[pics]Summer mountaineering gear list

Hi Brett,

that sounds like a good objective. I am interested in your climbing gear. As a climber i moved to LW/UL backpacking and i am transfering that mode in to mountaineering so i spend quite some time to replace my old gear for UL climbing gear.
I do not know if there are any glacier crossings on your route but if so i would upgrade the swami belt to a very LW harness like the Camp XLH 95. I am also curious to what carabiners you are using. And what slings, can't go lighter than the new mammut 6mm. slings nowadays. if there is any rock scrambling involved i would prefer an extar sling instead of a prusik, faster and easier to use for a quick bealy.
Never heard of the Grivel Spider but I would be using aluminium 10 points crampons if the was any snow mountaineering involved.
Very solid gear list, would really like to know how your shoes are working out on a trip like this.

Keep us posted. Good luck.

Hi Brett, that's a really nice walk you're going on. Some of the most dramatic scenery in Japan. Are you going to scale Yari itself? If you do, I bet it will feel like quite an accomplishment. There are supposed to be some hair-raising inclines near the top. I haven't climbed Yari itself (In a recent magazine survey Yari and Tsurugi were found to be the two-most sought after mountains to climb by men, while Kashima-Yarigatake and Tsubame-dake are most favored by women- so let's just hope that your party isn't yearning for Kashima and Tsubame!), but it is a mountain I'd really like to try some time. I've climbed quite a few mountains nearby, like Sugoroku, Hotaka, Kurobe-Goro (perhaps my favorite mountain in Japan, though not the most difficult or highest… it is just stunningly beautiful), and so I have an idea about Yari. Your gear looks just right for Yari at this time of year, though by next month anything but four or six point crampons and a trekking pole will be unnecessary. I'm not even sure the ice axe is necessary right now, unless you plan on climbing the snowfield from Karasawa. Which area are you climbing from, Kamikochi or Hotaka? From what a British climber I met last year at Kurobe Hut told me, the campsite and mountain hut near Yari's summit is quite exposed and notorious for being very windy. So your gear should handle it well.

One warning… check the weather for the weekend. There is supposed to be a typhoon on its way, though it might have diverted already. You don't want to be up on Yari if a typhoon hits.

Good luck with the trip, have a fabulous time, and tell us all about it when you get back! I'd love to see pictures, hear about the experience, and learn how your gear fared…

Curious about the OD Box Foxtail Trekking Pole… is that the aluminum one that was being sold at the Okachimachi store? I was going to buy it, but it just seemed to bend a little too much… Maybe I'm thinking of a different one.
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Update:
The news predicts that Typhoon No. 14 will hit Honshu on Saturday and will have exceptionally strong winds (the waves in Okinawa are at 8 meters right now). Please watch this carefully. The warm wind of the typhoon will probably mean that all snow in the mountains of Honshu, except in the deep ravines and shadowed areas, will melt away.

Take a look at some of these accounts from a friend of mine of climbing Yari:
http://www.raglanroad.org/weblog/archives/001506.html
http://www.raglanroad.org/weblog/archives/001505.html

A general selection of climbing different mountains in Japan:
http://www.raglanroad.org/weblog/archives/cat_hiking.html

Accounts of climbing Kitadake (higher than Yari) in July 2005. No snow at all, meaning that if there is snow on Yari, it will probably be about ankle deep or so.
http://www.raglanroad.org/weblog/archives/001270.html
http://www.raglanroad.org/weblog/archives/001269.html

Oh c-rap. I already bought my bus tickets.
I'll check the weather tonight.
Thank you Miguel!!

I was planning to approach from the Kamikochi side.

Given how warm last winter was, and that it's now mid-July I'd be surprised if there was any snow up there at all – have you checked with the locals? There would normally be snow but this year may be different. I'm going to do the Tsurugi – Kamikochi route next month and I'm not expecting there to be anything but patches of snow but I'll check with Elk over the next few days. As Miguel says, the warm rain of a typhoon and the Foehn effect afterwards will get rid of most of it.

Oi weh! This is one strong typhoon! And hitting smack dab right in the middle of the three-day weekend. Might mean spending the whole weekend holed up in the apartment. I'm right next to the ocean out on the long finger of a peninsula jutting out into the Pacific Ocean, so it's going to be especially bad.

Feel bad for you, Brett. Not a good way to start the summer hiking season.

I delayed the trip due to that Typhoon expected to hit on saturday night. :(

Jeroen; great questions; let me explain my choices.
When carrying so little gear, I leave behind things like harnesses and slings..

Harness or not:
The swami belt is a few loops of 1" webbing around my waist; square knot, half hitches, then a small locking biner. It is only for hooking into via feratta chains (essentially fixed ropes) on the class 4 crux. When carrying so little mountaineering gear I want everything to be versitile; 4 meters of webbing is more versitile than a single-use harness. The Camp XLH95 is a great suggestion and a very light harness, but it's leg loops do not open, so I could not put it on when wearing crampons. My normal harness is an Alpine bod (opening leg loops and intentionally no belay loop).

Slings or not:
Clipped to the swami belt is a V shaped section of 6mm. The vertex clips to the locker and there is a BD wired oval at each end. Both biners are cliped around the fixed chain; and one at a time bypasses the anchors.
Accessory cord prussics can be opened to be used at full length; can be cut, joined together, etc.. Unlike expensive dyneema slings, its cheap and I would not hesitate to leave it if it adds safety. At 7.7kn it's more than strong enough.
Question Jeroen, why are slings faster then prussicks in some applications? No doubt they are stronger..

Carabiners:
As suggested in The Mountaineering Handbook; I just take ovals. They are most versitile, reversable, round bar stock is easy on ropes, etc.. I use BD wired to reduce weight, avoid 'gate slap', and avoid iced up gate hinges. They are also cheap at about $4 each for cosmetic seconds, so a couple times I've left them behind on rappels when I didn't like the looks of rusty rap-rings.

Boots:
My Montrail Torre GTX Classics have been great boots for 4 season hiking and light mountaineering. I always had foot problems until I chose these. They are relatively heavy, but versitile year round. They fit all three of my crampons perfectly with no slippage, and they are stiff enough to front-point with my Stubai universals. When they wear out I'll buy another pair.

I'd like to hear what some of your best gear choices were, and why?

Well I doubt anyone is still looking at this, but if you REEEEEEEEELY want to save wait, sub out your eyecover for your balaclava folded over

OR mod them to two eye patches
Yar