Tour du Mont Blanc food: what to eat and carry each day

Written by James Frost, founder of Flaming Phoenix and the maker of Phoenix Bars. Updated November 2026.

Quick answer: Plan on 4,000 to 5,500 calories a day on the Tour du Mont Blanc. Half-board in the refuges usually covers breakfast and a three-course dinner, roughly 1,600 to 2,200 calories, so carry or buy another 1,400 to 2,300 calories a day for lunch and snacks, and carry more of it yourself if you eat vegan or gluten-free.

Lunch, mid-stage snacks and dietary-restricted alternatives are the parts you have to sort out yourself. The trail crosses France, Italy, and Switzerland, and resupply is possible in towns like Chamonix, Courmayeur, and Champex-Lac, but mountain stages can run 20+ kilometres between supermarkets. Vegan, gluten-free, and dairy-free hikers face the largest planning challenge because regional cuisine is built around cheese, cured meat, and bread.

A practical daily nutrition stack for a TMB hiker is: a 400-700 calorie breakfast (provided by the refuge), 1,400-2,300 calories of carried trail food split across several eating windows, and a 1,200-1,500 calorie three-course evening meal (provided). The carried portion is the part where calorie density decides pack weight. Compact high-calorie bars, nuts and trail mix carry about 4.5 to 6 calories per gram, against roughly 3 for a baguette-and-cheese lunch, so 1,000 calories weighs about 200g instead of about 330g. For vegan and gluten-free hikers, who can't lean on the cheese-and-bread lunch, carrying their own dense food matters even more.

How many calories do you burn on the Tour du Mont Blanc?

The TMB covers approximately 165 kilometres with roughly 10,000 metres of cumulative ascent, typically completed in 6 to 12 days. A 75kg hiker carrying a 7-10kg daypack and walking 6-8 hours a day at moderate effort burns 4,000-5,500 calories. Fitter hikers covering more ground per day can push past 6,000.

These are estimates for the standard 11-stage anti-clockwise itinerary; fast 6 to 7-day itineraries, heavier packs and anyone running sections will burn more.

The simplest way to underestimate calorie need on the TMB is to plan for typical day-to-day eating. A standard UK adult eats 2,000-2,500 calories. Hiking the TMB roughly doubles that requirement. It is easy to undershoot by 1,000 calories or more a day, and the shortfall tends to show after three or four big stages.

What food is available along the route, and where the gaps are

Refuges and inns offer half-board (breakfast plus three-course dinner) at most overnight stops, which covers roughly 1,600-2,200 of your daily calories. The gap is the mid-day window: 1,400-2,300 calories that you carry, eat at huts that offer lunch service, or buy in villages.

Even with every slot filled, those totals sit about 1,000 calories below a typical day's burn. A gap like that is manageable over a week or two, so the aim is to stop it growing rather than to close it completely.

Resupply points along the standard anti-clockwise route include Les Houches and Les Contamines (France), Courmayeur (Italy), Champex-Lac (Switzerland), and back to Chamonix. Between these towns, you may have access to refuge cafes serving simple lunches (soup, omelette, charcuterie plate, cake), but pricing is high and availability is weather-dependent.

The structural problem for hikers with dietary restrictions is the kind of food on offer. Cheese, cured meat, fresh bread, pastries, and pasta dishes are the dominant categories. Vegan and gluten-free options exist but are inconsistent: some refuges cater well, others provide only a basic carbohydrate substitute. Make dietary requests when you book each refuge, and carry supplementary food anyway if you are vegan, gluten-free or dairy-free.

Calorie density and pack weight on the TMB

Pack weight is the silent constraint on the TMB. Each litre of water adds 1 kilogram. A standard 35-litre daypack with kit, layers, water, and lunch typically runs 7-10 kilograms before snacks. Every additional 100g of food in the pack is 100g you carry up roughly 1,000 metres of ascent on the longest stages. Our ranking of the lightest high calorie food for backpacking shows which foods give the most calories for that weight.

The number to compare is calories per gram. A baguette with alpine cheese delivers around 3 kcal/g. Cured meat sits at about 4 kcal/g. Dense bars and flapjacks run about 4.3 to 4.6 kcal/g, trail mix 4.5-5 kcal/g and nuts about 6. Wrapped bars and nuts also survive heat, crushing and daily handling far better than fresh food; a lunch sandwich is often squashed and stale by mid-afternoon. Our guide to the best energy bars for hiking ranks the bars sold in the UK on calories per gram.

Calorie density is also why the standard advice of "snack every one to two hours" works structurally. Frequent small intakes match exertion to fuel availability. Compact high calorie bars, nuts and trail mix make that habit possible at about two-thirds of the pack weight of bread and cheese for the same calories.

The Tour du Mont Blanc dietary restriction problem

Vegan, gluten-free and dairy-free hikers face three extra problems on this route:

Refuge menus default to cheese and cured meat. Both can be removed but rarely substituted with calorie-equivalent alternatives. A vegan refuge dinner can be pasta with tomato sauce and a side salad, around 600-800 calories where the standard meal would be 1,200-1,500.

Town supermarket selection narrows fast. Larger supermarkets in Chamonix and Courmayeur stock gluten-free and vegan products. Smaller village shops may have little beyond white bread, regional cheese and charcuterie. If your itinerary takes you through smaller stops, you cannot rely on resupply.

Trail cafe lunches are similarly constrained. Salads exist. Soup with bread is available. A vegan calorie-dense lunch on the trail is hard to find above 800 calories.

Carry your dietary-specific calories yourself. Two days of self-supported food (roughly 4,000 calories of vegan or gluten-free alternatives) covers any single resupply gap and removes the anxiety of arriving at a refuge that didn't get your dietary note.

A daily carried-food framework for the TMB

This is a daily calorie-density stack built for the most common TMB itineraries. Adjust upward by 20-30% for fast itineraries (6-7 days) or downward for slow ones (10-12 days).

1. Breakfast top-up (200-400 calories): Half a dense bar, a handful of nuts or a sachet of instant porridge, eaten with the refuge breakfast. Refuge breakfasts are often light: bread, jam, coffee, occasionally cheese. Eating it here also takes the weight out of your pack before the first climb.
2. Mid-morning fuel (300-500 calories): Eaten 90 minutes after starting walking. A bar or a handful of nut mix.
3. Trail lunch (400-700 calories): A combination of refuge cafe purchase or carried food. Vegan and gluten-free hikers should plan to carry this rather than rely on cafe stops.
4. Afternoon top-up (300-400 calories): Eaten before the day's biggest descent or on a final pass. Calorie-dense bar or trail mix.
5. Pre-dinner snack (200-300 calories): Optional, useful on big-mileage stages.

That's 1,400-2,300 calories of carried food per day. Across a 6-day fast itinerary that adds up to roughly 2.1 to 3.5kg of food if calorie density averages 4 calories per gram, but you buy it in stages. On an 11-day standard itinerary you pass through Les Contamines, Courmayeur and Champex-Lac, so you rarely need more than two or three days of trail food at once.

The table shows what that trail food weighs, at 1,400 to 2,300 calories a day. The figures are approximate.

The porridge advantage on alpine mornings

Refuge breakfasts on the TMB are typically 400-700 calories and often skew light. Most are bread, jam, butter, coffee, sometimes cereal or fruit. For a hiker burning 5,000 calories that day, that breakfast covers only 8-14% of daily need.

A mug of porridge on top closes part of that gap. Two instant oat sachets with a spoonful of nut butter stirred in add about 350 to 400 calories in a few minutes, and a dense oat bar crumbled into water gives a version that needs no hot water at all. Porridge is also easier to face at 7am than a second round of bread.

Where Phoenix Bars fit on the TMB

I make Phoenix Bars, so I'm biased, but they suit this route if you eat vegan or gluten-free, want the same calories every day whatever the refuge serves, or want a lighter lunch than bread and cheese. Each one has up to 557 calories in a compact, 120g bar made mainly from gluten-free oats, and you can eat it on the trail or mix it with water in a mug for porridge.

Three a day covers most of the carried-food budget above, so a 6 to 7-day itinerary needs 18 to 21 bars, which is the Essential Bundle (18 bars) plus a few singles, and an 11-day itinerary fits the Complete Bundle (36 bars) with some left for training walks. They travel in hold luggage without issue and keep for up to two years (12 months for Cherry Bakewell), so spares are not wasted.

Frequently asked questions

How many calories should I eat per day on the Tour du Mont Blanc? Most hikers need 4,000-5,500 calories per day, roughly double typical adult intake. Faster itineraries or hikers covering more ground need closer to 6,000.

Is half-board enough food on the TMB? Half-board provides roughly 1,600-2,200 calories per day. You need to carry or buy an additional 1,400-2,300 calories of trail food daily, and even then most hikers eat a little less than they burn.

Can vegans and gluten-free hikers complete the TMB without bringing their own food? It is possible but not recommended. Refuges and supermarkets have inconsistent selection for restricted diets. Two days' worth of carried calorie-dense food, roughly 2,800 to 4,600 calories, is the practical minimum.

What's the lightest high-calorie food for the TMB? Nuts and seeds (about 6 calories per gram), chocolate (about 5.5), trail mix (4.5 to 5) and dense bars and flapjacks (about 4.3 to 4.6) carry the most calories for their weight, with nothing to cook. A baguette-and-cheese lunch, at about 3, is the heaviest common option.

Where can I resupply on the TMB? Major resupply points are Les Houches, Les Contamines (France), Courmayeur (Italy), and Champex-Lac (Switzerland). Smaller villages have variable stock.

Can I buy lunch at the refuges? Many refuges and mountain restaurants on the route serve lunch, and some sell a packed lunch, usually listed as a picnic, for an extra charge. Ask when you book or at dinner the night before, and say if you need it vegan or gluten-free.

Do I need to bring food from the UK? Not necessarily, but bringing your own UK-bought trail food provides predictability for dietary restrictions and avoids supermarket-roulette in smaller villages.

How heavy will my food bag be? About 350 to 575g a day of trail food at 4 calories per gram, so roughly 1 to 1.7kg if you carry three days at once. Bread and cheese weighs about a third more for the same calories, and fresh fruit several times more.

Related guides on Flaming Phoenix

For UK-based training treks and similar nutrition planning, see our companion guides:

• Marathon des Sables nutrition planning for ultra-distance, unsupported, multi-day desert racing
• Three Peaks Challenge food planning for single-push high-elevation UK efforts
• Long-distance walking nutrition for general multi-day route planning
• High-calorie breakfast options for fuelling early-start days
• Wild camping food and resupply for unsupported route logistics
• UK ultra race nutrition for racing-pace fuel planning

About the author

Written by James Frost, founder of Flaming Phoenix and the maker of Phoenix Bars. Phoenix Bars began as his idea at the University of Exeter for a high-calorie ration bar to help with world hunger, and he now sells them direct. Marathon des Sables runners have used them, and James has spoken about endurance nutrition at the Marathon des Sables UK expo. The bars are made in the UK, hand-packed by James, and have more than 390 customer reviews.

Last updated: November 2026.

Sources: NHS, Understanding calories; Phoenix Bar values from our own pack labels.