 Are you planning to hike the Tour de Mont Blanc? In this video we'll show you the 7 mistakes people make while hiking the Tour de Mont Blanc. Hi there future or former teambears, welcome to another High Colleagues video, I'm Annette and this is they and we created hike videos and give reviews for you. In this video we will be giving you the 7 mistakes people make while hiking and planning the Tour de Mont Blanc and how to avoid them. Hang around for the last mistake because that one might surprise you. So we hiked the complete length of the TMB including a number of variants. Definitely check out our fully detailed video on our YouTube channel from every single state so you are well prepared before hiking this wonderful trail. Now on to the 7 mistakes. So mistake number 1 is not planning ahead. The first and by far biggest mistake we see people making happens before they even set foot on the trail. The Tour de Mont Blanc is a super popular trail and if you want to go from hut to hut you have to plan months ahead. There are multiple TMB Facebook groups where people post when huts open for bookings. Mostly the huts open their bookings in the beginning of the year for the upcoming summer. However, even if you email the hut right away the hut can already be fully booked by organizations. We booked the whole trail ourselves and did use the help of an organization. Our website that helped us a lot with the planning is www.ontourdemontblanc.com. We will put a link in the description box below. Yeah, booking your hiked via an organization can really help you with the first steps towards hiking the TMB. However, booking via an organization doesn't mean you will be hiking in a group. It is possible but you can also arrange your TMB for self guide tours through an organization. And if you are going camping you can make a rough bend. If you are going wild camping for example. However, most of the campgrounds have extra space as we experience during the trail. An extra tip for your planning, know your pace. If you are a slow hiker who wants to stop every kilometer to take photos, that's okay. But take that into account for your planning. If you are a trail runner and can easily run trails in 3 days, that's also fine. But don't compare yourself with others. Hike your own hike and enjoy it. So mistake number 2. This is an obvious one but you have to train for the TMB. We met a ton of people during the trail who had to quit or take cable cars because they couldn't physically finish the trail. Of course taking cable cars is fine if that's your way to go. However, if you want to hike the TMB, it's a pity if your physical state will stop you from completing this trail. Yeah, with a length of 170 kilometers and 10.000 meters of elevation gain, the TMB is a challenge. You'll have way more fun if you're fit for this challenge. So take the stairs, go along distances with your backpack on and if you have the chance, hike in the mountains. And that brings us to reason number 3. People won't finish the TMB. That's bringing new shoes. You're packing your backpack for this wonderful trail and when you look at your shoes you think, mmh, they need an upgrade. That's fine if you still have plenty of time to train with those shoes. Yeah, you don't want to know how much bliss to take we had to hand out. How many people we saw limping around the huts and campgrounds and how many people had to quit their hide because they couldn't handle the pain in their feet anymore. You have to hike multiple times in your shoes to know if they give pain points or if they are too loose before bringing them on the trail. New shoes can cause blisters if they don't fit correctly and nothing is more painful than hiking with damaged feet of course. Our goal to set up is toe socks roaming Jinchi and trail runners from Alta. We're not sponsored to mention this but the toe socks combined with the white toe box are game changes for us. However, know that we're experienced hiker and everybody has a personal preference. Which brings us to mistake number 4. Why you won't finish the TMB is that you didn't bring your trekking poles. Trekking poles are lame. Why Dane? Yeah, I made this mistake myself. I thought I didn't need trekking poles because I never used them before. Alta always hikes with them, literally from day one I backed her for learning out one of her trekking poles to me. Yeah, with enormous elevation gain every single day and a backpack on your back, your knees have to deal with a lot of pressure. At the end of the day, you literally see people pushing with their hands on their knees to climb uphill so they can carry the weight of their back. Well, I don't have to go into detail that that posture isn't good for you. Yes, with trekking poles you are forced to hike with a straight back. Trekking poles will enhance your stability in the mountains and they reduce the force on your knees and feet during backpacking, do we need to say even more? And let's go to mistake number 5. Packing way too much. More weight in your backpack makes it real harder. That's a no-brainer. Check out both our Packing Mist videos so you know what we brought during the TMB and so you can compare with what you want to bring. More weight weight is around 4kg and that's including a booklet about the TMB and the power bank which is almost half a kilo. You can choose to bring extra clothes but you will be smelly anyway. You can choose to bring a book for the evenings but you have to carry that uphill as well. You can choose to bring all your food with you but you can also buy new food in multiple towns along the trail. Bring less so you will enjoy the trail more. Which brings us to mistake number 6. First of all we are not medical professionals so we won't give you any advice about your health and everything we say is our personal opinion and personal research. But what we can tell you is that you have to be careful with yourself. Take your body seriously. You probably don't ask as much from your body on a day to day basis as during hiking the TMB. In the high mountains the sun can be relentless and that combined with the physical demand you ask from your body it can be much. So be prepared, bring some protection, wear a cap or a hat and drink enough water. We drink at least 3 litres per person per day, eating enough sugars but also nutritious food. Don't rely fully on snickers and pre-packed food. And what can be a life saver? Bring electrolytes with you. You can buy electrolyte tablets in the town of Chamonix and probably in some huts or come here as well. Yes electrolytes are usually sodium and potassium and sugar. The main purpose of an electrolyte drink is to help you rehydrate. So electrolyte beverages are mostly water? We were literally handing them out during the trail since we saw a lot of dehydrated people. Yes and last but not least mistake number 7 that's hiking uphill too fast. We call it your forever pace. We always hike in what we call our forever pace. That's the ideal speed for us because in that pace we can hike for hours without needing a break to catch our breath. Especially uphill that pace is a bit slower than when going downhill. On our way up we were literally yoyoing with people who were on bias and then a few meters further they were out of breath and we passed them. On top of the climb we were not out of breath, still had energy to go further and didn't collapse from tiredness. You had other people we saw on top of the hill they were so tired they probably died inside from uphill climbing and they were about to quit the TMB because they didn't enjoy the trail at all. If you go faster than you actually can you are also more likely to get injured. You are probably tired from sprinting don't pay enough attention on the trail because your head is pounding and you are trying to catch your breath and in the heat of that moment you are more likely to slip and fall. Don't let yourself be rushed by others hike at your own forever pace. So these were the several mistakes people make while hiking the TMB. Did you make any of these mistakes before? Let us know in the comments and we would love to hear your thoughts. You can also become part of the High Galax Patreon family where you can ask detailed questions about the TMB, talk about gear and if you go for the true hiker tear we will even do a third roll backshave down with you so you don't bring too much weight with you on the trail. Your support means a lot to us and helps us continue making gear reviews and hike videos for all of our viewers. So let's wrap up this video. We hope you learned something during this video and if you watched it all the way to the end, please leave a mountain emoji so we know you are a true hiker holic. See you in the next video. Bye.