Well, I certainly have gear, and lots of it. This week, Patagonia is having a huge sale. I made a trip down to Ventura on Wednesday; showing up bright and smiley 10 minutes after the sale began. Two hours later, I walked out with nearly everything. With all my faith in synthetics, I'll be plenty warm with several items from the Capilene Baselayers line along with a surprising warm jacket that weighs less than two pounds.
The folks at Patagonia were outstanding. I felt like I had two personal shoppers that stayed with me the whole time. Lindy helped me with all the fitting, and Drew gave me lots of alpine climbing advice based on his own experience. I was pretty excited to get his seal of approval on the trekking polls, Camelbak, and hiking boots I had already purchased. I can't begin to tell you how many hours I spent researching each of these items. For trekking polls, I went with Black Diamond's Spire Elliptical (Compact) which yielded a high five from Drew. Follow the link to read about them. They reduce the impact on your knees and help with balance, but not everyone is a fan of trekking poles. For the pros and cons, follow the link to read Rick Bolger's article on the SlackPacker website. I purchased the trekking poles from basegear.com. They were having a big sale a few weeks ago.
Santa Barbara Outfitters was having an amazing sale earlier this month too, but unfortunately they didn't have my size in the Vasque hiking boots I had researched. I tried on several other boots from various companies, but I can't buy anything w/o Googling the daylights out of it first. In any case, my size was sold out in just about everything. One pair by the Keen company really stood out though, so I took down the information and searched for it online when I got home. They're waterproof and extremely comfortable with a much wider toe box than most everything else I found made for women. I ordered them from Rock Creek along with a pair of Superfeet insoles and a 3 liter camelbak. Everything was on sale and Rock Creek paid the tax and shipping. They even threw in a free pair of Keen wool socks and a cleaning kit for the camelbak. Awesome company.
There are still a few small odds and ends that need to be acquired like wind proof gloves, hiking gaiters, and a balaclava mask. The only big purchase left is a sleeping bag. I'm looking for a synthetic, warm (rated at least to -20), reasonably light sleeping bag. Any suggestions are welcome. The last night before the summit will be spent next to the Furtwrangler Glaciers at roughly 18,500 feet. More on my route and the amazing company I booked with in the next post!
