Gear

Gear for Hiunchuli (or a small rant about logistics)
So, let's look at the objective: Climb a 1500m high north-west/north/north-east face in alpine style to a height of 6500m. This entails the possibility of sleeping at said height 6500m.

Let's look at the time frame: Around 20-30 days start to finish*.

So we're going to need at least twenty days worth of food, camping equipment with slightly warmer sleeping bags and slightly warmer clothes than last time*, winter climbing gear

Now to put this into context we have a walk in: The 50km trek, with 2k of uphill to 5km to a 'low' pass, prior to descent to base-camp at around 4km make the 14km approach with 400m of uphill look like a stroll in the park.

Of-course part of the discrepancy comes from not having a 6x6 truck to drive you most of the way to the glacier, but knowing that in no way alleviates the acute issue of dragging well, how to put it,- everything from Jumla to basecamp. And everything but the food all the way back again.

The point it is, regardless of how light-weight we go (but we will be going lightweight) it isn't exactly feasible to drag one expedition worth of gear from Jumla and back in the time frame available (5 days for 14km one way in Kyrgyzstan for comparison translates to around 18 days for 50km here- not likely). Therefore, as is the custom in Nepal, we're going to hire a couple of porters to the top of the pass to replace however many horse-powers of soviet machinery we won't be using. Now this isn't exactly my style, but I admit it is a slightly more environmentally friendly approach. The main upside is that we get to acclimatise better (barring horrid stomach bugs on the way). The downside is that we really are limited to two loads per head, so no more than ~55kg per man (yes, contrary to popular belief, this is light)- it means that we will be carrying no more than 30kg and our Porters no more than 25kg- well within limits.

So let's make some basic assumptions:
1.) We'll only be in the wild for 24 days maximum, so no more food.

2.) We need no more rock gear than for a Scottish V or WI 4 route.
3.) We are comfortable with the all permeating scent of unwashed mountaineering.
4.) We are easily amused- all we need is a mountain, a kindle and a notebook to keep ourselves entertained for 3-4 weeks.

5.) We are ready to accept the consequences of Alek's miscalculations***.

So assuming 800g of rations per person per day (fairly sensible****), this gives us 19.6kg of food over 24 days, so around 20kg with packaging. Then 50g of “fuel” per person per day- this gives 1.2kg per head. So a tidy 21.5kg with packaging. This leaves around 33.5kg for everything else.

So a list of of Personal gear for myself would look a little like this:

	Duplicacy	Weight (g)	Total Mass (g)
Sleeping Bag: Warmth Unlimited -10 P&D	1	1090	1090
Ground Mat: Multimat Expedition	1	350	350
Boots: Scarpa Mont Blancs	1	2200	2200
Expedition gaiters	1	600	600
Thermal Insoles	1	100	100
Trainers	1	600	600
Flipflops	1	400	400
Down Jacket: PhD	1	700	700
Microfleece	0	200	0
Windproof shirt	1	250	250
T-Shirt, Synthetic	2	100	200
T-Shirt, Cotton	1	150	150
Socks: Cotton	2	50	100
Socks: Smartwool	2	100	200
Underwear	2	50	100
Soft-shell Trousers	1	450	450
Shorts	1	150	150
Towel (MSR)	1	30	30
Cup (MSR)	0	50	0
Waterproof Trousers: Berghaus (modified)	1	300	300
Softshell Coat	1	800	800
Gauntlets: Smartwool Socks	1	100	100
Gloves: Light woollen	1	50	50
Mittens	1	115	115
Gloves: Thick thinsulate	2	50	100
Gloves: Thick Rubber	1	100	100
Buff	3	50	150
Drybags	3	50	150
Gaiters (Trekmate)	1	200	200
Sunglasses	1	50	50
Ski goggles	0	120	0
Notebook, A5	1	100	100
Kindle	0	200	0
Spoon, 5ml	1	15	15
Toileteries: Toothpaste, Soap, Toothbrush, Vitamins, etc	1	100	100
Mobile Phone	0	60	0
Hand Warmers, carbon	2	15	30
Rucksack: Lowe Alpine 65+15L	1	2000	2000
Rucksack: Ascent bag	1	1000	1000
Crampons: Sarken	1	1000	1000
Helmet: Salamander	1	380	380
Harness: Camp	1	270	270
Cowtails	1	60	60
Screwgates:	4	50	200
Quarks	2	600	1200
Slings, 120cm	1	50	50
Slings, 240cm	2	100	200
Total			16390

So, you'll notice that the heaviest objects are the ones you can't do without- the boots, rucksacks, sleeping bag, crampons and axes. They make up for half the weight. The rest of the equipment could probably be made a little lighter- but the weight saved on account of leaving all changes of clothes behind and using the lightest, most modern technical clothes and boots wouldn't be more than 2kg- aka a price probably not worth paying.

In terms of functionality of the gear- I've stuck with what I know. You could notice that I'm not taking any wonderfully high tech or high altitude items in favour of that which I'm used used to. In terms of boots, interms of weight, it would probably be better to take a pair of “Phantom” or “Omega” equivalents, but a pair of Summer B3s with expedition over-boots will be warm enough without breaking the bank.

In any case of the 33.5kg allotted to gear per head, this uses around 16.5kg, leaving 17kg for communal camping and climbing gear. Daytime temperatures from what we're heard, may range between +x and -20, which implies the potential for somewhat colder night-time temperatures. As the “-5” bag is fine at -20, the -10, with a bivi bag and a liner, should be fine to between -30 or -40.

So now to move on to climbing and camping gear, though realistically we've still a lot to discuss on this topic (like whether to take four lighters or eight):

Camp	Duplicacy	Weight	D*W
Climbing
Ropes: Genesis 60m	2	2880	5760
6mm tat 60m	60	25	1500
Extenders, 60cm	12	110	1320
Tricam: Size 2, 2.5	4	66	264
Tricam size 5	1	120	120
Nuts	12	50	600
Pegs	5	80	400
DMM bulldog	1	175	175
Ice Screws, Black diamond, various	12	150	1800
Cams	5	150	750
Abalakov Threader	1	30	30
Camp
Terra Nova Voyager	1	1950	1950
Platypus 2L	2	36	72
Stove: Ti Stove	1	48	48
Stove: Penguin Spider (Gas)	1	350	350
Thermos	1	450	450
Pot: 0.6 L	1	80	80
Pot: Primus Heat Exchanger 1.7L	1	250	250
Lighters	4	20	80
File	1	200	200
Satellite Phone	1	279	279
Solar Charger: Freeloader Pico	1	49	49
Radios	0	300	0
Base Camp First Kit	1	1000	1000
Notebook, A4	2	50	100
Pen	5	10	50
Communal Climbing			12939
Communal Camping			4743
All communal			17462
Communal per head			8950

So, in total, around 16.5kg personal and 8.5kg of communal camping and climbing gear, which comes to around 25kg, which is well within our limits. Can we shed even more weight?

Well certainly, we intend to take quite a lot of rock gear that probably won't be necessary, but depending on conditions, the same could apply to the ice screws if the snow is less than perfect. However, since my hobby is climbing and not skydiving, I'd rather gamble on the occasional half decent anchor, and drag at least most of it along- though the large cams might be a bit too much.

On the camping front, it may be worth the hassle taking a slightly bigger tent for the base-camp and a single skin for the face. A few other matters like whether to take a petrol stove for base-camp or not is still up for debate. In this case, there is a potential to save space and weight on gas canisters, at the expense of carrying an extra 200g worth of multi-fuel stove. Admittedly we shouldn't use it on the face in the role of a petrol stove for fear of dying in a fire, but certainly otherwise it makes sense.

The satellite phone is an essential, and will probably work well due to being that far south. On the other- being an Inmersat, will probably be useless on the faces.

Well, there's always more to discuss, for example, how to get all our food and gear on the plane.

* Kokshaal Too 2012- Base camp at 4.1km, highest bivvi at 4.5km, highest climb ~5.1km. Slightly further north (40° vs 29°).

**By god it's going to be a painful acclimatisation. Maybe training should be the next blog post? What do you think Bradley?

***This implies the possibility of dying of thirst, hunger, cold and boredom- hopefully not all at the same time.

****This is not an arbitrary number. Assuming the most calorific ration will be around 600Kcal per 100g, and the least around 350KCal per 100g, we get a calorific intake between 2800-4800kcal per day- so likely closer to 4000-5000Kcal/day. Of course in the end it depends on the menu, but it'll be somewhere in this ballpark.