Korpijaakko

I have now weighted almost every piece of gear that I am going to take with me to Svalbard on the three-week unsupported and unassisted skiing expedition next month.

Skiing on expedition meeting at Padasjoki, January 2011.

… and the winner iiis…

Earlier I posted my gear list to my blog and promised a free Blå Band expedition meal for the reader who would guess the weight. And now it is time to announce the winner!

There have been minor changes to the list I posted earlier and some of the weights are estimates but it should be close enough to the reality. The competition didn’t turn out too popular but of the two guesses Tomas’ guess – 42kg – was closer to the reality.

…and the weight is

It seems that my personal gear and share of shared gear will weight 49,1kg. This is full skin-out weight minus consumables. The sled, rented Fjellpulken Xpedition 168 makes a big part of the weight with its 11800g mass. With consumables the load is a bit staggering  87,3kg! There will be a lot of fuel and food as it is meant to be a holiday trip, not a gruelling expedition.

Here is the full gear list with weights and comments as a pdf file: UltimaThule2011_gear.

At some point before leaving I will post also my detailed menu for the three weeks. It includes over 5000 kcal of goodness per day so it also weights a bit as you can see from the gear list above.

While waiting for the food listing, I would like to hear your comments on lightening the load presented above. I have recognized several ways to lighten the gear but for this trip the die is cast. But  I will keep my mind open on options and lightening my load. I think I could easily shave some 10kg or a bit more! How would you do it? If you are new to this topic, take a look at the post Average day on the Arctic? to get idea of the conditions.