The most essential equipment for Mountain climbing

A lot of people ask me what kind of kit I take on an expedition with me as you can see from the kit around me now it's quite a lot of stuff because any of these big kind of mountains is not just a quick weekend away so I've got to be prepared for pretty much every eventuality now before I take you through all of the kids I got laid out here just bear in mind that this is only really my personal kit and there will be a lot a group kit that we'll be taking with us as well or meeting out there things like the oxygen and extra tents the messed hence all sorts of things the majority of the food as well I don't come over here and have a look at what I've got so of course we need to pack everything into big bags and we've got lots of big heavy weight duffle bags these will be carried by the porters so they're really robust they can be thrown around onto and off the back of lorries and things on their way to wards the mountain but a couple of ruck sacks here a 50 litre and a 70 liter as well of course the standards gaffer tape if it can't be fixed with a hammer or Gaffa tape then it's probably can't be fixed at all so really key stuff whenever you going on expedition ballistic prove military-grade glasses sunglasses to keep you safe the intensity of the Sun up there is incredibly strong on the eyes so you have to be really careful especially against the snow so look after yourself so you don't get snow blind I've got three pairs of these helmet interesting helmets are really not worn a huge amount on Everest but on k2 everyone wears a helmet pretty much all the way because the danger from rock fall and of course the mount for various cameras and equipment.

Into the snow and the ice stop you from sliding around got three ice axes I can be taking some a standard walking axe so nice and lightweight this is the kind of thing that probably come to the summit with me a pair of technical climbing axes slightly heavier much sharper and much more well aggressive I guess you could say so

when we're climbing and we're fixing the ropes the first time these are the things that we'll be using to make our way safely up the slopes we've got snow stakes for embedding into the snow to keep us safer I've got 120 meters of 6 mil rope very very narrow gauge but very strong this is the kind of thing we use for emergency rigging at the back here is a dome 10 to 10 mando tent that we'll be using in base camp for all of our so to our mess tents in terms of the food we're taking we've got some examples here so scrambled egg ham and potatoes so some of my breakfast very high energy to weight ratio at 500 over 500 calories for only about 125 grams so nice and light weight and actually tastes pretty good one of the things that people often ask me in the mountain town us do you go to the loo so two things that you really need to take with you.

First of all then if you can read that Jake's pee bottle well yeah it does what it says on the tin yeah that's clean luckily that one that has been used before and now I'm not taking a dog with me but some doggy poo bags because high on the mountain that's what you do your business in but biodegradable as well so it's not particularly nice but it's handy there we've got torches we've got plenty of roll mats Therma rests all sorts of devices I've got three stoves over here good old spork spoon and several of those one of the most useful but simple piece of kit I've ever made for myself is a simple seat that's in base camp especially if you're sitting on rocks or maybe on their chair when it's cold just give you a little bit of insulation

under your bottom quite a lot of water bottles over here and if we come over here we've got the sort of the the summit kit if you will so the 850 fill down jacket incredibly warm lots of pockets and really good for carrying equipment and gear with you similarly with the down salad pets you've got the nice big fleecy down mittens look more like sort of boxing gloves but really really warm got several pairs of is over here we've got the boots they look like a cross between some weird wellies and some ski boots but again very well insulated keep you warm a house - they've actually double boots there's a line of boot as well something that's a little bit of a treat down in base camp down booties a little bit like slippers but keep you nice and warm at your feet nice and warm a base camp got two sleeping bags one that's a minus 27 sleeping bag the others are - 50 - 40 sleeping bag probably the - 40 once I'll start rigging up the the mountain that will start to go up the mountain and stay up so that we're not carrying sleeping bags up and down constantly but you have one bag that's on the Mount in one bag that's down at base camp a couple of pairs of goggles spare down jackets of course the patriotic flag hopefully to see that flag from the summit.