Skiing the highest peak of every state for the Skiing States Project has required taking backcountry skiing beyond the realm of the casual day tripper and into the realm of the nation’s treasured and wild highlands. Long distances required the development of winter backpacking skills, starting in 1998 and continuing to this day. New gear comes out every year and personal stories from ordinary unknown hardcore skiers helps shape how we do the complex craft of multi-day travel.
The most recent trip to the highest peaks of Utah – the Uintas, required a hybrid of winter and summer setups. Summer sun makes for a much more forgiving atmosphere, where you can carry less, and when an item does get wet, you can dry it off. Kings Peak was a true ski mountaineering type trip, requiring crampons, ice axe (in the form of whippets), helmet, cold weather gear for windy cold summits. I was able to shave off 19 pounds of weight compared with my Granite Peak, Montana trip by bringing only 3 days food, lighter food, lighter summer tent, small and light sleeping bag, and vertical gear. Here is my packlist.
SUMMER SKI MOUNTAINEERING BACKPACKING LIST: KINGS PEAK UTAH 2019
PACK WEIGHT: 31 lbs (with filled 1 liter water)
WEIGHT with skis and boots on the back: 45 lbs
___Osprey pack, 70 liter
Sleeping:
___Sleeping bag Igneo 25. (1lb 12 oz)
___sleeping bad compression sack
___Big Agnes air core ultra pad (23 oz) Big Agnes site page>
___Thin space blanket
___Butt pad
___Big Agnes 3.4 lb Tent
___Big Agnes tent floor and 8 Stakes
___Bugspray
___Stove: MSR reactor
___4 season fuel
___Lighters
___Matches
___Spork
___knife primary
___Cooking paper towels
___Lifestraw filter
___Water purifier pills
___1 liter rigid wide mouth water bottle
___96 oz collapsible water bottle
___4 trash bags unscented
___ bear sack
___Sunblock
___Lip sunblock stuff
___Skis liberty. 10 lbs
___Ski strap rubber
___3 straps for pack
___Hagan Core ski boots (2.4 lbs each boot) Boot page on Hagan website >
___Plastic bags to cover ski boots
___Camp aluminum Crampons
___Whippet ski pole
___Ski other ski pole
___Duct tape on ski pole
___Skins
___helmet
___Printed map in ziploc
___Compass
Food: 2 days, 3 days if stretching it.
___Lunch day 1: peanut butter sandwich
___Dinner: 1 mountainhouse meal
___Breakfast sausage half
___lunch Day 2: sausage half
___Backup pb sandwich (day 3 lunch option)
___Cliff bars
___Granola bars
___Gummies
___Chocolate
Clothes/sun protection:
___wide brim sun hat
___wool hat
___Buff neck gaiter
___Long johns bottom
___Under armour long sleeve top
___Orange short sleeve top
___Shell goretex jacket
___Ortovox light puffy
___Camp use heavy puffy
___Shell pants
___Underarmour underwear
___Synth shorts
___ski socks
___Backup socks
___Hiking boots
___Gloves goretex primary
___Mitts backup with silk under gloves
___Glacier glasses
___Backup sunglasses
Other:
___First aid kit
___Headlamp w batts
___Video Camera Ax53 camera
___Ax53 batteries
___Fuzzy mic
___earbuds
___Rechargeable battery
___Miniusb cable
___Toilet paper
___BD Shovel
___inReach Satellite device
___Normal Watch
___Suunto GPS watch
___Gopro primary
___Gopro extra batteries
___Phone
NOTE: you are not seeing avy probe and beacon in this list as it was a solo trip
