Somewhere near the Col du Galibier, a pair of long-distance hikers on the Hexatrek – a mammoth walking route across France – stumbled into the Tour de France by accident. Dozens of camper vans, crowds of fans and pro riders flying over the col turned the final day of their second stage into an impromptu street party. It was one of the gentler moments in a stretch of trail that mixed glorious alpine ridges with howling summit winds and barely-there paths.
The Hexatrek links the country's great mountain ranges into one continuous route. Sections 2 and 3 run through the Northern and High Alps, and the recent trip report from two hikers on the trail gives a clear-eyed picture of what they involve. Stage 2 passes mountain goats and ibex on ridgelines, crosses into the Vanoise National Park – where bivouacking is only allowed near huts for a small fee, or tolerated in a few spots between protected zones – and ends with a steep, unsigned shepherd's trail that requires genuine bushwhacking. The hikers also battled several nights of relentless wind strong enough to bend tent poles.
Stage 3 opens with a highlight: the Parc National des Écrins. The route deliberately loops around the whole park rather than cutting straight through, and the payoff is glacier-blue streams, lake districts, and jagged rock formations. Refuges there sell affordable blueberry tart and coffee, and campgrounds feel pleasantly uncrowded compared with busier corners of the Alps. Then conditions harden: around 200 metres of elevation gain per kilometre, violent afternoon thunderstorms that can soak you in minutes, T3 and T4-rated boulder fields, scree, and more frequent river crossings. The hikers' advice – luck aside – is to check the forecast obsessively and get below treeline fast when storms roll in.
Practical intel from the trail is worth noting for anyone eyeing the route. Water planning becomes critical towards the Vercors National Park, home of the Grand Veymont (the mountain on the Hexatrek logo), and Stage 4 is reportedly notorious for dry stretches. On the upside, French resupply is a joy: hikers praised regional produce, chocolate croissants, baguettes from village bakeries, and Beaufort cheese bought straight from an alpage dairy on the mountain.
For travellers, the takeaway is that you don't need to commit to a months-long thru-hike to enjoy this terrain. The GR54, the official circuit around the Écrins, gets a strong recommendation as a challenging but rewarding standalone multi-day hike, and the Vanoise and Galibier area combines big scenery with road access and hut networks. Expect solitude, serious climbs and fast-changing weather – plus the best trail-town food in the Alps.
Reported by The Trek.
