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The cold world of skimo & alpine climbing

The cold world of skimo & alpine climbing

Saturday, January 8, 2011

Real world weight comparisons?

I wanted to make an actual comparison of gear weights and see what the real world differences are on a  team with very similar gear set ups and how small choices might or might not effect us.

We are suited up for a long one day of climb that is realistically rated a Grade V but generally done in a day. Although with perfect conditions I have done the climb in 5 hrs while roped to a partner.  Iin early January's short days, in fairly cold conditions it easily lives up to the overall Grade V label.

The brothers Grimm masquerading as "Team Arcteryx LT" for this discussion.... ;-)



This is the list of weights I keep on the blog:

http://coldthistle.blogspot.com/2010/04/weights.html


What we used that was the same with slight weight differences noted below

Spantiks
Vertical front point crampons
Atom Lt Hoody
Arcteryx pants
Hoody pile pull over shirts
under shirt
long johns
CCW packs
EB down jackets

What we used that was different:

inner boot 5 oz / 9 oz.
harnesses 10 oz / 12.2 oz.
carabiners 10 @ 10 oz / 10 @ 25 oz
crampons 39 oz / 45 oz
packs 25oz / 38 oz
helmet 8oz / 16oz
water bottles/water 34 oz / 68 oz
hooded/unhooded  down 13.8 oz / 13.2 oz
gloves 7oz gauntlet/ 6.5 oz x 2  with short cuff (13 oz)
pants 19 oz / 17 oz
long johns 6 oz / 6 ox x 2 (13 oz)
________ _______

177 oz  verses  265.8 oz  =  88.8 oz or a ............ 5.5 lbs difference.

What does 5.5# mean to you?

Most of that weight difference is in the actual packs weight  we used (same Cold Cold World basic designs, different material, one stripped, one not ) and the decision on the amount of  extra water carried.   The helmets stand out as well.  Interesting with that the same manufactures helmets, that the heavier hard shell helmet broke when hit by a dinner plate and the lighter, foam core one did not with a similar hit.  We were out 10 hrs total and both of us brought water back to the car.

Low temps were -30C or -22 F at the beginning and end of the climb.

5 comments:

Lee Purvis said...

I would be curious to see the weights for the common gear listed to compare to my own.

Dane said...

Here is the link in the blog where I keep my numbers on gear.

Might be worth while to start your own as well.

http://coldthistle.blogspot.com/2010/04/weights.html

Josh Allred's Blog said...

What kind of pants are those?

Dane said...

Dave is in Arcteryx Gamma MX pants and I am in Arcteryx Gamma LT pants.

fulton said...

Actually I was wearing Arcteryx AR pants also one of the front points on my Petzl M10 crampons broke. Not that that made anything lighter but it turns out it was cheaper in the long run to buy new crampons than replace the front points. I now climb in BD Cyborg Pros.