GR5: Alps Traverse, Lake Geneva to Modane

Ten days on the northern section of the Grande Traversee des Alpes, from Lake Geneva to the Maurienne. The route starts at Thonon-les-Bains on the lakeshore, crosses the Chablais to Samoens and the Cirque du Fer a Cheval, one of Europe's widest limestone amphitheatres, then Les Contamines-Montjoie at the foot of Mont Blanc, Les Chapieux and the Beaufortain with its beaufort cheese pastures, Landry in the Tarentaise, and finally Modane at the gateway to the Haute-Maurienne. This is a demanding route: a thousand to fifteen hundred metres of daily ascent, ten days running. Logistics are excellent, with refuges or villages every night, but everything must be booked from spring onwards. The practicable window runs from early July to mid-September.