Mountains of Gear

I’ve seen some piles of gear before, but nothing like the mountain I witnessed this morning. With 118 people and no weight restrictions, it put backcountry.com to shame. The pile must have been 15 x 15 feet wide and a good 10+ feet high – all of being, solid, dense expedition packs, There were some bone crushing bruisers in there, but the champion was a large black DaKine ski bag which must have topped 120 pounds and was speculated to contain Jorge’s cosmetic kit or Todd Offenbach’s lingerie collection.

I’ve got a few new pieces of gear for this trip including new skis, boots, shovel, probe and a pack, The skis are the new BD Carbon Aspect, which are a lightweight joy on the uphill and slice & dice on the down. The pack is a Mountain Hardwear Summit Rocket 30l, which isn’t a new offering, but is new to me. So far, so good.

Right now was are practicing the fine art of hurry up & wait. The boat is 500′ away sitting at the dock, but we still have to wait until the official boarding time to get on it. As a bit of comic relief, since we are officially leaving Argentina once we get aboard, we are required to ride a bus for the few hundred feet of dock before we get on. On the bright side, I guess the 200′ bus ride will help keep my legs from bulking up with excess muscle. ;)

Category: Random