With a mix of world class trails, dramatic scenery, great company, and delicious trailside snacks, our Bernese Oberland tour kept us adding extra helpings of each of the above. This was Run the Alps’ second Bernese Oberland tour of the 2023 season.

Our group set out from the beautiful mountain chalet at Schwarzwaldalp where we’d spent a peaceful first night with the sounds of bells from cows lazily grazing in the pastures. We had the next week to explore the best trails around Switzerland’s Bernese Oberland region.

After a week of running, bonding, and storm dodging, race day dawned with perfectly clear skies and hot weather for the races at Eiger Ultra Trail by UTMB.®

Accompanied by professional trail runner Meg Mackenzie, we shared a wonderful week with a group of amazing ladies!

Food as always plays such an important part of any Run the Alps Tour du Mont-Blanc trip. There are so many cafes, buvettes, and refuges to stop at en route, and the fruit tarts, cakes, cookies, crepes, and hot meals make this a culinary tour as much as a running tour.

With an intimate group of just two guests, we started out the trail running season on part of the iconic Tour du Mont-Blanc or UTMB® race course. Our favorite climb was up to Grand Col Ferret from Arnouva.

The Via Valais tour was, simply put, fantastic. The route can’t be compared. We saw ibex up close, and picked wild blueberries all week. The weather was perfect and had the smells of the season changing to autumn.

Our group of six spent two days in Leukerbad, Switzerland ascending the cliffs of the Gemmi-pass. Then we headed across the Rhône valley to Zermatt to continue our tour. At the end of the week of trail running, we supported the Matterhorn Ultraks racers in our group.

The TMB is unfailingly a memorable loop. One thing that made this TMB stand out was that the UTMB races were also happening, and so the trails were stacked with running stars.

The Tour du Mont Blanc, “TMB,” is a classic, and it always catches people unaware of how much up and down there really is along the route. Cake, coffee, and crêpes were the center point of each day and they helped fuel us for the climbs.