BECOME A SOLOIST GEAR-JEDI ! (Pimp up your Helmet!)

As far as i am concerned,the next best thing to actually using climbing gear.Is trying to figure out ways to improve it! I love the Japanese "Kaizen" way of thinking (smaller,lighter,better.)and theres very little of my hardware that hasnt had at least one or more evolutions.This includes my museum of Helmets collected over the last 46yrs,as i hate giving any of my kit away.The old Fibreglass ones are my favourites,you could sit on them,use them as snow shovels.Or even club to death a charging Ibex if you were out of rations and feelling peckish!?My philosophy on soloing gear is that everything you carry must perform at least three usefull functions (more if possible?).And its amazing what you can do with a humble crash-hat!

My old Petzyl-Elios for example makes a great compartment for some of my useful bits of non-conventional kit and i didnt have to compromise its structural strength either!?

      1,Plastic flexible drinking tube.20cm.-As hydration is allways a problem at alltitude i keep this handy to suck clean meltwater from ice-pools,and rock-hollows whilst on the move.Its saves consumption of pack water supplies,and allso on the gas needed to melt ice to replace it.I secure the tube,by drilling two holes in the hemet liner to lock in each end of the tube.

     2,Aluminium Kitchen Foil.2sq-metres.-The most useful and versatile stuff a soloist can carry! Folded well,it can be used to make a Solar-Oven to melt snow.A Cooking-Pot,Drinking-Vessel,Nose-Guard against sunburn,Helio Signal-Panel,and insulation inside your clothing at night against Frostbite.(allso a really exciting hat to keep out evil "brain rays" from space aliens,or CIA anal-probers.) Its uses are only limited by your imagination,and it weighs sod-all!?It can be folded down to a 4inch x 1inch rectangle in a thin plastic bag and gaffer tapped inside the helmet.

    3,Reflective Safety Tape.-A thin strip or a few squares of this on your helmet can be seen for miles by day and night.Ok!so you may look a bit like "TRON,the Gamesmaster"?But if your lost and injured you can be easily spotted by rescue parties,while your bright clothing colours will vanish against a background of rock and snow!

These are just a few things that you can do to enhance your gear,and i will be adding to these over the next six blogs.I had hoped to put my Helmet pics up but it looks like ime gonna have to take a whole new bunch sadly?!Ile get them to you eventualy.

I VONT TOO BEE ALONE!! (Route Plans & Emergency Documentation)

I gave up telling the local natives that i was solo-climbing in their mountains a long time ago!In Europe in particular its considered (at best?) a sign of brain damage or terminal insanity.Ive lost count of the times that some"Alpine-Elvis" has asked-"Where is your partner!??" or "Why are you alone!??"as if i had just murdered my second somewhere back on the route.So these days i just answer "I ate him yesterday,he talked too much!"or smile wierdly and retort "I have no friends!!!"which generally gets them running!
Its only to be expected that what we do is a little unusual,and even frightening to some i suppose?Most alpine climbers go in pairs "hut to hut"or up and down in a day,so as not to miss the last Gondahlbahn to the valley?They consider the Alleinganger who sleeps in the snow to be a strange,exotic beastie,more than a little bit insane.And who will end up frozen,broken popsickle,to be lifted off the berg in a big red REGA helicopter to the inconvenience of all? And sometimes they are right!?

Lets face it?"You cant pay your hotel bills if your dead!",a terrible crime in Switzerland!Many years ago realising that i was not going to change any attitudes to my jaunts.I thought that the least i could do(along with meticulous route and kit planning.)was to work out some documentation that i could leave in safe hands at Valley-Base to cover myself and my responsibilities to the mountain-rescue and local-authorities,in the event that i went missing on the hill?
To that end i devised "Personal Particulars and Legal Waiver"documents to be filled in before each solo expedition.These cover everything from NOK-notification to Exemption from Rescue for the emergency services in conditions where ,to effect my rescue or recover my remains may endanger the lives of others!
I figure that,if i choose to alone then i have no right to endanger would-be rescuers if all my best plans fall apart on me!?If any member is interested in copies of these documents,just drop me an email and i will send them in Word?!(havent mastered downloads yet!:-))