Have you ever dreamt of somewhere that you desperately wanted to visit, but kept putting off the trip? This was my situation with the Tour du Mont Blanc (or TMB) – the 105-mile route around Mont Blanc in France, Italy, and Switzerland. I had a list of reasons why I couldn’t go.
- The airfare was too expensive.
- Travel to the destination would take too long.
- This trip had too many moving parts and was too challenging to plan.
- I have so many other obligations this year.
- I didn’t want to do this trip by myself, but I didn’t know anybody else who wants to go.
But then last October, I had major surgery that left me with a lot of time to ponder my dream travel vacation. As I was slowly recovering, I decided to throw caution to the wind and make the trip happen. I’d always wanted to do the TMB, and I needed an ambitious goal to help get me back on my feet after surgery.
Rather than hiking the TMB as a backpacking trip, though, I decided it would be an interesting challenge to run the circuit around the mountain as a trail run. Over the years, I’ve enjoyed trail running. And while I’m not so ambitious that I foster crazy dreams like running the UTMB (the ultramarathon trail race on this route). I did think that trail running the TMB might be a fun adventure.
Trail Running
As I looked into the idea of trail running the TMB, I came across Vagabond Trails – a company that specializes in hiking and running tours on the Tour du Mont Blanc, the Dolomites, and Ecuador. This all-inclusive adventure would plan all my lodging, transfer my baggage between locations, and provide me with a group of fellow travelers interested in a similar adventure.
After a bit of contemplating and watching Kraig Adams’ inspiring video about his trip with Vagabond Trails, I was all in. I placed a deposit for a trip in late July 2025 and began developing a training plan.
Unfortunately, my training for the TMB did not go as well as planned. While I was recovering just fine from my surgery, I had a new issue. I seemed to be developing a bit more clumsiness than I’d had in my younger days of trail running.
In February 2025, I took a trip to Tucson, Arizona, for a few weeks of mild weather and desert Southwest trail running. The conditions were excellent in Arizona. But, during a 10-mile trail run, my toe clipped a rock, and I went flying. I managed to avoid any mishaps with any cactus during my fall, but my right thigh landed really hard on a formidable rock embedded in the dirt.
After recuperating from my fall, I returned to my training plan, and I spent the next several months ramping up my mileage and elevation.
Sixty days before my trip was due to begin, I paid my balance on the group trip with Vagabond Trails, and I was fully committed. I’d purchased my plane tickets. I’d booked my hotels in Chamonix and Geneva for the days before and after the tour. And I’d purchased trip insurance – something required by the tour in case you get injured and need to be rescued off the route.
Everything was going along great until June 2025, when I took our son out to Colorado for his college orientation. We decided to make a week of it, and the two of us took to the trails in Leadville, Breckenridge, and Colorado Springs. But that’s when disaster struck again. And this time, it would end my dreams of running the TMB.
Colorado Springs
Whenever we find ourselves in Colorado Springs, my son and I love racing each other up the Manitou Incline. This is an intense workout that climbs 2,000 vertical feet of railroad ties in under one mile.
Once you make it to the top, you can descend back down the railroad ties (not recommended) or hike three miles down the Barr Trail to your starting point. We always choose this latter option. So the two of us set off running down the Barr Trail at an easy pace toward the trailhead.
Much like my traumatic trail run in Tucson, I had another fateful interaction with a rock embedded in the trail. I’d turned around to make sure my son was behind me when my toe clipped a rock. I lost my balance, and I went flying forward with such force and speed that I immediately put my arm out to break my fall.
I didn’t successfully break the fall, but I did manage to break my elbow!
After three miles of hiking back to the car (while using my t-shirt as a sling), and a trip to the local Urgent Care for some X-rays, it was official. I had non-displaced fractures of my radius and ulna, and bone bruising on the humerus. Those were all three bones that make up the elbow joint. I wouldn’t be running the TMB in July 2025.
Travel Insurance
Thank goodness my trip with Vagabond Trails required all participants to get travel insurance as part of their trip! Once my doctor confirmed I wasn’t able to participate in any trail running for the foreseeable future, I was able to make a claim with my travel insurance.
The only other time I’ve had to file a travel insurance claim was back when the world shut down in April 2020 for the coronavirus pandemic. However, that was an unusual case where all airline travel came to a complete halt. The insurance company had no choice but to pay my claim back then. There was no way I could travel if the airlines weren’t flying.
This new situation was 100% different, though. I had no experience filing a claim because of something that was *technically* my own fault. Ask anyone who’s had to fight with their health insurance company to pay a medical claim, and you know the kind of headache I was dreading.
I didn’t even want to start the claim process. I assumed that it would take months of my time and involve a ton of paperwork or phone calls. Plus, all my effort could result in a denial of my claim, followed by a request for reconsideration, and more paperwork… It was all too much.
But I was pleasantly surprised.
I purchased my travel insurance policy from World Nomads, and their claim process was totally streamlined. I filed my entire claim online. I got emails and texts when they needed more information. And I could check the status of my claim as it was being adjudicated.
Much to my surprise, my claim was fully settled in just over one week’s time!! It took them another week to cut the check for my loss, and they paid the entire amount I’d claimed!
Holy heck! I hadn’t expected that outcome while I was busy catastrophizing.
Where to go next?
With my arm healing and my travel insurance check deposited into my bank account, I felt an itch to plan my next adventure. But where to go?
I needed the 8-10 weeks for the broken bones in my arm to heal, then I’d need physical therapy. At best, I was looking at September before I’d be doing anything strenuous. And it wasn’t going to be another trail run where I might fall and re-injure my newly healed arm.
However, as I looked at the various adventures on my bucket list, nothing seemed to spark the same joy as my TMB trip had. I’d placed my deposit back in December 2024, and I’d been thinking Mont Blanc non-stop for the past seven months. All I wanted to do was see this prominent European mountain this year! Everything else paled in comparison.
And then I had a crazy idea.
What if I hiked the Tour du Mont Blanc instead of running it? It would take me several days longer to hike the 105-mile circuit. I would have to book all my own accommodations and carry my backpack from hut to hut. But, just maybe, I could salvage this tragedy after all.
