Steve & Judy's Mountain Clothing Page

Here is some advice about what we wear in the mountains.

The importance of good clothing at high altitude is self-evident. However, you need to balance warmth, comfort and durability against weight, pack size and cost, so it's not easy to pick the ideal combination for every climb.

The following gear had worked well for us before, and turned out to be ideal for Cotopaxi (5,897 m). A colder mountain might need a lot more warm layering. You may also want to see our Altitude and Acclimatization page regarding the relationship between altitude and the cold.

On Cotopaxi and/or Mont Blanc we wore (from top to toe):
Area Steve Judy
Head Petzl Micro zoom headlamp (2x'AA' cells)
Lowe-Alpine Triple-point cap Turtle Fur bonnet
Polartec Balaclava (can be worn around neck as a scarf)
Shell Lowe-Alpine Foothills Triple-point
jacket (not worn)
Rab Downpour jacket
Coat Sprayway "Banshee" Windstopper fleece North Cape fleece with showerproof outer shell
TorsoNorth Cape synthetic long-sleeved vest with zipped crew neck Synthetic long-sleeved vest with zipped crew neck
Hands Lowe-Alpine sticky pile gloves, Lowe-Alpine mountaineering mitts
Undies Cotton underpants Cotton/lycra underpants
Legs Helly-Hansen thermal long-johns
Eider Queyras salopettes (bibs) Rab Downpour trousers
Feet Thor-lo mountaineering socks
Koflach Viva Soft boots (plastic double-layer) Koflach Soft-Light boots (plastic double-layer)
Crampons Charlet-Moser "Rapid" step-in crampons
Accessories
Ice Axe Glencoe (long) Mountaineering Axes
Rucksac Lowe-Alpine 40 Litre Lafuma Lady 50 litre
Harness Camp (sit) DMM (sit)

We also each carried a spare sweater layer (Polartec jumper) and spare gloves in case any were lost (which could be a killer).

Temperature when leaving the refuge was measured at -5C; at the summit in the sunshine -7C.
It felt much colder than this between 03:00 and dawn, but there was no opportunity to measure it.


Website ©
Steve & Judy Pardoe
Cheshire,   England
Climbing
Info and e-mail Home page
[Climbing Index Page] [Site directory & e-mail] [Home page]