This final piece in the series will wrap up the essential gear list for backcountry skiing in Alaska. However, it must be stressed that no one gear list will work for everyone. Different people need different things. A balaclava, buff, and/or a camera might make many other people’s lists as would a bunch of other miscellaneous items. But the trick is to take a look at what’s been laid out here, understand why it’s been recommended and used in the past, then adapt it and mold it to your own personal needs. Also, since there’s a good amount of items in this final piece, links will be embedded often so you can check out items at your discretion.
Poles
Any will do, but some turn into a probe, and some are collapsible. That’s what I’ve used for a while now, Black Diamond collapsible poles, and I find these are the best option for backcountry skiing. When I’m boot-packing I can collapse my poles for better efficiency while hiking. Likewise depending on how deep and steep the skin track is I adjust the size while on the up, and change them back for a proper skiing length on the down. They also strap to my pack easily when collapsed if I’m using another tool to climb on an ascent such as an ice axe. Leki also makes a sweet backcountry specific pole, The Vario, which is what I used this season in Alaska. At first they struck me as “the poles” as their grip are far superior to any pole I’ve ever used. They also have a nice swing quality when touring and are easily managed on the down. However, the tips on both of my poles ended up breaking while shifting my Dynafit bindings in tour mode so be aware of that issue if you do go with these poles, and either go easy on them or have a spare tip or two in your repair kit.
Glacier Kit: Depending on your program and your objectives this list could be as simple as a harness, two prusiks, and three locking carabiners. It could also get way more involved so I’ll include it all and let you decide.
Harness: Black Diamond
Snow Picket or Fluke: MSR
Wands: Check out the link and make your own with brightly colored tape and Willow branches, or you can usually buy them at a hardware store or mountaineering shop.
Ice Screw(s): Black Diamond
Carabiners: Locking (1) and Non (6)-Black Diamond
Cordolette (20 ft.): At any good gear, mountaineering, or climbing shop will have some.
Runners (3-Long): Black Diamond
Prusiks: One hand, One foot-Metolius
Pulley: Petzel
Rope-Man, Tibloc, and/or Mini Traxion
Rope: 8mm, 30m, Beal. Review
Basic Ski Mountaineering Equipment
The following pieces of gear are commonly used to access ski terrain that has more complex features. Steep couloirs, firm skinning surfaces, and “no-fall zones” are when these items commonly get pulled out for use.
Ice Axe: You can go old-school style with one traditional ski mountaineering axe, or get a little more technical and have two aggressive axes. Black Diamond.
Crampons: Petzel
Whippet: Black Diamond. Gear Review
Ski Crampons: Dynafit Gear Review
Proper Clothing System: The basics are pretty much what you want for inbounds skiing, but specifically married to backcountry skiing. You want to think about breathability and quick changeovers. Just remember lighter is better, and a lifetime warranty is worth the extra bucks up front.
Socks: Bridgedale
Underwear: Patagonia: Long and Short
Pants: Soft Shell: Patagonia Hard Shell: Marmot
Base Layer: Patagonia
Softshell Jacket: OR
Insulating Layer (Puffy): Brooks Range (light); Columbia (medium to heavy)
Protective Layer (hood preferable): Columbia; Patagonia
Gloves: Heavy- Black Diamond Mid-Mountain Hardware Lightweight-I use Black Diamond, these are just as good
Hat: Something like this will do
Sunglasses: Smith. Always the best.
Goggles: Smith. Same as the sunglasses.
Hydration: Bladder- Camelback, but it’s usually too cold for a bladder system, unless you have a Platypus tucked in your jacket, so my advice is get comfy with some form of canteen or water Bottle (make sure either choice is BPA free).
Snow Study Kit
This makes no sense to own unless you know how to use the tools. Brooks Range makes some of the better products on the market to either put a snow study kit together yourself, piece-by-piece, or you can buy one of their fully stocked packages. Life-Link also sells a solid snow study kit package complete with everything you need to analyse a snow pit properly.
Repair Kit
Think about what you might need out in the field for yourself, but a basic list might look like: duct tape, extra binding parts, super glue, a Leatherman, zip ties, and wire.
Survival Kit
There are 7 main parts to a basic survival kit, however first aid deserves its own listing, and a Leatherman/multi-tool was listed above in the repair kit section. The other parts that make up a basic survival kit include paracord, something to make a shelter out of (an emergency poncho or blanket, or a reflective emergency blanket), something to conduct signaling like a reflective mirror and/or whistle (non-visual), methods of food procurement, water procurement, and a way to create fire. Now it’s extremely unlikely that you’re going to carry a stove and fuel, a water pump, and slingshot to hit those last three items, but you can adapt this basic list to backcountry skiing in AK. For example, you could carry a lighter/waterproof matches, and extra energy food. Also try and get a durable, waterproof container to keep everything organized and protected in your pack.
First Aid
Go as basic as Advil, Band-Aids, an ace bandage, gauze, antiseptic, antibiotic ointment, and some sterile nonlatex gloves, or go big and get nuts with a plethora of first aid kits widely available from numerous distributors depending on where you look and what you want.
I spend the vast majority of my time in the Northeast Alaska Range, and I gotta tell you, you have a lot of waste on your list. Here’s my daypack: Nalgene bottle; homemade trail mix – large bag (raw cashews, raisins, dried cranberries and cherries, sesame sticks, raw sunflower seeds, raw peanuts). Avy transceiver; probe; shovel. Basic rescue kit (four locking carabiners, 60 foot cordelette, swivel carabiner, 2 pieces of 15 foot webbing). First Aid pouch (gauze, tape, gloves, iodine, bacitracin, aspirin). Ice Axe, Crampons, spare goggles, headlamp, spare batteries. Snow evaluation tools. Spare gloves/mittens, spare hat. As far as clothes go, people need to experiment before they’re going to know for sure what works for them, myself, I only go soft shell in the spring, because in winter the temps are around -30 to -45 on the mountain, so i’ll even climb in my insulated coat. I usually keep a puffy vest in my pack as well. The whole thing together weighs about 20 pounds. I also keep a quickdraw on the left hand shoulder strap to clip in to my ice ax and a standard non-locker on the right hand side to run a glacier rope if we’re going up a glacier tied in. As far as multi-day trips, the best thing to do is to get a hunting sled, load it with what you need, and ride in on a snow machine and set up a base camp. But theres more logistics that go in to something like that. If you have questions on why I use each item, please ask. They have all been used in the backcountry, and each item has been carefully selected because they have a variety of different uses.
Hey Dan, looks like a great list, thanks for sharing it. Did you read my intro, about different things working for different people? There’s a bunch of extra stuff on the list to give people options and ideas as there are many. In the Chugach this season I used my crampons exactly zero times. On past trips to the AK Range they were used daily. They still need to be on the list though, make sense? In my opinion there’s absolutely no waste on this list, just extra stuff to sort through and think about whether it would help a backcountry user or not. Again, your list looks great, but why carry 60 feet of cord? It must be worthy to you, as it is very useful in many ways (20-30feet), but sounds like overkill to me. Also, sleds are great on Denali and if you have a snow machine, but for big uphill travel/side hilling? No way. As you say regarding cloths, and I would add that this works for the whole list, “people need to experiment before they’re going to know for sure what works for them.”