Stage 5 — Champex-Lac to Trient (via Col de Bovine)
The day the trail pulled the curtains. A forested grind with no view for hours, and the strange reward of my calmest day on the mountain.
At a glance · 9.9 mi · +2,801 ft · high point Col de Bovine (~6,700 ft) · moving 7h53 · moderate
Stage five didn't sell itself. Breakfast at the hotel in Champex, decent, not like Courmayeur, but enough. Sandwiches and fruit from the village boulangerie, and we walked straight out the door onto the trail.
Most of the morning, the mountains kept their distance. This was a forest day. The path climbed through pine and larch, rocky and close, the big views walled off behind the trees. After the open passes of the first week, it felt like someone had drawn the curtains. You just put your head down and climb.
The rocky trail climbing through larch and pine, no view out — curtains drawn
The heat was back too. I was soaked before long, working through water and electrolytes, heart climbing with the grade. Nothing to look at, nothing to do but keep going, so the breathing became the whole game. And here's the strange part: this was the day my heart worked hardest in the heat, and it still came out the calmest reading of the trek. The quieter I got inside, the less the mountain could take out of me.
Then Bovine opened up. The alpage at 1,987 meters, a cluster of stone chalets with a refuge, a place to sit, fill the bottles, breathe. And just past it, the trail finally handed back what it had hidden all morning: the whole Rhône valley laid out below, Martigny spread across the plain, cows grazing the green slope, the Valais peaks stacking into a building afternoon sky. We stood there a while. Earned it.
The refuge at Alpage de Bovine, hikers resting on the grass, the Rhône valley behind
Somewhere on that stretch there was a small wooden cross, dated 2018, an inscription for someone gone. The kind of thing that stops you for a second up here. I stood with it a moment and walked on.
The descent was the price, steep and rocky, hard on the knees the way down always is. But they held, better than week one. A taxi from Trient carried us to Argentière, to the Dahu, home for two nights. Dinner was a local pizzeria, green salad, pizza, tiramisu. Not every day on this trail gives you a view. This one gave me something else instead.
Trail Notes
Route: Champex-Lac → Alpage de Bovine (1,987 m) → Col de Bovine → Trient. On foot from the hotel door.
Route choice: Took the Col de Bovine, not the Fenêtre d'Arpette, which was still snow-blocked in late June.
Water: Fill at the Alpage de Bovine refuge. Heavy water and electrolyte intake in the heat.
Character: Forested and shut-in most of the morning, then a big reveal at Bovine. Steep, rocky descent.
End of day: Hiked to Trient, then a taxi to Argentière.
Where we stayed: Hôtel Le Dahu, Argentière (two nights). Dinner at a local pizzeria.
The watch said: 9.93 mi · +2,801 ft · 7h53 moving · avg HR 109, the lowest of the trek · effort tagged Moderate (6).Planning your own TMB Stage 5? Read the practical guide: TMB Stage 5 Guide: Champex-Lac to Trient
