TURAS GIRLS

Stef and I have spent countless hours dreaming about trekking in the Alps, and on July 29, 2026, that dream finally became reality.

We left Albuquerque, New Mexico, and roughly 16 hours later found ourselves in the bustling city of Geneva, Switzerland—slightly dazed, a little confused, and very excited. We wandered the city trying to get our bearings, but really, what better way to start a trip to Switzerland than with a chocolate tour?

The next day, we transferred to Les Houches to begin our trek, and just like that, we were off on one of our most challenging—and fantastic—adventures yet.

From Les Houches, we began our counterclockwise traverse around Mont Blanc. With our packs as our loyal companions, we hiked up and up and up over mountain passes, only to make our way all the way back down into valleys on the other side. Each evening, we stayed in small towns, villages, or mountain refuges alongside other trekkers.

For the next seven days, we were constantly in awe of the scenery around us. The Alps are one of those places that simply cannot be captured in a photograph. No matter how many pictures we took, none of them quite showed just how massive, dramatic, and beautiful the mountains felt when we were standing around them.

And then there were the refuges.

Every mountain refuge we passed became an excuse to stop for a snack, a drink, or both. We had more tartlets, crumbles, and glasses of “mountain water” than I could possibly count—and thoroughly enjoyed every single one.

We ate some really delicious food both in the refuges and in the towns where we stayed, although there were definitely a few meals where we weren’t entirely sure what we were eating. That was part of the fun.

On our final trekking day, we finally got to try the much-anticipated fondue. It was every bit as delicious as we hoped, and naturally, we both ate far too much. Luckily, they offer a digestif after dinner to help with that—our first taste of Génépi. Whether it actually helped is debatable, but we were happy to give it a try.

A bee-sting attack, countless bonjours, several blisters, endless climbs, and some very sore muscles later, we finally made our way into Chamonix and completed our traverse of Mont Blanc.

Chamonix-Mont-Blanc is worth a trip all on its own, but for us it was the perfect place to rest, recover, celebrate, and squeeze in just a little more exploring before heading home.

We were genuinely sad to leave this incredible part of the world.

The Tour du Mont Blanc challenged us, exhausted us, fed us well, and left us in awe almost every single day. It is absolutely a trip I would do again if given the chance—and one I would recommend to any adventurer willing to climb a lot of mountains, eat a lot of pastries, and say bonjour several hundred times along the way.

July 29-August 12, 2026