Alaska-Yukon Expedition: 4,700 miles and 7 months; start in 4 weeks

[Roman Dial]

Here's the kind of hat I'm thinking of

http://www.prospectoroutfitters.com/istar.asp?a=6&id=82050!OR

BTW — the nose flap the guy has in the video is not as ubiquitous as the ruff he's wearing.

[Roger Caffin]

> Stay away from Diesel like the plague.
I agree – it is awful stuff, BUT in emergencies …

The wax in the diesel fuel is there in the summer time, but typically in winter time the suppliers change the contents of 'diesel' to be a bit more volatile and to get rid of any wax. That makes it a wee bit dearer to distil, but the refineries just average that out. So if you buy 'winter diesel' in the snow country it should not gel up with wax – he says hopefully.

How do I know? I learnt this the hard way when I parked my diesel Landcruiser on a high snowy pass in mid-winter for a week while we went touring. The fuel filter was a bit blocked when we went to drive home. Oh Dear!

The immediate cure, according to the road service guy, was to pour boiling water over the fuel filter – to melt the wax. The long-term cure was to buy at least half a tank of diesel fuel deep in the snow country. Needless to say we do this now. Since then I have never had any trouble getting the LC to start.

Cheers

[Bob Gross]

Andrew mentioned that his multi-tool did not fit his ski binding screws. That is because the multi-tool typically has a Philips head (+ head for Japanese) and the binding screws typically require a Posi-head driver, which is shallower. If your multi-tool is otherwise right for you, get the Philips head on it and grind it down to be about 20% flatter (less sharp). Then, it ought to fit the binding screws.

The chances of completely blowing a binding depend on who mounted it in the first place. Before using skis on the first long trip, I would always back the binding screws out and apply industrial epoxy, then re-insert the binding screws and heat cure the epoxy. After that kind of treatment, I never lost a single binding screw in 25 years. Otherwise, I've seen lots of lost screws and blown bindings that had been "professionally" mounted.
–B.G.–

[Robert Blean]

Andy,

I would not presume to try to tell you anything about dressing for the cold — you've far more experience with time in extended cold than I do, and different people react differently anyway. My cold weather trips were days at a time, not weeks/months.

That said, have you considered a plain headband, probably wool but perhaps synthetic?

If you are anything like me, there will be times when you need *something* up there — both to keep the ears warm and to cover those prime heat radiators — but you will find a hat uncomfortable. It is surprising how cold you can go with just an earband, a good head of hair, and as it gets colder your shell parka hood. Besides, if you start to overheat, just pushing the headband up off your ears is surprisingly effective at temperature regulation.

I don't know about you, but the less I can have on my head and still keep it adequately insulated the better.

— MV

[Roger Caffin]

> – Mid-weight polyester balaclava with a brushed/fleece inner
> – VBL balaclava (sil-nylon, homemade)
> – Hoodie on base layer shirt
> – Peruvian wool hat
> – Hood on VBL jacket
> – Insulated hood on GoLite Parka
> – Googgles or sunglasses

> Man, that's a lot of layers, now that I look at it like that. I wonder if I
> could get away with leaving one or two of those layers at home…

Reckon. Even when it is very cold all I wear is a ski hat and an EPIC hood. I might have a buff around my neck – maybe. The thing is, my head does get hot when I am working! However … having a cold head is really dumb, so a little safety margin is a good idea.

Goggles may be needed in bad weather – my wife prefers them. However, in recent years I have just pulled my ski hat (full neck and ear cover) down my forehead to my large wrap-around sunnies, and that has been quite enough. I don't have a good pic of me (I hold the camera), but this shows my wife's GoreTex/fleece ski cap and here fleece bed cap, to show the general idea.

> But that's not my concern. My concern is that I don't have anything to cover my
> cheeks, nose, and mouth — that area is not covered by any of the layers I've mentioned.
I have never used a rebreather face mask, so I don't know about them. However, the problem of condensation is real. What experiments I have run suggest that most cases can be handled by covering all my face EXCEPT for my nostrils. I keep my cheeks covered, and I have even tried a bridge over my nose, but I always left my nostrils clear. Seems to me it would have to be a bit dire for the tip of my nose to freeze while my cheeks are hot. Under such dire conditions – which would have to be a severe gale really, I might seek shelter instead. By way of example, the OR Gorilla and Sonic offer this feature.

Not sure, but my 2c.

Cheers

[Robert Blean]

I agree with Roger's comments — my experience is much like his.

I, too, have never liked something wet on my face in those conditions. I always carried a Navy felt facemask, but the times I actually wore it were few (like above treeline, 40-60mph winds, sub-zero F). I'm intrigued by that goggle flap you show — I'll have to play with it and see what I think (though now I am in California I no longer get out in the severe cold I used to back in the White Mountains).

By the way, my favorite hat (perhaps because I can be a bit contrary at times), for those times I actually needed to wear one, was what I called my "sleeve hat". I carefully unsewed the sleeves from a lightweight wool sweater. That gave me two hats and a pullover vest.

The sleeve hat was quite light, low bulk, and warm to wear. Also, the shape of the armhole end of it meant that It was naturally contoured to be a good height in front while covering the ears and coming nice and low in the back of my head.

Very cheap, too — just visit your local Goodwill / Thrift / Salvation Army store and get a light dress sweater with sewn-in sleeves. Not sure where I got the idea — might have been reading, or it might have been NOLS.

— MV

[Miguel Arboleda]

However, the problem with multiple bottles in really cold temperatures is that small bottles are more prone to freezing, as opposed to just one big bottle. Will think more about this…

Small bottles work well because you can also stash one of them in your jacket and keep it from freezing that way. I use three bottles in the sub-zero winter temperatures like Michael does, and always carry one of them inside my jacket. I also carry a 500 ml pet pee bottle for when it's impractical to get out of the shelter in storms. May not be necessary in a floorless shelter, though.

> – Mid-weight polyester balaclava with a brushed/fleece inner
> – VBL balaclava (sil-nylon, homemade)
> – Hoodie on base layer shirt
> – Peruvian wool hat
> – Hood on VBL jacket
> – Insulated hood on GoLite Parka
> – Googgles or sunglasses

> Man, that's a lot of layers, now that I look at it like that. I wonder if I
> could get away with leaving one or two of those layers at home…

Man, that IS a lot of layers! Wouldn't it get really tight and restrictive if you wore them all??

I kept thinking about the Inuit and how they deal with the cold… and they traditionally usually only have one or two layers (in less severe cold one layer with the fur to the inside against the skin, in colder temperatures another layer on the outside with the fur to the outside) I don't know much about the traditional clothing, but wouldn't a fur nose mask, if there is such a thing, be quite resistant to freezing up?

You could emulate the Inuit-style clothing by getting two layers of pertex-pile hood (Buffalo DP Hood or, if you can get it, the hood from the Montane Extreme Jacket) and have a very light weight, highly water-wicking, and warm system without overdoing the layers. You could sew or velcro the hood to one of your other outer layers. I use my Montane Extreme Smock hood (I prefer the Montane hood to the Buffalo hood because it has a built-in nose mask) on several other pieces of clothing because it is so soft and warm. With two layers you'd have no trouble dealing with extreme cold.

In fact, I'd even look at the pertex-pile system (see the BPL article by Chris Townsend) as a possible consideration for what you plan to do. Erin and Higg used the system in part for their journey.

[Mark Verber]

+1 on mid for all the reasons listed. Good protection, can dig out the floor, provides wind break when melting snow, etc.

+1 multiple bottles which can go into inside pockets, fit into boots, etc. Consider taking extra fuel on the edge seasons so you can do hot water bottles if need an extra boast.

-1 diesel fuel… avoid if possible. I would also go with the WI if you are sure you don't need diesel.

In earlier days I did a lot of very cold trips. My hat approach back then was very similar to Roman's: polypro balaclava (around neck and then pulled up as it got colder), insulated flap hat (windproof shell, insulation, fleece lined), wool scarf around neck and over mouth, hood of winter parka that had an integrated muff. Never got frostbite. Used down to regularly to -25F, sometime below that, though when it got that could we were typically retreat into shelters.

I typically don't have extreme cold anymore. My system is similar though, I have switched to a cloudveil 4 shadows beanie with a balaclava around my neck, then the hood from my vapour trail goes up, followed by a Seirus balaclava getting pulled up that covers exposed skin and puts neoprene over my nose and mouth + goggles, and finally I would pull hood off, add a GoLite Snow cap, and put the hood back up.

Shovel? I would vote for something with a handle (e.g. leverage). Was not pleased with with snowclaw.

I notice skis but no other snow traction / safety devices. No need for ice axe, etc?

> SKURKA: I'm planning to carry Kahtoola crampons for the AK Range portion. I'm not also going to carry an ice axe. If I'm on slopes that are that sketchy, I already made a mistake.

–Mark

[Richard Nisley]

Shovel – Andrew has the option of doing doing the same thing that Erin and Hig did.. use his Sawyer packraft paddle as a snow shovel. The adjustable length carbon fiber shaft can provide the required leverage.

[Andrew Skurka]

Yes, true, if I was carrying both my packraft and skis at the same time, which I won't be. If I'm needing my packraft to cross open ocean water like Erin & Hig were, then I'm in big trouble…

There's been some criticism of the SnowClaw, but the fact is that it weighs 6 oz whereas the lightest backcountry shovels weigh about 20 oz. Tough to beat that…

[Roger Caffin]

> There's been some criticism of the SnowClaw, but the fact is that it weighs 6 oz
> whereas the lightest backcountry shovels weigh about 20 oz. Tough to beat that…
Yeah, tough – provided it works. I have seen several comments that it is useless for digging out a snow cave. What else would you use it for though?

Cheers

[Miguel Arboleda]

> There's been some criticism of the SnowClaw, but the fact is that it weighs 6 oz
> whereas the lightest backcountry shovels weigh about 20 oz. Tough to beat that…
Yeah, tough – provided it works. I have seen several comments that it is useless for digging out a snow cave.

Yes, it does work great when the snow is soft. I've often used it to build snow caves in the deep, wet snow here in Japan. But if it is "rock hard" as you described earlier, there is no way it is going to work. It is just a piece of plastic after all.

What else would you use it for though?

Might I suggest a tray for serving tea with crumpets?

[John S.]

For facemasks in snowy weather, I like the serius neoprene type. They do not freeze up and are cheap.

http://www.rei.com/product/725712

[Roman Dial]

Never used the snowclaw, but in a pinch dug a cave with a cook-pot and an ice axe. However, your cookpot is how big?

[Andrew Skurka]

2L

[Joshua Gilbert]

I've found the snowclaw to be pretty effective in hard snow, especially if you flip it around and use the narrower end to chop. I imagine that you could use your ski, with the metal edge and all, to chop into hard snow, and use the claw to clear out the resulting chunks. It won't have the same leverage as a big shovel, but I have found it pretty effective in a wide range of conditions.

[Roman Dial]

The snowclaw could be used to possibly break/cut snow and the cook pot to move snow.

A 2 L Ti Pot would be better than a 1 L Al pot for moving snow, because it's bigger and stronger.

A gallon pot would move still more snow.

I have usually had little luck with skis as snow moving/cutting tools.

[Roman Dial]

A shovel is usually considered a mandatory piece of extended, wilderness snow camping equipment….yes heavy-ish and single purpose (can be good for stove base) but life-saving, too.

[Joshua Gilbert]

I'd certainly defer to Roman on this one, as I've never tried to chop hard snow with a ski. That said, if you can break it up with a snowclaw, moving the chunks is easily accomplished with the same. I was thinking you could use the ski like a pick for the really hard stuff.

BCA makes a pretty light metal bladed shove, the tour @ 16 ounces. There is also a Japanese company that makes a titanium shovel blade that fits on an ice axe handle, so you might be able to finagle something with a ski pole. Also snowclaw used to make a metal version, which someone might have and be wiling to part with.

[Brian Barnes]

Last year I added some snow shovel specs to the wiki:

http://wiki.backpackinglight.com/Category:Snow_Shovels

may be worth checking if you decide against the claw. I like the Voile XLM and used it to support my stove while cooking and also place it under my trekking pole for the duomid to keep it from sinking into the snow.

[Jeremy G]

How about combining a ULA Helix Carbon Fiber Ice Axe with your cookpot? They no longer have them available, but maybe Ryan can track one down for you or lend you his… :-) The ice axe weighs less than your shovel and would be multi-use.

[Michael Martin]

>> Also snowclaw used to make a metal version, which someone might have and be wiling to part with.

Andy, I have an Al Snowclaw (11.5 oz) that you're welcome to borrow for your trip if you want. Email me if you're interested.

Though, in my opinion, Snowclaws have two limitations:

1) (Plastic ones) can't cut through really hard snow as has been mentioned.

2) It's hard to *lift* snow with them and/or place snow precisely.

/MM

[Roger Caffin]

Yeah, plastic is plastic. However, most metal shovels are a bit too heavy for non-avalanche duty.

My solution, which I have used for maybe 10 years now, is a rectangle of high-tensile (7075) aluminium about 1.0 mm thick and 250 x 125 mm. This has a 15 degree bend down one side. It weighs about 70 g.

This makes an excellent shovel, scraper, excavator, snow saw and even stove base. Being so thin it slices into the hard snow quite well. The bend and the alloy give it excellent stiffness for digging and scraping.

Cheers
..Edited to correct dimensions..

[Jeremy G]

Here's the thread on the japanese made titanium shovel attachment…

http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/forums/thread_display.html?forum_thread_id=18101

[Tad Englund]

Roger, is there a MYOG article on your aluminium thing?

[Author]

Posts