Most important of all come the mental, i.e. emotional, technical, and reasoning, capabilities. Think emotional, technical, and reasoning courses, mentoring, and personal experience.
Tightly coupled to the mental capabilities, physical conditioning and the accompanying diet sets the fundament. Think years following the approach laid out in the book "Uphill Athlete".
For more, please read through skills and abilities for my 2022-2023 winter CD(T) attempt,
Once those two are clearly established, only then should one consider optimizing gear systems. Personal experience and online forums on the state-of-the-art prove helpful.
If you want more of this, I am writing a book. It's appendix will go more into how I exactly did things. See the page where I justify why yet another book to subscribe for updates.
I used the Tecnica Zero G peak. They may not walk the best, but they are very stiff for their weight. I used the SkiTrab Ortles 90 for winter and SkiTrab Maestro.2 for spring. SkiTrab makes the simplest and most featured pin binding, while being light enough. I used the Gara and Vario.2 binding. I was able to remount a torn-out binding, but never did.
I used the Timmermade Winter Wren -20⁰F with a GramXpert 50⁰F synthetic overbag for the coldest periods on a Therm-a-rest Xtherm. I shared a Spoonbill UL sleeping bag from Feathered Friends with a friend for the upper half of Montana's CD on and Exped double sleeping pad. Timmermade vapor barrier clothing helped me on cold nights.
I used the fly of a Durston X-mid 1 or, with my friend the Durston X-mid 2. I also used the Seek Outside Silex hot tent alone and the Seek Outside Guardian with my friend. Procuring wood and burning it to melt water was too slow, so we reverted bag to the white gas stove.
I used the Superior Wilderness Designs Big Wild backpack. It carried well and, with the hanging hip belt, skied very well with a heavy load.
I used the MSR XGK-EX with a modified Trail Designs Fissure windscreen-potstand combination to hold an MSR Big Titan. I burned bio-white gas. I also used a Seek Outside Medium U-Turn, but that requires too much time for cross country travel.
From inside out top: SkiTrab Overglove Plus or Showa Temres 282 gloves, Patagonia Capilene Air hoody, Patagonia Houdini, Patagonia DAS light jacket, and, with significant precipitation, the Zpacks Poncho Groundsheet, or, at camp a Timmermade SUL 1.5 down sweater. From inside out bottom: Pantyhose leggings, Mtntools Vapor Barrier Socks, 2 pair ultrathin ski socks, boot-length thermal underwear, Montbell Dynamo wind pants, Patagonia DAS light pants.
| item | categ. | weight | Review |
|---|---|---|---|
| poles, skitrab magico | ride | 422 | Tough, except for the baskets. |
| skis skitrab ortles 90 171cm, skitrab titan gara, skimo race skins and full width skins | ride | 3400 | fun, light and efficient powder skis with the best, minimal binding on the market. |
| boots, tecnica zero g peak, size 28, w/o powerstrap w/ sf green insoles | ride | 2190 | Oversized for swelling feet, plenty stiff. |
| helmet, petzl sirocco helmet | ride | 166 | Good enough, kept head cool. |
| beacon, pieps micro bt button | ride | 150 | Light and simple, carried only with partner. |
| bag, timmermade winter wren fetal, false bottom, no zipper, -30°c | sleep | 988 | Comfort -30°c, taken to -40⁰C with synthetic overbag. |
| pad, neoair xtherm rw, w/ bag+repair kit | sleep | 580 | Light, warm, and packable. |
| balaclava, timmermade, down, -24°c | sleep | 73 | Works well. Condensing water vapor can run back down onto face. |
| quilt, gramxpert elite, wide-long, apex 67, 10°c | sleep | 337 | Overbag, add 6°c warmth, useful in storm. |
| cordage, lawsons ironwire 2.7mm | shelter | 53 | Guyline replacement |
| groundsheet, zpacks poncho | shelter | 163 | Worked very well when it was dumping snow. |
| tent, durston gear x-mid 1 solid, fly, w/ bag | shelter | 522 | Good enough. 2p fly is luxurious for 2 people in winter. |
| pot, msr big titan 2l, with trail designs fissure cone | nourish | 183 | Pot for melting snow. Dialed for melting snow in bad weather. |
| fuel bottle, msr 300ml | nourish | 107 | Left pump screwed into bottle |
| fuel bottle, og white gas pet 0.94l | nourish | 42 | Imported PET bottle from Germany. |
| stove, msr xgk-ex, drilled out and pared down w/ pump | nourish | 321 | Perfect. |
| pump oil, msr | nourish | 20 | I needed to service pump in field, and oiled the dried out pump cup regularly. |
| bottle, nalgene canteen 2l, foldable | nourish | 64 | Melt water between back and backpack |
| spoon, long-handle, toaks | nourish | 15 | Squarish head serves as pot scraper |
| firesteel, friendly swede | nourish | 49 | Dependable |
| jar, litesmith 400ml | nourish | 42 | |
| backpack, swd rugged big wild 70l, m | pack | 1042 | Carried heavy comfortably, bomber. |
| hip pocket, swd zipperless | pack | 29 | Snacks |
| hip pocket, swd zipperless | pack | 29 | Common ditty, sunscreen, wallet, scissors |
| shoulder pocket, swd, lycra | pack | 17 | Poncho, other gloves, jar, puffy, white gas bottle, saw |
| front pocket, swd, ultra | pack | 65 | Phone, sunglasses |
| stuff sack, swd lunch box 16.5l | pack | 42 | Food bag, bear hang bag. |
| binding repair kit, torx key, epoxy, nylon inserts, 3 screws | misc | 66 | Never needed to remount a binding, but I was ready. |
| watch, garmin instinct 2 solar | misc | 49 | Battery ok, altimeter, thermometer, health meter. |
| shovel, arva plume | misc | 380 | lightweight, capable and simple. |
| straps, voile, 3 | misc | 72 | Rarely used. |
| goggles, julbo aerospace, band replaced with elastic cord | misc | 151 | Full backup of sunglasses, great for stormy conditions. |
| first aid, leukotape, bandages, pain pills | misc | 59 | Barely touched |
| satellite transceiver, inreach messenger | misc | 99 | Battery not as good as advertised, no on-device track recording, worked. |
| power bank, nb10000 10000mah | misc | 153 | Dependable. |
| headlamp, nitecore UL25 USB-C, pared down | misc | 42 | Good battery life, different modes very useful when skiing. |
| sunscreen 50spf | misc | 70 | |
| smartphone, samsung s22 ultra w/ case | misc | 266 | decent battery life, good camera |
| charger, anker 20W, singe usb-c, short cable with adapter for watch | misc | 60 | |
| pole repair kit | misc | 30 | Never used, sent home. |
| tech toe piece, skitrab | misc | 66 | Get off the mountain with just a toe. Never used, sent home. |
| scissors, litesmith microscissors | misc | 30 | covered most of my uses |
| windshirt, patagonia houdini, l | clothe | 111 | Toughest jacket I know of. |
| jacket, patagonia das light hoody, m | clothe | 326 | Very useful. |
| pants, timmermade dcf | clothe | 58 | Only used vbl as part of sleep system mid-winter. Very helpful. |
| jacket, timmermade dcf, m | clothe | 102 | Only used vbl as part of sleep system mid-winter. Very helpful. |
| pants, montbell dynamo, m | clothe | 90 | Tough pants, but ripped two pairs, new version is tougher |
| jacket, timmermade sul 1.5, down | clothe | 213 | Very warm outer, adds 6°c to sleep system |
| hat, patagonia duck bill trucker | clothe | 63 | Kept the sun off my nose. |
| gloves, skitrab gara overglove plus, medium | clothe | 45 | Dialed, warm, quick-drying overglove, also quite tough. |
| shirt, long-sleeved patagonia capilene air crew hoody, m | clothe | 184 | Very warm. Doubled as a sun hoody on warm days. Comfortable to sleep in. |
| thermal underpants, icebreaker merino boot-length | clothe | 118 | Good enough. |
| socks, mtntools vapor barrier socks | clothe | 40 | VBS over panty hose leggings and under socks. |
| socks, smartwool, ultrathin, black | clothe | 66 | Wore out after a couple of months. |
| socks, darn tough, ultrathin, blue | clothe | 63 | Great socks. Still going strong. |
| gloves, showa best 282 atlas temres insulated gloves | clothe | 125 | Sturdy, waterproof and non-breathable at fingers, suitable in rain or at camp. |
| nose-cheek cover, bekogear cheeko l | clothe | 12 | It worked to keep the nose from freezing. Cycle between this and Cheekito on cold days. |
| nose-cheek cover, bekogear cheekito l | clothe | 9 | It worked to keep the nose from freezing. Quicker to deploy than Cheeko. |