UCD Mountaineering Club

This list is a suggestion of what to bring to Scotland or the Alps when going mountaineering in snow and ice. These list are not supposed to be exhaustive but should point you in the right direction for budgeting and finding out what you need to borrow/steal.

Equipment For a Mountaineering Course in the Alps or Scotland:

The organiser will generally provide their own gear lists for these events when they are offered each year. You should check these lists to ensure that you are not missing any items.

• General Clothing: Everything from the hiking gear list, you should have a very hard wearing outer shell, non-insulated sallopets are good leg wear, consider bringing more layers for Scotland and a ski-mask or balaclava. You will need category 3/4 sunglasses. Category 4 glasses are ideal, consider ski goggles for Scotland. Glove liners are very useful as they keep the wind off your hands but still allow you to control a rope finely and use your fingers easily. Gaitors are essential for keeping snow and scree out of boots.
• Boots: Semi-rigid mountaineering boots with heel and toe welts for 12 point crampons are perfect. More flexible boots with a flexible 10 point crampon will do but will limit the seriousness of the route that can be undertaken in the future. Fully rigid boots are fine but are usually the most expensive type.
• Harness: Fully adjustable i.e. leg-loops and waist. Must fit over raingear.
• On your Harness: 3 screwgate HMS carabiners, 2 X 240cm slings, 1 X 120cm sling, (handy for quickly securing yourself at a bolted station etc.), 2 X prussik loops and a belay device.
• Axe and Crampons: Your axe should be the straight shaft "walking" type with a pick and an adze. The shaft should be between 55 and 65cm in length. 10 point flexible or 12 point articulated crampons are what's required, 12 point are ideal. When you fit them they must be "sewn" to the boot when fitted, whatever the binding. Your guide will insist that your crampons have anti-balling plates fitted, (make sure they do, you can use duck tape as an emergency substitute).
• Helmet: UIAA approved, comfortable. Petzl Ecrin-Roc, Black Diamond Half Dome are designed to much higher specifications than the minimum standard and will better cope with a fall with multiple impacts, i.e. a tumble, rock shower.
• Rucksack: 45-55L bag is ideal, you will be bringing very little in the actual bag itself, however you will need space to stow the harness, helmet, crampons while en-route. You will also be expected to carry one of the guide's 50m ropes periodically, so you'll need this size bag.
• Headtorch: Should fit on helmet also, used primarily for the early, (4am) starts.
• Water Bottle: A 1L Hard polycarbonate bottle is usually better than a platypus, platypus type containers are easily speared by axes and crampons.
• Lip Balm and Sun Cream: A no-brainer, factor 50 for the glacier in summer time.

Equipment for Overnighting on the Move, (not needed for courses)
Firstly, the best thing to do is be sensible and use the huts where possible. It is hard to bivvy and climb well at the same time, you will be weighed down with gear, food and be slow and cold all the time. Bivvying sounds very hardcore but it's not the way we do things nowadays, (just use the huts).

Advantages of using huts:

1) Food, warmth and sanitary facilities provided. Food for more than a day at the rate you will burn calories will exceed 2kg. Fresh water is hard to come by in the mountains and melting snow is very hard on fuel not to mention being very slow.
2) Modern Alpinism is all about light weight climbing, you are not an SAS Commando, you will not move well with a 12-14kg pack on your back.
3) Pre-prepared breakfast improves the Alpine starts, you'll be off and going quickly, bivvying is slower in the mornings.
4) Unless your insane, morale will be generally better using huts.
5) You will meet climbers with similar objectives and experienced guides in the huts to talk about the routes. Hut wardens can advise you about hazards, errors in guidebooks, route conditions and timing.

Bivvying is only advantageous if you bivvy at the base of a route, get up before light, stash your gear, do the route and collect it on your return. Bivvying at the base of a route can make up the time required for a walk-in and give you more daylight to work with for a particular route.

For unplanned overnighting, you need to get yourself off the ground. In the likely event of not having a thermarest, sleep on a coiled rope or a rucksack. The next item to bring is, (in order of usefulness): A blizzard bag, (€25) and group shelter (€50) OR breathable bivvy bag (€250) OR survival bag (€5). A blizzard bag is cheap, somewhat reusable, extremely light (much lighter than a GoreTex bivouac) and extremely compact. Remember even the most expensive bivvy bags are merely a waterproof layer, they offer very little insulation and no more wind protection than a group shelter. A blizzard bag should not be confused with the single layer foil sheets used by athletes after long distance running, blizzard bags are made differently and have about the same thermal performance as a 2/3 season sleeping bag, they are used extensively by mountain rescue and emergency services in Ireland . Ideally, two people would share a two person blizzard bag and overnight under a two person group shelter, fully clothed. This is probably the warmest and cheapest solution. Survival bags are not recommended but are better than nothing and are useful for making a rucksack liner or waterproof seat in snow.

If you are planning to bivvy a number of nights in succession then the above equipment may well be adequate but a sleeping bag and thermarest are useful, albeit heavy, additions to an already heavy rucksack. Bring these items if you don't know how cold it will be or are worried.

Extra Equipment for Routes and Adventures Outside of a Course:

Depending on where you're going and what you plan on doing you should consider the items below:

• Compass, maps, guidebooks.
• Rack of climbing gear - (As recommended by Alpine Club Guidebooks).
  For F/PD Routes:
  • 1X Single Rope, thin and light. 50-60m.
  • Consider 2 X 45/50m half ropes
  • On harness, as per equipment for courses plus 2 X extenders each.
  • 1 X ice screws for each person, double up if climbing as a pair. (assuming snow/ice/glacier approach)

  For PD+/AD Routes:

  • As per equipment for F/PD.
  • Additional on harness: 2 X 120cm slings.
  • 5-6 nuts, medium sized.
  • 2-3 cams, large sizes or hexes.
  • 2 X additional quickdraws
  • 3-4m of tat
  • 1 X additional ice screws assuming already carrying two and climbing as a pair. (assuming snow/ice/glacier approach)
  • Consider 2 X 45/50m half ropes

  For D/D+ Routes:

  • As per equipment for PD+/AD
  • 3-5 X additional quickdraws
  • Full set of nuts for rock routes
  • 3-4 X additional ice screws, (assuming ice/snow route)
  • Consider 2 X 45/50m half ropes
• Rock shoes, comfortable enough to spend a day in.
• Technical axes if you're that good.
• 2 X 50m Half Ropes, preferably thin and light. Excellent for long abseils, safe climbing and you can use one strand for moving together. Half ropes will give you redundancy if one rope gets damaged en-route.
• Sleeping bag. Something that will keep you warm below freezing, -15/-20 comfort rating. You will need this if you are too cheap to use the huts. Campsites are cold also, most above 1000m. A good 4-season bag would probably suffice for the campsites.
• Most equipment from the camping list.
• Walking Poles, discouraged by the guides on courses for safety reasons.
• Pieces of tat for abseils.
• Knife, for cutting tat, making dinner and threatening thieves.
• Sun hat.
• Insulated jacket, for cold campsites and cold belaying at single pitch crags.
• Chalk bag.
• First Aid.