Snake Dike Pack?

Howdy,

Any recommendations for a pack (and non-climbing gear list if you have it!) for doing Snake Dike? Size?

I do best with a hydration bladder, esp with such a looong approach  

I’m looking at the Blue Ice Wadi, the Osprey Mutant & the Mammut Trion.  Any of those fan faves?  
Other gems I haven’t found?

I am grateful for any and all advice you are willing to impart for pack & gear!!

Thanks!!

Mel

It all depends how many beers you plan to take. A couple 6 packs will quickly fill a 20L pack once you include some snacks, so you might need more like a 35.

Petzl bug served me well. 

Make sure you bring your preferred water purification system to refill on the approach and descent. I love my platypus quickdraw system combined with a bladder as the clean water reservoir. 

I probably still have my pack list from Snake Dike. Will post up if I find it. 

Are you doing it in a day or camping on the approach? 

It's a long day of climbing in an alpine area where weather can change quickly, and no water on most of the approach and descent.

The choice of pack is the least difficult planning decision. Decide what stuff you need for the climb, and then use any pack that will hold that stuff.

there's almost always water on the descent, about 1mi after passing the ranger box/check station, below sub-dome. right at the end of the "Z" steep downhill switchbacks, you go off trail to the NE about 30-40m, and there's a solid stream, can usually hear the roar of it from the actual trail. I just drink straight from it but feel free to filter if it makes you feel better. Water on the ascent is sparse.

Re: water on the approach, if you're going up the Mist trail past Vernal falls and Nevada falls, you don't need to carry a full water bladder the whole way. You can fill up at the Vernal falls footbridge (May to Oct) if you want to cut a few pounds for the initial climb, and/or you can fill up in the Merced river before you head off the main trail to contour around Liberty Cap (or go between Liberty Cap and Mt. Broderick). 

I did it in early June this year and used the Osprey Mutant and it worked great. I highly recommend. I wanted water in a bladder for easy access and this pack holds 3L and is built really well. I ordered the BD speed 30 as well, but found it's build quality sub par compared to the mutant. The mutant carries really well, close to the body with a minimal, but substantial waist belt which carried high enough to not conflict with my harness. You can remove the brain completely for weight saving if desired. I kept it for this route. 

I only filled my bladder halfway for the first half of the approach (to the Merced before taking the climbers trail to Half Dome). I filtered there and filled my bladder and Nalgene completely. This lasted through the entire route and descent back to the Merced, where I filtered again.

Non climbing packing list:

• 3L water bladder
• MSR MiniWorks EX Microfilter
• 1 Liter Nalgene, carried separately and used with filter
• Snacks - GU, banana chips, electrolyte powder, granola bars
• Headlamp
• Sunscreen

Good luck. It's a really fun and long day.

30L Arcteryx worked fine w/ extra room.  I have big feet and shoes to match.  Presumably someone in your party has a rope, so make sure it goes in or on a pack well.  Agree w/ DK, figure out the rest and fit it in the smallest pack that works.  Climbing packs are narrow compared to hiking/trekking packs, so they are preferred.  We had perfect weather, so no rain gear.  Kit was water, water filtration, shoes, helmet, harness, rack, rope, buff, softshell, food, headlamp, salt chews for cramps, shades, Leukotape, advil, bail kit, sunscreen.

Zero shade after you leave main trail. Take more water than you normally would. I filled a 2L bottle at the top of Nevada Falls. Ran out on the climb. Next water was the spring below the sub dome. Long ways to go when you are parched. What with the approach scramble then the sun reflecting off the slab, then you add the 1000 ft. plus additional scramble to get to the top, and the descent can be slow too. Big enough pack to carry filter, shoes, gear, food, sunblock.... I lived 8 years in the valley and guided someone up it. We jogged the whole way back so he could get to his dinner reservation. Epic day.

Brian Monetti wrote:

It all depends how many beers you plan to take. A couple 6 packs will quickly fill a 20L pack once you include some snacks, so you might need more like a 35.

Ha - I'd have to ba a MUCH better climber to either haul or drink 6 packs!

L Kap wrote:

Are you doing it in a day or camping on the approach? 

4am start.... I'm a bit creaky here in my 50's so I anticipate a loooong day!

I would love to see your list if you can find it - thanks!

Mel

D K wrote:

It's a long day of climbing in an alpine area where weather can change quickly, and no water on most of the approach and descent.

The choice of pack is the least difficult planning decision. Decide what stuff you need for the climb, and then use any pack that will hold that stuff.

Well put, thank you!!

Mel

Melisa Hickman wrote:

4am start.... I'm a bit creaky here in my 50's so I anticipate a loooong day!

I would love to see your list if you can find it - thanks!

Mel

I'm 51 and also a bit creaky, so we started at 2 am from upper pines campground and took the John Muir trail instead of the Mist trail to reduce leg fatigue. Those stairs killed us on our first attempt last September. The JMT is a bit longer, but less intense. We reached the base on Snake Dike at 7 am, finished the 8 pitches of climbing at 2 pm (party of three), reached the top at 4 pm, and collapsed in our tents at 10 pm. 20 hour day, but so cool to get it done.

Melisa Hickman wrote:

4am start.... I'm a bit creaky here in my 50's so I anticipate a loooong day!

Mel

I am 63 and my partner a bit younger - both pretty fit.  We were walking from Curry at 4:09.  4 hours for approach via Mist (no Muir detour).  4 hours for 8 pitches on rope (no other parties to deal with).  Took our time on top and didn't rush back but kept moving.  13.5 hours back to Curry.

Melisa Hickman wrote:

4am start.... I'm a bit creaky here in my 50's so I anticipate a loooong day!

I would love to see your list if you can find it - thanks!

Mel

I'm 49 and very creaky so I relate! I recommend checking the weather radar the day before. If there's a chance of afternoon thunderstorms, you'll want to be off the top by noonish. In that case - and actually just generally -  I recommend a 2 AM start from Curry Village. The last thing you want is to be going up or down the dome when it's slick from rain and there's a risk of lightning strike. Keep in mind that after you finish the 5 mile approach with about 2500 ft of elevation gain and the 8 pitches of roped climbing, you still have to slog up over a thousand vertical feet of slabby dome, go over the top, and come down the other side on the cable route which can be slow and crowded. All that before you're back on terra firma for the 7ish-mile hike back.

I can't find my exact pack list for this climb, but I have spreadsheets with my general multi-pitch pack items listed by weight. Here's what I most likely carried:

• Petzl bug pack which has a carry strap for the rope
• 3L camelback: starting 1L, refilling at Vernal Falls to 1.5L, refiling at Meced River to 2.5L to go up and over, and refilling to 3L at the stream on the way down. Water is 2.2 lbs/liter so shave where you can. 
• About 2500 cal of food, included caffeinated Clif Bloks. I have a spreadsheet of my favorites with calorie density by weight. Protein shake for breakfast at camp, pizza at Curry Village after. 
• Sunglasses and case 
• Headlamp and backup batteries
• Thin insulating jacket and Gore fleece hat. Temps were around freezing on the hike in at 2 AM. 
• Belay gloves which also served for keeping fingers warm on the hike in
• Rain jacket
• Platypus  quickdraw water filter system
• Poop kit for packing out if needed
• Pee funnel
• ID / health insurance card
• Garmin emergency beacon
• Phone 
• Lightweight emergency kit w/ tape, ibuprofen, extra shoelaces, small knife, nail clippers, tiny tweezers, bivy sack (can sub big black trash bag for emergency shelter), CPR mask (if you need it, you'll be relieved to have it)
• Hand sanitizer
• Sunscreen, SPF chapstick
• Rain cover for my pack

Climbing kit included shoes, harness, chalk bag, helmet w/ thin hat and neck shield underneath (can sub sun hoody), bail gear, belay device, about 6 draws, a few small/med cams, slings and carabiners for anchors. I hiked in my harness with legs out of the loops to minimize wear and chafing. Bonus - no need to take off harness for a bathroom break. One nice technique is to buckle your pack waist belt through your harness belay loop in front and loosen the front straps so that the pack sits on your harness in back. This helps transfer the pack weight onto your harness waist belt. It's very nice with the Petzl bug, which does not have a hefty padded waist belt. Just make sure you readjust your harness before climbing and put your legs through the leg loops; it can be easy to forget since you probably don't have the habit of wearing your harness with legs out of the loops.

All told, I planned to carry up to 25 lbs of stuff apart from clothing and hiking shoes. Remember that anything you take you'll carry for the whole day including the climb since you don't return to the base, and it's 15 miles and 5000 ft of elevation gain round-trip. I am not an endurance athlete and I'm not used to carrying that amount of weight all day so I trained for many months. I live in an area with many mountainous hiking trails, so I used a spreadsheet to build mileage, elevation gain, and pack weight each week.

I also field-tested all my gear, making sure I was comfortable with how I packed and carried my pack and gear on an all-day hike, and I practiced using my water filter and tested my beacon with non-emergency messages. Yeah, that means I was hiking all day in full climbing gear/harness with a rope slung over my pack, helmet and shoes attached to the daisy chain on the Bug. I got a lot of puzzled people asking me where I was climbing. Most climbers won't need to do all that, but some of us do. When you test your systems, you find out little things like whether your rain jacket is still waterproof, how cold your fingers can get before you have trouble putting on gloves and zipping your pants, which things you tend to want easily accessible in your pack, and how to secure your gear to keep it from swaying too much (which is really detrimental on a long hike with exposed ledges) or getting snagged in the brush.

Forgive me if this is all overkill, but maybe it's helpful to somebody. 

Definitely want to bring a bolt kit to do as the FA asked and put an extra bolt on each of the upper pitches.

If someone can confirm that the water fountain is working (at first bridge, just shy of 1mi into the hike up), then the OP would prob be wise to start w/ 0 L of water, and fill 1L at the fountain (and glug a little bit) - hey, doing the first 20min with no water weight is pretty nice, IMO... also, LKap, nice list, one thing you prob had but just didn't mention is electrolyte powder. If it's going to take you the better part of a day, would strongly recommend bringing several. If you get home w/ two leftover in your bag, you've carried what, an extra 40g of training weight? I would err on the side of carrying too many, vs too few. 

as far as cutting weight, there's basically nowhere that you're going to run into a truly sharp edge, so any rope larger than 8mm would seem to be overkill. I personally run a 7.1 or 7.3 if I'm using a rope on SD, it's enough for a competent leader and way more than enough for someone to take a 2ft TR fall on. Will save you a LOT of weight over a 9+ cord. no more than a 60m if pitching it out. ALso the lighter rope can offset the weight of the bolt kit... ;)

No More Secrets wrote:

Definitely want to bring a bolt kit to do as the FA asked and put an extra bolt on each of the upper pitches.

Ha!

Christian Hesch wrote:

If someone can confirm that the water fountain is working (at first bridge, just shy of 1mi into the hike up), then the OP would prob be wise to start w/ 0 L of water, and fill 1L at the fountain (and glug a little bit) - hey, doing the first 20min with no water weight is pretty nice, IMO... also, LKap, nice list, one thing you prob had but just didn't mention is electrolyte powder. If it's going to take you the better part of a day, would strongly recommend bringing several. If you get home w/ two leftover in your bag, you've carried what, an extra 40g of training weight? I would err on the side of carrying too many, vs too few. 

as far as cutting weight, there's basically nowhere that you're going to run into a truly sharp edge, so any rope larger than 8mm would seem to be overkill. I personally run a 7.1 or 7.3 if I'm using a rope on SD, it's enough for a competent leader and way more than enough for someone to take a 2ft TR fall on. Will save you a LOT of weight over a 9+ cord. no more than a 60m if pitching it out. ALso the lighter rope can offset the weight of the bolt kit... ;)

Water fountain was working in June, and yes good idea.

hangontightly letgolightly wrote:

Water fountain was working in June, 

Was working last week.