Tour du Mont Blanc (TMB) in 8 days

Expected elevation gain: 10000 m
Distance: 170 km

TMB is one of the best-known hikes. Wikipedia describes it as ‘difficult’. I’d say not really, especially if you take the whole 10 days. Morbidly obese people have no business going on 170-kilometre hikes in the mountains and need to start with a race around the block, but I saw many a grayhair carrying full gear on the trail not breaking a sweat.

We did it July 13th — 20th. Should have been high season, but you-know-what pretty much killed tourism for 2021 just as it did in 2020. Good for us.

Day 1: Tallinn — Geneva — Chamonix — Les Houches

Expected ascent: 700 m
Descent: -1500 m
Distance: 13 km

My friend and I live in Estonia, the northeastern border of the EU, and getting anywhere by plane means waking up in the middle of the night. Our boarding in Tallinn started at 5:40, and by 14:00 French, we were having lunch in Chamonix’s Little Boxes. After a bomb scare at Geneva airport (someone left a bag somewhere — I swear I wanted to just march in and open that…