Kathy Murphy, IFMGA Guide (she was the second British woman to achieve this status), runs our mountaineering and glacier trekking holidays in the Alps. She guides many of these trips herself and her particular brand of leadership, described variously by clients as \u2018highly professional\u2019, \u2018fun\u2019 and \u2018kick-ass\u2019, makes her a very popular choice. Here she gives a no-nonsense guide to her Alpine essentials for trips which involve carrying your equipment throughout.
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1). Comfy boots <\/strong>\u2013\n stiff enough to hold a crampon well, comfortable enough for long \ndescents back to the valley and warm enough for early starts from high \nhuts. My favourite boot is the La Sportiva Trango Alp GTX. It\u2019s a B2 \nboot, so it\u2019s got a bit of flex in the front half, as well as good \nsupport around the ankle. Worn in a bit to avoid blisters – it does the \njob well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 2). Ankle gaiters\/mini-gaiters<\/strong>\n \u2013 these keep the snow out of my boots and are not as heavy, bulky, hot \nor as expensive as full-size gaiters. Grasmere DRY Gaiters by Trekmates \nare my mini-gaiters of choice. 3). Crampons<\/strong>\n – I use Grivel G10\u2019s with anti-balling plates already fitted. They have\n the \u2018new-matic\u2019 system \u2013 a plastic cup at the heel and toe which means \nthey fit any boot \u2013 even my ski-mountaineering boots in winter. Plus, \nthe flexible central bar means they\u2019re more comfortable than a rigid \ncrampon and don\u2019t pull on your heel and cause blisters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You will notice that the first three essentials are all to do with my feet \u2013 if my feet aren\u2019t happy then neither am I! 4). Travel sized bits and pieces<\/strong>\n \u2013 these are easily found in the UK and at the airport shops \u2013 so a \ntravel-sized toothpaste, shampoo, conditioner, sun cream etc. And to go \nwith this – a pack towel \u2013 these dry quickly and pack up really small.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 5). Drinking water<\/strong>\n \u2013 It’s always important to stay hydrated when in the mountains. Make \nsure you take a reusable bottle you can fill up along the way! 6). Pack of cards <\/strong>\u2013\n great for passing the downtime in the huts. It\u2019s sociable and I have a \nwhole selection of card games that anyone can quickly learn and a few \ntricks up my sleeve! Obviously, 1 pack per group is enough!<\/p>\n\n\n\n 7). Rucksack <\/strong>\u2013 my new pack for this season is a Millet<\/p>\n\n\n\n \n Prolighter 32 in the shorter back length womans version. It fits well \nto my back, close, no fancy frames \u2013 when I\u2019m carrying a pack I want the\n load to be stable against my back, not wobbling several inches away \nfrom it. Importantly, it has 2 compression straps on each side which \neffectively make the pack smaller when it\u2019s not full and are also useful\n for stashing walking poles or ice axe. It\u2019s also light at around 1kg. \nAvoid packs with gimmicky features such as back systems which add \nweight. Why else did I choose it? It\u2019s blue \u2013 my favourite colour!<\/p>\n\n\n\n 8). Waterproof overtrousers<\/strong> \u2013the clue to these is in the name \u2013 they should fit over everything\n you are already wearing, including your harness! Again, I go for light \nweight but with a full-length zip that comes up to my hip which means I \ncan put them on over my boots and crampons. When I\u2019m back in the UK I \nalways buy a new pair of Goretex Packlite Overtrousers made by Berghaus.\n\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Kathy Murphy, IFMGA Guide (she was the second British w […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[26,110],"class_list":["post-2970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-update","tag-alpine-adventure","tag-travel"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/millionairemag.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/millionairemag.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/millionairemag.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/millionairemag.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/millionairemag.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2970"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/millionairemag.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2970\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/millionairemag.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/millionairemag.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/millionairemag.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/millionairemag.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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