For a few years now I have been interested in hiking the Tour Du Mont Blanc (TBM) and I finally put the idea in motion back in February. Preferring to hike the TMB with others, I reached out to a few former work colleagues who live Germany but none were able to commit to the hike. After a bit more consideration it dawned on me that my perfect partner may be a German guy that I have known on social media for more than 10 years. His name is Daniel Massberg and, immediately upon reaching out to him, he said “YES”. So, after a few FaceTime calls and many text messages, we agreed upon some dates and we are both now in the small village of Les Houches, France, which is only a 10 minute drive from Charmonix.

I departed Boston on Sunday evening and flew to Geneva, arriving Monday morning. After a nice cappuccino I managed to find a train (with some effort) and ended up just a five minute walk from my very modest hotel. Room for one – literally. But after a long trip a room for one had everything I needed.

Around 7:00 pm, I finally met Daniel, in person, at a beautiful spot (Jean-Jacques Rousseau statue) overlooking Lake Geneva. It was really nice to meet someone whom I had known for so long and catch up on so many topics. Maybe now is a good time to tell you a little bit about Daniel. Twenty years younger than me, this guy has more energy than anyone I know . He has biked around New Zealand, biked the TransAmerica route , spent nearly 3 months in Japan hiking and running , and has logged 24 marathons (with another one coming up in less than four weeks). And, just to make this adventure a bit more interesting, he began hiking to Geneva four weeks ago, from a town in France (Mulhouse) and logged over 350 km (220 miles), completing this “warm up hike” yesterday. So, there is no question about Daniel’s ability to succeed on the TMB, the question mark is me!

After waking up early this morning I took a nice walk through the section of Geneva that I stayed at, including a nice walk around part of the lake. Upon returning to my small palace, I enjoyed a surprisingly good breakfast on a small veranda overlooking the street below. Daniel and I then met at 9:45 am and walked to the bus station where we caught our bus from Geneva to Charmonix, and then another bus to Les Houches.

After checking in to our hotel we took a short 30 minute walk to the official starting point of the TMB, took a few photos along the way, bought a few food items at a small grocery store and headed back to the hotel.

Daniel has done a great job planning out our route (pic below). Our itinerary should allow us to complete our hike in 11-12 days. At the top of this page, in the menu area, there are some general details about the TMB, as well as a link to Daniel’s garmin device (Follow My Progress) that, when clicked upon, will show our real time location. By drilling down into the link you can actually get a decent view of the terrain.

Like many of my hikes, I do not expect to have internet service each day, and will therefore post “catch up” blogs whenever I have a chance. Thanks for joining along for the next few days!