trekking Mont Blanc 10 days in room

Previously undertook the TMB with Cairn Trekking with our friends Mark and Anne. From start to finish we found Cairn to be very professional and efficient from the booking side of things to the trek itself. Everyone met at the starting point on time. That’s when we first met Madeleine our trek guide. She spoke fluent English which was very helpful to us and was pretty good at some other languages too. She was very polite and professional and had a sense of humour too. She explained what the next 10 days trekking involved. You MUST have an above average level of fitness for this trek especially for the first 4 days. The itinerary states how long you will be walking for. I must stress that the hours stated in the itinerary are ‘walking’ hours and don’t take into account your stops/breaks, so the actual days are longer than the itinerary states, for example the itinerary on the first day states 6 hrs 30 mins. This day is more like 10 hours with breaks etc. We did have concerns about using a mule. I asked Madeline about the mules work schedule. Mules are stronger than horses. I was told that the mules work 5 days on and have 1 day off. They work July and August. I was told that the other 10 months the mules are left to graze. Some people see all of the bags on the mules and think that they are overloaded. Each persons red bag on the mule is a strict 6 KG. The maximum weight is around 90 KG. This equates to around 90 KG (an average adult). If you saw a person riding a mule/horse you wouldn’t question it. At lunch time the mule was unloaded for the duration of our break. Horses and mules have been used for hundreds of years to work the fields and to pull barges full of stone along the canal tow paths. The mules are only used where transport by road isn’t feasible. I know people will still have varying views regarding this but in my opinion the mules seemed happy and were very well cared for. We thoroughly enjoyed our TMB trek which was made even more enjoyable by the fant

Myself, Partner and our friends James & Shelley, recently did the 10 day TMB itinerary with Cairn Trekking, between the 8th and 17th of July 2026, we chose the nights in rooms options, from booking to arriving at the meeting point all went smoothly as per the Itinerary, we were a party of 12, mixed French and English speaking, The Guide Madeleine spoke fluent English and made sure everyone was involved, her pace from the start was steady and she encouraged us to drink plenty of water and discussed methods of hiking techniques to prevent damage to knees and feet, the picnics at lunch every day were fantastic, we shared out the food at the beginning of the day, which was, a local block of cheese, rustic crusty bread, a salad, dried sausage, pate, cake or pudding and fruit, we had the weather, so Madeleine would lay a picnic cloth down, everyone was encouraged to help cut and distribute the food, which helped to form a quick bond within the group, At the Refuges Madeleine quickly established and conveyed the Rules of each place, our rooms were either 4 to a room or more often a room to ourselves, at meal times a table was reserved for our party, we all gathered to be merry and retell the days events to each other, Madeleine would draw a depiction of the next days trek, which were all very imaginative and something we looked forward to, also without pressure areas where transport could be used if an individual wanted to avoid a hard ascent or descent were highlighted, ON day 2 we were introduced to Taquine our Mule, our worries that the Mule would be put under too much strain were soon quenched, we estimated the weight she carried to be around 90kg, our bags were weighed before being loaded and the 6kg max, was strictly adhered to, Taquine quickly became everybody's favourite and focal point for a cuddle for the next 4 days, she was cared for and treated with dignity, bags were removed at break times, she was allowed to graze and roll while we enjoyed the Alpine weather

Cairn trekking is the way to go! Excellent!!! Our Guide Sébastien was The Best! Thank you Sébastien for 10 magical days on the TMB. I strongly recommend Cairn on TMB.