Colin Haley is one of the most accomplished young alpine climbers. He grew up climbing the Cascades and since has moved to climbing mountains worldwide. If you are not familiar with him you can start by viewing his blog and some videos of him on youtube.
Last night Colin Haley spoke about gear & winter travel at the Mountaineers in Seattle. I captured some notes and wanted to share them for those that didn’t attend.
Unfortunately Seattle traffic made me about 20 minutes late to his talk, so I didn’t catch the beginning. When I saw Colin again, I chuckled to myself. In true hard-man, dirtbag style, he looked like he just pulled up from the mountain, and rolled out of his van with no time to take a shower. In any other talk, I might think … wow, what’s that about? But here, in a talk for climbers, if the guy didn’t look at least a little rugged I might think he spent too much time in civiliation and not enough time outdoors. haha.
But I digress… Here are some notes I took. I expect someone may have a writeup soon on cascadeclimbers. If that happens, I’ll link it here. You can also see old notes from last year.
- Food
- Colin focuses on carbs while moving on route. He eats bars and gu. Bring a variety. Colin thinks all bars are generally good and made of good stuff. However eat 100 of them and they will all be hard to choke down.
- At the bivy, Colin focuses on getting enough calories via protein and fat. He prefers nuts for weight-to-caloric density.
- For dinner, Colin eats freeze dried meals and recommends mountain house.
- Hydration
- Prefers MSR drom bags with no tube. Platapus aren’t as durable. The tube gets in the way, freezes, etc.
- He showed the red lite version with no bottom tube. Looked like a 4 or 6L. I couldn’t find the same version on MSR’s website, so I’m not sure if they make it anymore.
- Colin uses electrolites in his water. He mentioned Nuun due to it’s low sugar content and therefore low funk factor in bladders.
- Colin carries a variable amount of water depending on the route & access to water. In the cascades during the summer. He might carry .5 — 1 L knowing he can fill up along the way. You will have to be conscience about this though. You don’t want to get too far up route and realize you have no more stream crossings.
- Sleep system
- Having a good thick pad for sleeping, is good. He carries a thick Zotefoam pad (sold by MEC) cut down to his torso size. He then uses a thin bivy pad for his lower body which also doubles as his back support in his pack. I missed what bivy pad he was using, but it was super thin and folded. Something similar to Zotefoam bivy pad. It was white and pretty stiff.
- Colin uses no zipper sleeping bags to cut weight. He mentioned Feathered Friends will manufacture any of their bags without zippers upon request. The obvious downside is the lack of venting, but he just pulls it off his core.
- Use synthetic on multi-day trips. 1 or 2 nights out he’ll use down
- Bivy sacks are pointless. If you’re actually bearing weather with them, it’s miserable and not effective.
- In the summer/fair weather Colin just sleeps out, bringing no tent. If a storm happens, he just packs up and goes home.
- Otherwise bring a lightweight single wall tent. He uses the BD First Light. Will carry it up for himself if going solo.
- Tents are warmer and more comfortable to cook in. Vent your tent.
- Stoves
- Carries Jetboil in summer where water is flowing and easily accessible (remember he’s eating mostly freeze dried meals).
- He also might carry no stove if only going for a 1 day venture in summer. Eats cold food.
- Carries MSR Reactor in winter with bigger pot for melting snow.
- Doesn’t like white gas stoves. Harder to manage cooking in the tent (must have level ground [e.g shovel or other platform], higher risk of fire inside tent). He will use white gas stoves at base camps where flying in canisters is not practical.
- Did not have any notable strategies for managing canisters in cold, other than warming with your hands or rigging a hanging system for the canister and placing a small candle underneath (there was a picture of this in Alpinist recently)
- Clothing — He didn’t say much when I was there. I probably missed that part. Looking at his gear it looks like he wears
- Patagonia softshell pants.
- The Patagonia DAS Parka.
- A thin synthetic coat (similar to montbell thermawrap, though I didn’t get the brand/model).
- A thin windshirt (Patagonia)
- Suggested a storm sock if a water barrier is needed.
- Does not use gaiters. Puts thick stretchy cord on his pants to keep cuffs down and snug around his boot. When using crampons, keep it on the outside of the crampon so you can adjust your boots without taking crampons off.
- Uses Adidas Terrex Pro for eyewear and highly recommended them. Switched sponors from Julbo to Adidas just to get the glasses. They have double lenses and have a nose protector.
- Crampons
- Finds horizonal front points work the majority of the time.
- On hardened ice (like in Alaska) vertical front points are useful.
- Doesn’t really like/use mono-points. Finds that he spends too much energy trying to balance on that one point. Likes the stability of two.
- If you have both aluminum and steel crampons, you can save weight be attatching your steel front points to your aluminum back to save weight. Most of the time needing strong back points isn’t needed.
- Colin believes everyone should have a fully strap-on crampon. Much more flexible on a variety of footwear. The crampon compatible boots was more important when the crampons had poor straping systems (e.g. leather straps). Today’s crampons don’t have these issues.
- Ropes
- Which rope system depends on terrain, number of people, etc. Also a consideration is how easily the line can cut over sharp edges or loose rock choping it.
- Will bring a single line to address scenarios where cutting of the rope may happen.
- Uses twin in ice climbing, where rope cutting is minimized.
- Prefers two twin lines vs doubles for the cascades.
- He thinks doubles may make sense in a place like the Dolomites, but in the Cascades the lines can get crossed and create more rope drag on winding alpine routes.
- Doubles are also useful when climbing with 3 people — the leader belays both lines simultaneously.
- May bring 1 twin line for climbing and a 5mm or 6mm 60 meter tag line for rappel.
- Axes
- Hasn’t carried a classic for some time.
- Believes arresting is good to practice but is over emphasized. The main point is don’t fall. Arresting a team is scary, dangerous, and difficult.
- Uses the BD Whippet which is a ski pole/ice axe hybrid. Finds it much easier to use and more versatile. As the terrain gets steeper, uses dagger position to self belay
- Uses a technical ice tool for more technical terrain. No longer uses an adze. Has two technical tools with hammers. Uses the hammers for pitons. Feels the pick is nearly as good as the adze for chipping anything out. With two hammers, you never have to worry about which side the hammer is on.
- Does not use leashes, finds you will get pumped way to quickly because you can’t shake out. Uses Umbillical cords to make sure you don’t lose your axes.
- Advocates the use of a 3rd tool, though most US companies have stopped making them. For some alpine or mixed climbs, that’s all he will use (aside from the whippet I assume). Colin suggests looking at Simond. He brought a tool which looked similar to the fox rock.
- Other Strategies
- Uses the EDK for rappels for simplicity and speed. Sufficient tail and properly dressed/tight knot is key. If really worried, do two EDKs. Doesn’t use fishermans or figure-8 follow-through. Make sure you using rings or a biner which the knot cannot slide through.
- When using a tag line, pull the skinny line
- Doesn’t use GPS or personal location beacons — he doesn’t have one. Does bring pictures/beta of the mountain beyond the route they are planning incase they need to exit another way.
- Pitons are very useful on lesser travelled alpine routes. Advocates more people know how to place and work with them. Carry at least 2 knife blade pitons. Attach to your harness with a 3mm accessory cord which is tied in a loop to the piton.
- The best training for climbing is climbing. Climb or run hills. Cross-fit, weights, etc aren’t as useful. Experience in the mountains wins.
- The climbing gym is useful as the volume of steep terrain you can get in a 3 hour sessions is way more than you can get at the crag or in the alpine. If you improve your climbing in the gym, it will translate to outdoors. You’ll be more comfortable on route and expend less energy.
I remember I saw Colin a few years ago speak to a very small audience at Feathered Friends. He was up and coming at that time and just a young kid. My favorite question from that talk was “Who sponors you?” and his response was “My parents!”
Colin started climbing in the Cascades at age 10 or 11. He was in his late teens or early 20’s and already climbing stuff I only dreamed of. Now at 25, Colin Haley is certainly an accomplished alpinist who doesn’t seem like he’ll be stopping any time soon.
Tags: alpine, climbing, gear, mountaineering
