Sooji Clarkson loves technical ice and mixed climbing in alpine terrain. In her pack much of the weight and space is occupied by climbing hardware and ropes. Everything else is carefully chosen to be lightweight, small, and to have multiple uses. 

“I try not to carry more than 20kg,” she says. “I’m not a very big human and it definitely gets a lot harder for me over this. An ideal weight would be around 15kg, but that’s usually wishful thinking! There’s not much space for luxury extras once you add up all the ropes and technical gear, so going very lightweight on personal gear is important.”

Food

Dehydration makes you more susceptible to cold and frostbite. In snow, a stove creates far more than its weight in water! I love my Jetboil Micromo, it’s light and a good size for climbing.

A water bottle that can handle hot water is also my coffee cup, hot water bottle, and I wrap tape around it for field repairs. Both my Nalgene and Macpac Soft Touch fit inside my boots and when filled with hot water help to dry them out.

Pack

I’ve added bungy cord to my Macpac Pursuit NZAT 40 for crampons, a sling for hanging it at belays, and I strap a watch to the shoulder. This one’s had a good, hard and full life.

Headlamp

I value a powerful spotlight for route finding and the Fenix HM65R is rechargeable and throws out 1000 lumens.

Technical gear

For all-around axes on technical ice and mixed routes it’s hard to beat the Petzl Nomic. For crampons, I use Petzl Darts. Weight and space considerations often mean I take a light alpine harness like the Black Diamond Couloir.

Clothing

If you must shelter in place, spare dry clothing will be a lifesaver. I carry a Macpac Nitro top, Prothermal leggings and fleece hat – the ratio of warmth-to-weight is excellent.

Gloves

Ice climbing in Canada taught me to be very diligent with glove systems. Fit is important – extra material at fingertips is awful for fiddling with carabiners. I take thin, dextrous gloves to wear when lead climbing, usually Macpac Dash. I also carry Showa Temres 282-02 commercial fishing gloves which are surprisingly well-suited to alpine climbing. The key is to swap the gloves when belaying, shove them down my jacket front, and belay in liner gloves and mittens. When I change back to the lead gloves, they are warm. 

Emergency kit

If you or your partner’s headlamp goes AWOL, a spare torch keeps you moving and hopefully avoids a long, cold night out. My Petzl eLite has been appreciated more than a few times. Spare sunglass lenses weigh nothing, but with some tape make replacement sunnies. You might not win a fashion show but preventing snow blindness comes first. My first aid kit includes GU energy gels – on a long descent I’ve definitely appreciated these!