Skurka - Alaska Yukon expedition is on its way

English, Turer A couple of days ago on March 20 2010 Andrew Skurka caught a plane to Alaska to begin the Alaska-Yukon Expedition (AYE), a 7 500 kilometer and 7-month-long ski/trek/packraft adventure that begins and ends thirty miles north of the Arctic Circle in northwestern Alaska.
Av Jörgen Johansson

We have written about Andy Skurka before and now he has started his great project for this year. There is loads to be read about this trip on his webpage http://www.andrewskurka.com/, but I find his gear list well worth reading and it would be interesting to have some of our readers comment on it.

This is something that could be called a 5-season trip. At least Andrew will bring gear for arctic, winter, spring, summer and fall. So there are different kinds of gear depending on the conditions. But interesting to notice is that his pack baseweight (includes stuff that he always carries, irrespective of food and fuel) for the different seasons are as follows:

Arctic = 8,3 kilograms
Winter = 9,1 kilograms
Spring = 9,0 kilograms
Summer = 8,5 kilograms
Fall = 9,0 kilograms

The weight of all his gear (skin out) is:
Arctic = 15,0 kilograms
Winter = 15,8 kilograms
Spring = 10,9 kilograms
Summer = 10,4 kilograms
Fall = 11,9 kilograms

These are obviously pretty low weights for a trip in the Arctic, well comparable to my Scandinavian mountains but much more desolate. I have just returned from a weeks skiing in Sarek National Park and my gear for that week, which I guess will have to be called Arctic or Winter depending on what you're used to, had the following weight:

Base weight = 10,8 kilos
Skin out weight = 17,5 kilos

I recommend that you visit Andrew's site and look at his gear list, which could be download here:

http://www.andrewskurka.com/assets/advice/gearlists/ak10.pdf

Please comment either on Utsidan (in Swedish) or below, in English.

Comments

  1. I would have saved six ounces and gone with waxless skis. Call me a heretic but after spending 10 days working as a ski guide I'm totally against waxed skis! Sticky, temperamental, heavier and bulkier.

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