Excellent video. Probably the best one I’ve watched about preparing for the TMB. And the guy with the comment about the tennis shoes should lighten up.
Hi Hank, Loved your video! It was super helpful. Does your base weight of 10lbs include the weight of water? How much water would you suggest carrying at a time in between refill stations? I have a 2L bladder and not sure how much water to carry and how often there will be an opportunity to refill. Thanks!
Great video Hank, super informative! Planning to do the hike next summer, do the owners of the Refuges speak english? Any areas where it would be good to know a few phrases of french or italian? Thank you!
Hi! Yes, for the most part they speak English well enough to conduct basic business with them. If you want to learn a few things, it can help to know things like "Do you have any beds free?" "How much does a bed and dinner cost?" "How much does a packed lunch cost?" "Where's the bathroom?" "Where is and what time will dinner be served?" How many hours is the walk to the next refugio/town?" Etc.
Hey Hank, Thanks for the vids - excellent, excellent work! Not including flights and equipment, what was the cost per person for the 11 days on mont blanc? Regards
Hi, Kyle! So glad you liked the video! I'd estimate about €60 per day (€50 for lodging with dinner and breakfast, plus €10 for lunch), which is about €720 total. You'll spend more money if you stay in any hotels instead of staying in refugios. You can save money by bringing/making your own food and buying groceries so you're not buying meals at refugios (especially your own lunch food). You can save even more money by camping instead of staying in refugios. Also don't forget to include the cost for transportation (we took a shared shuttle) to and from the airport. Hope that helps. If you have any other questions, let me know!
what time of the year did u go here? i hate humans (nothing personal) so i liked how remote and calm it seemed, compared to the hiking season of the year (around august) thnks. great video! great vibe, cool people! keep goin, never give up < 3 EDIT: the cactus thing killed me
hi there! will be hiking the TMB for the first time this June. i’m wondering how many layers i should pack since it’s a summer month, but i know you mentioned it got colder up in the mountains. i also don’t want to overpack extra warm layers if it’s not needed? what time of year were you there for this trip?
hi karina :) we did this trip at the beginning of september. in june, i'd expect to see temps 48F - 68F (9C - 20C) in Les Houches (where most people start), as shown here: www.meteoblue.com/en/weather/historyclimate/climatemodelled/les-houches_france_3000622. but Les Houches is at 3,300 feet, and there's a rule that temperature goes up 3.5F (2C) with each 1000 feet of elevation gain. since the highest point on the TMB is 8,300 feet, you might see temperatures 30F - 50F (-1C - 10C) when high up in the mountains. so, last piece of advice, most people rarely get cold WHILE hiking (unless the weather is very bad), but you should layer-up the moment you stop, because that's when your body cools down. so i'd bring a very warm jacket to throw on if you stop at high elevation and it's like 30F outside!
Haha, Parker suggests bringing some of your own food and making sure you do some of your own shopping at grocery stores along the way when available. She says most of the vegetarian food she was served at the refugios was egg- and cheese-centric. The progressive US West Coast is, even in 2019, much more accommodating to vegans than even Western Europe -- though it's true that this TMB is somewhat rural. I imagine vegans can do just fine in Paris.
Hi, Ali! Glad you enjoyed the video. I hope you have a great TMB -- and if you have any other questions about planning for your trip before you go, let me know and I'd be happy to try to answer them!
Hank, how well marked is the Mont Blanc? Do you need a map or GPS? And also, how did you plan your route and what site did you use to book your accommodation ahead? Thanks
The hike is very well marked -- you can definitely do it without a GPS device, but you should always carry a map in case something goes wrong. We used the Kev Reynolds Tour of Mont Blanc guide to help use plan our trip, and the www.autourdumontblanc.com/en/ site to book accommodations.
Hi guys, very informative, did you find it ok to just arrive at refuges or need to book in advance..(not a fan of highly organised trips, like flexibility), generally not fylly booked? Cheers andy
Unfortunately, for the TMB trip, we booked nearly everything in advance because it's a very popular trip and a lot of the refugios get filled. It is likely possible to try to do this trip without bookings on the fly, but you may find yourself heading to alternate stop points/towns and possibly needing to camp if you can't find a place to stay. -Hank
Hi, Steve! Yes, in all of the towns you go through along the way (Les Contamines, Courmayeur, etc.) you can buy groceries, food, and batteries. There's also more than a few outdoors gear/clothing stores (we bought hiking boots and an Arcteryx rain jacket for Parker along the way). I didn't look for canister gas myself, but I assume that it's sold in all the towns too because the whole area is a camping/outdoors destination. But you might want to call a store ahead to make sure they carry the kind of gas you want.
Crampons were unnecessary for the conditions we had (we hiked in September). However, I know that the end of June is only just the beginning of the season and there has been a lot of snow this year, so it's very conditions-dependent. You may want to call a refugio at one of the higher elevations to see if they think they're necessary. Hope that helps.
whoops. the other video where we actually do this hike correctly says "highest mountain in Western Europe" but I definitely forgot to say "Western" when I made this packing list video. glad you liked it though!
That's Refugio Robert Blanc. You can see our entire hike to that Refugio in our TMB trip video: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-LpDIdJEAouk.html
Yeah, our video has a lot of extra useful information beyond just the packing list. But, you can fast forward to any of the items in the video easily just by looking at the topic list on the right side of the video. Also, the full list of items is listed in text in the description box below the video. Hope that helps!
@@HankLeukart going June 15 for 2 weeks. I'm nervous that's too early. Do you know of any good trail reports. Any suggestions i.e booking accommodations.
@Steve Novack Hi, Steve. Usually, the end of June is considered the earliest time to start that will give you snow-free trails, but it depends on the snowpack that year. I know that there's still plenty of snow right now (end of May) but you should check in on the TMB Facebook group or call a refugio to inquire about conditions when it's closer to your departure date. This website www.montourdumontblanc.com/uk/ helps you plan your route and book accommodations online. It's super helpful.
Great work! Thank you so much for taking us your journey! We have similar incidents. I fracture femur in Jan. 2018. I hiked northerneast over 4000 footer which is 115 mountains. Now i am planning to hike TMB in September 7th till 21st. I watched your report three times...i am aware it gets cold so i will being my puffy jacket. Hope i could make reservations now for the refugios. Can you give me advise? Anything. I will be hiking solo. I am thinking opposite what you did, hiking leg gets stronger toward to end and to do harder ones at the end. What do you think?
Sorry to hear about your leg! You can try using the website www.montourdumontblanc.com/uk/ to help you plan your route and book accommodations online. It's super helpful. As for which direction to watch, I think both ways are probably about the same level of difficulty. You may find that your route plan is more likely to be dictated by refugio availability.
Good question! Two things: 1) Doing the TMB in lightweight trail-runners is not necessarily a bad idea: it's easier on your feet, and having the lightest shoes possible always makes a big difference for stamina. Most long-distance thru-hikers these days (on the PCT, AT, etc.) wear super light trail-runners for those reasons. Parker mostly only ran into trouble with her shoes because we did the _side trip_ to Refugio Robert Blanc, which has some extremely steep and slippery mountain passes to go over (it's significantly more challenging than the primary TMB trail). That said, shoes with more traction CAN make a difference on the TMB -- if you expect to encounter snow (which we did). 2) Anyway, taking advice from her makes sense, because she's a person who made a mistake (none of us really knew how intense the Robert Blanc route would be), but she learned from it, and is now passing on that valuable info to others.
Tennis shoes and trail runners are completely different. Trail runners have similar sole tread patterns as hiking boots. Tennis shoes should not be worn on any hiking trip.
