Tour du Mont Blanc Day 1: Trail Runner Explores Chamonix to Les Contamines

Over the course of five days, Trail Runner’s managing editor Abby Levene and her travel partner, Chelsea Burns, will tackle the well-known (but rarely seen in its entirety), beautiful, and achingly challenging Tour du Mont Blanc (TMB). The approximately 108-mile loop around the Mont Blanc Massif in France, Italy, and Switzerland almost entirely doubles as the UTMB Mont-Blanc course—the biggest, most competitive, and most iconic ultramarathon in the world.

Abby will run the entire course split up into segments over five days, staying in iconic mountain towns along the way that also double as familiar-sounding aid stations and strategic points on the UTMB course. Fans of the race will be familiar with town names like Contamines, Courmayeur, La Fouly, Trient, and of course Chamonix. While her firsthand experience will undoubtedly inform Trail Runner’s UTMB coverage,  she’ll not just show where she ran, but why it’s worth running—and what kinds of adventures are worth pursuing.

If you follow UTMB, this is for you; if you love exploration, this is for you.