7 Days of Backpacking from Geneva, any suggestions ?

Lac Leman to Chamonix via the GR5 fits nicely into a week, and will leave you on the doorstep of the TMB, where things will look familiar from your earlier trip. If you didn't get a fantastic view of Mont Blanc last time you were there, then maybe the weather will play its part this time round.

To help you on your way... here's my guidebook... and you'll find the stretch from Lac Leman to Chamonix runs from page 43 to page 82. However, as it's a 'limited preview', there are 21 pages missing... but what the heck... it's free and it should help you make up your mind!

I had excellent weather when I walked the TMB. There was an enormous thunderstorm one afternoon, and the campsite flooded, but didn't reach my tent. However, it was such a splendid storm that it was definitely a bonus on the trip.

When I walked the GR5, I walked the whole thing both ways, with all its variants and alternatives, and it took me a total of 10 weeks. Out of that time, 9 weeks saw perfect weather. There was only one really wet day, one day with blanket snowfall, and a few damp and misty days. Out of the entire trip, there was only one pass where I never saw the view, either on the outward or return trips.

You could do some of the Tour du Matterhorn. You can do it in sections and you should be able to fit in a good deal in a week from what I understand. I can look up a few multi-day hut walks in the Canton of Vallais, Vaud and Geneva if you'd like?

Just to add this website: http://www.myswitzerland.com/en/home.html

Got tons of information and lots of walks, trails and activities 

+1 for GR 5. Nice ferry ride from Montreux to start.

A heatwave when I did it a few years a back able to drink out of snow melt. Couple of big storms later in my trip.

LATS -look at the sky- cumulous clouds can bubble up in late afternoon, if so keep out of the passes late on.

3 years back there was a supermarket (Coop) outside Montreux rail station where I found some meths (alcool a bruler) for my stove.

cheers , Im  still 'experimenting with meths'  but it might be a go er by then if I can make a stove with a decent uptput !

 GR5 seems to be looking like a good un !

Nick P, Ill take a look at the website you mention, thanks

Well... the GR5 is easy to reach from Geneva. The cheapest is to get the bus to Thonon-les-Bains, which is also a bit easier to reach than St Gingolph, but it makes the walk a bit longer too. Trains to Thonon-les Bains are easily arranged, but it's more complicated to get to St Gingolph The most expensive and scenic approach to both places is to get the ferry on Lac Leman. If you start at St Gingolph, be warned that the first few hours are very steeply uphill, compared to the gentler gradients you get by starting at Thonon-les-Bains.

As you've already walked the TMB, you know how steep it is getting off Le Brevent above Chamonix, though of course you can 'cheat' and use cablecars!

For sheer drama id probably start in the Val de Annivers,over to the Turmanntal before descending into the Mattertal for the awesome europaweg complete with Hangerbruck grabengufer (head for heights needed) into Zermatt.Up to the Hohbalm pastures to the schonbiel hut with amazing views of the Matterhorn before attemphting the Hornli hut.High routes may be difficult mid-june but access is easy by train from Geneva airport.

I'm not aware of any law that forbids going south to north, and I've walked it that way myself.

One of the huts I always wanted to stay in was Bellachat, but every time I passed it, the place was stuffed full of people. I was lucky when I walked south to north, as a huge thunderstorm kicked off while I was down in Les Houches, and I knew people would be fleeing for their lives and cancelling all their carefully-laid plans. I also knew that the thunderstorm would pass in an hour or so, and I set off to climb to the hut. When I got there, the guardian said that the only other people were a German couple. She referred to us all as "les trois courageux!"