Equipment

Sleeping mats

Therm-a-Rest NeoAir XTherm. Light, soft and very warm.


Climbing gear



Upper Body


Electronics



Sled

Climbing skins, two shock absorbers, cords.






Primary Fuel

7x450g ENERGY OPTIMUS GAS (Butane/Isobutane/Propane mix)


Technical gear 



Head



Hands

My favorite is a pair of hand-made lobster mittens (290g 100% wool, made by Vera).

Lower Body

Each of us carries a pair of Arc'teryx Beta SV Bib and MEC BELOW CELSIUS INSULATED pants, both full zip. Base layer. Fleece as mid-layer.

Expedition backpacks

Both are OSPREY's: Vera: Ariel 75 (5.1 lb), Me:  Aether 70 AG (5.3 lb)

These are real machines. Not without needing minor design improvements, but still the best on the market as of now.

Footwear

Our boots are La Sportiva Nepals GTX: Vera's Nepal Cube(3.1 lbs) and mine Nepal Evo  (5.1 lb). They will be insulated with overboots and felt mid-layer. We also carry toe warmers. At upper right in photo are  warm-water bottles - will pre-warm our boots on the climbing day. Main socks are Icebreakers (one pair is one size larger to make double). All have been tested and climbed at or below -20°C.


Sleeping bags

Marmot Col -29C. Super thick, good quality. We loved them. Tested at -20°C - pretty warm!

Tent

2-person 4-season MSR Remote 2

We love this tent. Two side doors (not typical one in front!) with one large "cooking" vestibule and another smaller. We modified (26 total) flylines to make them to be "tracker hitch" friendly. Weight is very reasonable: 3,050g (6.7lb).

Notes: one pole is straight, so watch it on the snow - if accidentally dropped, it can travel a lot of distance under and could be hard if not impossible to retrieve. The case is too small, straps too short - when packing camp it is very hard to put tent back, so we added compression cords and also keep poles in a separate bag.




Snow-melting system

In these modern days nobody cooks food anymore. Only hot water out of melted snow is required to make a meal like Mountain House or a coffee. We even won't bother to bring water to boil: 50°C (temperature of kitchen tap hot water) is good enough, if using hot-water thermoses. This saves fuel, a lot.

PHOTO: Our complete, final set. Insulated, with water bath below, Reactor canister as primary, Whisperlite white gas as backup. Windshield,  mat, snow scoop, propane lighter, etc.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Let's do it!

Image
262 days to Day 1 (1st attempt) California Climber's Salute. Two of us on the summit of DaFeng (四姑娘山大丰), in China. Elevation 5,025 m. This peak had been on my mind for more than ten years! After it's over, what's next? We wanted to climb something higher, and as always, without guides and porters. Naturally, there was yet another peak, equally desired by me and equally hard to even think it was possible to climb: Denali (6,190m), the highest mountain in North America. Now, it made perfect sense to attempt. Since that day, Denali would be mentioned by two of us every single day.
Read more

Testing expedition tent in a snowstorm

Image
128 days to Day 1 Camped two nights at Dinkey Peak . We wanted to check our tent under heavy static stress and we got lucky. It was pretty big (for local standards) dump of wet snow overnight and our expedition tent passed the test. Had to get out at night and check the structure - the tent stood, with thick layer of wet snow on top and sides. Lesson leaned : watch tent poles. If accidentally dropped, they can travel over and then under the snow quite a distance. Although I knew this, I still managed to drop one and it was gone down the steep slope in less than one second. It was already dark, so we pitched the tent without it. Next morning, Vera spotted it sticking out 10 meters below us. So I lowered her on belay and she retrieved it: after being airbiorn like an bow arrow, it pierced hard layer of crust and stopped, only 20cm of it still sticking out. One pole is gone...and odds of finding it next morning being <1%. Vera's attitude in such situations (not first time!
Read more