I’ve lived in Chamonix full-time for five years, spending five summers here before that, and founded and am part-owner of the trail-running tour company Run the Alps. Held each year at the end of August and easily the world’s most famous trail race, UTMB is one part of the reason the TMB (walking version) has become so popular. It was September 1, 2017, and 2,200 fellow trail runners joined me in the 14th edition of the iconic Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc, or UTMB. It wasn’t until seven years ago that I did the full loop in one continuous push. I began hiking and trail running the Tour du Mont-Blanc 15 years ago in sections-a day here, two days there. Last July, he and his wife, Carolyn, did a highlights tour: six days, 65 miles, and 22,270 feet of elevation gain. A visiting American, Greg Williams, enjoys toting a light daypack on the TMB. Along with the lively hut scene, Michelin-star dining options en route, and stop-dead-in-your-tracks views, you may also see the world’s best trail runners breezing past. Starting and finishing in the adventure-crazed alpine town of Chamonix, France, at the base of Mont Blanc, the TMB is perhaps the world’s most famous pedestrian loop and definitely one of its most entertaining, passing through three countries and the resulting variety of cultures.
In the 1960s, old huts were updated, inns sprang up in the valleys, and the TMB took on its present form. In the last 60 years, local communities worked on the ancient routes, upgrading them for modern use by active travelers. Those paths created an intertwined network of trails around the massif.
In time, they began herding animals, moving them to higher pastures in the summer, creating the annual Alpine rhythm called transhumance that persists to this day. Ten thousand years ago, nomadic tribes gathered here, living off deer and chamois on the land and fish from the rivers. The Mont Blanc region of the Alps is huge, encompassing 155 square miles, with 60 square miles of glaciers and eleven summits over 13,000 feet. The loop begins and ends in Chamonix, and being in that adventure-amped mountain town is half the fun. It offers gorgeous stretches of warm, summer Alps weather, yet full-on big-mountain storms can still descend on trekkers. It comprises more than 32,000 feet of uphill hiking and descending. While downright decadent at times thanks to the gourmet food and drink en route, the Tour du Mont-Blanc, 103 miles of hiking that circles Mont Blanc and passes through France, Italy, and Switzerland, is no pushover. This trek has it all: three countries, endless views of Western Europe’s highest peak-15,771-foot Mont Blanc-fresh-baked treats at high huts you stay in along the way, and views of climbers clinging to improbable spires.
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