Ella Hall

I grew up in the foothills of the North Cascades in Washington state and formed a love of exploring the mountains by foot at an early age. I moved east for college and graduated from Dartmouth in the early days of the pandemic, with a degree in environmental studies. In October 2020, I moved to Lyon, France to teach English at a university, but by a happy accident France’s Covid lockdowns brought me to the Chamonix valley for two months. Ever since, then I’ve been trying to find ways to come back to the stunning Chamonix area.

After two years in France, I moved to Missoula, Montana where I received an M.A. in Environmental Journalism. When I’m not running around the mountains, I work in science communications and am drawn to stories about public land use, outdoor recreation, and wildfire.

If I’m not running, skiing or biking, you can find me curled up with a good book or baking peanut butter chocolate chip cookies.

During a summer of European train travel I got Covid and was transported in the back of a windowless ambulance three hours through the Dolomites to an Austrian quarantine hotel. My five-day sojourn there was completely free, including hot daily meals delivered to my doorstep.

They’re all amazing! But one of my favorite alp runs including starting in Grindelwald, running up to the Glecksteinhütte, and then back through town and up the Eiger Trail. The scenery is hard to beat!