what do you carry on trips?

With four calories, sounds like it should be more aptly named five-second energy.

Don't knock it till you try it!

I have the honor of addressing this topic at NSAS this year. It will be from a mountain rescue perspective. And it will be based on personal experience, friends experience, and the experience of people that we have helped out in the backcountry. I will look at what you should be carrying to deal with the situation (as best you can) after an accident has happened in the categories of first aid, communication, shelter, and possible evacuation.

Everything is open to interpretation and personal choice of course, just saying that there is some experience behind the recommendations.

Hope to see a bunch of you there.

www.turns-all-year.com/skiing_snowboardi...61.msg93566#msg93566

I once got lost and had to spend the night out on what was supposed to be a mellow solo jaunt up Heliotrope on Baker. It was to be a midday to late afternoon/sunset trip and as it was already quite sunny and warm as I was hitting the trail the last thing I did before heading up was reach into my pack, take out my puffy sweater and toss it in the back of my car. This was a mistake. Luckily I did have a jetboil, my plan was to have a nice hot meal at my highpoint before heading down. I decided to ski one of the fingers of snow as far down as I could and then hike over to the trail, in fact I had done this very thing on a previous trip without incident. Pleasant cross country walking slowly morphed into swimming through Devil's Club and navigating fallen log mazes ten feet above the ground, and eventually I just had to stop and wait it out. I was able to boil water with the jetboil which made a huge difference, and I did have a space blanket in my pack. The space blanket certainly was worth the weight that night, although in retrospect I believe the kind that you can get into like a sleeping bag would be much warmer.

All's well that ends well as I managed to get my bearings and hike out in about 3 hours in the morning. There was one funny moment about 10-20 minutes before I got out, at this point I was still thinking I might have 10 hours of climbing back onto the mountain to find the cow path and follow it back home. I, a 20 year vegetarian, came upon a puddle that was full of tadpoles and I spent about 3 minutes staring at them and wondering if I should eat them for energy since I was out of food. I decided against it thankfully and just a few minutes later I stumbled out of the woods right to my car which was parked at that the little pullout 1/4 mile down from the main parking lot.

I guess the point of my ramble is to say that whatever you take, maybe take a little extra clothes/food when you are solo, you just never know!

I always bring my HELMET it is the perfect pillow!
It fits just right, it keeps my hat on, I cant roll off it, it keeps my head off the cold snow or rocks!

For overnight trips, don't forget a light weight cribbage board and cards to pass the time when you're forced to crawl in the tent at 4 p.m. and endure the next 14 hours sucking the oxygen out of your snow encapsulated tent.

Can't handle the weight? Try Pirate Farkel instead.  Pirate Farkel (Need a one-eyed emoticon!)

Saxybrain , sorry for my fellow TAyers condescension and eye rolling just because you are from Texas. I'm afraid you are going to have to get used to that for a while as these young, super smart urban-mountaineers are going to act very superior for a while until you get acclimatized. Only 120 days or so until you come over the pass like some Mormon pushing his hand cart to the promised land with all your boyish enthusiasm I've come to appreciate. Shortly thereafter you'll be skinning up to Muir ( make sure you actually get to Muir..Amar is checking) with your pack overflowing with ibuprofen, iodine tablets, hand-sanitizer and condoms; your pack festooned with Voile straps. A few more months here and you'll be driving at 10 mph below the speed limit in the left lane and pontificating on TAY with the rest of us.

Not all Mormon men push hand carts.

????? for cleaning hands after going pooopy? You guys are way too fastidious.......handful of snow...rub vigorously.. then wipe hands on back of pants= invigorating!

they say most people that get sick while hiking is from not washing after dropping a load.. not from bad water

Saxybrain , sorry for my fellow TAyers condescension and eye rolling just because you are from Texas. I'm afraid you are going to have to get used to that for a while as these young, super smart urban-mountaineers are going to act very superior for a while until you get acclimatized.

Only 120 days or so until you come over the pass like some Mormon pushing his hand cart to the promised land with all your boyish enthusiasm I've come to appreciate.

Shortly thereafter you'll be skinning up to Muir ( make sure you actually get to Muir..Amar is checking) with your pack overflowing with ibuprofen, iodine tablets, hand-sanitizer and condoms; your pack festooned with Voile straps.

A few more months here and you'll be driving at 10 mph below the speed limit in the left lane and pontificating on TAY with the rest of us.

bwaahhahahahah!~!!

Now i'm debating to push back my move a year, and pay off all my debt. Or move, love it and pay off debt a year later. Hmmm.. Damn my priorities. I think, i'll end up there this coming year just because I can't do another 100+ days of 100degree weather.

On a side note, don't forget a map of your area you're skiing as a compass will do you almost no good w/o one and chords. Don't always count on a GPS or a phone either.

Also remember light is right, but not always the best thing. Always take 1 cold weather item with you that you know you WONT need. Such as a parka in June/July, you just never know if one of those freak storms will blow through.

Also I may suggest a large hefty trashbag may be a good thing incase you get stuck and have to sleep outside to avoid getting wet, you can sleep inside one of those (I've done it in boyscouts before) and they insulate very well with heat and would keep you pretty dry

they say most people that get sick while hiking is from not washing after dropping a load.. not from bad water

you CAN'T get sick from your own poop, just the poop of your SICK climbing partner (or Marty Marmot, or Pete Puma)

it's best NOT to shake hands with people on the trail

How about a PLB.  Like the newer ACR ResQLink.
Lets say you're solo, or even if the two of you head out into the backcountry.  Been a long day and you are behind schedule.  You're now out of cell phone range, and you or you buddy breaks his leg.  You get him situated and go for help.  There he sits, hoping you made it out alright,  wondering if you got off route, swept in an avy, skied into a tree well, etc.  Night falls.  If all goes well sometime the next morning help arrives.  What if help does not arrive?  
Carrying the 5.4 ounce PLB would take a lot of the "hoping" out of such an adventure.

I have to add on a vital piece of equipment to the list, I can't believe nobody else carries it... BEER! More and more delicous micro's in a can are available...

And I always carry both GPS + map/compass.

toilet paper and blue bags~ Forgot that

I rescanned this thread and noticed quite a few people did not include a whistle in their BC gear. I only saw it listed once in Saxy's list.
I carry a whistle and assume that other people wandering in the wilderness (or in bounds at a ski resort, for that matter) would drop what they're doing, and come to assist if I ever decided to blast away. I'm curious, do you all carry a whistle, and would you abandon lapping your favorite pow stash if you faintly heard one in the distance?
If so, it seems the whistle would be at the top of the backcountry safety/gram scale. right behind LSD, of course.

It seems like most new backpacks have a whistle built into the chest strap clip. I would guess that a lot people have one whether they realize it or not.

My usual daypack has a whistle integrated into the chest strap.
Otherwise, I carry a whistle in my general safety items.
Thinking about a rescue sled for longer trips or trips to more dangerous areas.

I carry a rappel setup with a few slings, extra carabiners, and a few small pieces of protection. Works great for short roping too.
Does anyone have any thoughts on the minimum level of ski mountaineering safety gear? ( Not including glacier travel. )

***

"Backcountry Skiing: Skills for Ski Touring and Ski Mountaineering" has a great philosophy for packing gear.

Cookie, check out this sled -- it's what I've been carrying since the Phantom.

It requires some modifications to your gear.  Drill holes in tips and tails, plus holes in the ends of your shovel handle pieces (and the blade, if they're not there already).  That, plus 1/4" bolts and wingnuts (4) and a length of 4-5mm cord makes a board-stiff, bombproof rescue sled.  It's pretty impressive.  I carry that gear with me anytime the skis come out.

I carry a rappel setup with a few slings, extra carabiners, and a few small pieces of protection. Works great for short roping too.
Does anyone have any thoughts on the minimum level of ski mountaineering safety gear? ( Not including glacier travel. )

I carry 50' of 6mm line, which is pretty versatile, and weighs almost nothing. In a pinch you can arm-rap (ouch). I decided this is a better safety value per ounce than more metal. A variation on this would be to carry a basic thin rope rappel set up distributed through as party so that it does not weigh much for any one person but you can still put together a rappel (assuming nobody has fallen down the cliff yet).

I bet you Herman Buhl never carried hand-sanitizer or iodine tablets!!!
Hand-sanitizer, iodine tablets......you guys are becoming regular Howard Hughes!!
The whole filter your water thing was a massive scam perpetrated by the filter manufactures to get you punters to buy their stuff. Sure some people have contracted Giardia but if you use ANY sense at all.... really..think about it......making water from snow in winter poses 99.99999999999% security...( Head shaking emoticon if there was one!)


With every post the list grows longer,
PLD's, whistles, stretchers, Gps and map/compass, cell phone, Go-pro head cam, carabiners, toilet paper and blue bags, cribbage boards, helmets, ropes

The modern backcountry skier = effete and heavy!
SAFETY POLICE MENTALITY

I've been thinking about an M224 Mortar for long range slope stability assessments. Better safe than sorry!

- "The modern backcountry skier = effete and heavy!"

Exactly!

It might take 'em awhile, but when they hear my whistle and come to help, they'll have everything I need!  I've heard a few of them even carry morphine.    (No stoned emoticon  :-[)

I bet you Herman Buhl never carried hand-sanitizer or iodine tablets!!!
Hand-sanitizer, iodine tablets......you guys are becoming regular Howard Hughes!!
The whole filter your water thing was a massive scam perpetrated by the filter manufactures to get you punters to buy their stuff. Sure some people have contracted Giardia but if you use ANY sense at all.... really..think about it......making water from snow in winter poses 99.99999999999% security...( Head shaking emoticon if there was one!)


With every post the list grows longer,
PLD's, whistles, stretchers, Gps and map/compass, cell phone, Go-pro head cam, carabiners, toilet paper and blue bags, cribbage boards, helmets, ropes

The modern backcountry skier = effete and heavy!
SAFETY POLICE MENTALITY

4 packs of Marlboros! Not that I disagree!

My wife and I carry a two person bothy sack (terranova superlite 2) in place of a space blanket and as potential sled making material.

For those who haven't seen a bothy before it is essentially a bag shaped tarp (wider and squatter then a bivy) designed so you can sit up in it facing each other. It packs into its own tunnel vent into a package smaller then a grapefruit. In combination with a good synthetic poofy it is surprisingly effective and I'd much rather spend an unplanned night out in it then in a bivy or space blanket...we even break it out at lunch stops when it is particularly nasty.

I hear they are popular in scotland and I am surprised to see more people in the North Wet don't use them.

I hear they are popular in scotland and I am surprised to see more people in the North Wet don't use them.

If benighted in Scotland, we merely grab the nearest sheep, disembowel it( Like Luke Skywalker when caught out on the Ice Planet Hoth while riding his Tauntaun) crawl inside and weather the storm.

A more humane version can be seen here.
www.thinkgeek.com/geektoys/plush/bb2e/

Cookie, check out this sled -- it's what I've been carrying since the Phantom.

It requires some modifications to your gear. Drill holes in tips and tails, plus holes in the ends of your shovel handle pieces (and the blade, if they're not there already). That, plus 1/4" bolts and wingnuts (4) and a length of 4-5mm cord makes a board-stiff, bombproof rescue sled. It's pretty impressive. I carry that gear with me anytime the skis come out.

Thanks for that link Marcus, seems like exactly what I'm looking for, and having a recommendation makes me feel a lot better about buying. I've had my share of mishaps, and over the last couple of seasons I've realised that a sled is probably a necessity.

I already have holes in the tips/tails of the skis, and I suppose doing the shovel won't be too hard.

Are instructions provided on how to drill the shovel?
Do you have any idea if this weakens the shovel handles?

( Like Luke Skywalker when caught out on the Ice Planet Hoth while riding his Tauntaun)

And very much like Rob Roy escaping the murderous English   

In additon to many of the great suggestions above, I always, even in summer, carry:
spare gloves
2 handwarmer packets
>1 hat (2-4, variations for loss or a bald sweaty noggin)
extra eye pro
leg cramp medication (Hyland's quinine)
emerg. blankie---the bag rips and once I ended up with a foil loincloth for the nght.   :'(

See this TAY thread from 2009, variations on the same content.

www.turns-all-year.com/skiing_snowboardi...ex.php?topic=12321.0

Thanks for that link Marcus, seems like exactly what I'm looking for, and having a recommendation makes me feel a lot better about buying. I've had my share of mishaps, and over the last couple of seasons I've realised that a sled is probably a necessity.

I already have holes in the tips/tails of the skis, and I suppose doing the shovel won't be too hard.

Are instructions provided on how to drill the shovel?
Do you have any idea if this weakens the shovel handles?

For this setup, all you really need to buy are some 3-4" long, 1/4" bolts or machine screws and some wingnuts. A 20' length of cord and a couple of voile straps will do the rest. I have 5mm cord, but you could do it with parachute cord, or probably make it work with an emergency 6 or 7mm rap-cord, if you're carrying that anyway.

My shovel blade had holes already on the blade end, up on the sidewalls. I use those and the handle-slot to secure the blade between the bindings. I think the blade is easier to drill than the shovel, since it's at least flat. Given the size of the holes (1/4" or so) I doubt they have an appreciable effect on the strength.

I've got a drill press that made all of the drilling (I did six pairs of skis and 4 shovels) really quick. A step bit helped in getting the right hole size quickly. You're welcome to come use it, if you like.

Watch this video and learn how to go light.
This guy is an avalanche forecaster in Utah and he doesn't even need a pack!!! Towards the end he shows what he carries..

!

I have only been involved in two bona fide rescues in the last couple years. One item that proved to be far more useful than its wt was a short ridge rest pad. It roles open inside my day pack and protects anything else that needs padding. I also carry, all in a very small stuff sac:
1) bivi sac
2) space blanket
3) extra mittens
4) hand warmers
5) gu
6) candle
Since I would all ready have the other gear to dig a trench, this system is designed to provide quick shelter. With out the pad the rest would really not be worth much. Recall the fatality on the Muir snow field, guy died laying on snow, while providing insulation to his partner.