At 66, I felt a bit like the father of the hiking community when I hiked around Mont Blanc earlier this fall. But the Tour du Mont Blanc is doable for any reasonably fit hiker, and there were plenty of people on the trail who were older than me.

For total novices like Shelley and me, it’s wise to be proactive about health and safety. Here are some tips I learned along the way:

Good boots, liner socks, slippery powder, and moleskin for tender skin are essential. We kind of became gear geeks — ...