My basic strategy is to start with a home-made guide’s tarp which has zippers down the full length and draw-cords on the end.  From there, I place a foam sleeping pad on top of it, then start carefully stacking in gear.  I try to pad around the bindings as much as possible, as well as the tips.  Starting with all the long, skinny stuff, I lay it out, then chink around it with smaller items.  In the picture above, I have two pairs of skis, a pair of poles, an axe, 60m of rope, foul weather gear, a picket, skins, mittens, first aid kit and a few other small items.

Once this is all laid out, I zip it up.

This forms a nice, tight gear burrito.

After this, I slide the burrito inside of a sleeping bag and then add fluffy clothes to bring it up to just below the 50 pound weight limit.  The sleeping bag then goes into an elongated duffle bag made out of burly canvas.

It is a pain to pack and unpack, but I’ve never lost anything with it or had any skis broken.  The ticket agents often give me the stink eye about there being “more in there than skis” but, there are skis in there, and thus it is a ski bag.  On Delta, there is no limit (or perhaps 80″) on skis, so you shouldn’t get charged for an oversized bag.  Arrive early with printed out regulations and be prepared to wait.

I’m off to Antarctica, so I won’t be able to moderate or approve any comment for the next three weeks.  Bob Lee – behave yourself.  No spam my knee-dropping friend, okay?

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When in doubt... bring it.

The advantage of going ultralight is increased mobility whereas the advantage of ultraheavy is increased comfort for extended periods of time.  In the case of skiing a big peak, you may luck out and get perfect conditions right off the bat, but more than likely you are going to have to do some hard tent-time while waiting for the weather and stability to improve and biding your time.  In cases like this, its important to be warm, well rested and well fed so that when the time is right, you are ready to go.  Eating freeze dried food and waking up every time your partner moves in a tiny little two person tent is okay for a day or so, but it takes its toll after a week or more.

Day eight in the tent... but who's counting?

I think I first learned about Ultraheavy camping through Lorne Glick when we brought along frying pans, bacon, cook tents, speakers, triple servings of Costco cheese and all sorts of other stuff on a trip to Mt. Hunter.  From where the plane dropped us off, we hauled all of our gear a grand total of about a mile down the glacier on sleds, set up base camp and left it.  Of the three weeks we allotted to this trip, the actual climbing and skiing only took 1-2 days, but success was a matter of being able to patiently and comfortably wait for the right days.  On this and other subsequent heavy camping trips, I think I have actually gained weight while winter camping. For reference, here is a link to a partial food list on a recent heavy camping trip.

All you can eat burritos, complete with hot sauce and guacamole.

Key ingrediants of Ultra Heavy camping - butter, booze and bacon.

The downside of heavy camping is that it kills your mobility, so it is something that only works in certain situations.  But when it works, it is the only way to fly.

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Tea specifically for that slack-tart Courtney, who needs all the male vitality he can get:

And, for day three in the snow cave…

I have no idea what “Tasty Hot Dry Fried Fish” is, but for $.99 it has good entertainment value.

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There's a stove in there somewhere... The XGK set-up in action while it melts snow, dries socks and forces hot air through a wet pair of liners.

By itself, the XGK kicks ass, but with a little extra help, its efficiency goes into the stratosphere.  Starting with an aluminized stove board (future posting), add the standard-issue heat reflectors, a big black pot, MSR Heat Exchanger and a Backpackers Pantry “Pot Parka” and now you have the backcountry equivalent of a Viking stove and central heating.

Oh, and of course, cooking in the tent, or the vestibule is the only way to go.  :)

Edited to add: With this set-up, I plan on 6 fluid ounces, or .18 liter per person, per day for “heavy burning” winter camping, ie: melting snow, lots of cooking, etc..  For reference, the official MSR recommendation is 15 fl oz pppd, or 11.25 with a heat exchanger, so about half as much fuel and thus weight is needed.

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I’ve owned  mine for about eight years, during which time it has paid for itself may times over in maximizing my luggage weights to avoid excess baggage fees while flying.  It gives me a perverse thrill to hear the ticket agent say “Okay, that looks like it is going to be overweight.” and when you put it on the scale…  48, 49… 50 pounds. Exactly. Ain’t that a shame.  :)

Mine is a Salter model 235 65 which goes up to 110 pounds, or 50 kg.  This is a bit crude for fine tuning a racing set up, but perfect for luggage and general use. I bought it online and can’t seem to find it anymore, but a 55 pound version for $30 can be found here.

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Prime wanding terrain on Mt. Bona, AK. We are going down, so we have cleaned the ones we placed on the way up. Crevasses and bridges and cracks - oh my!

Through constructing flagging for ski mountaineering races, I’ve ended up making far more wands/flags than I ever would have thought possible (2,000 or more) and learned what does, or more often, doesn’t work for flags or wands. It is actually a little harder than it looks (or I’m a really, really slow learner).

These wands looked better than they actually worked. The flagging was too big, so the wind either snapped it off or they got tangled up among themselves. Still, it was fun to place a DANGER wand right near a big crevasse, just in case you were thinking of falling in it or something...

For mountaineering, you want a long staff and relatively small flags.  The long staff helps as it can handle a snow storm without getting buried, will sink further into the snow if need be and doesn’t require you to bend over as far to place them, which is a big deal with a heavy pack.  On the flagging, if it is too big, it will flutter excessively in the wind and either break off or pull the stake out. 

Tools of the wanding trade - 48" tomato stakes ($2.57 for a 25 pack) and duct/duck tape ($3.34 per roll, which will do about 50-75 wands). Total cost of about $.11 per wand.

My current wand construction of choice is to buy a few 25-pack bags of 48″ bamboo tomato stakes and some bright duct tape.  The duct tape needs to be the burlier cloth back stuff, not the vinyl, which looks like duct tape, but will crack in the cold.  For some reason, WalMart is the colored duct tape capital of the universe, and they happened to have bright orange “Duck Tape” brand tape, as well as the tomato stakes.

At the risk of insulting your intelligence, constructing them is very easy.  You pull off about 8″ of tape, fold it neatly over, slip the skinner of the two ends of the stake in the loop and squish it shut.  Repeat 50 or so times.  How many you make will depend a lot on your route.  Some routes, like Denali, could use quite a few (long route, lots of cracks), but then again, so many people climb it that it is already pretty well wanded.  Wanding is really only helpful if you plan on retracing your steps (like shuttling loads, or for a ski descent), but if you are just moving on, then placing wands is kind of pointless.

A wad of wands.

Since most people leave their wands with an air taxi service or outfitter when they are done, you can often get them that way as well.  I prefer to make my own as the air taxi service may not have them (good luck finding tomato stakes in Chitina, Alaska), they may charge for them, or they may be the ratty Euro versions.  Another good reason to make & bring your own is that they will hopefully be a distinctive color, which can be important if you inadvertently start following the wrong wanded route. 

As a final wanding thought, beware that everyone tends to place wands a little differently.  I try to find big, obvious, open spots for them and mark crevasses with X’d wands, with the idea being that if I am lost, I’ll go from wand to wand.  But, some people use them to mark hazards, which which can be exciting if you are not use to it, as every time you come across a wand, you almost fall into a crevasse.

Okay, one more wand item – they make great supports for drying out socks on a nice day.  And, you can cut them in half/quarters if need be and bury them as T stakes for tents.

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One of the mainstays of my meals is dehydrated vegetables.  I’ve tried going with the entire dehydrated program (Sweet & Sour Pork, etc.,) and while I’m sure there are dry-masters out there who can do it, my experience was a certified disaster.  I’m still pulling chunks of stringy beef out of my teeth six years later.  But, what does work really well is to buy big bags of frozen veggies, hash-browns and other similar items, then dump them straight into the food drier while they are still frozen.  Very little muss, fuss or hassle.  The only catch is that it takes a day to dry a load, so you have to start a week or so ahead of time.

Straight from the freezer section in a grocery store into the food drier. So simple and easy even a bachelor can do it.

The advantage of dehydrated veggies is that you can make a meal out of them by themselves, or more often, just throw a handful into soups, rice or mashed potatoes and they do a good job rounding out a meal.

My drier is a standard issue Nesco unit with four trays.  I got it as it was basic and cheap, and now after many years of use it has paid itself off many times over.  As a basic example, it will turn eight pounds of mixed veggies into about one pound of very durable, lightweight, easy to eat food.  Yummy.

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Front page of a 2008 trip proposal covering "What, Why & Who"

Having been on a few grant review committees, I’ve found the two key features of a good proposal are clarity and brevity. I recently read a 50 page proposal and at the end still had no idea what the trip was all about. The great explorer H.W. Tilman once said “Any worthwhile expedition can be planned on the back of an envelope.” The modern-day equivalent of an envelope is a two page (max) pdf file which covers the five basics of reporting (who, what, why, when & where), plus how much.

I look at trip proposals as living documents which are subject to change. The dates, costs and even partners can be approximate. If somebody has expressed remote interest in the trip, I’ll put their name down on the proposal with the understanding that it isn’t binding. The dates are the same idea – take your best guess, then as the trip starts to come together, they can be adjusted for peoples schedule.

The second page covers "when, where, how much."

The beauty of a two-page pdf file is that it can be easily e-mailed around, or printed off on the front & back of a single sheet of paper. Limiting each category to only 2-3 sentences also forces you to define exactly what the point of the trip is. Trips seldom go as planned, but a concise statement-of-purpose can help keep them on track when options A, B & C don’t work out and you start getting down to options R, S & T.

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I get my expedition inspirations from all over.  If I’m eating Greek food, I wonder if there is skiing in Greece (no).  If I hear a rumor of some remote range in China that gets insane amounts of snow, I’ll look for photos of it.  An excellent source of inspiration is going to mountain climbing slideshows as climbers tend to have a lot of wide angle photos which show possible skiing terrain.  I talk to other skiers, especially experienced travelers, about where their favorite places are, or more importantly, where they wished they had gone, but hadn’t.  Mountaineering books are great sources for steep skiing, especially the British versions as the Brits are well traveled and like moderate alpine climbs, which are often excellent ski descents. 

Fred Becky may not consider himself a skier, but he knows of a lot of places with wild skiing. Talkeetna, AK 2003

Completing “projects” like skiing on all seven continents or repeating Chris Landry classic descents is a good way to think of places to go.  Lou Dawson’s 14′er Project (skiing all of Colorado’s 14,000′+ peaks) is a classic example of this strategy.  Skiing all the volcanoes in Washington, California or Oregon.  Skiing the top ten descents in a mountain range in ten consecutive days.  Skiing in the mountains of two countries who are at war with each other (especially good for cultural perspective). Skiing the highest peak in each country/state/country.

Another prime source of inspiration is to go on somebody else’s trip.  I’d guess about 2/3rds of the trips I go on are my idea, but some of the best ones ever have been other peoples expeditions which I happened to get invited on.  The important thing here is to practice saying “yes” as if you always turn down trips, people will stop inviting you.

Skiing in Iran was not my idea, but it turned out to be fantastic. Dylan Freed crossing between snow patches on Mt. Damavand, Iran.

I don’t have any more or better expedition ideas than any other skier, but I do employee a cheaters trick – when I think of one, I write it down.  The legendary American Alpinist, Fred Becky, is rumoured to have a little black book of unclimbed peaks all over the world, which is probably why he is still climbing at age 85 – he has ten lifetimes of climbing to do and is just getting started.

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Home sweet home at the 14,300 camp on Denali. 1995

Expedition skiing has everything and nothing to do with making actual turns.  Skiing competency is a given on big, steep peaks, but keeping your head together, enduring, and figuring out all the hundreds of little pieces of the ascent/descent/safety puzzle account for much more. Part of the appeal is that there are so many little and not so little challenges to overcome that on-the-fly improvising is essential.  As with Jazz music, you have to know how to play your instrument, but once you get a group of people together and set a general direction, great and unexpected things can happen.

Mark Holbrook topping out on Denali... with skis. The snow conditions were forgettable, but the experience itself was not.

I like going on spring ski expeditions in the northern hemisphere as I have all my equipment dialed by then, am hopefully in good shape after a season of skiing and the snowpacks are at their max and the days are getting longer and warmer.  This year I’m heading up to Alaska for three weeks in the end of May/beginning of June, so between now and then, StraightChuter.com will be focusing on my favorite topic, expeditions skiing and planning.
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