Doug Mayer

Chamonix, France

I’ve been playing in the mountains since I was a kid growing up in the US, breaking wooden cross-country skis on remote peaks in New Hampshire’s White Mountains with my older brothers. The ensuing years have been filled with adventures from the Alps to the Andes. The thought of a warm chocolate croissant and a friendly dog at the next mountain hut can make me run for hours.

In a past life I worked as a Producer for the NPR show Car Talk. Today, in addition to doing my best to guide the growth of Run the Alps, I write for a number of trail running media outlets, including Outside and Ultrasignup. My latest book is The Last of the Giants, a graphic novel about running Italy’s 330-km long Tor des Géants trail race. I also wrote The Race that Changed Running: The Inside Story of UTMB. Earlier books I’ve co-authored include Trail Running Illustrated and Run the Alps Switzerland: 30 Must-Do Trail Runs.

Living in Chamonix means that my free time is spent playing in the mountains, whether running our local Vertical Kilometer course at night with a headlamp, or exploring the mountains of nearby Switzerland or Italy in trail running shoes, on a gravel bike, or with skis underfoot.

Winter climbing with a friend in the Grand Tetons in the US, we once climbed the wrong peak.

From my home in the Chamonix valley near the Swiss border, I love to wake up my dog Izzy — invariably asleep on the sofa– and run up the ridge above home to the Aiguillette des Posettes, where we both can take in a 360-degree view of mountains, glaciers and alp villages. We run down through pastures and forests and for a few minutes, all is right with the world.