Equipment
As the Expedition Equipment Member I have been responsible for arranging equipment sponsorship deals, equipment discounts for expedition personnel, demanding individual equipment and team climbing equipment from service sources and the packing and preparing the freight for shipment to Nepal.
Each team has its own respective equipment member who will deal with in country transportation and distribution of kit between camps as their teams become established in country.
There are four key areas for equipment:
- Personal clothing
- Personal climbing equipment
- Team equipment for trekking phase and base camp
- Team Equipment for the mountain phase
Personal Clothing
For the early stages of the expedition up to Base Camp, there is no requirement for any specialist items of personal clothing. Each team member will typically wear or carry the normal type of hill walking equipment worn in the UK: Waterproof jacket, trousers, hat, gloves trekking shirt, trekking trousers and stout footwear. They will also carry or have access to a down jacket and additional warm clothing once we are above Tashigoan.
This clothing will also normally be adequate for load carrying between Base Camp and Camp 1. When weather conditions dictate climbers may opt to wear a pertex windsuit as an additional windproof layer or opt to wear a power fleece base layer beneath their windsuits. Dependant upon the terrain climbers may also be able to wear just their UK 3 season boots or even their trekking shoes.
Above Camp 1 the powerfleece/windsuit/thermal underwear combination bolstered by an additional insulating layer is usually sufficient to keep warm up to around 6500m, provided it is sunny and not too windy. At this stage we will also begin wearing our specialist high altitude boots and crampons.
From Camp 2 onwards wind and weather conditions dictate when down suits and down mitts are required. We have to be careful not to overheat at this stage as heat exhaustion can be just as debilitating as the cold.
Personal Climbing Equipment
Each climber will be in possession of a climbing harness, jumar, ice axe and an abseiling device. When leading the route and fixing rope the lead climber will use two light weight technical climbing axes. Once the rope is securely fixed in place his second and all following climbers will use their jumars to ‘jug’ up the fixed line. The rope will be fixed using a variety of methods depending on the rock and snow conditions. We will use an assortment of chocks on wire, ice screws, snow stakes, slings, friends and deadmen to secure the rope anchors.
Team Equipment for Trekking Phase and Basecamp
During the trekking phase and while living at base camp and potentially at both main team advanced base camps we will sleep in 8-man tents, but there will only be a maximum of 4 personnel sharing one tent. This affords us the luxury of space and some limited privacy. Our trekking agent will supply a mess tent for communal eating.
Team Equipment for the Mountain Phase
Once on the mountain we will sleep in 2/3 man tents and cook our own meals. We will be using gas stoves that burn a butane/propane mix as this is the most mess free and convenient of the fuel options.
Both main teams’ highest camps will consist of two single skin, light weight 2-man tents. The weight penalty of transporting a double skin tent at altitude above 7000m is far greater than the potential discomfort of squeezing into one of these smaller tents. At this height it highly likely that all we will use the tent for is shelter, while we re-hydrate and attempt to rest before making our summit push.
Each team will also pre-position or carry a hyperbaric chamber for treatment of any climbers who suffer from acute mountain sickness (AMS). This device will allow us to temporary halt the on set of AMS and condition the victim prior to onward transition down the mountain.
Equipment Transportation value & weight
All the equipment has been packed into either 60 ltr or 120 ltr waterproof barrels or specialist air transportable boxes. In all the total weight of the equipment and food amounted to 2800 kgs, all of which has to be carried by our porter team from Tumlingtar to base camp. Each porter load is 30kgs and some porters will elect to carry two loads to secure additional pay. The total value of the all the equipment loaned from our Adventurous Training Loan Pool Store or purchased at discounted rates is approx £200k.
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