Gear Prep for Mount Willingdon

I've been gearing up for my next excursion into the wild. We are planning a three night trip fairly deep in the back country in Banff National Park. The plan is to start at Mosquito Creek off the Icefield Parkway and camp at Devon Lakes via the Quartzite Col shortcut. From Devon Lakes we will take a day to summit Mount Willingdon - 3373m (11,066). Also the 40th highest peak in Canada. Then return to the car over two days through North Molar Pass with a night at Fish Lakes. It's a high alpine hike, with a summit and a half day of bushwhacking so I've had to be selective about my gear.

We will stick with our MEC Tarn 2 tent. It's a small but light 3 season tent. If the trip were any later in the year I'd probably switch out to a 4 season tent. We used the same tent in September last year and got rained and snowed on but survived. We stayed dry but it would have been nice to have had a little more room.

I'm going to stick with my favourite boots. A pair of Zamberlain Vioz GT Gore-Tex backpacking boots. They're heavy but feel great on my feet. I broke them in summitting Fortress. Even though we will be crossing a handful of major streams I have decided to leave the water shoes at home in the interest of saving weight. It would be nice to have camp shoes at the end the day but not at the expense of an extra pound.

We will be carrying all our gear in our Arc'teryx backpacks. The Bora 65 for me and the Briza 62 for Jenn. Both are fairly heavy packs but with extremely good suspension systems. I really like how they wear while scrambling up steep slopes which will be really nice going over Quartzite Col.

I will have my trusty 16 year old MSR Whisperlite stove with me. I replaced the pump last year but every other component is original which is why I'll be carrying the service kit as well. We have a selection of freeze dried meals for our dinners. Cream of wheat and cereal for breakfasts. And various power bars to snack on and have for lunches.

Our goal is to travel fairly light on this trip but we're not members of the ultra-light fraternity. If my pack is under 16kg and Jenn's is around 11kg I'll be pretty happy and both our frames shouldn't be feeling too much wear.