Sequencing Efficient and Safe Breaks in Harsh Alpine Climbing and Mountaineering Conditions

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I’m the kind of person who is constantly trying to “do the task better.” I am always running little, ad-hoc experiments. Does this shape dish clean better in the bottom or top rack of the dishwasher? Does leaving my index finger or thumb on the starter knot work better (less lace slipping) when tying my shoes? I tried high heat and 40 minutes when drying the bedding and things were still damp; what if I keep the sheets independent from the comforters? What is the optimal pattern for mowing my lawn in the least steps?

I’m not taking notes or recording experiment journals like I did in science classes in school. Rather I’m just always playing with efficiency. Sometimes, I am clearly getting more efficient: the bowl doesn’t need to be scraped or cleaned again. That’s fairly objective and empirical. Number of steps when mowing the lawn? Maybe my smart watch will capture it? But often times it’s just some vague perception of a level of effort.

It’s this mentality that lead to the production of a video like this. I try to be observant. Thinking about having efficient rest stops on the path to some cold and inhospitable summit, my observations started with the simple things that are now obvious: when I kept the food in the hood of my pack, it froze. And then it evolved to more nuanced discoveries: I can wrap my jacket around my water bottle in such a way as to allow me to grab a sleeve and pull the jacket out without having the water bottle come tumbling out.

And so on…

And the result is this video on how to take efficient rests in cold conditions. Now, there is no way to make one video than can accommodate all of the eventualities and scenarios that one can encounter in the mountains. But, it’s a starting point. Maybe it’s a starting point that will allow you to skip through some of the “little experiments and observations” I made and get right to optimizing your own method based on how and where you climb?

For those always writing and asking about gear, 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.