Eden Is Chamonix The Trail-running Capital Of The World?

Situated beneath Western Europe’s tallest peak and with two of the world’s top races bookending the summer season and hundreds of miles of spectacular trails in its backyard, this medieval enclave is a trail runner’s paradise.

- Doug Mayer

Rounding a sharp bend 2,000 feet above Chamonix, France (3,396 feet), this morning’s rush-hour traffic slams to a stop. “Dieu!” “Whoa, watch out dude!” “Merda!” Commuters from a variety of countries hit the brakes.

This is a different kind of traffic jam, though—we’re not on the RN205, the road that climbs for 20 kilometers to Chamonix, before disappearing into the Mont Blanc tunnel toward Italy.

We’re stopped, instead, on the town’s 3.8K “Kilomètre Vertical” trail-running route, which switchbacks over 70 times steeply upwards for 960 meters from Place du Triangle de l’Amité, in the heart of the old village.

Ahead, a tourist appears to be sightseeing, looking across at the glaciers and granite spires, or aiguilles, for which the region is famous.

“Pardon!” “Excusez-moi!”

Like cyclists swerving around an accident, the runners find their way around a hiker, frozen with vertigo and clinging to a rebar step cemented into a chunk of rock. Some veer left, leaving just barely an inch of soil between one foot and 50 feet of air—a move with all the risks of free-solo rock climbing. Most offer help, with an empathetic look or a, “Je peux vous aider?!” (“Can I help you?”)

It’s the kind of moment that takes place routinely in Chamonix, where a passion for trail running, a vertiginous topography and few if any regulations combine to create a trail-running scene unlike anywhere else in the world.

Chamonix’s “VK” tops out with a single transformative step. Runners grab the railing at the Planpraz gondola building, pulling themselves up to safety. Around a corner and up a few more steps, a grassy plateau leads to a café.