Mt Whitney Zone Forums General Discussion What's In Your Pack?

I agree about not carrying the bear bell in the Sierras, but Steve C has a fun story and a souvenier to show from a black bear in the Sierras who did not get the memo that most of them follow about backing away from assertive humans. Steve, care to share?

Brent

Care to share...?

Well, it is a long story, I have the text somewhere. It was originally called "Trail Rage on the JMT". But the short version is:

I charged a bear who was about done cleaning out my snack bag that I had forgotten to stow in the bear box. He ran away, but first took a swipe at my leg, missing the skin by a hair, but ripped my pant leg.

I was hoarse for days from all the yelling and screaming at the bear as I charged and chased him away. This was all back in 2004. Here's a picture of my "bear shorts"


I still wear those pants--a nice patch over the rip. And of course, I'd NEVER try that stupid trick again. I was a full day's hike from Onion Valley. It could have been a very painful trip back.

Not to hijack this thread, the topic here is what NOT to keep in your pack -- at least overnight!

There is an significant difference between preventing a bear from getting food in the first place and taking food away from a bear that has already acquired the food. Proper attention to the first will avoid the dangers of the second.

Dale B. Dalrymple

> taking food away from a bear that has already acquired

That was a serious and dangerous error on my part!

What he said.

Haven't read the whole thread here, but to the initial post, I would add toilet paper and one or two bags to double-bag it in (along with the solid waste). Leftover unused wag bags handed out at wilderness visitor centers are perfect for this if you still have them. Alternatively, and only if appropriate to the area, a small compactable hand trowel/shovel to dig a cathole for the whole mess would also work. Also a small travel size bottle of hand sanitizer.

To the snacks, I would add a bag of M&Ms (the smaller chocolate ones, not the larger peanut ones -- my opinion is that the smaller ones chew up and go down easier, and esp at altitude, where most normal "good" food feels like chewing sawdust, "easier to chew" and "easier to swallow" is always better, as well as tastier being better).

CaT

No prob, such a great knife for climbing. Only 2oz, I think. I've went with the serrated edge - cuts through rope and webbing like butter.

Burchey, call me crazy, but I generally try not to cut my rope or webbing when climbing. I'm funny that way.

Sorry, couldn't resist. Seriously, though, can you expand on that? I have only a limited amount of technical roped experience, but I'm trying to picture a situation where I'd need to do that.

Some really interesting responses on the thread, and good ideas. I didn't clarify, but I was initially speaking of general summer dayhikes in non-snowy conditions. All that additional winter gear can load up the pounds real fast.

Steve - you clearly didn't go about it right. Take a page from Steve Searles book and practice shouting, "You bad bear!" That'll do the trick . . .

Hey Bulldog! You're crazy!

Seriously though, there are a few situations where cutting webbing/rope would be necessary. I recently revamped my umbilical system - used my knife to cut the webbing then, and I noticed how easily it sliced through it. On the mountain, there are rare occasions on maybe a multipitch climb where rope could get caught, etc. You may need to get loose somehow.

On Rainier, we ran across a very dangerous spot beneath seracs, where I was ready to cut myself off the rope ( tail-gunner ) if they came down so I could escape the falling ice backwards while the other guys continued forward to escape it. We were crossing a chute, basically, and if one guy's on the other side, and I'm just starting the chute, ice comes down and drags us all down the mountain even if it misses falling on us directly.

EDIT: This is the spot, we were crossing where the river of ice went River of Ice

No Knife = we never would have heard of Joe Simpson and Simon Yates and the book/movie: Touching the Void. One example where carrying a knife to cut a climbing rope.

Bulldog:

A good question. I think a VERY small knife is always good to carry on a multi-pitch or alpine route. I keep a tiny knife made by Metolius clipped on my "sh_t happens biner" along with two prusik cords, a small screw link, and a Petzl E-light.

There could be cases where you would need to cut your climbing rope, but that would be extraordinarily rare. If your rope gets stuck in most cases you have to figure out how to get it back in order to get down, (i.e re-leading the pitch with rope you have left, or God forbid prussiking back up...can be very sketchy).

The most common use of a knife while climbing would be to cut away old rap tat so you could replace it with some new cord or webbing as well as using the knife to cut off pieces of a cordellette or webbing to use for rap anchors. A lighter is also useful to burn the ends after cutting.


Take care,
Kent

Last year, my buddy used a knife to cut out a small rock that had become firmly embedded below my knee after I "crashed" into a large granite boulder. So, yes, a knife and a good first aid kit can work wonders when you need them.