THEY HAD THE right idea when they made up the Tour du Mont Blanc (TMB). A big massif in the middle; seven valleys and seven arduous passes; a tarn or two; and not too much luggage to haul along. But perhaps they’d have done even better 1196km away to the north-west…
What if we brought the concept back home, and walked right round a mountain, equally beloved – like Scafell Pike, perhaps? We get to experience those seven different valleys with their seven separate ways of being beautiful. We get the seven moments of high excitement at the crossing of the passes between. There are the glimpses from seven different directions of our circumambulated main mountain. And there’s also the commitment. If you don’t make it round Mont Blanc, then you’re in for the 200-mile taxi ride from Italy right round into Switzerland. In the Lakes, it means an only slightly cheaper cab from Eskdale back to Keswick.
You can make a ring round almost anything (see the boxout for a few suggestions), but this one does have its advantages. Only four days of walking, instead of using up all your annual holiday. No
