The Ptarmigan-to-Belly River Traverse: Packrafting in Glacier National Park

[Luke Schmidt]

Companion forum thread to: The Ptarmigan-to-Belly River Traverse: Packrafting in Glacier National Park

Luke Schmidt tests his wilderness skills with a Glacier National Park packrafting trip over Ptarmigan Pass and down the Belly River. He shares photos from the trip and the gear he used.

[Richard Nisley]

If you size your packrafting windshirt, with hood, to fit over your PFD, you can achieve substantial wet-proof insulation for a negligible weight increase.  This works for both active and static situations.

[Luke Schmidt]

Interesting idea Richard, my raincoat would probably fit over my new PFD so maybe I’ll try it. Since then I’ve used my drysuit on pretty much all my trips. I was tempted to try a Alpacka suit this year but in the end I put my new gear money into lighter hiking gear and kept my bomber drysuit.

[Justin Baker]

Is this the trip where you guys ran into Stu?

[Luke Schmidt]

yes it was. We met under the trees in the hailstorm and hiked out together.

[Tjaard Breeuwer]

I would strongly suggest not putting rubber bands around the wrists of a rain jacket for paddling splashing water.

Back before I had a drytop I kayaked in a top with neoprene wrist cuffs. In waves water the end result was always sleeves full of water(sloshing around). Anything short of a full on latex gasket lets water in, and then having the cuffs tight up around your wrist leads to water sagging the sleeve down, preventing it from draining back out again easily.

 

[Brad Branan]

Morgan Rucks: The New Face of Packrafting. http://www.sacbee.com/entertainment/living/travel/article99307092.html

 

[Luke Schmidt]

I forgot to include this in the article, we made a video of our trip.

[Danny Milks]

Great article, thanks Luke! And I enjoyed the video you posted.

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