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Since a prefectural decree of 15 June 2020, there is no legal way up Mont Blanc's normal route without a reserved hut bed: Gouter (120 places), Tete Rousse (74) and Nid d'Aigle (20) cap legal traffic at 214 climbers a day. Bookings are nominative with ID upload, resale is banned, and bivouacking is prohibited from the Col du Mont Lachat to the summit. PGHM gendarmes and a municipal 'brigade blanche' hired by Saint-Gervais check receipts on the trail, with fines behind them. The booking platform runs phased openings, 30-minute sessions and a 12-person cap — and voids your Gouter bed at 17:00 if you have neither arrived nor phoned. This is how the system actually works, and the realistic playbook for getting a date.

Seismic sensors in the Grand Couloir du Gouter recorded one rockfall every 24 minutes during critical hours, with peak activity 18:00-20:00 and a statistically safest window at 09:00-10:00. Guides cross pre-dawn anyway — and both rules rest on the same assumption: that the night refreezes the mountain. On 18 July 2026, a UIAGM guide and his client were killed crossing at 02:30 in a heatwave. This is what the data says, why the old rule failed, and the rule that actually holds.

The advertised EUR 70 bed at the Gouter hut becomes ~EUR 143 once the EUR 52.20 dinner and EUR 21 breakfast land on the bill. An independent Gouter-route ascent costs ~EUR 325 on the mountain and EUR 500-800 all-in from Chamonix. Guided prices run from EUR 1,550 (2-day, guide fee only, zero acclimatization) to EUR 2,580 (5-day all-in) — and the EUR 1,000 gap buys summit odds, not margin. Line-by-line 2026 numbers from the official rate sheets.

The 2-day Mont Blanc format puts you to sleep at 3,165-3,815 m with zero prior acclimatization, then asks for a 10-12 hour summit day at 4,808 m. Acute mountain sickness begins above 3,000 m, and the only treatment for worsening symptoms is descent. The 5-day courses (EUR 2,490-2,580) spend their two extra days building exactly the acclimatization the EUR 1,550 2-day skips. The EUR 1,000 gap is an odds trade, not a discount. Here is the altitude ladder, the physiology, and an honest self-assessment.

A self-guided TMB costs EUR 1,600-1,750 for 10 days. A comfort version with hotels and luggage transfer runs EUR 1,900-2,250. The Swiss stages cost 1.3-2x more than France or Italy. CAF/FFCAM membership (EUR 80-100/year) saves EUR 5-15 per night at French refuges and includes rescue coverage in France. This is the full cost breakdown with sourced 2026 numbers.

Geneva to Chamonix is 88 km — a EUR 15-30 shuttle ride. Milan to Courmayeur goes through the Mont Blanc Tunnel (EUR 55 one-way, night closures through August 2026). Paris connects via TGV + TER. Rescue costs diverge by country: France is free, Italy may bill, Switzerland will bill CHF 3,500-15,000+ without Rega membership.

The Gouter route is PD with a rockfall funnel that killed 102 people between 1990 and 2017. The Trois Monts is AD- with serac zones that shed ~60,000 m³ of ice in a single 2025 collapse — and it is the standard diversion when the Gouter is out of condition. Neither is the safe one. This is the side-by-side: grades, huts, hazards, escape options, and why guides cancel rather than upgrade.

180 km from Mont Blanc to the Matterhorn via the high passes of the Pennine Alps. The Walker's version stays below 3,300 m and requires no technical gear. The glacier version crosses crevassed terrain above 3,800 m and has killed experienced mountaineers in recent years. Two fundamentally different routes sharing one name.

On 20 July 2026 the Courmayeur guides collectively stopped taking clients up Mont Blanc's Italian normal route. Two days earlier, rockfall killed a guide and his client in the Grand Couloir — at 02:30, the 'correct' hour. Heat closures now recur roughly every hot summer, and have since at least 2015. Here is the full record, the permafrost mechanism behind it, and why June and September are becoming the smart windows.

Lac Blanc at 2,352 m offers the finest reflection of Mont Blanc in the Alps. The Aiguille du Midi cable car puts you at 3,842 m — higher than any summit in the Rockies — for EUR 75 and 20 minutes. The Mer de Glace staircase grows by 15-20 steps per year as the glacier retreats. These are the day hikes that justify basing in Chamonix even if you are not walking the TMB.

A scientist's bounty in 1760. The oldest mountain guide company on Earth, founded 1821. A railway that killed a mule economy in 1908. A cable car to 3,842m in 1955. A three-country trail system formalized in the mid-twentieth century. Chamonix did not grow up around a famous mountain — it built the system that made Mont Blanc famous. The glacier is retreating. The summit's nationality is disputed. The infrastructure is the story.

The TMB season runs late June through mid-September. July is warmest and most crowded. UTMB race week (August 24-30, 2026) turns Chamonix into a restricted-access zone — avoid it unless you want the festival. Afternoon thunderstorms build from 13:00, peak 15:00-17:00. Start early, be below cols by midday.

An 11-stage counter-clockwise circuit through France, Italy, and Switzerland. ~170 km, ~10,000 m cumulative ascent. The booking portal opened October 15, 2025. Peak-season refuges sold out within days. This is the stage-by-stage breakdown with distances, elevations, pricing by country, and the variants worth considering.