Menthosa Peak – Expedition Blog 2 – Equipment
For an expedition like this it´s super important to keep every single piece of gear as light as possible, since we must carry everything by ourselves. So our goal was to carefully pick only the things we really need and try to get the lightest, but still durable enough, products on the market.
Paragliding Gear
One of the biggest point on the list for sure is the paragliding equipment. Our glider is the new X-ALPS4. Markus has flown this wing in the Red Bull X-Alps 2019 and knows it inside out. With just 3900 gram in the largest size (M) it is one of the best performing lightweight wings on the market. Together with the RANGE X-ALPS2 harness and the PEPPER CROSS LIGHT 110 rescue chute, our flying equipment weighs just under 7 kg, which is amazing!
We modified the harness to adapt to the heavy loads we were carrying. All the pockets where rebuild out of more heavy fabric and we designed some extra storage options to carry rigid gear like ice screws and crampons which should not be placed anywhere near the back in case of a crash landing.
Clothing Body
Flying in the Himalaya confronts you with extreme cold. The temperatures fall to -20 degrees and you have a constant wind of about 50-60 km/h while not moving much in your harness. So to stay comfortable you have to get the warmest clothes possible.
While flying we are wearing 4-5 layers of clothing:
SALEWA Merino Shirt
SALEWA Light Fleece
SALEWA Softshell
SALEWA Big Down Jacket
SALEWA Hardshell
Clothing Feet
To protect our feet in the air and when landing on the mountain we chose a big 2-layer-mountain-boot, the Scarpa Phantom 6000. It is super warm and sturdy but still super light at just 990 grams per boot.
Climbing Gear
To climb Menthosa Peak we take a minimum of mountaineering gear, to keep us save while moving up in the mountain.
30 meter Edelried Rap-Line
2x Icescrews
4x Carabiners
2x Slings
Mircrotraxioin + Tibloc
Crampons
Ice-Axe
Sleeping Gear
On our way to the peak we will have different camps in altitudes from 4000 to 6000 meters. It is essential to get good rest at night and to be in good condition on bad weather days. To fit ourselves as well as some of our gear inside we choose to take the SALEWA Litetrek 2 tent, which has plenty of space inside and is stable enough to withstand a rough storm at altitude. A big isolated matt and a Cumulus down sleeping bag that is rated down to -26 degrees celcius should keep us warm at night.
Cooking Gear and Food
To be able to sit out a bit of bad weather we’re taking food for 7 days. Two warm meals a day and smaller snacks in between will get us about 1500 calories per day. Our cookers supply us with warm water above the freezing line.
Additional Gear
We are carrying quite a bit of electronics for communication with each other and the rest of the world in case of an emergency. In addition, we are taking a digital camera as well as a GoPro to document our adventure. To power everything for one week we use a solar panel suspended on our pod harness, that charges a powerbank while flying.
A small repair-kit for the glider and harness as well as a bit of medicine against high altitude sickness take up almost no space.
While walking, all of the listed gear and some more things fit into the slightly modified ALPINE 135 L backpack.
This is how we store everything while flying:
