Looking for ideas for a 4-5 day self supported MTB tour a la Tour de Mont Blanc. Most routes seem point to point and often hard to find enough details. Prefer if possible not to do it with a tour company despite the obvious plus points (getting lost is part of the attraction).

Some research from a trip a couple of summers back –
http://www.c8h10n4o2.org/walking/gr54/index.html – GR54 around Ecrin range
http://www.vttour.fr/topos/ – loads of routes by area
http://www.grande-traversee-alpes.com/en/gta-gr5 – end-to-end but worth a look, south of Briancon it gets really good. I want to go back to the area between Briancon and south of the Izoard, loads of potential there but you need to have the attitude of just taking a trail that looks good and heading in a general direction. A few other routes on that site look good.
http://www.vttour.fr/sentiers/?id_dept=06 Alps Maratimes routes, a lovely area, TransProvence general area, seemed like harder route finding and looser and rockier, but good trails.

Thanks, the VTT tours site looks interesting. A lot to look through with some promising longer trips. What did you do in the end

Any other ideas/advice out there?

We took the GR5 from Geneva to Nice with a few diversions. Brilliant trip. Just used the GR5 as a base and followed a few other trails that looked good along the way, so agree with your ‘getting lost is fun’ approach. We rode one stunningly good trail for around an hour just because it looked promising, got to the end and looked for a sign, all in Italian, realised we were over the border, one long road climb coming up to get back on track..

Found this too – http://jacques-tracks.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/2012-mtb-in-alpes-de-haute-provence.html
and if you just follow VVT Piste signs, many areas between the Ecrin and Haute Provence areas could keep you going for 5 days – http://www.tourism-alps-provence.com/mountain-bike/?cms=Pleasure+of+discovering&cms2=Moving
As much as the big mountains appeal, we found the riding seems more accessable and offers more options (ie less 2hr carries..) for unguided exploring when you get south of the real Alpine areas.

Here’s one of the threads that inspired our Alps bikepacking ideas – – http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/alpes-maritimes-mtb-touring-some-pics
Then this classic ‘stoke-post’ that sealed it
http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/with-pics-the-best-adventure-best-ride-ever-gr5-transalp

ChrisE is a helpful chap and a keen Transalp explorer, may be worth sending a mail via his profile. If there’s any areas along the general GR5 route you want a few ideas or details on let me know and I’ll dig up what I can.

Also, this was posted in reply on another forum where I’m looking for route ideas in N Italy (around a week ending up at Lake Garda, road, MTB or mixed – anyone?)
May help find other stuff in Europe.

Search for transalp: http://www.gps-tour.info/en/tracks/112.html
You can also filter the type of track you are looking for.
Just an example: http://www.gps-tour.info/en/tracks/detail.106140.html or http://www.gps-tour.info/en/tracks/detail.75016.html

Otherwise try asking here http://bearbonesbikepacking.co.uk/phpBB3/index.php