Preparing a Backpack for the Mountain

What material should carry in your backpack as we prepare for an outing to the mountains? It is a recurring question that we are always ready to reach some mountain top or a simple hiking trail. Did we forget something important? or are we too cautious to take up so much material?

It's a difficult question to answer, and that the experience we will eventually go our backpack optimized as possible before any output. From here we try to give some tips and list of materials that will help you do not forget important depending on the type of activity you are going to perform and the duration of it.

The first thing that will completely change the contents of your backpack will be the number of days that we will use in our output, not the same as an output of a few hours to two or three days without going home. The theme of the great expeditions we'll leave for another article. Also depend on whether we spent the night in tents or shelters, and if we cook or eat food from a mountain refuge saved. And finally, will vary according to the type of activity we conduct, whether hiking, climbing or mountaineering, with or without chance of snow.

As there are many combinations that we can have, what we do is to present various items classified material based on different criteria, so we will be choosing those that most interest us for our business. You see a lot of material that is not always compulsory to wear. The idea is that you have a list of everything that you may need and prepare before departure. It will be your common sense and your experience that help you to minimize the content of your backpack without leaving behind anything of real importance.

When choosing our material to keep in mind that we are the ones who are going to carry the backpack on our backs, so that every ounce of weight you carry is important.

Choose the pack and distribute your content

Before listing material to fill our backpack, we will give a few tips about their characteristics and how to distribute the material in it.

It is very important to choose a backpack with a minimum required quality. A good design of the shoulder straps, belt and backpack will make your adjustment to our back and waist is better, and that, therefore, our body suffers much less to carry all the weight. For this, it is best to hang the backpack with enough weight, adjust the straps and prove that we feel comfortable with them. Needless to say, the higher the capacity and volume of the backpack, the more important factors just discussed. For very small backpacks, however, these features are more expendable, as they are designed to carry little weight and therefore are not well designed for good weight transfer from the pack to our hips. While outside the content of this article, a correct adjustment of the backpack is more than necessary to get maximum performance: excellent backpack incorrectly adjusted will be much more damaging than a bad backpack properly adjusted.

Depending on the amount of material to be transported, we have to choose a backpack with more or less capacity. This capacity is expressed in liters, and could use the following classification:

From 18 to 30 liters: For activities of a single day with little equipment needed.

From 30 to 40 liters: For activities of a single day with enough material utilization as mountaineering or climbing.

Of more than 40 liters: For multi-day activities and great material load.

The little details will make our backpack price hike is much more versatile and more comfortable during use. For example, a full open zipper and the front, side pockets, two ice ax holder, helmet holder, Rain cover, etc.

We will be careful to place at the bottom and the lighter material that we will use less during operation (eg sleeping bag, clothing moves ...), stuck to the back and at the top the heaviest, at the top most used (eg water bottle, gloves ...), mushroom and pockets in smaller objects (like kit, gps, maps, documents ..). The most important thing is that the load is evenly distributed in the backpack. It will be interesting to store things in clear plastic bags to keep them more organized, isolated and visible without opening.

Common fabric to any activity

(See article How to dress for the mountain: Theory 3 layers ).

T-shirts, caps and jacket.

Fishnet, trekking pants and waterproof pants.

Gloves, mittens, mitts.

Scarf, hat or cap.

Neckerchief or panties.

Down Jacket.

Socks.

Shoes or boots (see article How to choose your mountain boots ).

Change of clothes to change into at the end of the activity.

Technical material common to any activity

Sunglasses.

Sunscreen (included in kit).

Lip balm (included in kit).

Canes cruise.

Water bottle with 1.5 liters thermal sleeve.

Camelbag (if no to low temperatures to freeze the water in the tube).

1 liter flask.

Utility knife.

Food and drink.

GPS and battery.

Map.

Compass.

Mobile battery.

Whistle.

Front.

Toilet paper or tissues.

Kit (see article How to prepare a kit for mountain ) - Very Important.

Personal documentation and federation card (if it exists).

Camera and batteries.

Plastic bag (for dirty clothes, wet objects or trash).

Material for the night

Insulation or self-inflating.

Sleeping bag (see article features a sleeping bag ).

Case bivouac.

Survival blanket.

Tent (see article All you need to know about mountain tents ).

Toiletries: soap, toothbrush and toothpaste ...

Towel lightweight and fast drying.

Slippers or comfortable shoes.

Material for victualling

Stove.

Gas bottle.

Windproof lighter, waterproof matches or flint.

Glass.

Cazuelo deep.

Covered.

1 liter flask.

Minerals bag or you (to mineralize snow water).

Water purification tablets.

Material for mountaineering in snow

Gaiters.

Crampons and / or snowshoes (see article How to choose crampons ).

Piolets.

Helmet.

Goggle.

ARVA (avalanche detection instrument).

Material for mountaineering (tying)

Harness.

Rope.

Snap insurance.

Slings.

Material for sport climbing

Climbing shoes.

Harness.

Rope.

Insurer.

Helmet.

Baga anchor.

Cintas express.

Maillons.

Chalk bag.

Hopefully this articles : Preparing a Backpack for the Mountain can usefull for you