Photo Essay: Hiking the Iconic Tour du Mont Blanc

On the first day it rained and we arrived at the alpine hut all wet. 

On the second day we got caught in a lightning storm, just five minutes away from the next hut.  We hid under some rocks for some time, not wanting to take any risks of getting struck by lightning. There a French guy that had been running on the mountain that day sat next to us, shivering from the cold rain and loud thunder. After 20 minutes we all left—the French runner ran straight down the valley, and we went pushed on to the hut, soaking wet for the second time in two days.

The next eight days our luck changed along with the weather. It was all sun and beautiful weather from there on out.

The Tour du Mont Blanc trail has been in the back of my mind for a very long time, though it never materialized until this year, when together with my girlfriend and another friend of ours we decided to commit. It took a lot of planning, phone calls to each of the huts, and plenty of map studying.

But no amount of research could ever prepare us for the terrain we saw and things we did on this trail. 

We never thought that on this trail there would be so many nice people, from Canada all the way to New Zealand. People that love mountains and nature more that anything, people that will join you on the trail and share their food with you.

And the food...well, I thought I would loose some weight from 10 days on the mountains. But that was not the case. The food is extraordinary in every hut on the trail.

And the landscape...there is nothing to be said. I would not trust any photo on the internet, even my own. You have to go out there and see that beauty with your own eyes.