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Tour du Mont Blanc packing list, with real weights

Packed for refuges, the essentials on Treksup’s TMB list weigh 5,045 g with typical mid-range gear, not counting what you wear. Add a day of food and two to three litres of water and you carry 7.7 to 8.7 kg: inside the 7 to 9 kg the app expects for refuge trekking on this route. These are typical weights, not yours. Weigh your own.

The essentials, by weight

Category	Weight
Clothing and footwear	3,560 g
Sleeping	225 g
Water	420 g
Food and kitchen	35 g
Navigation and safety	415 g
Documents and money	55 g
Electronics	630 g
Hygiene	385 g
Kit and repairs	350 g
First aid	470 g
All essentials	6,545 g
Worn or held: boots, cap, sunglasses, phone	1,500 g
In the pack	5,045 g

The items the list marks essential for refuges, weighed with the app’s table of typical mid-range gear. Two essentials have no weight a table can give, snacks and cash, so the total is a floor.

What the list insists on

Hiking boots, broken in. Not new. At 1,200 g they are the heaviest thing you own on this trek, and you wear them.
A sleeping-bag liner, 220 g. Most refuges require one and turn you away without it; hiring one costs about €4 a night.
Earplugs. Refuge dormitories are loud. The list calls them not optional.
A down jacket for the evenings, 350 g. In high summer the fleece alone may cover it.
Rain jacket and rain trousers, 350 and 250 g, and a rain cover for the pack.
A Nalgene bottle. Filled with warm water at night, it doubles as a hot-water bottle.
A headlamp, a map and compass, a whistle and an emergency blanket, and a satellite communicator.

What stays at home when you sleep in refuges

The tent, sleeping bag, mat and pegs on the list are for camping. With half board in the refuges you need no stove either: dinner and breakfast are cooked for you. Gaiters are only for the first weeks of the season, when snow still lies on the cols.

The optional extras add up

Everything on the list, optional items included, weighs 8,095 g in the pack. The difference is things like a small speaker (200 g), a packable daypack (200 g), rope (300 g), a picnic mat (150 g) and sandals for the evenings (300 g). Poles are optional on this list and weigh about 500 g, in your hands rather than on your back.

Lighter or heavier gear

The weights are typical mid-range kit. The app scales them by gear: ultralight gear brings the essentials to about 3,289 g, first-time or budget gear to about 6,823 g. The same list can be a light pack or a heavy one; what you buy decides.

Water and food

A litre of water weighs a kilogram, and on the Tour du Mont Blanc three of the last four days are tagged dry: long stretches without a reliable spring. Before this route the app asks whether you have walked a full day carrying three litres. Food for a day adds about 700 g. With two litres that makes 7,745 g on your back; with three, 8,745 g.

Treksup, Tour du Mont Blanc route guide

The packing list in the app

In Treksup you tick what you pack and the weight follows, for your gear level, with water and food added from the route. The Tour du Mont Blanc is a paid route in the app; on the seven free routes the packing list and its weights are open in full. The app itself is free on iPhone.

Get Treksup on the App Store

Packing is the easy part

Getting a bed is harder: most TMB refuges open for summer 2027 on 15 October 2026. The TMB 2027 booking plan puts every date, the order to book in, a fallback per valley and a reminder calendar in one PDF, in English, Dutch and French, for €29. Its buy button goes live soon.

See the TMB 2027 booking plan

Questions

How heavy should my pack be for the Tour du Mont Blanc?

For refuge trekking the app expects 7 to 9 kg. Treksup’s list of essentials weighs 5,045 g with typical gear; with a day of food and two to three litres of water, 7.7 to 8.7 kg.

Do I need a sleeping bag on the TMB?

Not in refuges. You need a sleeping-bag liner, about 220 g: most refuges require one. The sleeping bag is for camping.

What shoes should I wear on the Tour du Mont Blanc?

Hiking boots, broken in and not new. They are the heaviest item on the list at about 1,200 g, and you wear them.

Do I need trekking poles for the TMB?

They are optional on Treksup’s list and weigh about 500 g. You carry them in your hands, not in the pack.

How much water should I carry on the Tour du Mont Blanc?

Enough for the dry stretches: three of the last four days are tagged dry, and the app asks whether you have walked a full day with three litres.

Sources

The list and its notes come from the Tour du Mont Blanc packing list in the Treksup route library; the weights from the app’s table of typical mid-range gear, not from any one product. Page updated 30 September 2026.