Sunday, 14 September 2025

What I took to Austria

Austria was a walking and climbing holiday. It featured the debut of my new crampons, and the first high-altitude use of my new sleeping bag. And while I took my big boots, I was mostly wearing my new trail shoes. Compare: France 2023.

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So what do we have? From top left:

* waterproof trousers; down jacket; waterproof coat;

* new trail shoes; towel; helmet; waterbottle; yellow-bag-with-cables-charger-and-battery-pack; crampons; light blue daysack; down gloves inside w'proof mitts; big blue sac;

* black petzl bag containing stuff, winnowed; inner gloves: "silk" and fleece; headtorch; cup (that I didn't use and should not have taken); bag o' plasters and stuff; poles; gaiters; axe; tarp, thermarest, and bag;

* big boots; white cloth bag with spare clothes (the usual two-underpant system; two spare pairs thin socks); leggings, thin yellow top (with a tee-shirt for evening formal wear); 

* S2S s'bag; silk inner; neckwarner x2; hat;

* little notebook (mostly used to collect hut stamps); propelling pencil; pen; bag for passport and money; Kindle; toothbrush; and little map I picked up in a hut; penknife and keys on a string;

* tatty old thin camping mat as underlayer;

and that's pretty well it; of course I also took the phone I took this pic with. Total weight 9.7 kg on return; that includes the boots but not the trainers; and a one third full water bottle; no food. Sadly, and perhaps foolishly, I didn't make any attempt to see if the trail shoes would sustain the crampons; because the very-obvious next weight saving measure would be to drop the big boots. Apart from that, I think I could have taken a thinner down jacket; the one I have is rather Mont Blanc sized.

Here's a pic of the bag all packed up, with the boots  the back in travelling position.

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