Tour Beaufortain

You may have heard of Beaufort cheese but it’s unlikely that you’ve ever heard of the hiking tour of the Beaufortain.  The Beaufortain is located just adjacent to and southwest of the famous Mont Blanc massif.  I give this tour the easiest rating of all the tours on my site.  It’s not to say that you should take it lightly but the required elevation gain and loss per stage is less, there are no extremely long days, and you don’t encounter sections with significant exposure.  The Beaufortain has retained its alpine authenticity which is the primary reason for coming here.  Yes, you also get glorious views of Mont Blanc, the Beaufortain massif, and other striking peaks.  But the real draw is the charm and the authenticity.  You are surrounded by lakes, alpine pastures, and flower-filled meadows.  The residents are still dedicated to their traditional pastoral activities, the care of their mahogany-coloured cows, and the making of cheese.  Several of the huts and gites d’etape where you stay the night are small and inviting.   Beaufort cheese is called the ‘Prince of Gruyere’ and you don’t want to miss the opportunity to taste some at the cooperative in Beaufort, the main town of the area.  One final thing you will love about this tour is its lack of crowds.  Although the Tour Beaufortain is slowly being discovered, it receives a small percentage of the visitors that the Tour de Mont Blanc does. Your primary guide book for this tour will be one of the topo-guides for long distance hikes that France publishes. This one, of course, is called Tour du Beaufortain. It is in French but provides excellent maps, hiking times, and lodging info that is useful even if your French is not so good.

View north from the Beaufortain

Day 1     Ugine or Queige to Les Saisies

Maps indicate that the small village of Queige, just west of Beaufort, is a good starting point for this route and it is, if you want to hike the entire stage this first day.  But sometimes the initial climbs out of low valleys are the least enjoyable part of a stage and you don’t reach the interesting sections of a trail until you have ascended several hundred meters.  If you want to have a less demanding first day and don’t mind a little help from the automobile to get you started, stay instead at Ugine, a little larger town on the western edge of the Beaufortain.  Then hire a taxi the next morning to take you the few kilometers up towards Col de Forclaz on the D67.  At 1300 meters the road intersects the trail to Les Saisies, very close to the barn of Orseraies.  You have just saved yourself over two hours and 700 meters of hiking and can now spend your time enjoying the alpine surroundings to come.  Four to five hours of hiking brings you to an intersection where you drop down just a bit off the main trail to reach the ski resort of Les Saisies.  The town itself is somewhat lacking in character but pleasant enough for an overnight stop and in a wonderful setting.  It hosted some events of the 1992 Winter Olympics.  Stay at simple but comfortable Hotel Le Carabou.  This is a small ski town and dining options are limited.  If you want a more gourmet experience, head to Les Arcades.  For tasty Savoyard fare, you could try the less expensive Le Paradis Blanc.   

Day 2     Les Saisies to Refuge de la Rosellette

Today is a pleasant and not-too-demanding hike which maintains elevations between 1600 and 2000 meters.  Around halfway you join forces with another long-distance hike called the Tour du Pays du Mont Blanc, Tour of the Mont Blanc Countryside.  The Tour Beaufortain actually overlaps with three other significant tours in total which bears testament to the allure of this region.  The other two not yet mentioned are the Tour du Mont Blanc and the Grande Randonnee 5, The Great Walk 5, which goes from Geneva to the Mediterranean coast.  Your destination for the evening is a hut to make the French proud.  Don’t expect luxury but you can look forward to a warm and welcoming little auberge.  There is dormitory accommodation for 18.

Refuge de la Croix du Bonhomme

Day 3     Refuge de la Rosellette to Refuge de la Croix du Bonhomme

Today brings more wonderful scenery and very little descent which happens to be my favorite kind of day.  Not long after you leave the refuge you overlap with the famous Tour du Mont Blanc.  Depending on the time of year you are here, you may notice the trail getting a little more crowded (but just for a while).  You cross over the Bonhomme pass and find the refuge by the same name an hour later.  The refuge is actually called Refuge de la Croix du Bonhomme which means Hut of the Good Fellow’s Cross.  What a mouthful.  It is not my favorite hut as it is large and institutional and the food is average.  You probably won’t mind too much though because the surroundings are beautiful.  This intersection is very well-travelled and this hut does a good job of accommodating the large numbers of people that pass its way.  

Lac de Roseland

Day 4     Refuge de la Croix du Bonhomme to Gite de Plan Mya

Today you leave the shared trail with the Tour du Mont Blanc and pick up a shared section with the Grande Randonnee 5.  It is a relatively short stage so take your time and have a picnic lunch as you approach the Roseland Lake.  In the first part of the day you will pass across a long ridge called the Crete des Gittes.  The mountain drops off to either side of you as you hike across this ridge path for several hundred meters.  It’s exhilarating, and while you do have to pay attention to where you are walking, it is not so exposed or steep as to give you cardiac arrest.  Your destination is another small but welcoming refuge called the Gite de Plan Mya.  

Crete des Gittes

Day 5     Gite de Plan Mya to Refuge de la Coire  

Another wonderful day with only moderate amounts of ascent and descent.  The first part of your hike today takes you along a balcony route with good views of the long Roseland Lake.  The Roseland dam was constructed in 1962 for the primary purpose of hydroelectric power generation.   Your objective is Refuge de la Coire positioned at just over 2000 meters.  Another option for lodging, and the one I prefer, is Refuge de l’Econdu a few kilometers farther on. It is available by reservation only so phone ahead to see if they can book you in.  Refuge de la Coire is basic indeed but it does the job.  It will almost certainly be your least expensive lodging and meal of this tour.

Day 6     Refuge de la Coire to Refuge des Arolles

You drop down gradually today towards another lake, Lac de Saint-Guerin, much smaller than Roseland which you just left.  The trail takes you through pine woods and pastures until you begin to see the turquoise reflection of the water.  After the lake you ascend to the Refuge l’Alpage.  This place is a hidden gem and I highly recommend you plan your day with a stopover here for lunch.  As the French would say, it is a tres bonne table meaning it has excellent food.  Remember that the French don’t typically serve lunch much past 1:00 so you need to get up in the morning and keep moving along if you want to make it here in time.  And if you’d like to take a more leisurely pace and spend an extra day on this route, I would even recommend staying the night here.  Refuge l’Alpage has the  best food of the tour and how often do you find that at a little hut in the mountains?  If you decide to press on, rest assured that a very pleasant privately-owned refuge awaits you.  The guardian at Refuge des Arolles makes a dinner that will not disappoint.     

Day 7     Refuge des Arolles to Gite Molliessoulaz

Today is your longest day of hiking and requires a fair amount of descent.  It is also one of my favorite days.  The first half of the hike is varied and brings great views of green pastureland, small lakes, and mountains, one of which is the great white Mont Blanc massif in the distance.  Your evening destination is the Gite Molliessoulaz, a pleasant and friendly establishment overlooking the Beaufortain valley. The gite is quite nice, but if the allure of town and more luxurious accommodation beckons, you may want to continue on down the mountain another hour and a half to reach Queige.  This would be a long day indeed.  From Queige you catch the bus to Beaufort, but pay attention to the last departure time which is around 6:30 pm.   

Making Beaufort cheese

Day 8     Gite Molliessoulaz to Beaufort

You can sleep in just a little today since your entire hike consists of an easy stroll down the mountainside to Quiege and then on to Beaufort via bus.  Of course, you wouldn’t have to go to Beaufort but I like the little town a lot and it is rarely overrun with tourists.  The beautiful Doron river runs through the old part of town which still maintains its charm.  There are just enough cheese shops and bakeries along its small, winding streets to make life interesting.  You might want to stop in at the cheese cooperative and inquire about a tour.  Stay and eat at Hotel du Grand-Mont.  Rooms are reasonably priced and the food is good.