A lot of equipment is needed to tackle the Tour of Mont Blanc comfortably and safely - from the obvious, such as good walking boots and decent shelter for wild camping; to the not so obvious, such as lightweight, durable cutlery and silk underwear to tackle sweat!

As Gaëlle is new to the hiking game, she has far more gear to buy before we head out to the alps in July. It’s been an eye-opener to me, as somebody who has purchased a fair bit of walking / climbing / outdoor gear, how much harder it is to find decent kit for women. We thought we would share our experiences of finding the right gear in the hopes it might help anybody else out there experiencing similar problems as Gaëlle.

Hit “Continue Reading” to find out about some of the gear we have been researching and / or purchasing in the last week or two.

Women’s walking trousers

Something that Gaëlle has been desperately searching for for quite some time, is a decent pair of walking trousers. A decent pair of walking trousers that also looked good! The vast majority she tried on were unflatteringly straight legged with a ridiculously high rise at the waist (Craghoppers were surprisingly the worst culprits here). She thought she had lucked out with a pair of Equator’s we found in Millets (Equator seems to be a Millet’s own brand), but they only had a short legged version and were unfortunately discontinued - we couldn’t find a pair in any Millets store in the UK!

We were finally successful after taking a trip to Penrose Outdoors in Truro. Here they had a pair of last season’s Rohan “Striders” for half price in their clearance sale. A bargain price and pretty good trousers to boot! They’re fantastically stretchy (important for keeping comfy when high stepping on steep ascents and being flexible on climbs), quite wind resistant and wicking. And almost as important, they look great! Beautifully cut and fashionably bootcut. I don’t usually rate Rohan gear, as it tends to compromise technology and technicality in favour of fashion… and in turn charges over the odds; however, the Strider trousers have turned out to be really functional as well as good looking, and at half price were great value for money. One negative we’ve come across since Gaëlle has been using them, is that they are really slow to dry out - so either save them for dry weather days, or be quick to slip into your waterproof over-trousers!

I’ve often found buying up last season’s stock is a great way of getting top notch outdoor gear and bargain prices. Particularly with things like trousers, there aren’t really many innovations left to introduce year on year, so new season stock usually just involves a slightly different colour and the brand label in a different place. The only downside to buying gear from previous seasons, is that you’re probably going to be limited in the sizes that are available.

Small to midsize rucksack

At the moment, we are looking for a rucksack for Gaëlle to use on the Tour. Of all the problems we potentially face on the Tour, Gaëlle is most worried about having to lug a rucksack around! For this reason, we’re really keen to find something that she is comfortable wearing. Having tried a few ’sacks in various outdoor shops, the best we have come across so far is the Osprey Stratos 32. It seems to carry well, feels comfortable, has a really nice mesh air cavity for breathability and excellent attention to detail (you can even use the air cavity to hang a second hydration bladder!).

If anybody has any experience with the Stratos, or can recommend a similar ’sack to do the job, we would love to hear from you!

If you run an outdoor business and would like to donate gear in return for a bit of publicity on the Tour, visit the Sponsor Us! page for details.