'Training' for Logan; preparation, packing and pondering

A few days ago I returned from a successful ski mountaineering expedition to Mount Logan, Canada.  Standing 5959m tall in the southwest Yukon, it requires a one hour flight in from Klaune, and at least three weeks on the glacier to climb and descend it.  Preparation was paramount.  Here I detail, in short, some of the items that made up my pre trip prep.

Ski Mountaineering above the Icefall on Mount Logan

Timings - the crucial element

Excluding weather the majority of people are unsuccessful because they run out of time.  We allowed a total of five weeks for the trip allocated into sections.  One week to get from London to Klaune and back including organisation.  Two weeks mountaineering moving time, the minimum you would need to summit and return to base camp.  The remaining two weeks were to accommodate bad weather, either waiting to fly in or out, or waiting out storms on the mountain.  Our pilot reassured us the longest he hadn't been able to fly in was five days.

Physical Training

Long term endurance with heavy load carrying was what we needed.  To prepare for this I did lots of vertical km runs in the Alps early season, and tried to get a solid aerobic base back.  When the snow finally arrived in the Alps during January, early ski touring trips and weekly skins up the mountain gave me specific training.  The longest time I spent touring in a row this season was one week in the Queyras, where I was more than happy to break trail every day (expecting lots of powder on Logan's lower slopes).  Returning home to Wales for the end of spring meant multiple long days out in the mountains, either working or personally.

Running along the Pembrokeshire coastline

In the end I didn't do any training with a heavy rucksack on.  I figured I would remember how awful it feels to move with 25kg, and rather than knacker my knees doing water carries, I opted to do hill sprints and squats to look at my leg strength.

On return from the trip I felt that my fitness was great, I had plenty of days pulling pulks but feeling strong.  The summit day was long and tiring, but I guess you can't feel good all day every day!

Gear
Gear deserves a whole post of it's own for this trip, so I'll summarise a few key items I took.

Skiing down to Logan Camp one, fully laden from the summit

Personal Gear
Boots:

• Dynafit female TLT6, 2015/16 model, I sized up a shell to ensure lots of toe space for keeping warm and fitting new liners in.  Removable tongues weren't used at all.
• Palau overlap ski boot liners (the thickest warmest ones they make, the same as Intuition liners but much cheaper!).  These were so warm and added stiffness to the ski boot too.
• Forty Below Freshtracks Overboots, only warm on the last few days of the trip as it wasn't too cold the rest of the time.  Expensive but cheaper than frostbitten toes!
• I also took some chemical toe warmers which lasted the entire summit day and were amazing.
• Vapour Barrier Liner Socks were used for the first two days but I got so hot I nearly got blisters on both feet (very unusual for me), so for the rest of the expedition I wore thin icebreaker merino wool ski socks
• Lastly an incredible boot fit from Stephen at North Wales Ski Drop, and this is the key to warm comfy feet.

Ski setup:

• Movement Response X series skis - great, light, easy to ski on all snow (including slab)
• Dynafit speed bindings, old school style.  I went brakeless for the first time ever and it was great!
• B and D Ski Leashes, skip the realisable bit out, you don't want to loose a ski up there and strap these to your feet.  The super long phone cable leash goes over the overboot and trousers etc... easily and you can take your ski off, raise it to eye level and the leash keeps stretching.
• Scott standard non collapsible ski poles with big baskets on, I only own one pair of ski poles
• Black Diamond Momix skins, easy to put on and take off, good glide grip and glue.

Team members comparing each others ski choices Photo by Cathy O'Dowd

Gloves

• Thin OR PL gloves
• Dynafit lightweight primaloft mitts - think alpine lightweight silly gloves!
• Black Diamond Guide Gloves (incredible, worth their weight in gold)
• Black Diamond Absolute Mitts

Things I wish I had

• A lightweight chair to sit on outside rather than a single piece of mat
• Camp booties to walk around in

Cathy and David looking equally confused by the GPS and compass!

Group Gear
Tents: Hilleberg Saitaris, 6.6kg 4 person all weather tent x2.  A 4 person tent is much more spacious for 3 people in winter sleeping kit.  Although for the summit bid we squashed 4 people into one it was a bit cosy for long term living.
Stoves: MSR XGKs.  The gas canisters v liquid stove debate was never ending.  Liquid 'won' in the end, but I still don't know which I prefer and teams on the mountain had both working well.
Electronics: Included Delorme InReach x2 for satellite text messages, iPhone for typing on the InReach easily, live tracking and Facebook updating, Goal Zero solar panels and battery packs, various kindles, cameras, 2 GPS Garmin 64s, watches and more.

Hilleberg Satiaris tents putting up with the bad weather on Logan

Food

Generally I take 500g food per day on expedition, all or mostly dehydrated.  This normally works out as porridge, a few lunch bars, one dehydrated meal, some drinks (coffee, hot chocolate, cup of soup) and a few squares of chocolate.  Not much!

Chocolate muffins and coffee for breakfast in Whitehorse

Food for Logan was a somewhat drawn out decision, both in team discussions and personal choices.  We thought it could be -25C and windy every day, and each one would require a substantial amount of load carrying, therefore requiring 750g food per day to sustain us.  On average my food was 450cal per 100g.  This meant I would have 3375calories per day to eat, and while on paper this doesn't sound like a lot, the reality is that it is a huge amount to eat at altitude when you are tired, cold and have a few hours of melting snow ahead of you.  750g of food for 21 days is 16kg.

Preparing expedition lunches

Below is a summary of what food I prepared for each day:
Breakfast: 50g ready break and a 27g sachet of instant oats with 20g powdered milk and a spoon of soft brown sugar.  1 sachet of instant cappuccino coffee mix

Lunch: some ryvita thins, oat cakes, fig rolls, party rings, digestives, jelly babies, ginger nuts, a chocolate bar - kit kat chunky or twix, a nature valley protein bar.  Super concentrated juice and powdered ginger to make my water taste better when I got 'bored' of it.

Supper: one or two dehydrated meals 100g / 130g per meal, from mountain house or adventure food per day.  One 100g sachet of powdered potato, a good cube of cheddar and butter, for every other day.  9 squares of galaxy chocolate per day, hot chocolate powder and biscuits.  One sachet of soup per day, I hate soup and this wasn't consumed!

Food top tips

• If I was to return to the area I would take 500g food for 14days and 750g food for 7days.  On occasion I was hungry enough to eat a 450calorie dehydrated meal and 100g mash with butter and cheese for supper, however, despite keeping my appetite throughout the trip we just didn't burn enough to want or need more food.
• Variety is key for interest and excitement (one of our team took mostly nuts for every lunch and was rather bored within a few days!)
• A tent team spice kit adds flavour to your meals, most of them are quite bland
• Having a 'never-ending' stash of your favourite biscuits is great for rest days and cups of tea (I took 3 packs of ginger nut biscuits and some digestives
• Bubblewrap your biscuits or breakables to stop them crushing into biscuit powder
• Take more chocolate, hot chocolate powder, jerky and porridge sugar than you think 

Cathy and David on their way to the summit of Logan in the wind

Final thoughts

• Spend time (and money) on your gear.  It was difficult to find many previous Logan trip reports with gear in so I looked at photos, asked people and put as much cash as I could into looking after my hands and feet.  
• Five weeks was a good amount of time, we were lucky with the weather and flew home a week early.  It could have easily been the other way around.
• Train or spend time in the mountains if you don't normally.  Feeling fit and healthy on the trip felt great.
• Food variety, I can't stress it enough.  Colourful, different, flavourful food.  Not all of it has to be 550calories per 100g.
• Go 'heavier' for a Logan trip, the extra food is worth it for the time you have to spend acclimatising.  You can't race up the mountain, so you might as well slow yourself down with chocolate and cheese!
• Pack your fatter skis (fatter by alpine ski touring standards, 90-100mm underfoot)
• Organisation is crucial too, and many thanks must go to Phil Jardine who led the expedition and was brilliant at organising and researching the entire trip, as well as all of the other team members whose research and preparation made it the success it was.