Julia Beverly lives in the USA and completed the Tour du Mont Blanc after overcoming a serious ankle injury while renovating her home.

As strange as it sounds, falling through an attic led me to the Tour du Mont Blanc.

I’d purchased an older home to renovate and was poking around in the attic one day after the contractors left. The previous owners had left behind some miscellaneous wood, an old door, and rolls of blue shag carpet, and the OCD in me insisted on clearing it all out. Not realizing that there was a gap between two sections of plywood flooring, covered only by drywall and insulation, I took a step towards the furnace to grab a roll of carpet.

It all happened so fast. My right arm slammed against the beam as I came through the ceiling. A sharp, searing pain shot up my leg as I landed awkwardly on the side of my right ankle on the floor beneath.

According to the x-rays, nothing was broken. The doctor assured me it was just swollen and sprained. Having experienced a childhood full of sprained ankles playing basketball, I knew this was something different. It took three specialists before I finally got a diagnosis that made sense. It was sprained in three different places, most seriously, a high ankle sprain. I was advised that with physical therapy, I might be able to do some light exercise after six months, and perhaps back to normal after a year.

For the first month, I was confined to the couch. Pure torture as anyone who knows me will attest. Prior to my little accident, I was an avid runner and workout fanatic; in recent years I’ve cycled across the United States (with BikeTheUSforMS), Spain, and from the top to bottom of the U.K.

After a few days binge-watching Netflix I resolved to make better use of my forced downtime. I had a list in my phone titled “Adventures” which contained hundreds, maybe thousands of scraps of information: mountains I heard about climbing, cycling trips that sounded interesting, cities I wanted to visit. As a former magazine publisher, book author, and occasional journalist, I read constantly and absorb information everywhere. So during my month stationary, I Googled everything on my list and read about all of them obsessively, planning out detailed itineraries and associated costs, narrowing it down to around 70 (yeah, I know) must-do “bucket list” adventures.

I couldn’t tell you what link or click it was that led me to the Tour du Mont Blanc, but I was instantly captivated by other hikers’ photos and the incredible mountain scenery. I know how as an American we are prone to living in our own bubble, but I couldn’t believe I’d never heard of this ultra-popular European hiking route. I loved the fact that you could experience the beauty of the mountains and still pass through civilization, still have a hot meal and hot shower every night. By the time I’d devoured a dozen travel blogs recapping the TMB journey, it was #1 on my bucket list. 

Six months later, I awoke in a gorgeous mountain chalet in Switzerland after my first full day back hiking. And… I tried to get out of bed and couldn’t put any weight on my foot. The initial panic subsided when I remembered my physical therapist saying that it would likely be sore as I resumed activity. The pain subsided and a few hours later there I was atop the Grand Col Ferret with my picnic lunch, crossing the border into Italy.

The Tour du Mont Blanc turned out to be an incredible journey: the breathtaking scenery everywhere you look, the never-ending waterfalls, the kind and helpful staff at the chalets and refuges, and the camaraderie of meeting interesting people from all over the world on this same path. I’d highly recommend it to every true adventurer, and for myself, I took it as a lesson that the path forward isn’t always full speed ahead. Sometimes taking time to sit down, reflect, and plan can be just as beneficial.”

Author and photography: Julia Beverly.

Julia’s story features in our book, Modern Adventurers: hiking stories from the Alps. You can meet Julia over on The Hiking Club community, join here!