Horizons Unlimited - The HUBB - Cape Town to Europe

Beyond Camp 3, it's all about the pack. Make sure that your rucksack has a large volume as it's hard work to push clothing and sleeping bags into small stuff sacks when your cold fingers have all the sensitivity of wooden pegs(https://medium.com/@megacampinglife/...g-d940486592a9).
Climbers on Denali need to understand how to prevent and treat cold injuries. At all costs, avoid re-freezing a frostbitten digit after it has been successfully warmed. However, prevention is better than cure, and you'll want to watch each other for signs of frostbite. One member of our team witnessed a waxy-white patch develop on the cheek of another climber during a conversation outside the tents one evening. By immediately re-warming the skin, long-term damage was avoided.

As our medic found out to his cost, snowblindness can occur even when the sun is obscured by cloud, thanks to the light that reflects off the surface of the snow. Chastened by our friend's suffering, we made sure that we wore sunglasses or goggles whenever we stepped out of the tent. Goggles were particularly useful on summit day. Combined with a neoprene mask, they provided protection from the wind for the whole face. On calmer days, sunscreen was applied not just to the face but also to the insides of nostrils.

Footwear is a priority. So-called integrated boots, consisting of a removable inner boot, insulated outer boot and built-in gaiter are becoming increasingly popular on Denali, especially with climbers who have 8,000-metre aspirations. Top-of-the-line traditional plastic double boots with new, uncompressed inners are also acceptable but must be mated to neoprene overboots. Since you'll always be in snowshoes, skis or steel crampons, the smooth sole of the overboot shouldn't present a problem, and the additional insulation it affords--especially under the sole--can be the difference between warm and frostnipped toes.

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If, like me, you opt to wear vapour barrier (VB) socks to help keep the inner boots dry, make sure they are made from baggy waterproofed nylon rather than circulation-restricting neoprene. Rotate wool or synthetic socks daily, and do your best to dry damp socks out.

LINING ESSENTIAL

Drying clothing in your sleeping bag (how to choose a sleeping bag) increases the moisture in the natural down insulation, which reduces its ability to retain heat. For that reason, I also used a VB sleeping bag liner. By sealing this bag securely around my neck, very little sweat vapour passed into the sleeping bag. And because the vapour was trapped close to my body, it didn't condense. The end result was a mildly humid and noticeably warmer environment than sleeping without a VB liner.

SHOVELS TO THE RESCUE

When 160km/h winds fractured the aircraft aluminium poles of our geodesic mountain tents, we were forced to dig a snowhole. Up until this point, we had had the luxury of time to build high snow walls around the tents, but on this occasion, the weather was so bad that just getting the tents up required a Herculean effort.

Fortunately, we had equipped ourselves for this scenario. In addition to a couple of stout metal spades for carving out our subterranean ice hotel, we had also bought two jumbo grain shovels from one of Anchorage's DIY stores. These tools enabled us to create a snowhole for five residents in one day.

Towards the end of the afternoon, we pressed a sled into service as a lorry, and with a length of climbing rope attached to one end, succeeded in pulling piles of snow from the cavernous interior via a long entry tunnel. The entire operation resembled a snow-capped version of The Great Escape. Digging the hole proved to be a quick way to get warm; one member of the team wore a windproof jacket with nothing underneath when shovelling, such was the intensity of his labour.

When hauling loads between camps, surprisingly little in the way of insulation was required. A base layer and a fleece mid-layer usually sufficed under windproof clothing. At rest stops, and on summit day, I retreated into the warmth of a box-wall duvet jacket. I attached elasticated idiot-strings to my mittens to ensure that they couldn't blow away when I removed them to take a photograph or adjust a shoulder strap.

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I never needed the down-filled trousers that someone was kind enough to loan me while I was in Anchorage. Instead, I wore pile salopettes with a windproof shell for the entire expedition. When we arrived back in Anchorage at the end of the adventure, they pretty much walked home on their own.

WHAT'S IN A NAME?

North America's highest mountain was named Mount McKinley in 1896 by William Dickey, a gold prospector who wanted to publicise Ohio's presidential candidate, William McKinley. Dickey's reason? McKinley championed using gold rather than silver as the currency standard for the US dollar. The name and the man caught on in the continental USA (McKinley served as the 25th president from 1897 to 1901) but not in Alaska. Hardly surprising, as the peak already had an Athabascan name: Denali.

Today, Denali is found on official Alaskan documents but not on federal papers or maps. That's because every time someone proposes to officially change the mountain's name to Denali, members of Congress from Ohio work to prevent the change. However, this hasn't stopped the name of the national park in which the mountain lies being switched from Mount McKinley to Denali. So, which name should you use? The choice is yours.

TEN OF THE BEST

Visiting cold, snow-covered environments such as Denali requires a range of equipment that will keep you warm, dry and free from sunburn. It's also important to ensure that while everyflfing you take with you can do its job effectively, it should be light enough to carry easily and robust enough to withstand the rigours of such an extreme expedition. Here's a selection of the specialist items that Paul took with him when he tackled North America's highest peak

Don't forget ...
... a lightweight plastic toboggan with which you can pull your equipment over Denali's lower slopes

1 SNOWSHOES

MSR Lightning Ascent 25' 280 [pounds sterling]/I .76 KILOGRAMS If you're not an experienced off-piste skier, you may prefer to use snowshoes on Denali's lower slopes.This model is fitted with heel lifts, which ease the strain on your lower legs and increase traction during long ascents

2 MULTITOOL

Leatherman Fuse 100 [pounds sterling]/170 GRAMS It's worth having one plier-based multitool in each team on Denali for fixing stoves, crampons and other hardware. The Fuse is lighter and smaller than many models but still comes with multiple screwdrivers, scissors and wire cutters

3 TENT

Terra Nova Hyperspace 700 [pounds sterling]/5.2 KILOGRAMS
This geodesic shelter sleeps two people in luxury, three in comfort and four at a pinch. The rectangular floor maximises the usable space. The inner-pitching design provides a drum-tight inner. Comes with colour-coded 7001 T6 Reflex poles
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4 WATER BOTTLE

Nalgene 32-ounce Wide Mouth
11 [pounds sterling]/186 GRAMS Avoid aluminium, steel and flexible water containers on Denali and use a solid plastic bottle for your drinks. The wide mouth on this popular BPA-free model makes refilling with water, ice or snow straightforward. Tested to -40[degrees]C. Use with an insulated jacket

5 OVERBOOTS

Purple Haze US$160/672 GRAMS (PER PAIR, MEDIUM)
Your boots will be permanently mated to snowshoes, skis or crampons on Denali. As they will never come into direct contact with the snow, these neoprene overboots are the ideal way to add a significant degree of insulation to your footwear for only a small weight penalty

6 SLEEPING MAT

Therm-a-Rest Ridge Rest Solar 40pounds sterling]/540 GRAMS

This thick mat has an R-Value of 3.5 and is available in two sizes. You can combine it with a self-inflating mattress for extra warmth. If you don't trust yourself to keep sharp crampon points away from air-filled mats, pack a second, lighter, Ridge Rest SOLite mat. Like the Solar, it's immune to punctures

If you're blessed with bright sunshine every few days on Denali you'll have ample time to dry your two types of sleeping bags, which could make a VB bag redundant. During our time there, we weren't so lucky. After a week of blizzards (during which time my 1.5-1itre pee bottle saw a lot of action), we emerged from our snowhole to find two New Zealanders camping next to us. They hadn't brought VB liners for their clown bags, which now resembled thin sheets of nylon containing a few lumps of sodden feathers. The ambient temperature the previous night had been -38[degrees]C.