Newbie Winter AT Hiking Gear List

[Dondo .]

Eric,

Since I have several empty Snowpeak 110g canisters hanging around and would like to recycle them, I'll probably stop by Neptune next time I'm in Boulder to check out the display you mention. In the meantime is this sound advice? My church key and sledge hammer are at the ready.:-)

[Frank Deland]

My Coleman has been running well since, but I took it apart anyway. I needed plyers to turn the burner, so it would have been a difficult repair in the field. The opening for the gas is a very small pin hole. Do not know where I will find a thin enough wire to fit in for cleaning. The old Sevas?? used to have a built in pin which is a nice feature. Thanks, Roger, Victor et al, for your help with this. It is good to get a sense of how these stoves work.

[Dondo .]

Curiosity got the better of me this afternoon and I decided to follow the directions in the link to the Midwest Mountaineering forums. I made sure the Snowpeak canister was empty, punched a few holes in the bottom and smashed it flat with a hammer. Nothing bad happened. There is still a faint scent of fuel on the canister so I think I'll let it sit out for a while before tossing it into the recycle bin.

[Eric Noble]

Dondo, I check out the link you provided and the information looks sound. When your canisters are empty, poke holes, and work out that aggression with the sledge hammer.

Edit: I just read your subsequent post and see that you are still with us :). Good! As long as the canisters are good and flat the recycler shouldn't have a problem.

[Roger Caffin]

> It might be best to give me a call at the office (you can find the phone number on my website) and we can discuss further.
Ah, Laurie – did you check which country I am in? I'm asleep while you're awake!

But no worries. I found that the guy concerned had posted full details about the stoves on another web site already. Your caution would seem outdated.

[Roger Caffin]

> My church key and sledge hammer are at the ready.:-)
Pound away – after checking they are empty.

[Roger Caffin]

> Do not know where I will find a thin enough wire to fit in for cleaning.
Hum, yeah, interesting question. You used to be able to buy 'prickers' for kero stoves and lamps, but whether the wire on those would be thin enough I do not know.

You could prowl around a few yachting or fishing shops looking for some fairly flexible multi-strand stainless steel wire – or cable. You will need a single strand of less than 0.3 mm – or even maybe 0.25 mm. A micrometer would be helpful.

Alternately, you could try to buy a small box of assorted fine springs somewhere. A very small weak spring could be opened out to give you some fine stiff wire.

Helps to put a handle on the wire of course: a bit of aluminium or copper hammered flat and folded over the wire and hammered again is good.

But do not force a wire which is too big through the hole! If you do, you may need to buy a new jet becasue you will have stuffed the fuel/air mixing.

Of course, you could buy one or two spares anyhow, and just swap them over in the field IF needed. Pretty simple.

[Frank Deland]

If the tension on the large spring is released the burner is easier to unscrew. Pushing down on the windshield will work, but try the following to get better leverage. Put the two moving legs together. Grasp them in your fist. Place the bottom of the stove over a firm flat surface (eg. a rock on the ground). Push down to compress the spring. This takes pressure off the burner top which can then be turned. The burner is attached to the piece you see under the spring and you will see the threads as you loosen the burner. NB For re-assembly note that the leg which does not move fits ontop of the other legs. Also, if you are strong, you can just grasp the legs in your fingers and place your thumb on the bottom of the stove to compress the srping. The function of the spring is to push up the legs to help make a tight fit and keep the burner firmly in place. There are no small internal parts in this section of the stove. All the parts are large and visible. I'll start the search for a "cleaning wire". Looking at springs is a good idea as an unwound one might also provide a grip or handle. NB The MSR Whisperlite Kit does come with a lot of extra parts.

[Frank Deland]

A church key and the "Green Key" can be used to puncture empty canisters to ready them for recycling. Though it might be more fun, no need for hammers. (For pictures, copy this http to your address line)

http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/556372763fTgNJn

[Eric Noble]

Frank, great pictures, thanks. With my local recycler there is no avoiding the hammer time fun. They want the canisters as flat as a pancake so there is no question that it has been punctured.

[Rick Dreher]

My muni recycling takes them all, so into the can they go. Simple.

Xtreme series stoves come with a little canister-piercing key, which is a simple piece of formed sheet steel. The aluminum pierces quite easily. The nice thing is they can be flattened in the field to take minimal pack space.

I'd be cautious piercing typical steel canisters. It would be best to do so with a non-sparking tool, but I'd be interested in finding something less expensive than the beryllium ones they sell for hazmat purposes.

My suspicion is that they can be "safed" first by venting them to the atmosphere for a time, as the fuel's high vapor pressure should make it dissipate pretty quickly. But until that occurs, they're potentially dangerous. Most folks don't realize that an "empty" tank containing a small amount of fuel is more potentially hazardous than a full one, because the air-fuel mixure is more likely to fall with the LEL and UEL limits.

[Laurie Ann March]

Just found out that our municipality will only take them as a hazardous material and that because of that they are not recycled. Disturbing to say the least.

[Ronald Cordell]

I noticed that REI has a recycling bin for used gas canisters in the store in Atlanta. The sign stated that it was a pilot program, and I think they sent me a survey about recycling a month or more ago. Anyway, it looks like there are some commercial experiments with recycling going on, and that's good news.

[Ronald Cordell]

Shawn: I noticed some of your other posts and realized that you're familiar with the AT. We're going to do the Smokies from Fontana Dam to 441 first week of February. I think I've got the clothes to try on this trip:
-Smartwool base layer (top and bottom)
-Arc'Teryx Gamma MX pants
-Montbell wind shirt
-Mountain Hardwear Compressor PL jacket
-Smartwool socks and liners
-Marmot Oracle jacket (just in case – may be way overkill)

Depending on the forecast at the end of Jan for the Smokies, I'll decide whether to take the canister stove or Whisperlite. Who knows what the weather will do, but we'll be on the AT, so it'll be frosty in the mornings regardless.

I'll take my older REI Downtime 600 fill down bag, and the Thermarest ProLite 4 pad. The bag is heavy, but I sleep cold and I don't have anything in between the Marmot Atom (32deg) and this one (-10deg). You know, I really prefer the shelters but we'll be using at least one of the camp sites on this trip. I'd like to use a tarp/bivy combination maybe, but I don't have a bivy to try this time around. You mentioned using a tarp for good weather winter camping, but how does that work with snow on the ground/pad/etc? The mice at the shelters have chewed through my jacket pocket one winter because I had a granola bar in there earlier that day… :(

[Shawn Basil]

Hi, I just got back from a few days on the AT in the Smokies myself. Temps were the warmest I've experienced since a 3-day trek in 1999. Daytime highs at 5000 ft were near 60 and nighttime lows were only down to the mid-30's. That being said, there was snow in patches as low a 2000 feet, left over from the storms of the previous week.

However, as for your gear list, you should be fine. Your clothing seem reasonable and you always have to option to pull up into your sleeping bag if it still seems too cold. You can also drape the opened bag around you like a shawl if need be while you're in camp.

Shelters will make life easier and as you're grunting up the 3000 ft ascent to Shuckstack you'll be glad if you save a bit of weight from carrying a full tent for a mere one night's useage. I actually prefer to carry a tarp and lightweight bivy sack. I use the Integral Designs Endurance bag cover, weighing about 11 ounces. In conjuction with the tarp, it is a very solid system that protects me from snow on the ground (it's big enough to put a pad inside the bivy along with you and your bag), as well as precipitation from above. My very roomy tarp and bivy (with stakes and lines) weigh under two pounds and I can tuck a partner under with me if I desire. If you want a solo pitch, you can find decent options in the 8 ounce or less range.

One note of caution would be to be prepared to alter your trip if 441 (Newfound Gap Road) is closed due to snow. It was when we headed out this past week. This would prevent you from staging your car at the end of the trek. You could still hike up from Fontana, then hike down to any number of spots on the Tennessee side, including Cades Cove, Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont, Elkmont, or even into the areas very near Sugarlands Visitor Center. You would be surprised how easily you can make big miles downhill from Mt. Collins Shelter to Sugarlands.

Similarly, if you get your vehicle up to Newfound Gap, it is possible to get it snowed in up there for a couple of days or possibly more, so be sure to have some extra food and water available if you had to stay a bit longer than planned.

[John Baird]

Hi Ronald,
I am also new to this winter cold stuff.
My choice for sweating and comfort is:
(Long underware tops and bottoms)
EMS light weight 1st layer
polypro mid weight 2nd layer
smart wool mid weight 3rd layer
breathable rain shell pants and jacket 4th layer

i'll bring 2nd set of the poly pro for more warmth or sleeping dry comfort.

OK… it's a couple days later and I was cold. very cold.
An insulation layer seems to be the next and most important layer. It was suggested to me to get some military jacket and pant liners. Low on cost, high on insulation, ok on weight. I'll be going to the local Army Navy surplus store soon.

John

[Ethan A.]

My wife and I just used our Ibex Guidelite pants (made of climawool light as opposed to the heavier climawool Ibex uses in its Backcountry pants, now called Solitude Pants) skiing and snowshoeing in -5F to 15F (-25F to -5F with wind chill) for several days in the High Peaks region of the Adirondaks.

How do you like the Gamma MX pants for cold winter use? The one place I think I would appreciate a little more wind blocking and warmth in very cold weather would be for the legs. In Ibex Guidelite pants, which are fantastic and which we use 3 seasons, with Ibex merino Long Johns and Janes underneath, we were still cold (again, it was bitter cold and windy). I thought a more wind resistant and less breathable pant would have done the trick. I have a chance to pick up the MX pants at a good price in the next day – I'd sincerely appreciate any and all advice.

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