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Chockstone Forum - Gear Lust / Lost & Found

Rave About Your Rack Please do not post retail SPAM.

 Page 1 of 5. Messages 1 to 20 | 21 to 40 | 41 to 60 | 61 to 80 | 81 to 84
Author
lightweight snow camping in Oz

Superstu
6-May-2009
10:40:00 AM
Does anybody ski tour & snow camp in Oz in lightweight style? I am currently fascinated researching "ultra lightweight hiking" where bushwalkers get their packs down to 5kg or so before food, using tarps, ditching everything non-essential like cups an forks, etc, and making their own packs/sleeping bags using super light weight materials. All fine for worn trails in temperate climes, but I want to camp amongst the snow gums on snow in australia, often a wet & cold experience. Alpine climbers do it light and fast and there has been plenty written about this style, but can some of these ideas be translated to leisure snow camping in damper environments?

At the moment I lug around 1 x snow tent (3kg), 1 x thermarest (500g), 1 x foam cell mat (200g), winter weight sleeping bag (2kg), lots of stove fuel, down jacket, goretex jacket and bib pants, fleece, day thermals, night thermals, mountains of food, port/gluwein, and a mammoth pack to fit it all in. Quite a load and limits tele turn ability while touring out.

Where can you shave weight and still be toasty & comfy & happy & safe?






nmonteith
6-May-2009
10:54:28 AM
On 6/05/2009 superstu wrote:
>Where can you shave weight and still be toasty & comfy & happy & safe?

Use a small lightweight sleeping bag (mine is a one sided ultra lightwieght bag made by Mont) and wearing your down jacket to bed is one method i've used.

IdratherbeclimbingM9
6-May-2009
10:57:47 AM
On 6/05/2009 superstu wrote:
>Where can you shave weight and still be toasty & comfy & happy & safe?
>
Here.





evanbb
6-May-2009
11:13:43 AM
On 6/05/2009 superstu wrote:
>At the moment I lug around 1 x snow tent (3kg), 1 x thermarest (500g),
>1 x foam cell mat (200g), winter weight sleeping bag (2kg), lots of stove
>fuel, down jacket, goretex jacket and bib pants, fleece, day thermals,
>night thermals, mountains of food, port/gluwein, and a mammoth pack to
>fit it all in. Quite a load and limits tele turn ability while touring
>out.
>
>Where can you shave weight and still be toasty & comfy & happy & safe?

Change the mat for a single, thick insulated mat, like Big Agnes or Exped Down
Change your bib for goretex pants, and wear thermals underneath
leave fleece at home
Get fat.


>
>
>
>
>

nmonteith
6-May-2009
11:19:40 AM
learn that shivering is ok - it's when you stop shivering that it's actually bad.

Superstu
6-May-2009
11:31:57 AM
On 6/05/2009 nmonteith wrote:
>Use a small lightweight sleeping bag (mine is a one sided ultra lightwieght
>bag made by Mont) and wearing your down jacket to bed is one method i've
>used.

Which model did you get? Is it a quilt shape or does it have fabric on the bottom?

I have experimented wearing my down jacket to bed on a particularly cold night in an empty MUMC hut, found it rather humid i.e. warm moist air getting trapped. Might have to try again with my synthetic 0 degree bag.

climberman
6-May-2009
11:32:09 AM
http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/index.html is worth a read - there are some threads on winter camping.

Roger Caffin's bushwalking FAQ is worth a google.

There are a few folks using the betamid style tents, with the adjustable poles as supports.

Ditch the fleece.

www.montbell.com do a wicked looking winter bag - light for the temp ratings, and reviewed well.

Get a smaller lightweight pack - snow touring IME isn't like scub bashing in SW tassie (or even the Wollemi).

nmonteith
6-May-2009
11:51:27 AM
On 6/05/2009 superstu wrote:
>Which model did you get? Is it a quilt shape or does it have fabric on
>the bottom?

I've got no clue as i've had them so long ago. I have two of them - one is ultra ultra lightwieght - bought in 1995? It is designed so you can slip a thermarest into a sleeve on the bottom side. It packs down into a bag about 20cm x 15cm. The other is bigger, but the same concept with a sleeve on one side. Bought in 2002? Much warmer - works great in sub zero with no downjacket wearing. The only annoign thing about these bags is you can't fit an oversized matt (like an Exped Down) inside the sleeve.

Superstu
6-May-2009
12:12:06 PM
On 6/05/2009 evanbb wrote:
>Change the mat for a single, thick insulated mat, like Big Agnes or Exped Down

Hmmm, never seen those super dooper mats before, are they essentially down-filled inflatables? Not exactly keep-it-simple-stoopid, or cheap, or light weight, but very tempting.

I've never really liked the thermarests-style because they occasionally get punctured and you're in the poo. (happened on a long sea kayak once, valve went so repair kit useless, spent rest of trip enjoying the comfort of sand).

How about a 1.5 cm thick foam mat?

nmonteith
6-May-2009
12:14:34 PM
Ridge rest is the most reliable comfy foam matt i've used.

Eduardo Slabofvic
6-May-2009
12:39:18 PM
Buy yourself a GPS, a mountain bike, a plastic barrel, a note book and a pen. Fill the barrel with non-
perishable stuff like fuel, chocolate, cous cous, alcohol, what ever.

During summer time, strap full barrel to bike ride out to preferred location, hide barrel, log in location with
GPS, make notes on location.

6 months later, ski out with light pack, retrieve barrel, enjoy.

nmonteith
6-May-2009
12:47:15 PM
On 6/05/2009 Eduardo Slabofvic wrote:
>6 months later, ski out with light pack, retrieve barrel, enjoy.

Make sure a fire doesn't come through in the meantime... we had a stash out at Bogong which got melted to a crisp several years ago.

Cranky
6-May-2009
1:17:45 PM
I've found that the more weight I save trying to be sensible, the more alcohol I put in.
I find skiing with a heavy pack easier than walking.
Richard Delaney
6-May-2009
1:25:48 PM
The silicon megamid (mega-light?) takes a lot of beating if you're camping in the trees -
you don't need the pole (string between 2 trees). This pic is of the old non sil one and I
took the pole just in case, but the new sil version is under 1kg.



Once up, throw a few snow blocks inside around the edge to make it a bit more wind
proof, dig out a foot/gear well (so you can stand up), and, the ultimate selling point, a
piss hole in one of the corners (with small block to cover) so you don't have to go
outside in the middle of the night!

evanbb
6-May-2009
1:34:16 PM
On 6/05/2009 superstu wrote:
>Hmmm, never seen those super dooper mats before, are they essentially
>down-filled inflatables?
I've got the Big Agnes, which is synthetic fill, for a small loss of R-points compared to the Exped. Not at all expensive either, I think mine was $60US, or $700 Aust. I haven't used it much yet, but it is extroardinarily comfortable. Slept on it every day for 2 weeks in Tassie, including in the snow, and I've never been more comfortable.

>How about a 1.5 cm thick foam mat?
It'd be bulky!

ajfclark
6-May-2009
1:36:51 PM
On 6/05/2009 evanbb wrote:
>I think mine was $60US or $700 Aust.

Holy crap! ;-)
dmnz
6-May-2009
1:38:50 PM
taking a warm body, pref young and attractive helps.

some alpinists share ultralight qiults rather than sleeping bags

Eduardo Slabofvic
6-May-2009
1:40:52 PM
On 6/05/2009 nmonteith wrote:
>Make sure a fire doesn't come through in the meantime... we had a stash
>out at Bogong which got melted to a crisp several years ago.

Well, you get that from time to time, but you know what I mean, put your stash out there in March. I
understand the motivation for going light, but I like comfort, good food and plenty of grog. In recent years
I've taken to savory scroggin and 500ml cans of beer. Yes, heavy, but skiing back to camp after a day
out, and hooking into savory/salty/crunchy/yummy snacks and a big can of cold beer - fantastic.

That single pole tent above has its advantages, but have seen one perform poorly in heavy weather

evanbb
6-May-2009
1:54:08 PM
On 6/05/2009 Eduardo Slabofvic wrote:
a big can of cold beer - fantastic.

It all makes perfect sense now. I often don't drink beer on climbing trips cos I couldn't be bothered with ice, and our esky got stolen at Peats Ridge festival anyway (SCUM!). Snowcamping with big cans of stout, or even Chimay Trippel would be brilliant?

Going to tease out the salty scroggin topic as well.

Superstu
6-May-2009
3:17:44 PM
On 6/05/2009 Eduardo Slabofvic wrote:
> Fill the barrel with non-
>perishable stuff like fuel, chocolate, cous cous, alcohol, what ever.

I left a food dump at Valejo Ganther hut (Mt Howitt) packed full of non-perishable yummos and grog. The plan was to ski in from the Bluff over Magdala and Howitt over 2 days, spend 4 days carving up Mt Howitt slopes, then back out via the Bluff. The first attempt we had awesome snow down to Refrigerator Gap but my skiing companions got cold feet and bailed before we passed View Point - major unhappiness :-( :-(. Another plan was to return with another set of suitably enthused and skilled companions to "cross the divide" - to be dropped off at Arbuckle Jcn and ski across to Howitt, then ski out via the Bluff. Then there were some bad seasons, then I went o/s for a while, eventually I got back to check on things and found the stash had been raided and several hundred dollars worth of food and grog stolen. I carried the empty barrel over the razor back and down to the Howqua one clear May sunday afternoon and convinced myself squirrelling was never going to work.


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There are 84 messages in this topic.

 

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