WAYPATH

Where to run

Trail running in Chamonix

Nothing in Chamonix is flat, and that is the point. The valley floor is at about 1,035 metres and the paths above it climb past two thousand within an hour of leaving the town, which is why the valley has become the reference point for mountain running in Europe.

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The ground

What running in Chamonix is actually like

The valley runs north-east to south-west with the Mont Blanc massif on one side and the Aiguilles Rouges on the other, so every route is either a climb, a descent, or a traverse along one wall with the other one facing you.

On the Aiguilles Rouges side the ground is runnable: Le Brévent at 2,525 metres, La Flégère and the lakes above it, including Lac Blanc at 2,352 metres. On the Mont Blanc side the paths sit under the glaciers, from the Plan de l'Aiguille across to Montenvers and the Mer de Glace, with the Aiguille du Midi at 3,842 metres above them.

Lifts change what a day means here. The Aiguille du Midi cable car, the Montenvers railway and the Brévent and Flégère lifts let you run one direction and ride the other, which is how most people manage the descent on tired legs.

Routes

Runs worth knowing in Chamonix

  • Forest, rolling, runnable

    Petit Balcon Sud

    The everyday route. A path that runs the length of the valley a couple of hundred metres above the floor, from Les Houches through Chamonix towards Argentière, in the trees the whole way. It is the bad weather option, the recovery option and the winter option all at once.

  • Around 2,000 m, above the treeline

    Grand Balcon Sud

    The traverse from Planpraz across to La Flégère, high on the Aiguilles Rouges side with the whole Mont Blanc range in front of you. Open, exposed and unforgettable, and a summer route only.

  • About 1,500 m of climbing

    Le Brévent from town

    Straight up from Chamonix to 2,525 metres. The valley's vertical test piece, and the honest way to find out what your climbing legs are worth. The cable car comes back down.

  • 2,352 m, ladders on one approach

    Lac Blanc

    Up from Tré-le-Champ or Argentière to the lake below the Aiguilles Rouges, with the range reflected in it on a still morning. The Tré-le-Champ approach has fixed ladders and chains on rock, which is worth knowing before you take somebody nervous up it.

  • High traverse, glacier views

    Grand Balcon Nord

    From the Plan de l'Aiguille across to Montenvers and the Mer de Glace, under the north faces. Take the first stage of the Aiguille du Midi cable car up, run the traverse, and come down on the Montenvers railway.

  • Long climbs at the head of the valley

    Aiguillette des Posettes and the Col de Balme

    From Le Tour and Vallorcine at the top end of the valley, steady climbs to the ridge and to the Swiss border at the Col de Balme. Quieter than the Chamonix side, and the ground the Tour du Mont Blanc uses.

  • Flat by local standards

    The valley floor

    The path along the Arve linking Les Houches, Chamonix, Les Praz and Argentière. The only place in the valley where you can hold a pace, and the sanest place to run the day after something long.

Season

Snow line, storms and the short high season

The high trails hold snow into June and sometimes into July. The season above two thousand metres runs from roughly early July to early October, and outside it the balcon paths and the valley floor carry everything.

Afternoon thunderstorms are normal in July and August. Long days start early and are off the ridges by mid-afternoon, and that is not a suggestion: there is no shelter on the Grand Balcon Sud.

The valley is the finish of the UTMB in late August and hosts the Marathon du Mont-Blanc in late June, and it is on the Tour du Mont Blanc, the roughly 170 kilometre circuit through France, Italy and Switzerland. In race weeks the paths are busy and the town is full, so book early or come in September, which is the best month of the year here.

The app

How Waypath fits a Chamonix week

Recording does not need a signal

Coverage in the valley is patchy and gone entirely on parts of the balcons. GPS is a satellite signal, so the recording carries on regardless, and Waypath says plainly when the map may not fill in.

What the climbing cost you

Grade-adjusted pace uses the published Minetti cost-of-running curve, which is the only sane way to compare a 1,500 metre ascent with a flat hour at home.

Alpine trails in the catalogue

The catalogue holds 426,029 waymarked trails across 37 countries, built from OpenStreetMap, with condition reports from people who were recently on them.

Straight answers

Worth knowing before you go

  • The catalogue is walking infrastructure. Paths, footways, tracks and bridleways. It carries no ski routes and no cycling routes, which matters in a valley where a lot of the winter traffic is on skis.
  • A live link is a spectator view, not timing. It has no finish times, no rankings and no results, and the position shown deliberately trails the runner. It will tell somebody you are on the climb. It will not tell them your race.
  • High mountain running is not a phone feature. Weather here changes fast and the exposure is real. Waypath maps a route and records it. It does not make an alpine day safe.

Keep reading

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