along with the stunning scenery we had two top notch guides in John and Emily. The pace John set for the 14 trekkers was bang on; resting when called for and pushing us as we needed to be coupled with a great 👍 sense of humour. Emily made certain out campsite was setup each evening after our long treks and cooked us fabulous meals given we were camping ⛺️. Her energetic personality provided a welcome spark especially at the beginning of the day. G Adventures in Peru 🇵🇪 were really great 👍 too but Exodus our did them with respect to quality of the guides and the excellent dinners. A little more variety in breakfasts and lunches is strongly 💪 recommended for sure. I would also suggest stretching the tour to 14 days given there are currently some extraordinarily long days of trekking. Another trip of a lifetime for me. Thanks John and Emily! 🥾

A trip of a lifetime

We did the TMB in July – 14 trekkers from Canada. John and Emily were our guides and they were amazing. I can actually say I learned how to walk again in the mountains with John’s careful guiding instructions. By the end of the trek, we were able to trek straight up 4 km with a verticle of 1500 m. There is no way we could have done this without our amazing guides. I cannot say enough about Exodus and the people who work with this amazing organization. They are truly professional and we are well into planning our next group trek for July 2020 to the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro. Can’t wait!