Gear - Mountaineering

I've chosen the lightest mountaineering gear available. Although we'll only be using it for five days, we'll be carrying it for several weeks of hiking, so weight is critical.

When choosing mountaineering gear, it's worth setting expectations on the limitations. Lighter weight gear won't be as capable as heavier. We're expecting some steep snowy scrambles, rappels from fixed ropes, perhaps rappels with our own ropes from pre-existing anchors, and glacier travel.

Our gear probably won't be quite up to dealing with steep bare ice, and we won't have enough spare gear to be making our own rappel anchors.

Petzl Leopard crampons, although made of less durable alloy should be fine, and will fit all types of boot. The Ice Rock Idol ice axe isn't the most substantial tool, and bizarrely light at 190g, but it should be ok for the tasks we have. Harness, belay plate, carabiners and slings are all standard climbing safety gear.

Prussics are interesting. We'll take my 30m Petzl RAD Line to Nepal and make a call on whether we use it once we've met the mountaineering guide. I'd like to be capable of a rappel without relying on the guides equipment if possible. In this situation, a prussic that grips the skinny 6mm RAD line is essential. The Sterling HollowBlock2 is perfect tool for this job.

If we take the RAD Line I'll also take 30m of 2mm Dyneema accessory cord. With this we can retrive the rope if we need to do a 30m rappel with the 30m rope (with the accessory cord attached to a biner-blocker knot at the top).