Monarch Icefield: Preparation

Soon enough (too soon, or not soon enough, depending on if I have looked at the to-do list recently), we will head out to the Monarch Icefield. The idea is to fly in to the south end of the icefield and then do a "roving basecamp" style of traverse, where we have a few days in each location to hopefully bag some peaks and do some skiing before moving north to the next camp. It will be about 50km total with full loads, and 1 day of (most likely type 3) fun at the end.

I'll keep updating this blog post as the trip preparation progresses.

Food:

3 people x 3,500 cal/day x 14 days ~=140,000 calories...which is a lot of food.  Currently it is in a pile on the kitchen table.

Fuel:

I've talked about our winter stove setup before, but it's awesome.  Based on past trips we are very comfortable with 100 mL PPPD, which is about 30% less than what most people advise.  That is a huge weight savings with this length of trip, and more than pays back the weight of the accessories we use.  Plus, our water boils faster.  Check it out here.

Maps:

I've spent some (a lot) of hours on Photoshop merging together the relevant NTS maps for the icefield.  One thing I learned: the UTM grid is not one grid, it is many, with different origin points.  The center of the icefield is about where the grid switches, unfortunately, so half of the map is UTM Grid Zone 9, the other half is Zone 10.  I also overlaid John Baldwins routes and peak bagging recommendations from the bible.

Monarch Icefield Composite Map    (downloadable, but note this map is fullsize and 560MB)

Gloves:

Can a person take too many gloves?