Alpine (sort of) List

[Dan Birman]

Hey folks, I'm looking to get some ideas on spots where I can lose a lot of weight off my gear. This gear is dual purpose: Winter camping on the east coast (think Adirondacks), and summer mountaineering (think Rainier, Cascades). Those two areas happen to overlap a lot in temperature and weather though. Overall the gear I have needs to be enough to keep me protected down to at least 0F (daytime temp) and in winds potentially gusting way above 50 mph. Woohoo! Please hack away at this. Since climbing in the Cascades last summer and lugging a base weight of 30lb +food/gear I've made some changes already. Here's where I'm at now (and some thoughts I have). This is my personal gear list, but it's really designed for two people (hence the spacious tent, pot, etc).

Pack: CCW Chernobyl – 52oz
Sleeping Bag: Old North Face 20 Degree – 60oz (Thinking of replacing with MontBell Burrow #3: 40oz)
Thermarest Prolite Reg – 33oz (Thinking of replacing BOTH the prolite and z-lite with the new NeoAir All-Season, 18oz R=4.9 and using the bivy pad from the pack)
Regular Z-lite – 24.7oz
Stove: XGK EX – 13.2oz w/o fuel or bottle
GSI Dualist pot – 7oz
Pot Grip – 2oz
BD Icon Headlamp – 4.1oz
Sunscreen – 1oz
2L Platypus – 1.2oz
1 Nalgene (pee bottle) – 3.2oz
Shelter: Megamid – 48oz (I don't own a shelter yet.., this is a free rental)
Compass + Maps (~3oz)

Clothing:
Lower body:
Cap 1 Briefs (warm weather) – 2.5oz
Cap 3 Long Underwear (cold) – 7oz
Patagonia Alpine Guide pants – 20.7oz
Upper body:
Capilene 1 t-shirt – 4oz
R1 Hoody – 11.5oz
Nano Puff – 14oz
Shell – Goretex Paclite – 11oz
Puffy – MH Sub Zero – 36oz (I really want to replace this with a DAS)
Head:
Face Mask – 2oz
Hands:
OR PL 150 Liners – 1.7oz
OR Extravert Gloves – 5.5oz
Feet:
Fivefingers KSO on trails – 12oz
Gaiters – OR Crocodiles – 12oz
Socks – Smartwool Mediumweight – unsure, 2oz?
Boots – Kayland Apex XT – 29oz

This doesn't include: Rope, Rack, Harness, Helmet, etc, etc, which all together add up to about 15lbs. I'd rather cut weight from the backpacking gear though as I use that gear more often.

Thanks for any ideas! Please remember that the gear needs to be relatively bombproof even if it is light, I can't swap something out if it means compromising on safety.

[ROBERT TANGEN]

Re: "…in winds potentially gusting way above 50 mph."
Reviewer: "The Rab Summit tents are single-purpose pieces of equipment designed to provide a very secure (and cramped) shelter from the worst conditions that the high mountains of the world can dish out. The low roofline that interferes with living space makes this shelter ultra wind resistant. Unlike the sail-like sides of the other mountain tents, the Rab presents a low profile to the wind. The Summit tents pitch very taut. The construction, fabrics, and zippers are burly. You get the feeling that the tent is over-engineered for all but the most extreme conditions. There are 13 guy-out points on the tent, along with beefy guy lines that have springy bungy attachments to absorb the shock of wind loading.
The Rab Summit Superlite Bivi is the uber compact version. The Rab Summit Mountain Bivi is the roomier version. Both tents share the same fabrics, floor size and basic design. The difference is in the ceiling height and features.
Integral Designs, Marmot and Mountain Hardware [EV-2] do make single-wall, bombproof tents, but they all use less breathable fabrics.
Rocket Tent Specs:
Winter weight (without poles): 1 lb 5.9 oz (620 g)
Summer weight (with included poles): 2 lbs 0.4 oz (920 g)
Floor area: 21.5 ft2
Vestibule area: 7.0 ft2
Peak height: 38"
Packed size: 6" x 10" x 2"
For What It’s Worth: (I have no affiliation with the following): The Cuben fiber (metallic coated CTF-3) Rocket Tent by Brooks-Range Mountaineering is billed as able to handle all four seasons, weighs under 1 ½ lbs (620 g), and is reviewed with LOTS of pictures at: http://www.alpineambitions.com/Alpine_Ambitions/Rocket_Tent.html
“Overall, the tent performed extremely well in high winds. I intentionally set the tent up in the worst location I could find, just to see how it would do. My first impression is that it is easier to control the tent in the wind, during set up, then I imagined it would be. I expected a kite, but it’s really not. By the time it’s open enough to catch a lot of wind, it can be anchored. Once anchored, it was bomb proof – even in strong winds on a ridge top. The wind did effect the tent by loosing up some of the guy lines, so some flapping began to occur after an hour or so, but a few adjustments helped. Overall, it was tight, and I was not nervous.”

[nanook ofthenorth]

I've had the RAB, not a fan – esp for rainy PNW. The I-Tent is much better b/c of steeper door. The RAB is also super cramped, really a solo tent.
I think that's a good list – belay jacket poped out at me – MHW Compressor would be my choice over the DAS for the lower 48
Also I like the 3oz BD Spot, a lighter pot and silicon pot gripper would drop a little weight. Megalite also would. Not really a huge ammout of savings unless your looking at a DuoMid/Cuban.
A canister stove in the summer/down bag might be your biggest savings.

[Dan Birman]

Thanks, I'll try to find a compressor and a DAS and compare the two. I've never seen that RAB tent before… looks like you'd have to be under a lot of weight pressure to take it for anything other than the potential for an awful awful bivy. Has anybody used any of the "4-season" pyramid types tents out there before? Thinking of shangri-la and betamid type options, how do those hold up in wind?

In the summer I'm definitely getting a tarp.

[Link .]

http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/forums/thread_display.html?forum_thread_id=28190

[S Long]

– Pack: CCW Chernobyl – 52oz

You should be able to get a lighter pack, especially if you split up climbing gear and cut down your gear list weights.

– Sleeping Bag: Old North Face 20 Degree – 60oz (Thinking of replacing with MontBell Burrow #3: 40oz)

Montbell is excellent. I can also highly recommend any of the bags from Western Mountaineering. Or you might consider a Blackwelder quilt from Katabatic Gear.

– Thermarest Prolite Reg – 33oz (Thinking of replacing BOTH the prolite and z-lite with the new NeoAir All-Season, 18oz R=4.9 and using the bivy pad from the pack)

I would do what you're thinking about. That's a way to save a ton of weight.

– Stove: XGK EX – 13.2oz w/o fuel or bottle

A VERY good stove for melting water at high altitudes and in brutal conditions but totally overkill. Consider a canister stove like the Windpro from MSR.

– BD Icon Headlamp – 4.1oz

Great headlamp, but overkill. The Zebralight H51 is my new favorite all-around headlamp.

– 1 Nalgene (pee bottle) – 3.2oz

Use a Nalgene collapsible canteen for a weight savings here.

– Shelter: Megamid – 48oz (I don't own a shelter yet.., this is a free rental)

Get a Duomid from Mountain Laurel Designs and get a decent bivy and good stakes to go with it.
I would also highly recommend looking at cutting weight from climbing gear. Climbing gear is HEAVY and you can save a lot of weight. With twin ropes you can split up the weight between two people. The new Wild Country Heliums are awesome cams that don't weigh much. I use Metolius FS Minis and Camp Nano 23s for my racking 'biners. Wild Country Neon lock gates are nice lightweight lockers. Full dyneema sewn slings are lighter than webbing slings. The Trango Alpine Equalizer saves a TON of time setting up belay stations. Several ounces could be saved by switching to a new helmet, depending on what one you have now. The CAMP Air CR is a great harness that is half the weight of a lot of others, and has adjustable leg loops for putting on over boots and crampons. Just some examples. I cut a few POUNDS from my climbing gear this way and don't feel like I compromised safety at all.

[Brian Lindahl]

With a puffy belay jacket (subzero), do you really need the nano-puff also? Consider playing around with your layers a bit to find a good balance where you can ditch the nano-puff (which I'm betting is spending most of its time in your pack).

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