Guided, one week hut-to-hut trek, French Alps

Our 4 Peaks treks in the French Alps offer a truly alpine experience and involve one continuous six day trek with five nights in mountain huts and the first and last night spent in comfortable chalet accommodation.

The trek starts in France, takes us into Switzerland, then ends up back in France. We tour the "Ruans" mountain and have the option of scaling two 3,000 metre+ summits, the mythical Buet (3,096 metre) with splendid views of the Mt Blanc range, and Haut Cime (3,257 metre), the highest summit of the seriously menacing-looking Dents du Midi range.

Provisional itinerary
Below is a provisional itinerary for our six-day epic of France and Switzerland. Note that this may be subject to change depending on weather, group ability and other unforeseen factors.

Saturday - Arrival in Geneva and transfer to our comfortable chalet in Samoëns. Three-course evening meal with the other guests.

Sunday - Transfer by minibus to the breathtaking Cirque du Fer à Cheval where we start off by climbing up to the transhumance chalets of Commune. We continue on to Refuge de Grenairon, our first mountain hut, with breathtaking views of the summit of the Buet, our first potential 3,000m-summit.
(11,5km, 1,300m ascent, 300m descent, 5h30 walk)

Monday - "Alpine start" if we opt for the summit of the Buet which constitutes a significant but highly-rewarding detour. Descent towards the Vieux Emosson lake, where we'll discover the fossilised tracks of dinosaurs before getting to the Vieux Emosson hut.
(13km, 1,400m ascent, 1,100m descent, 7hrs walk)
(With Buet: 18km, 1,900m ascent, 1,600m descent, 10hrs walk)

Tuesday - This day begins and ends in Switzerland. We get the opportunity to study the amazing Swiss engineering of three high-altitude dams - Vieux Emosson, Emosson and Salanfe. A long day with a lot of up and down, we will pass high mountain pastures and high cols before finishing up in the Salanfe hut.
(18km, 1,261m ascent, 1,434m descent, 9hrs walk)

Wednesday - Being by the beautiful Sulanfe lake and after a couple of hard days on the mountains, it is perhaps time to relax a little and take in the surroundings? However, being right at the foot of the impressive Dent du Midi range, it's tempting to want to tackle its highest summit, the Haut Cime at 3,257m.
(7km, 550m ascent, 400m descent, 3hrs walk)
(With Haut Cime: 11km, 1,300m ascent, 1,150m descent, 7hrs)

Thursday - A slightly more relaxing day, but which does not lack a challenge. We have to climb the infamous ladders leading up to Col des Ottans before dropping back into France, high above the End of the World. We spend the night in the comfortable Vogealle hut.
(7,5km, 600m ascent, 800m descent, 4-5hrs walk)

Friday - Civilisation may beckon, but we still have some fantastic wilderness to take in before coming back to the creature comforts of the valley. We'll descend to the Boret hut, before taking a detour to see the stunning glacier-shaped valley of the End of the World. From here, we only have a short flat stretch left before we end up where we started, in the Cirque du Fer à Cheval.
(10km, 175m ascent, 1,200m descent, 4hrs walk)