The Best Summit Pack: Cilogear 30L Dynema

As you can see from the posts about Frances and soon the posts of the overall season for me in the Alaska Range, I managed to convince Graham at Cilogear to let me test the Dyneema 30 L pack. I managed to fit everything in it for a 10 hour trip up the SW Ridge of Frances and also a 4 day journey on Denali - yes, I got bored of people asking me if I was on a day hike.
The pack carries much better than I expected, and the shoulder straps are surpisingly comfortable. With a bit of bungee cord I managed to strap my crampons on and I was the happiest person moving up Denali for sure. (OK, we cheated a bit by bringing no food to 14k as we knew that people would have too much there, and ended up making quesadillas for Merrick, Steve, Glen, Gren, Seth and myself for hours!)
If you need a great day pack that will not wear out I recommend the Cilo Gear 30l Dyneema pack!

Mount Frances: IV, 5.8, 60 degree snow, 1,100m: 10 hours round trip

Mount Frances' south west ridge sits only 30 minutes from Kahiltna base camp, I had seen it for years and only just this year was bored enough to do it. Well it is well worth the effort. Prying oneself away from Lisa's base camp is hard when you can just sit around, drink beer, Gatoritas, eat burritos and receive packages from England, and pick Mark's brian for all of the Alaska Range beta(any better resource?) - but when you do manage to pry yourself away, the SW Ridge is so much fun. 

A few Photos:

Surgery - The Thing

I arrived in Nepal with a thing growing on my face - I was afraid the Nepalese authorities were going to make me buy two visas to enter the country it was so big. The thing trekked all the way up the Khumbu with me until the village of Machermo, where a very brave and talented Dr. Tallon (AKA Dr. Z) said it had to go - well I may have begged a bit to get it cut off. Dr. Tallon very skillfully missed all facial nerves and I only whimpered a bit. There is very little scaring, much to my disappointment. Who knows what it was, but it is luckily gone now.

Talkeetna Alaska

It has been a while since I have posted, soon I will post blogs on Dawa Peak, Mount Frances, Nanga, Cilogear 30L pack - the bomb!, and generally what I have been up  - all this week sometime.

Photo: Brian Block between the false and real summit of Mount Frances, Alaska Range, around midnight last day of May.