Tour du Mont-Blanc Erasmus+ Student Trail

The main aim of the project is to promote well-being through physical activity, in particular through walking and running. These two sports were chosen because they are accessible to the greatest number of people, require little equipment and can be practiced anywhere.

The event also embodies the values of respect for the environment, solidarity and tolerance. It aims to strengthen intercultural skills and the sense of belonging to Europe, by building multicultural teams that help each other to meet challenges.

Mont Blanc, the summit of Europe shared by three countries, is the symbolic location chosen for this cooperation project between European students.

Find out more about the project.

USMB, the project leader, has brought together nine of its strategic partners. Four of these are its partners in UNITA, the European university of which it is a member.

Partners :

• Portugal: Universidade da Beira interior, member of UNITA
• Spain: Universidad de Zaragoza, member of UNITA
• Italy: Universita Degli Studi Di Torino, member of UNITA
• Romania: West University of Timisoara, member of UNITA
• Austria : FH Technikum Wien
• Germany : Fachhochschule Kiel
• Finland : Haaga-Helia Univ. Of applied sciences
• Netherlands : Windesheim Univ. Of applied sciences
• Ireland : Institute of technology of Carlow

Each university selected five of its students and a mentor to form multicultural teams that gravitated around Mont Blanc.

Students were selected following a call for applications, which attracted over 330 applications for the 50 places available. Applications were to be sent in video format, together with a letter of recommendation from a reference teacher and a survey to be completed in order to gain a better understanding of the candidates' profiles.

Each university selected 5 candidates, who were then assigned to multicultural, multidisciplinary teams comprising one student from each origin.

Given the health crisis, 4 partner universities (Ireland, Netherlands, Finland and Germany) were unfortunately unable to send representatives from their countries. They were replaced at the last minute by students from French, Spanish and Italian universities who had been placed on the complementary list following the call for applications.

Discover the selected students trombinoscope.

And to find out more about the participants' application videos, follow us on Instagram (#tmb_erasmus) on our IGTV channel.

One male and one female UMSB student, both top-level athletes, enthusiastically agreed to become ambassadors for the TMBE+ event. The participants were accompanied by Oscar Lombardot, 2021 Junior World Champion in biathlon relay, and Marie Pollet-Villard, 2021 French Champion in ski mountaineering (ski touring in competition), espoir category in vertical race, sprint and individual.

They were both members of the jury and took part, alongside the international students, in the award ceremony held on June 12, 2021. There, they shared their experiences of high-level sport and reconciling sport and study at university. Follow the event's Instagram account to watch their interviews!

Did you know?
Atuniversité Savoie Mont Blanc, top-level sportsmen and women benefit from special facilities to help them reconcile top-level sport with their studies. 250 students also follow special "sport-study" courses.

The event kicked off on Saturday, June 5, 2021 in Chamonix, the project's partner town, and ended in the same place on Friday, June 11. The trail stages took place between June 6 and 10, a total of 5 days of sport walking around Mont-Blanc.

The sporty route was 42.5 km long, with 3080 m of ascent and 2860 m of descent! Completed in 4 days, the route revealed to students a wide variety of landscapes around the Beaufortain and Chamonix valleys.

At the halfway point, they competed in a major orienteering race in Vallorcine, won by the red team. At the mer de glace, they also listened to Philip Deline, teacher-researcher at the EDYTEM laboratory (CNRS / USMB), accompanied by Marco Giardino and Rodolfo Carosi(Department of Earth Sciences, University of Turin), talk about global warming in the Alps.

The first two days of the walk took place with snowshoes and crampons on because of the large quantities of snow still present at this altitude (around 2500m) at the beginning of June: a sometimes novel and always unforgettable experience for all participants!

Program and itinerary.

Five multicultural teams, with every nationality represented, set off from Chamonix on June 6, 2021, for 5 days of hiking. The students had to show their team spirit to complete all the stages of the Tour du Mont Blanc Erasmus+ Student Trail (TMBE) together.

Beyond the sporting challenge, a second, more creative challenge awaited the members of the adventure. During the trail, they proved their ability to work in an intercultural context by producing a video. In it, they presented their ideas for better integrating and promoting sport at university: What is the place of sport at university? How and why should sport and studies be reconciled? What skills can be acquired through sport, and how can they be promoted?

The videos produced during the week of the event were judged on a number of criteria: relevance, structure, visual appeal, creativity of message and format, and teamwork. The 5 videos testify to the investment and inventiveness of the 5 teams.

At the closing ceremony on June 11, one of these videos was a big hit with the jury, thanks to the quality of its content and production. The winning green team won a trip to Brussels to visit the European Commission this autumn and present the project and its impact. The winning video, shot in the form of a television report, takes an interesting look at the subject of university sport. The students successfully confronted the values conveyed by sport and the Tour du Mont-Blanc Erasmus+ with clichés about young people.

View the green team video here

"Sports, A guide to happiness", by Killian Quentric, Denis Lovescu, Marta Boetto, Emilie Bernard, Isabel Garcia, Angelika Wlodarczyk, Edgar Beldroega, Conrad Ekisa and Natsumi Ando.

The 50 male and female participants, selected from 350 video applications, all have a strong love of the mountains and sport. But they weren't selected solely on sporting criteria.

To prepare them for this effort, the USMB sports department had concocted a tailor-made physical preparation schedule: 5 activities per week, for 8 weeks, such as online pilates and circuit training sessions. The activities were led by USMB teaching staff.

Students were also invited to run races in the run-up to the event to boost their cardio capacity.

To minimize the risk of the virus spreading during this complex health period, the USMB has set up a health protocol available in French and English.

In addition, a doctor and two nurses accompanied the group on all its movements throughout the week, so as to be able to deal with emergencies and implement the appropriate measures.

Find out more about the teams, their preparation, and interviews with the ambassador by following the dedicated Instagram account

At the end of the event, all participants present in Chamonix, as well as those who were not fortunate enough to be able to attend, were questioned via a satisfaction and impact measurement questionnaire. Based on their responses, a results and impact analysis was drawn up, showing a record level of satisfaction: the average score awarded to the event by its participants was 9.55/10!

The study also shows that the event achieved several objectives:

• strengthening inter-university cooperation between partner institutions
• creating a community of European students through sport
• developing European citizenship
• more sport as a means of promoting good health
• promoting the Savoie Mont-Blanc region
• preserving the environment

To find out more about all the results and impacts of the project, read the detailed report HERE.

Closing ceremony in Chamonix

The closing ceremony at the Chamonix Convention Center marked the completion of this ground-breaking project. Opened by a welcome from Juliette Martinez, town councillor responsible for culture and events in Chamonix, the ceremony continued with a speech by Philippe Galez, President of the USMB.

"Beyond this event [...] we are building together [...] the future European area of education and academics. We are giving it our shared values and our confidence in the future. The USMB is proud to contribute to this, and will always be available to go further," explained Philippe Galez, President ofuniversité Savoie Mont Blanc.

Before the videos were shown, a round-table discussion addressed the theme of sport at university. The event's two ambassadors, Oscar Lombardot (Junior World Champion 2021 in biathlon relay) and Marie Pollet-Villard (French Champion 2021 in ski-mountaineering, espoir category, in vertical race, sprint and individual), shared their experiences as top-level student athletes at USMB.

The two ambassadors then joined the other 12 members of the jury to view the videos and vote for the best.

What role does sport play at university? How and why do you reconcile sport and study? What skills can be acquired through sport, and how can they be developed? As well as looking back on their experience around Mont-Blanc, the teams took an in-depth look at sport at university.

The videos produced during the week of the event were judged on a number of criteria: relevance, structure, visual appeal, creativity of message and format, and teamwork. The 5 videos testify to the investment and inventiveness of the 5 teams.

At the closing ceremony on June 11, one of these videos was a big hit with the jury, thanks to the quality of its content and production. The winning green team won a trip to Brussels to visit the European Commission this autumn. The winning video, shot in the form of a television report, takes an interesting look at the subject of university sport. The students successfully confronted the values conveyed by sport and the Tour du Mont-Blanc Erasmus+ with clichés about young people.