Packing Your Winter Alpine Climbing Pack and Pockets: the First Step to Efficient and Safe Rests

(This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links and make a purchase, I’ll receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. This helps support the channel and allows us to continue to make videos like this. Thank you for the support!)

There’s this notion of “closed skills” and “open skills.” Closed skills are the kinds of things that can be done as an isolated act; they begin and they end. Think of things like a golf shot or shooting a bow. Then there are open skills. These are part of a chain of skills and they cannot be isolated away. A rugby player, or a soccer player are usually practicing an open skill. Open skills are performed in a dynamic and changing environment, while closed skills take place in a predictable and static environment.

Mountaineering and alpine climbing are usually going to fall into the later category. We are constantly reacting to the changing hazards around us, as conditions change with wind or temperature or sun angle or whatever.

But the thing about skills are that we can reduce them down to component parts and practice things in a more static way. Think of a drill is a soccer player, practicing a chest trap. Is it a reaction to the ball? Sure. Is it as reactionary as running into a position and reading the play and anticipating the ball flight and then positioning and completing the chest trap - as you would in a game? No. Not at all.

So, let’s talk about taking an effective rest on an alpine climb. This is an open skill. It is dependent upon finding a location that is safe (no avalanche hazard, no sever slope that you cannot anchor yourself safely to, less exposure to the wind, etc.). It is dependent upon your current state of mind and body (thirst, fatigue, fear, etc.). But, like these other skills, it can get broken down into smaller skills that become less dynamic in their reaction to the environment.

One of these “sub-skills” is the subject of this video: getting your gear packed into your pack and onto your body so that what you need is accessible and less likely to get lost. That last statement seems like a small deal, but anyone who has done vertical climbing on rock knows how much forethought and sequencing of movement goes into not dropping vital gear. Well, on the snow, it doesn’t take a vertical environment to lose gear. A twenty degree slope might be enough to take a dropped item and send it sliding away and down the mountain. Wind can separate you from your gear, too. And now we also have to add in managing all the the insulation we need to stay warm when we aren’t moving. It’s an intuitive, but complicated dance. And like anything, we can practice it.

So, take a look at the video and think about how you might want to pack your pack. Think about what you might want in your pockets. You don’t have to do it the way I do it. There is probably a better solution for you and your specific gear and needs. But this is something we can do in the calm of our gear closet or at basecamp and it can make a big difference when we get into more complicated environments.

Oh, and if you are wondering, In the video, I am using the Hyperlite Mountain Gear Prism 40L Pack, made of dyneema composite fabric (1lb 13oz or 822g). It’s one of my favorite packs for technical outings that still fits in that under-two-pounds category of “ultralight” packs.