On the TMB you do not necessarily need to carry a stove or cooking equipment as there are plenty of shops and restaurants at which to buy food. That means that the minimum gear is as follows:
So that gives an additional total weight of.....wait for it.....1.65kg! The weight of a bottle of water! That’s it. I am pretty sure that I could extract 1.65kg of unnecessary weight from many people’s packs before adding that camping gear. For example, I mentioned a few weeks ago that I upgraded my pack itself for a weight saving of 0.7kg. Now it is fair to say that lightweight gear tends to be more expensive than the heavier stuff. But these days the price difference is often not huge if you shop around. And when you compare the cost of the gear to the money you will spend on accommodation in refuges and gîtes, it becomes a completely reasonable proposition. So to underline the point of this article: 1.65kg extra is not the end of the world, particularly if you can shave a few oz elsewhere. And therefore almost everyone can carry camping gear these days. So almost everyone can camp on the TMB. So almost everyone can do the TMB without advance booking. QED. And in fact, with gear weighing so little, you could even carry the camping gear just for one or two nights’ camping. So, if there were a few places that you can’t get bookings for, then bring the tent for those nights. Ok so there are plenty of you who don’t like camping but I can’t solve all the problems! Well what do you think?
3 Comments
Karen L.
18/8/2021 18:54:22
I am starting to plan for next year and am convinced partial camping is the way to go for us. We don’t plan to cook except for possibly breakfast so we can get going early and minimize the weight we carry. I’m not crazy about the idea of shared dorms on a shared bed platform. The money we save will go toward rooms we will splurge on.
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Michaela
15/3/2022 00:22:47
Hi! Thanks for the information! We are planning to hike this summer and have booked some of our spots, but many have yet to respond.. can we really just show up to campsites and pay without a reservation? Just two hikers and a tent!
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itzhak zeevi
11/4/2023 04:27:00
Hello,
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Andrew McCluggageblogs about life on the Knife Edge Archives
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