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Late October, we were camping because all huts were close. We did reach Ville des Glaciers at night and looking for a flat spot to pitch the tent. Fine, we slept well despite the cold. But in the morning, we realised we were in a field with a bull, and he was quite angry!
Mountain weather is a different animal, and often the mountain creates it's own weather patterns. I had a similar experience in our hiking in July a few years ago, there was a late Spring melt, and we had to bail from our planned trip, as there was snow at the trail head, and the mountain pass which was off-trail bush whacking. I had planned a buffer zone on my route planning, over 1000ft cliffs, but not on snow. We'd have to be roped up and trained how to arrest ur falls with crampons and ice axes. I had micro-spikes, and my sister's boyfriend had snowshoes. Plan B car camping at a local fishing camp worked out great. MVP gear choice was the Eureka! No-Bug-Zone screened tarp, as the mosquitoes were the worst I'd ever experienced!
Spring hiking at higher elevations usually encounters snow, and higher spring runoff creek levels requires water shoes or getting them wet, and dry camp shoes or means to keep ur feet dry (waterproof socks, bread bags - wet feet means blisters). And trekking poles with snow baskets, micro-spikes, maintaining 3 points of contact for creek crossings to be safe, undo ur chest strap & waist belt, in case of a water landing, u can ditch ur pack, and not drown. Attach a safety line to ur pack from another person, cross in pairs, or something. My trip planning included mountain weather, and trip reports from other hikers, and similar hikes at that elevation, and what if scenarios, like white out snowing or fog obscuring the trail, or trail markers that I made, and relying on my phone's GPS for navigation, in airplane mode, marked out all the hazards, and water sources. What if my phone gets wet and shorts out, a paper map and compass, with route marked, with visual landmarks, sunset times, planned weather & unplanned. What if I fell in the creek, and everything, all my down jacket and sleeping bag got wet, how would I survive the subzero night?
Oh and the late Spring snow melt, meant the Reaction Ferry ⛴️ crossing at my hometown of Little Fort was flooded out cuz the North Thompson River levels were so high. A reaction ferry uses the river's current & a pulley system to cross the river. And in the winter when the river is frozen, an aerial 🚡 tram is used, but u had to pull yourself, hand over hand! 👍💪
Yes, can't agree more with you on that, as we said mountain weather is no joke and should be treated accordingly taking yoir time to plan everything. It seems like you had even more extreme experience in the mountains than we did. Good for you that you could safely change your plans.
Those are some valuable lessons and advice shared, thank you! To be honest at that point we were very inexperienced with hiking in the snow that's why we decided to make this video as a warning for others that hopefully won't commit the same mistakes as we did. It sounds like you did plan everything put as meticulously as possible which is great and especially useful if hiking in the wilderness with no towns on the trail. On that Tour du Mont Blanc we didn't do even a quarter of your planning, which was silly and carefree from our part. Now we realized that we wouldn't even dare to hike that trail at that moment having no prior preparation or right gear.
Hi guys 🤠 thanks for the informative video. I would greatly appreciate your help... I suppose to land in Geneva on July 2 at 9:40 am I wanted to know if you think I will be able to get to Les Contamines Montjoie (14km +/-) on the same day or is it better for me to wait the day in Chamonix and start the trek the day after?
Hello, glad to hear it was a helpful video to you! It all depends on your energy levels but we personally did start the trail on the next day when we first arrived to Chamonix, this way you will fell better rested. Hope it helps:)
In this video we pretty much covered all our points on that. We won't say it is impossible to do and it may not be easy, depending on how you do it and what is your attitude. You need to be very "stealthy" in our opinion to avois getting into trouble, especially on the Italian side.
Hey guys! I have plenty of stories with scary thunder during camping. Never did the TMB but I had a crazy thunder in Israel, without any forecast. Luckily nothing happened but I never felt or heard thunder that loud. Just 2 weeks ago my GF and I were hiking the Besparmak Trail in Cyprus (Video coming this week) and we had some close calls with thunder. While sleeping in our tent during a rainy night suddenly we heard thunder and saw lightning a bit north of us. It stayed there but it was an very bad feeling. The next 3 days we stayed in a accommodation cause the forecast was so bad and it was the best we could do. there was thunder nearly 24 hours a day, hail, and off the coast even a little tornado. I was so happy we were not out there. I think checking the weather is something really important when planing a hike, and constantly rechecking during the hike. that being said, it can change so quick especially in the mountains or close to the sea. Glad you guys are fine. stay safe!
That sounds absolutely terrifying! It was similar to what we experienced on the TMB, we have never heard such close and load thunder ever in our lives and had the lighting just over our heads. But we have never seen a storm with thunder 24 hours a day, this is definetely an abmormal weather. And yeah sometimes we all need to get off the trail and stay in a safe place if the conditions get crazy. Thanks God you had time to get to your accomodation safely and weren't too deep into the woods. We found that using the Weather Radar is helping a lot when monitoring the nearby storms and rainfalls and it is pretty accurate too. We use the App Windy on the phone. But it would only work online. We weren't aware of such thing back then when we did the trail, now we think it would have been a huge helper. Thank you for sahring and good wishes, we'll definetely check out your video!
Have you had any similar experiences or stories to share?
Support our work and help us to save up money for our future trips here: ko-fi.com/walkingnatureworld
Join the channel to get access to exclusive perks:
th-cam.com/channels/hqVjnMgMFspKhKcEz8kIkQ.htmljoin
Find more gear reviews here: th-cam.com/play/PLH-GYL40SfgCjO_8WGCXjSs6IZeD0s9r1.html
Find our music we use in the videos on pond5: www.pond5.com/ru/artist/dsh_music
Or on Audiojungle: audiojungle.net/user/dsh_music/portfolio
Late October, we were camping because all huts were close. We did reach Ville des Glaciers at night and looking for a flat spot to pitch the tent. Fine, we slept well despite the cold. But in the morning, we realised we were in a field with a bull, and he was quite angry!
We all learn from our mistakes, and is better like that because in that way we can have our own experiences.
That is so true, there is no better lesson than learnt from your own experience.
This year was wet and colder , compared to the rest of Europe, so a lot of snow patches until very late in the season.
Mountain weather is a different animal, and often the mountain creates it's own weather patterns. I had a similar experience in our hiking in July a few years ago, there was a late Spring melt, and we had to bail from our planned trip, as there was snow at the trail head, and the mountain pass which was off-trail bush whacking. I had planned a buffer zone on my route planning, over 1000ft cliffs, but not on snow. We'd have to be roped up and trained how to arrest ur falls with crampons and ice axes. I had micro-spikes, and my sister's boyfriend had snowshoes. Plan B car camping at a local fishing camp worked out great. MVP gear choice was the Eureka! No-Bug-Zone screened tarp, as the mosquitoes were the worst I'd ever experienced!
Spring hiking at higher elevations usually encounters snow, and higher spring runoff creek levels requires water shoes or getting them wet, and dry camp shoes or means to keep ur feet dry (waterproof socks, bread bags - wet feet means blisters). And trekking poles with snow baskets, micro-spikes, maintaining 3 points of contact for creek crossings to be safe, undo ur chest strap & waist belt, in case of a water landing, u can ditch ur pack, and not drown. Attach a safety line to ur pack from another person, cross in pairs, or something.
My trip planning included mountain weather, and trip reports from other hikers, and similar hikes at that elevation, and what if scenarios, like white out snowing or fog obscuring the trail, or trail markers that I made, and relying on my phone's GPS for navigation, in airplane mode, marked out all the hazards, and water sources. What if my phone gets wet and shorts out, a paper map and compass, with route marked, with visual landmarks, sunset times, planned weather & unplanned. What if I fell in the creek, and everything, all my down jacket and sleeping bag got wet, how would I survive the subzero night?
Oh and the late Spring snow melt, meant the Reaction Ferry ⛴️ crossing at my hometown of Little Fort was flooded out cuz the North Thompson River levels were so high. A reaction ferry uses the river's current & a pulley system to cross the river. And in the winter when the river is frozen, an aerial 🚡 tram is used, but u had to pull yourself, hand over hand! 👍💪
Yes, can't agree more with you on that, as we said mountain weather is no joke and should be treated accordingly taking yoir time to plan everything. It seems like you had even more extreme experience in the mountains than we did. Good for you that you could safely change your plans.
Those are some valuable lessons and advice shared, thank you! To be honest at that point we were very inexperienced with hiking in the snow that's why we decided to make this video as a warning for others that hopefully won't commit the same mistakes as we did.
It sounds like you did plan everything put as meticulously as possible which is great and especially useful if hiking in the wilderness with no towns on the trail. On that Tour du Mont Blanc we didn't do even a quarter of your planning, which was silly and carefree from our part. Now we realized that we wouldn't even dare to hike that trail at that moment having no prior preparation or right gear.
And where do you live? It sounds like an interesting place with river, ferries and even an aerial tram😀
Thanks for being so honest to share your mistakes. I’m sure it will be helpful to some future hikers.
You dear young couple - thank you for being honest. How helpful to save others.
Keep your spirits strong and best wishes!
Thank you so much! We are trying our best to share our honest opinions on this channel in hope that it would help others.
Thanks for that Video folks, defo holding off till Aug to do that TMB! 👍
Thanks for the comment! Yes, July and August should be the best months, enjoy it!🏞
i was there in august, no snow and only one storm.
but a lot of people on the trail
Thanks for sharing! It seems like you were lucky to have a nice weather on the trail or maybe it is about the month of August?;)
June is too early for TMB 🙂
Hi guys 🤠
thanks for the informative video.
I would greatly appreciate your help...
I suppose to land in Geneva on July 2 at 9:40 am
I wanted to know if you think I will be able to get to Les
Contamines Montjoie (14km +/-) on the same day or is it better for me to wait the day in Chamonix and start the trek the day after?
Hello, glad to hear it was a helpful video to you! It all depends on your energy levels but we personally did start the trail on the next day when we first arrived to Chamonix, this way you will fell better rested. Hope it helps:)
It’s ok to wild camp during TMB? I’ve heard that it’s not possible. Could you guys give me tips to do it?
In this video we pretty much covered all our points on that. We won't say it is impossible to do and it may not be easy, depending on how you do it and what is your attitude. You need to be very "stealthy" in our opinion to avois getting into trouble, especially on the Italian side.
Hey guys! I have plenty of stories with scary thunder during camping. Never did the TMB but I had a crazy thunder in Israel, without any forecast. Luckily nothing happened but I never felt or heard thunder that loud. Just 2 weeks ago my GF and I were hiking the Besparmak Trail in Cyprus (Video coming this week) and we had some close calls with thunder. While sleeping in our tent during a rainy night suddenly we heard thunder and saw lightning a bit north of us. It stayed there but it was an very bad feeling. The next 3 days we stayed in a accommodation cause the forecast was so bad and it was the best we could do. there was thunder nearly 24 hours a day, hail, and off the coast even a little tornado. I was so happy we were not out there. I think checking the weather is something really important when planing a hike, and constantly rechecking during the hike. that being said, it can change so quick especially in the mountains or close to the sea. Glad you guys are fine. stay safe!
Palestine not Israel, It's Palestinian's land.
That sounds absolutely terrifying! It was similar to what we experienced on the TMB, we have never heard such close and load thunder ever in our lives and had the lighting just over our heads. But we have never seen a storm with thunder 24 hours a day, this is definetely an abmormal weather. And yeah sometimes we all need to get off the trail and stay in a safe place if the conditions get crazy. Thanks God you had time to get to your accomodation safely and weren't too deep into the woods. We found that using the Weather Radar is helping a lot when monitoring the nearby storms and rainfalls and it is pretty accurate too. We use the App Windy on the phone. But it would only work online. We weren't aware of such thing back then when we did the trail, now we think it would have been a huge helper. Thank you for sahring and good wishes, we'll definetely check out your video!
👀
Have you had any storms on the trail that you remember? What tips do you have?:)