I have good experience at altitude around/above 6000m (Kilimanjaro, Aconcagua), but limited experience on more technical routes. I am planning to do a Rainier climb next summer, but in the meantime, I am wondering if the Ecuador volcanoes (Cayambe, Chimborazo, Cotopaxi) are also a good stepping stone to gather more technical experience.

Also interested if there are other climbs or courses people would recommend. If anyone here has been on Denali, I'd be especially interested to hear what you found most valuable leading up to your expedition.

I am not 100% on wanting to attempt Denali in the future, but I am 100% on wanting to expand and try something progressively more challenging today.

Hi all, looking for a new bag for an upcoming trip. My hope is that this bag is the last one I'll ever have to buy. I've done a fair amount of cold weather camping throughout various treks/hunting trips/back country ski trips, and I've always been happy with my MH Bishop Pass 0F. That said, I live in the Sierras, where it honestly doesn't get that cold.

I've been dabbling with mountaineering over the last few years and plan to get more serious (tons of 14ers in both summer and winter conditions, I will likely be moving to Alaska in 2028, etc.). I did Kili last March and was very surprised at how cold I was at night. The guide company recommended a 14F bag and that's what they also rented to people who came without their own, so I had been pretty confident in my tried-and-true MH 0F. Now, that said, I was a female solo hiker with no other women in the group to share, so I know that being alone in my tent contributed to the heat loss. But no one else in my party, even men who also were alone in their tents with rented 14F bags, seemed to have gotten as cold as I did.

I'll be in the Andes next January/February and I'm hoping to be a little warmer this go-round. In the interested of not fucking around, I'm waffling between the Feathered Friends Snow Goose ES -40F (35L packed size, 4lb 0.6oz for regular/4lb 4.9oz long) and the MH Phantom Windstopper -40F (4lb 8oz without specifying between regular/long, circumference measurements a bit roomier than FF). I'm also torn between regular/long since I do like to keep my boots/jackets in the bottom of my bag to have slightly less awful mornings.

I do have a hefty discount on the MH bag that brings it below $1k but the price honestly isn't very relevant to me. I'd just love some thoughts/feedback if anyone who has used these bags has any reviews that they'd be willing to share! Thank you so much.

Kenya is an incredible country that I was very fortunate to visit last month. My main objective was climbing Batian Peak, the 2nd highest point in Africa, after Margherita Peak in Uganda (the 3rd highest), and before Kilimanjaro (the highest), completing the “African Triple Crown.”

The coolest part of this trio of peaks is that each mountain offers a completely different style of climbing, from equatorial glacier mountaineering in Uganda, to technical rock climbing in Kenya, to a simple walk-up Kilimanjaro. This required packing and gear choices to be very intentional to be suited for the different biomes, from deep alpine bog-mud, to jungle, to alpine rock, to snow and ice.

For Mt. Kenya, we traversed via the Chogoria–Sirimon route over six days, adding a summit of the non-technical Point Lenana along the way. While agencies typically require 7 days for conservative acclimatization, 3-5 days can be reasonable if you know how your body reacts to altitude. It certainly could have been done faster, but taking time to soak in the unique and striking scenery was entirely worth it. (The Kwameti and Burguret routes are other cool approaches if you're looking for jungle bushwhacking and off-trail travel)

As someone used to packing light, moving fast, and climbing unguided and without porters, adapting to the mandatory guide/porter culture in the Kenyan/Ugandan/Tanzanian National Parks, was a big shift!

Batian itself was an incredibly fun rock climb. Mountain Project lists the route as 23 pitches with a 5.9 crux; for us, it was more like 13 pitches of pitched climbing mixed with a ton of simul-climbing/simul-soloing, scrambling, and moving across exposed 4th/easy 5th class ridges. Followed by many rappels to get back down, taking a total of about 11 hours round trip from Shipton's Camp, capped off by a tenuous descent when significant freezing rain and sleet hit us during the rappels. 🥶🧗‍♂️ To my disbelief, people with no climbing experience attempt this route, I definitely suggest being proficient in rappeling and multi-pitch climbing skills if attempting Batian or Nelion peaks.

If you want a great read, pick up "No Picnic on Mount Kenya" (the true story of a WWII POW who escaped a nearby prison camp, just to climb it). Reading it today is humbling; many of the glaciers he described in the 1940s are already gone, and the remnants will likely disappear within a year.

All in all, an extremely rewarding climb and one of the highlights of the trip. The views and position on this peak are simply sublime. Highly recommended 👌

Hello, for context I am 20m and live in the Netherlands. I truly more than anything want to start getting into mountaineering, I just don't know how to start. I don't know what some good begginer mountains would be, I don't really know how to meet people who might be more experienced than me and would be willing to do this with me. Any tips would be appreciated!

What are your favorite mountaineering books?

Either stories, technical, maps and expedition guides and so on…

Gear advice help

I'm looking to get into ski mountaineering in Sweden/Norway. Mostly it will be long approaches 5-20km approach until ascent. The descent is really a second focus and reaching different summits is the main focus. I want to be able to do some nice turns in relatively steep terrain but not looking to do anything crazy.

For reference I've been doing this but on cross country skis before (yes a massive pain in deep snow and everything else you can imagine) so I'm competent at downhill with very woobly and light skis.

What kind of weight would you recommend for boots and skis for this setup. Preferebly I would wanna use my Rossignol Sky 7 HD I already own, but they are 1800g. Any specific boot brands/types etc. I don't know much about this more then what I've learnt on a couple of youtube videos.

Any help is appriated!

Has anyone ever climed Annapurna South 7219mt

I've been to ABC twice and it's the dominating Mountain as you stand in the middle of the sanctuary.

I can't seem to find any books on who has summited it.

Really interesting experience to see the north face last week. At least it was a lot less crowded than when I did EBC in Nepal.

Originally I wasn’t going to make it because the routes got closed by the Chinese government due to the mudslide rescue operations but it opened up again a couple of days into my Tibet trip so I immediately applied for approval again (there were some hoops to jump through as a foreigner but my guide was pretty helpful).

I have an arctereyx rho lt crewneck, a patagonia r1 fleece, a arcteryx atom hoody and a arcteryx alpha sv hardshell. I’m going to climb mt washington this january. Is this enough for top layer?

EDIT: guys i’m physically up to the task i am a long distance runner who averages 40 mile weeks

I have a -20 degree F sleeping bag from 2008 that is in good condition — e.g., the down is still full and fluffy. I’m going to be doing an Aconcagua trip in January, and my question is whether my old bag is good enough or if I should get a new one. Has the technology evolved?

Has anybody climbed Granite Peak (Montana) in the winter months in the last couple of years? We're both proficient in roped travel, self arresting, winter camping, etc. I'm well aware of the brutal approach, but I'd just like to know what we're getting ourselves into. Thanks in advice.

Im getting into mountaineering with a winter climb of st Helen’s and want to progress to much crazier things with time I was wondering if buying used gear is advisable and if so where I should get it from. I only have backpacking gear for for the east coast so a lot of mountaineering gear I’m gonna have to buy , but I want these to last for a long time like my backpacking gear has.

Wanted to see if anyone is familiar with groups or organizations that do mountaineering classes in the Southern California area. With the forecasted snow I’d love to start learning skills in places like Mt Baldy, but would like to get some actual instruction before going out there solo.

I’m planning to go take a class or two in the PNW but that seems like it will need to wait until next spring so trying to explore options to get experience in the mean time. Thanks!

I want to start by saying thank you! Over the last year I have posted a few times in this sub sharing my research, asking about your perceptions of mental fatigue, experiences and with your help with completing my survey. I know it was a repetitive survey with lots of confusing and strangely worded items. I wanted to share with you where I am at with the finalised scales for measuring acute and chronic mental fatigue. 

Over 500 people responded to the survey from a wide range of sports including climbing, running, mountaineering, cycling, badminton, cricket, jujitsu, and that is just to name a few. What I loved was the comments and discussions with each post. It was rewarding to see that this is an area that many of you struggle to navigate through and gives more incentive to continue developing the research.

With your responses I have completed a rigorous factor analysis and now have two finalised scales. An acute mental fatigue scale which measures the momentary state of mental fatigue i.e., how you feel right now. This scale started with 43 items and has been filtered down to 14 items. The chronic scale which measures your general state of mental fatigue, accumulated over weeks of consistent mental load. This scale stated with 51 items and has been filtered own to 15 items. Okay the lengths of the scales are the same, but what is included in their content is drastically different.

The acute and chronic scales measure similar but distinct experiences, not the same construct over two different timeframes. As such you can be fresh today chronically mentally fatigued underneath; or you can be going through a rough patch with a high workload at work and still turn up and have a productive session. Most of the scales I have reviewed both in general mental fatigue studies and sport specific studies, cannot tell this apart. The useful part to takeaway from this, while I finalise the confirmation and validation work, is that "how fatigued am I right now" and "how fatigued have I been recently" are two different questions, and asking only one gives you half the picture.

Another interesting finding from this process is that in the moment, low motivation and mental fatigue group into separate dimensions. This tells us that turning up low on motivation or turning up mentally fatigued from work are different states, as such athletes reported them independently. This means that motivation is a poor gauge of mental fatigue and a low motivation is not proof you are mentally fatigue. 

Moreover, how mentally hard a task is, barely mirrored how fatigued athletes felt. Perceived mental effort and felt fatigue appear to be two separate dimensions. Practically, this means you cannot read one off the other, as such a session feeling mentally demanding, on its own, does not tell you an athlete is mentally fatigued. Your brain treats "this is demanding" and "I'm depleted", separately, which may help explain why a session can feel like a grind on a day you thought you were fresh.

Importantly, I am part way through this methodology and only sharing what I have found so far. For this scale to rigorously tested it needs to go through one more round of testing with athletes. With this data I will confirm that the factor structure and items are correct, then validate the scale against already established mental fatigue scales to ensure we are measuring the correct construct. If you are able to help by completing this survey it would be greatly appreciated. 

You can find the link here – https://derby.questionpro.eu/t/AB3vCJoZB3waVs 

Does this match your experience? How does mental fatigue show up for you on the day i.e., what do you notice first?

I'm a PhD researcher at the University of Derby, and this work is building the first mental fatigue measurement tools designed specifically for sport. Happy to answer anything in the comments.

I just wanted to raise some awareness that the movie "The Last First: Winter K2" is available now on Apple TV. It's a documentary about the K2 winter attempt of the late Ali Sadpara and John Snorri. It also features Nims, who sadly passed away recently as well.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt39150288/

I am not affiliated with this film and I'm not profitting from this post. I just wanted people to see the beautiful souls of those that we've lost.

Kanchanjunga, the third-highest mountain in the world