Covering 170km and 10,000m of ascent, and taking in France, Italy and Switzerland, the TMB is one of the world’s greatest walks, offering trekkers a tough challenge with spectacular scenery
I am standing stock-still on a twisting path high above Chamonix, open-mouthed and agog. All around me are the soaring peaks of the Mont Blanc massif, but they are not the reason for my astonishment. Just ahead of us on the trail – which has risen thrillingly through cliffs, pinnacles and precarious paths – two ibex are mating, each notch of the male’s enormous curving antlers lit up by the afternoon sun.
Wild alpine goats weren’t the only exotic creatures I met on the Tour du Mont Blanc, one of the world’s greatest walks, a high-altitude trail around the entire massif that takes the hiker anti-clockwise from France to Italy to Switzerland, then back into France for a climactic ascent to the beautiful Lac Blanc. As well as jumping fish, lizards and snakes (one practically slithered over my boot), there were so many marmots I eventually stopped taking photos of them.
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