What and Why: Things for an O/Night Alpine Climb

I thought that having a look at what works and why things should be taken on an Alpine climb would be a good start to this Blog.
So I will go through each item and some not shown and give you reasons and products that I have found that work well in NZ.
This list of equipment is for NZ Grade 2-3 climbs with minimal if any glaciated terrain.

1. Pack 50-60L/1.5-2kg Max!

Any 'Alpine Pack' should not have a very rigid harness, it should have flexibility and not too much padding which will limit or restrict movement while climbing This pack should have all the gear attachments for Axes, Crampons so things are nicely attached and your pack does not look like a 'Chinese laundry' which can put your balance off, gear loops are good if they can be reached easily while climbing. (Don't forget the pack liner!!!)

• Cactus 'Deep winter'
• Arcteryx 'No-Zone'
• FairyDown 'Hammer Head'
  
• Deuter 'Guide 45'

2. Clothing System & Rain Shell

Have a system that can be removed and added to with minimal weight and bulk when conditions change. have only 1 or 2 windproof layers and build the rest under that for heat, don't forget that your rain shell is wind proof, so you can lower weight and bulk by leaving the heavy windproof fleece at home, butv you will be slightly damper as H2o proof fabrics don't breath as well as lightweight layers so only use your shell in super cold WX or storms..
Micro fleece AKA 100 weight polartec is a great heat layer with minimal bulk and weight.

A great wind layer and real soft-shell option are either the 'parachute' type fabrics that are light and windproof but breath well or schoeller if you can afford it.

I love and swear by mt schoeller soft shell pants as a great total layer for my legs with at a maximum a pair of thermal leggings cut off at the knees during winter. Schoeller is wind resistant, wicking and water resistant making them the perfect enviroment for my active legs that create their own heat (http://www.schoeller-textiles.com)

• MARMOT 'Pre-Cip' Jacket and Oricle full Zip pants
• MARMOT 'Dri-Clime' Jacket
• Mountain Designs Full Zip 100 Polartec Classic Jacket / Mountain Equipment 'Compressor'Synthetic Jacket
• MAMMUT Champ/Base-Jump Schoeller pants

3. Sleep System

Sleeping Bag: A good quality down sleeping bag is great if you team it up with a bivi bag or if you are out just for 1 night you can skip the bivi if the WX is looking good.
a good 3+ season mummy bag should be round 1kg with a few of note under that:

• Marmot 'Helium' 0.8kg
• Mountain Designs 'Ultra 500' 0.9kg
• Mountain Equipment 'Xero 550'

Sleeping Mat: A light and 3/4 size piece of closed cell mat is great and can be used for many things from a lunch chair to immobilizing a limb as a splint, this can be teamed up with a Ultra light self inflating mat if you want the comfort or plan to have another night out

• Therm 'A' rest Pro-Lite 4 Short

Bivi Bag/Tent: Some sort of element protection is a must in NZ, things change fast so if you have decided to skip the bivi bag for weight and WX report than at least carry a tarp or 'Bothy Bag' as we have long sub alpine approaches that we could need to shelter from.

• NEMO 'Tenshi' Tent 1.8Kg
• Mountain Equipment 'Borealis Bivibag' 0.6Kg
• Terra Nova 'Bothy Bag' 2/4 Person 0.3Kg+

4. 'Stocking fillers' AKA the little things
Head Torch: There are allot of great high output LED head torches available on the market, the difference comes down to preference and a few design features.

• PETZL Myo XP / PETZL Tikka XP
  

Repair Kit: Your repair kit is there to deal with anything that breaks that would stop your trip fast. Some things that I would recommend you carry are; Crampon bar & bolts, spare batteries for your GPS & Torch, Gaffe tape for clothing tears and anything else, Multi tool, Needle & thread and lighter and a small candle for light or starting a fire. The rest can be tailored to the specific trip.
When I am guiding or instructing I have a massive R.K. with spare sunnies, gloves and head ware for clients that could forget or drop them or if I too have an embarrassing, forget full moment.
Allot of people have their R.K. and first-aid lit together this is a good idea as both should never need using in a perfect climbing day.

First-Aid: You can never carry enough things to deal with every emergency, if you did you would be on the ambulance helicopter doing the rescue. having some basic supplies, the knowledge and inventiveness will help you every time.
Based on industry incident reports and history you will need 3 things:

• Stop the Bleeding: Wound dressings with attached bandages are great and small
• Immobilize a limb: A compression/'crepe' bandage and your mandatory closed cell foam mat and a triangular bandage if you have run out of slings or other practical things
• Treat the pain: this will vary on your personal preferences and how Friend to some medical practitioners as to the strength available. a good thing to remember is that PARACETAMOL treats 'neural' AKA Head aches etc and IBUPROFEN treats muscle based ailments such as cramp, cuts.
• +1 Strapping tape for blisters (Blister covers/plasters are good underneath the tape), sprains etc
  

Navigation: A map of the area, rout plan and compass should not be even mentioned. Along with this you could include a GPS if there was allot of glaciated terrain or an area that you did not know well.(make shore your GPS and Torch are the same batteries or carry spares anyway)

• Garmin GPS 'Etrex' / Foretrex 101
• Suunto Compass 'M3G'
• 'Memory Map' Mapping Program NZ South Ist.

Sun Protection: Sunnies, 'Buff', cap and sunscreen
Kids Sunscreen is great, as it is thicker and has moisturisers that will help with wind burn. A good pair of Sunnies is essential! something with wrap around and high UV filter is a must here with the extra high UV from the clean air, that without it's excess pollutants does not refract the UV like Europe and other countries.
A 'dorky' but practical sun hat is something like a legionaries cap that has a large neck cover, the good ones are called 'Arafat' hats that have multi adjustable positions for the neck piece, these are available through fishing shops in Australia. 'Buffs' are a good sweat band and wind protection, you do look like the quintessential European tourist while styling one.
Do think about Storms and the need for storm eye ware protection like a cheap pair of goggles that are a must in out NW Storms.

• JULBO 'Instinct' Multi lens / Explorer x4 Sunglasses

Sanitation: I carry a pee bottle in winter and always carry alcohol gel and T.Paper, allot of the areas climbed in NZ now encourage/demand the use of 'Poo Pots' which are a great idea if you spend a little time making one out of PVC Pipes instead of just the cheap pots provided which have a tendency to crack.

• NALGENE Collapsible Canteen

5. Stove, Snacks, Water & Food: What ever float your boat will be fine, think high, long lasting energy and easy to eat all this with minimal packaging. You may or may not bring a stove so if you do you can have actual meals with hot drinks etc but the weight will go up by 50% at least. If you are doing a winter trip you must carry a stove as it is your only guaranteed way of re hydrating without running H20.

• JET-BOIL PCS with modifications to the heat fins using 'pot black' paint to increase efficiency
• NALGENE W/Mouth in Winter for water and a cup
• MSR DROMEDARY Hydration system in Summer only (This is W/Mouth and black so I can melt snow on the top of my pack)
  

6. Hardware

Tools & crampons

• GRIVEL G12 Crampons, Grivel seem to make the most consistent, lightest and reliable tools on the market at the moment and have for quite some time, due to their classic construction methods. There are numerous articles about crampon, boot interfaces around so I won't go on about this. Only to say that NZ has very hard snow due to the high water content from the maritime climate. And long approaches that will wear out Mtn. Boots quickly so the system that you employ needs to be secure. We have found that the 'New-Matic and full Strap systems' are the best over here as wire bindings come out of worn leather Mtn Boots easily.
• GRIVEL Air-Tec / Jorasses Axe, the Jorasses is not made anymore but if you can find one greb it it is great as it has a reverse pick but still works great as a general mountain axe. The Air-Tec is it's replacement, bringing a lighter but just as strong axe and great all round performance. (www.grivel.com)

Light Alpine Rock Rack & Harness

Your harness needs to be light and have enough gear loops for all your gear (x4) and should not be uncomfortable and be able to reach everything with your full pack on. Bothy these harnesses are great, the BD is a great price point and weighs just over 300gm and the Arcteryx is the 'gucci' option but a great high tech option for those wanting high quality and high tech at a 3x the price though.

• BD 'Alpine Bod' (www.bdel.com)
• ARCTERYX 'X.350a' (www.arcteryx.com)

Alpine Rack: This is a great and long discussion fo ranother time, I will outline what I choose from and then take for different climbs in NZ and then let you decide what works for you and each different climb. I have given you a link with some great infomation to help with this.

• 4 Med Nuts (HB 3-5) / 2 Camp Tri-Cams larger than the Nuts (Black & Blue) / BD .75 & 2 Cam / 22cm AKA Yellow 'Grivel 360 Screw' with 'V' threader (Always on Glacier trips) /8x BD Hotwires /4x 8mm x 120cm Mammut Dyneema Slings / 2 Med Pitons smaller than your smallest nut / MSR 60cm/2tf 'T' Picket with center swage cable or 120cmx8mm dyneema sling / 2x 5mx7mm Cordellette
• (www.aai.cc/alpine-rack.asp)

Rope:

Single, Half or short? Choose a rope system that is best for you. I have been using a 30m x 8mm glacier rope more and more as I feel my ability increases to the point that I am comfortable down climbing anything that I have climbed up, but I have the light rope as an insurance policyif I need to abseil or travel on a glacier. but for routes -1 to+2 I am normally happy soloing but this depend as well on my partner. If it is a commmiting route I might take a half rope system so I have longer abseils but this dose make for trickier rope management. I always reccomend people start with a good 9.2-10mm x 60m Dry treated rope as management is easier, you have enough for 30m abseils and they are a cheaper starting option. (www.mammut.ch)

• MAMMUT 'Infinity 9.5mmx60m'/'Galaxy 10mmx60m' (Single)
• MAMMUT 'Pheonix 8mmx60m Pair' (Half)
• BEAL 'Rando 8mmx30m' (half/glacier rope)

Helmet

• GRIVEL 'salamnder'
• PETZL 'Elios"

Walking Poles

Walking poles are great on the approach and the decent as they help stabilise the body with extra weight on your back and can reduce the load on your joints by up to 25%, they do take practice to use but one you have them you will wnder why you mocked the european's doing laps around you in the hills. Look for poles that are feild maintainable with easy but relyable locking mechanisims and the minnimal of gadgets.

• BD Expedition Poles Short

7. Extras: Boots, Gloves

Glove systems seem to be a personal prefrence things, remember that we are working in a damper enviroment that the continents and need a good easy to dry layering system. we also don't have such extreeme temps as they are gracedwith so the hard core 'expedition' style gloves will be too hot for the majority of what we do here. So I would suggest the following: 2x Liners (polypro) / Leather work gloves and a extreme shell layer.

• CACTUS 'SPG' (Light polypro linede leather gloves with a geat cuff)
• BD Patrol Glove (Leather with goos=d cuff and warm)
• MARMOT Work Glove (Leather with lining and h20 proof)
• BD Guide Glove (great h20 proof glove that dries quickish)

Boots:

Boots are also personal but going with the leather mountaineering boots I would insist with; we have long approaches not on snow and need dexterity and support withour being uncomfortable. the system of plastics and tennis shoes has been done away with buy employing the high tech version of what the foundding fathers used, thus becomming lighter and simpler. Yes you might be a bit hot walking up the valley but its better than carrying 1kg extra of plastic boot for that one 10m pitch of ice that may or may not be there. Leathers are also better at climbing rock than plastic, and have a better relationship with cramponsas they have some flexability that allows the crampons to stay on better.

There are many different boots available out there but the main and most sucsessful brands are La Sportiva and Scarpa. both Italian and both good for different reasons. Try them both, most people are one ot the other brand as the lasts are different thus fitting different feet.

People also buy better than they need on the off chance that they mighyt use them for that 'odd peice of ice or winter climbing. Choose your boot for the majority of what you will be doing not for that one off trip that may not happen. I have listed boots that work well in NZ with some being better for -1 to 2+ climbing and others for Neve travel and climbng (Cumbre / Nepal Extreeme Evo)

• LA SPORTIVA 'Khumbu' / 'Karakorum' / 'Nepal Extreme Evo'
• SCARPA 'Chamoz' / 'Cumbre'