This video provides guidance on selecting and utilising packs for multi-day transalpine trips. We explain which features are important, and mention a few features of many packs that are not so useful for these trips.
Even day trips can put you in serious positions, so we like to ensure we carry the essentials.
Here’s a gear list that you can use as a prompt next time you’re heading out.
Want a good day pack to put it all in? Check out the Kea in our shop, made lovingly in Christchurch by Twin Needle.
This is a meal which always gets rave reviews from participants on our trips. It’s easy to cook in one big pot, and dehydrates easily.
Here’s a PDF you can download for easy printing, or feel free to check out the recipe here:
INGREDIENTS (makes enough for a 4-person meal)
4 Tbsp Vegetable Oil (Coconut recommended)
1-2 tsp Cumin Seeds
1⁄2-1 tsp Fennel Seeds
3 flat mushrooms (cut into small chunks)
1 medium-large orange Kumara (peeled & grated)
2 medium Carrots (peeled and grated)
1 Cauliflower (chopped into bite size pieces)
2 tsp Salt
2 1⁄2 Tbsp Tamarind Paste
1 Tbsp Crushed Ginger
1⁄2 tsp Black Pepper (fine)
1⁄2 tsp Cardamom powder
1⁄2 tsp Sumac
1 bag Baby Spinach
OPTIONAL:
1 tsp Onion or Garlic Powder
Chili (powder, or fresh, add with
mushrooms)
TO ADD AFTER DEHYDRATING:
70g sliced Almonds
75-100g Coconut milk powder
DIRECTIONS:
FIELD PREPARATION
To rehydrate, add to enough boiling water such that the mixture is still quite runny after 5 minutes of absorption (have some extra boiling water on standby). Simmer for 5-10 minutes then cover and sit for another 10 minutes. Serve with brown rice. If you want to be fancy, serve with parsley garnish and/or some toasted almonds!
Snow camping is a magical experience in the right conditions, but needs careful planning to be enjoyable. It doesn’t involve just taking your standard tent to the snow, pitching it normally, and simply taking more warm gear to deal with the cold.
by Rob Frost
Site Selection
First you’ll need to choose a site which is safe from avalanches, not too exposed to the wind, and is reasonably flat.
Earthworks
Winds can be strong up in the snow, so you’ll need to dig out your camp site before pitching your tent and/or make some snow walls around your tent after pitching it. Having a snow shovel is essential for both of these. Once your tent is pitched, digging down further in the vestibule improves your storage space and your ease of entry/exit.
Anchoring
You’ll need to figure out how to anchor your tent as you can’t use standard pegs. Fabric snow/sand anchors, large aluminium snow-specific pegs, or buried snow-filled stuff sacks with cord around them all work well. Don’t plan to use your ice axes, shovels, and walking poles as anchors – it renders them unavailable for anything else.
Tent Selection
A proper four-season tent not only deals with strong winds, it’s also easier to seal up to prevent windblown snow getting inside and reduce draughts. The fly should go to ground level (no gap along the bottom edge) and you should be able to cover up all mesh panels on the inner tent. (Some ventilation is still important, but it should be controlled by you, not by unavoidable excessive airflow in a lightweight tent.)
Toileting
If you’re in a group you’ll need to consider where you’ll position your “latrine” – a large hole in the snow where people can get some privacy to use their poo bags (you’re not leaving it up there).
Stoves
Many stoves are unsuitable for using directly on the snow, but placing your stove on a small thin piece of plywood (20x30cm) works a charm. Bring a small bowl in which to place your gas canister in warm water – it makes it perform way better in the cold.
There has been much discussion about this issue, and rightfully so – more people than ever are getting into the outdoors, and if human waste isn’t properly considered then we’ll end up with contaminated water and an unsightly, smelly mess at your next campsite.
Unfortunately there’s also been a lot of half-baked information from otherwise reputable sources about what to do when there isn’t a toilet available. As in, what if you can’t dig a hole and you won’t go past a long drop toilet on your way out? What should you do with your… deposit? Here’s our summary.
by Rob Frost
Q1: Can I bury it?
It’s always easier to bury your poo than to carry it, but to bury it the site must meet these three requirements:
If you meet all three of those criteria, your answer to Q1 is YES. Dig a small hole 10-20cm deep, keeping the surface matter separate from the deeper soil. Do your business, then when backfilling make sure the surface matter goes back on top.
If you don’t meet all three of the above criteria, then your answer to Q1 is NO, and you’ll need to carry your poo for at least a short while, perhaps the rest of the trip. The following questions will help work out how.
Q2: Will I go past a long drop toilet later in my trip?
(The type that doesn’t involve the contents being flown and sucked out for transfer to a treatment station?)
If your answer to Q2 is YES, then you can poo into a compostable bag, eg cornstarch, then later in your trip simply plop it into the long drop. This doesn’t work for barrel toilets, as they’re emptied regularly and the bags break down very slowly, so will probably clog up the pumps.
If your answer to Q2 is NO, you still might not need to carry your package all the way to the road…
Q3: Will I go past any place later in my trip where I could leave my poo?
(E.g. a barrel toilet or somewhere with organic soil suitable for burial.)
If your answer to Q3 is YES, then you can poo into any bag (small to medium bin bags are good – they don’t need to be biodegradable). Later in the trip, empty the contents of your bag into a suitable hole in the soil or into a barrel toilet. You’ll still need to carry out the dirty rubbish bag, but at least it won’t weigh much anymore! I like to use a ziploc completely reinforced with duct tape as my carry bag for soiled bags. (That ziploc is also for any used toilet paper, which shouldn’t be buried – it should only go into designated toilets or in the rubbish.)
If your answer to all three questions is NO, NO, and NO, then you’ll need to carry your poo all the way out and dispose of it in the rubbish. Disposing of human waste into the rubbish is an offence unless you treat it with a product like Poo Powder, which has deodorising and gelling agents. (There are a few similar products out there.) I’ll sometimes “pre-load” some rubbish bags with poo powder before a trip if I know I’ll need to do this, e.g. an alpine trip with no toilets.
How to carry the goods
For any of the above carry-out options, it’s a good idea to double-bag your goods, as well as having either a tough drybag or reliable rigid container to contain everything, like the homemade PVC tube container pictured here. Even the most airtight container can still smell a little, so it’s best to carry these – carefully – on the outside of your pack.
Tramping in winter and spring requires quite a few extra or different items compared to the warmer months. We’ve developed a gear list that you can use as a prompt next time you’re preparing for a trip – check it out here, and please let us know if you have any feedback. We’ve tried to include some succinct advice on a few items, instead of purely making it a tick list.
There are a ton of things you can do to reduce how much weight you carry, but I think these four things will make the biggest difference.
by Rob Frost
Stop using that old sleeping bag.
Still using your uncle’s 30 year old Fairydown Everest? A new sleeping bag will save you a ton of weight and space, and can still be just as warm. (By the way, it’s not just your sleeping bag that keeps you warm at night; a full belly, an effective mattress, avoiding draughts, and going to bed warm all help. If you’re cold after dinner, go for a short walk to get the blood flowing.)
Get a lightweight pack.
Some canvas packs, especially those with lots of extra pockets, compartments, and attachments, can be up to 3 kg completely empty, and will absorb a load of water when it’s raining. Look out for something around 1.5kg if you can.
Don’t carry too much water.
Consider where you can fill up with fresh water, either from streams or huts. Our Chief Guide Rob usually only uses a 500mL bottle, but carries a flexible 1.5L bottle for those sections of the trip where he’s going to be away from water for a long time. Use electrolyte tablets to ensure you get the most out of what you drink.
Less spare clothes.
Use merino sparingly – it takes ages to dry and doesn’t keep you as warm in damp conditions. For the same amount of warmth, synthetic layers weigh so much less than merino and dry out quickly, thus requiring less backups. Take an extra base layer for freshness if you’ll be on a trip 4 days or longer.
By Rob Frost, with information from Dr Robin Barraclough
While hypothermia is a year-round risk in New Zealand, now that we’re approaching winter this risk is even more acute, especially if wet/windy weather or river crossings are involved. Here are the two most effective things you can do for someone who’s starting to get dangerously cold:
Methods that are not so great for heating someone up: external heat sources (like a fireplace, or getting into a sleeping bag with them) or getting them to walk faster. The key points are to stop further heat loss, and give their body the energy source to generate internal heat.
We’ve developed a gear list that you can use as a prompt next time you’re preparing for a trip – check it out here, and please let us know if you have any feedback.
This list doesn’t include prompts for any gear for snow travel – which is still possible above the bushline in early summer.
Rob’s devoted a full page on this website to an article about boots for transalpine tramping and hunting trips where snow is a major component. Such trips may also feature scree and rock scrambling, steep tussock, and rugged untracked river valleys – as well as boots for mountaineering, generally up to grade 2.
Most of the boots here are warm enough for winter instruction courses, but you may have slightly cold feet some of the time when you’re not moving around.
Click Here to check out the article.
