Grand Canyon Section Hike Part 2

[Nick Smolinske]

Last year me and a friend did a 13 day hike in the Grand Canyon. It’s been a year, and in that time the trip has evolved from a one-off hike into a plan to do 5 more long hikes and connect the whole north side of the Grand Canyon by 2020. This year is Nankoweap to Phantom (but possibly starting farther up due to snow). Much has changed in the gear list so I thought I’d write a post about that.

For reference:

Last year’s gear list (read last post for last-minute changes before the trip)
Last year’s trip report

As for as the changes go, some dropped weight, some added weight:

1) New MYOG pack. Add 3 oz (mostly because it’s a bigger pack I think).
1) Switched from a sierra designs rain jacket (last minute addition last year) to a Zpacks challenger (thanks gearswap!). Love this jacket, although I might add pockets. Subtract 7 oz.
2) Replaced my sierra designs bag with a Montbell 15-degree Down Hugger. Same temp rating but higher fill power, lower weight and more comfortable. Also it’s not a differential fill bag, so I can sleep on my side and use the hood! This lets me leave my synthetic bomber hat at home. Total weight savings 13 oz.
3) This is a big one . . . I finally tried out an inflatable sleeping pad. I got a Downmat Lite 5 M. I went for the Lite instead of the UL because there are numerous reports of the UL failing at the welds, but not a single report I could find of the Lite 5 failing. Also I go hiking with my girlfriend’s dog now and I’m glad to have 75D material on my pad instead of 20D when he’s around. I added a 1/8″ CCF pad to go undernearth it and also to have as an emergency backup to get at least a bit of insulation under me (I can double it up and sleep curled up). Add 20 oz (eek!).
4) Delorme Explorer. For recording GPS tracks, emergency use and weather updates. Also we might have a bit of GPS navigation on this route. Add 7 oz.
5) First Aid Kit. Seems prudent to take one . . . add 5 oz.

So in total the changes were to add 35 oz, and subtract 20. Overall, not the right direction, but I’m happy with the added warmth of the downmat and with the safety of the delorme and first aid kit. But at least things balanced out somewhat. And there’s the possibility that with the downmat I’ll actually sleep through the long winter nights and will be able to leave the Nook at home in the future. Here’s the new list:

I’m sure this will change over time, but for now I’m pretty happy with it for now.  I could easily drop 2 lbs if I left the Nook and night photography gear at home.  But I’d hate to miss a great star trails shot because I wanted to save a bit of weight.

[David Thomas]

Nice job on getting small containers of sunscreen and hand sanitizer.  I don’t see toothbrush or tooth paste.  You could chew on a stick.  Or bring one of those mini “disposable” travel toothbrushes for about 4 grams.

5 ounces seems heavy for the first aid kit.  You could unpack it, post a pic and let us pick it apart.  I realize you will be more remote and less rescue-able than the vast majority of backpackers and that stuff happens while off-trail.  But big stuff that happens usually means knowing how to use the rest of your gear to fashion a large dressing, a splint, or to maintain the victim’s temperature and hydration.  “Oh, you broke your femur?  Well, I have 17 styles of Bandaids, 2 aspirin, an ACE wrap, some 2″x2″ gauze pads, and tincture of iodine.” doesn’t help a lot.  I think the best day of our Wilderness First Aid course was a practical session with each student’s pack, packed for a trip, as part of the first aid gear.  My FAK is mostly stuff I can’t fabricate or substitute for out my other gear: a small selection of pills (Benadryl, Advil/Aleve, an anti-diarrheal, a laxative) and two ointments in professional-sample sizes (an anti-fungal -especially if you have stream crossings and an antibiotic ointment -almost as much for the carrier goo which keeps a cut moisturized under a bandaid so it heals more fully).

Tweezers, scissors, and a blade are on my 21-gram SAK Classic which I bring anyway.  Speaking of which, I don’t see a knife of any kind on your list.  Last year I watched a fellow BPLer field dress a bear (skinning it to preserve the hide and butcher it for the meat) with a blade no bigger than a SAK Classic, so I’m not a Crocodile Dundee “That’s not a knife, THIS is a knife” kind of hiker.

Maybe you include those items in your FAK, but I don’t see “Repair Kit” as a separate item.  Tiny bits of different types of tape, needle and thread, a sleeping mattress repair patch can be SO useful for so little weight.

[Nick Smolinske]

Yeah, the miscellaneous section isn’t the best organized.  There should be a toothbrush in there somewhere.  I usually just brush with water in the backcountry.

I’ve got a tiny repair kit which is in the first aid kit.  I found that unless I put it in there I would forget it or lose it half the time.  It’s in a little 1 oz bottle to keep the needles from puncturing things, and I’ve got matches in there as well.  I have super strong thread (from my industrial sewing machines) so I figure I could even patch my downmat if it started to have a weld failure (combined with a bit of the sealant included in the downmat patch kit).  I wouldn’t have enough sealant to repair the entire weld failure, but I’d have enough to keep it from spreading further.

I’m planning on at least bringing a razor blade, although I might upgrade to something else.  I had a small Opinel for a while that I really liked, but of course I lost it somewhere.

[David Thomas]

“I’m planning on at least bringing a razor blade”

HYOH and all, but one reason I like the 21-gram SAK Classic is for the scissors.  They avoid the irony of cutting your finger with the razor blade while trimming Moleskin® for your blister.  Carpenters know to be careful with the Skilsaw, but IME 20-30% of the ER visits from the job site are due to the classic Stanley razor knife.  Most of the time, the task could have been done with good scissors or wire strippers.

If the $14-$15 at Amazon or REI puts anyone off, I’ll send them a SAK Classic for $5.  I buy lots of TSA-seized ones, so you’ll also be keeping the flying public safer at 33,000 feet <sarcasm>.

[Nick Smolinske]

I do carry a pair of tweezers (a small one I got from WMI at the end of my Wilderness First Responder course).  It’s the desert, after all.  They’re pretty light, but if the SAK includes some tweezers then that’s a pretty good case for one.

[Ralph Burgess]

Hi Nick,   I did that trip earlier this year.  Here are some photos.   I’ve marked the approximate routes that I took on a couple of tricky sections.  The most difficult spot is the Juno/Rim saddle.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/nlmguyzhk9ddm0h/AAAkLnXDpQcIBDf2jc2Mt2SPa?dl=0

I made a loop, coming in from the S Rim to Phantom Ranch, up the Old Bright Angel to the N Rim and around to the Nankoweap trailhead (this was March, I had to deal with quite a lot of snow).   Butte Fault, up Chuar Valley, Juno/Rim saddle, down Unkar, Vishnu, Angel’s Gate / Wotan saddle, Clear Creek.

 

I made a lot of notes, just never got around to writing them up.  I did several exploratory trips down side canyons, so I’ve got comprehensive notes of where you may find water at that time of year.  I’ll try to write up a trip report in the next couple of weeks.  Meanwhile, feel free to PM me for more information.   When are you planning to go?

Ralph

 

[Nick Smolinske]

Ralph,

We’ll be heading out in two weeks.  We’ve got a river trip leaving us a cache at Lavachuar, so we’re committed to getting to the river there.  We’ll be taking the butte fault route to Lava for sure.

After that it’s a little less certain what route we’ll take – we’re a bit worried about snow going up and over the high saddles.  Thanks for the photos!  We’re hoping to take the Juno and Vishnu saddles at least, and possibly the Angel’s Gate saddle as well.  Right now I’m sure those two are clear of snow, we’ll see what happens between now and then.  I’ll probably bug you for more info on those routes.

If a major snowstorm happens while we’re out there we’ll probably take the river runner’s trail to the Tabernacle and then take the Tonto all the way over to Clear Creek.

[Ralph Burgess]

There’s daily satellite imagery here at the site below.  You should be able to zoom in on the relevant saddles to see if there’s snow on them before you leave.

https://earthdata.nasa.gov/labs/worldview/?p=geographic&l=MODIS_Terra_CorrectedReflectance_TrueColor,Reference_Labels,Reference_Features(hidden)

[Peter H]

I don’t see a stove on there

[Nick Smolinske]

Peter,

Good point.  I forgot to mention that my partner carries the stove and I carry the tent on these trips.

For this trip we’re bringing a whisperlite because of the possibility of melting snow (not a huge possibility but we might take some high elevation routes and it’s an el nino winter).  For the rest of the hike we’ll probably use a BIOS stove from mini bull designs – I’ve found it to reliably boil a liter of water in about 5 minutes, once I got my windscreen optimized.  This is the last part of the hike that has real snow potential, the rest of it will be pretty low elevation.

[Nick Smolinske]

So the hike went well, and the gear was great!  I wrote a trip report (posted in the trip report forum here) and I also wrote a short blog post about this gear list, and a few items that stood out as being particularly good.  You can read the gear post here.

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