Following borders is very much in vogue. While John Harlin begins his traverse of the Valais Alps in an attempt to complete the circumnavigation of Switzerland, top French alpinist Lionel Daudet is on the frontier ridges of the Mont Blanc range, at the start of his anticlockwise journey around the edge of France.
Over the last 20 years Daudet has climbed a raft of impressive new routes around the globe, from Greenland to Patagonia, and Alaska to the Himalaya. He has twice been awarded a Piolet d'Or.
In the winter of 2002 the Frenchman suffered a serious setback, when he attempted to repeat, solo, one of his first major new routes in the Alps, Aux Amis Disparus on the Zmutt Nose of the Matterhorn, climbed during the summer of 1992 with Patrick Gabarrou.
Caught in a bad storm, Daudet sustained severe frostbite and subsequently lost most of his toes.
He was back in shape by 2004 and, ever inventive, spent almost two months with Philippe Pellet making the first continuous crossing of the Ecrins Skyline.
Keeping more or less above 3,000m for the entire journey, the pair made 34 bivouacs on their c250m traverse, crossing nearly all the major summits in the Massif.
In 2007 he extended this idea with a circumnavigation of the Department of Hautes-Alpes. Accompanied by various partners, Daudet's 700km voyage took three months and summited 292 peaks
It was during this time that a friend almost jokingly remarked, "why not follow the entire border of France?"
The seed was sown. Not wishing to rush the experience, Daudet has allowed a year for the odyssey, starting and finishing on Mont Blanc.
No motorized transport will be used: Daudet plans to mountain bike the Atlantic Coast, kayak the Rhine, and will even include islands such as Ouessant (the most westerly point in France) and Corsica, reached by yacht.
He may cross as many as 1,500 peaks and hills during his 5,000km journey, and for the 'tricky bits' will be accompanied by other accomplished alpinists such as Pellet and Philippe Batoux.
However, the crux will be the crossing of the entire Pyrenees, which he plans to start in December this year. A complete traverse of the Pyrenean watershed, which involves 600 summits, has only been completed twice, during the '80s. But never in winter.
While Daudet notes that in coastal regions the true border is around 12 nautical miles off shore, he plans to stay firmly on land, as the journey will be infinitely more interesting.
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