Winter Gear List for Ice climbing and Mountaineering in the Northeast

The below constitutes a recommended gear list to be brought on all winter excursions. Proper clothing, and proper wear of that clothing, is essential in the winter to ensure the safety of not only yourself but that of all members of your trip, including your guide. Please ensure that you have all necessary gear, exempting pre-arranged rentals from SCG, at the time of our morning meeting. Failure to have properly prepared will result in the need to visit a local shop to purchase gear, and likely result in the cancelation or delaying of your trip. If you do not come properly prepared, or if you neglected to make prior arrangements for rental equipment from us, and we must cancel your trip, then SCG will not process any refund for you. 

Examples, when provided below, serve strictly as that, an example. We do not require that you have the exact article of clothing that is linked. 

For all winter activities, stay away from Cotton clothing

Clothing

Feet: Warm socks are important, but steer away from socks that are too “bulky” or fluffy. Bulky socks will tend to get compacted inside of a mountaineering boot and cut off blood flow, making your toes colder.

  • 1 pair of wool or synthetic socks. Ex. Darn Tough Mid weight hiking sock

    • Note - I personally wear a very thin wool or synthetic liner sock, with a mid weight darn tough boot sock over it. This helps prevent blisters, and helps manage moisture. 

  • Toe warmers as desired 

Lower Body:  Unlike your upper body, it is very difficult to change layers on your lower body. Having a base layer and an outer layer that will keep you warm is essential. All additional layers will need to be able to be added over those. 

  • Synthetic underwear

  • Base layer, synthetic or wool. Ex. Rab Mens Modulus Tights

    • This layer will stay on all day! If you run warm, stick with a mid weight base layer. If you run colder, get a warmer baselayer! 

  • Softshell Pant. Ex. Outdoor Research Men’s Cirque II Softshell

  • Hardshell Pants. Ex. Rab Womens downpour full zip pants

    • For Mt Washington ascents, having a full-zip pant that you can put on over your softshell makes adding layers while wearing crampons much easier. For ice climbing, or days where it is precipitating heavily, we can discuss starting the day already in your hardshell. 

  • Gaiters, as desired Ex Rab Muztag Gaiter 

    • Gaiters serve two purposes. 1. They provide a barrier to help prevent snow/ice/water from entering the top of your boots. 2. They provide a “sacrificial layer” when wearing crampons. They hold baggy pant legs in to prevent them from being hit with a crampon, and take the tears from crampons points instead of more expensive pants. 

Upper Body: Unlike on your legs, it is very easy to adjust your upper layers. On Mt Washington ascents, I will usually bring an extra t-shirt base layer to change into after the initial hike, as I usually will sweat through it. 

Head and Face: On an ice climbing day, you will likely keep the same hat/facemask on all day. For Mt Washington, or Mountaineering day, I will change throughout the day, see note under “buff/face covering”.

  • Thin wool or synthetic hat 

  • Thicker wool or synthetic hat for colder temps 

  • Optional ball cap for sunny Mt Washington Ascents 

  • Buff/face covering 

    • For Mt. Washington Ascents, I will pack 2 thin synthetic buffs, one thicker wool buff, and a thick fleece buff, and change them out as sweat, breath, and conditions warrant. 

  • Sunglasses, Ideally with 100% UV protection Ex. Julbo Montebianco 2

  • 1-2 pairs of Ski Goggles 

    • For Mt Washington Ascents with bad weather, 1 pair is required, a second pair is highly recommended. Milder days of ice climbing these are less necessary 

Hands: As with head and face coverings, gloves tend to get changed out multiple times over the course of the day. Mountaineering and Mt Washington days tend to have more changoer than ice days. For Mt Washington days, I will usually bring liners, 1-2 pairs of thin insulated gloves, 2 pairs of midweight gloves, and my insulated mittens. Your big ski gloves work well for Mt Washington, but the lack of dexterity is not idea for ice climbing. 

Non Clothing Items:

Backpack - You will need a backpack large enough to carry all of your personal gear, as well as a small amount of group gear. All carried gear, with the exception of ice axes, crampons, helmet, and ropes, should be able to fit INSIDE of your backpack. 

Miscellaneous Gear

  • Headlamp with extra batteries 

  • Optional Trekking poles 

    • Highly, highly recommended for Mt Washington Ascents. I will generally carry 1 trekking pole on all hikes longer than an hour. 

  • Lip Balm

  • Sunscreen

  • Optional First Aid Kit

    • Our guides will have a large first aid kit with them on every trip. You are always welcome to supplement with your own. 

  • Optional camera

Climbing Gear- Small Cliffs Guiding is able to provide, or procure, all of these items for you as rentals so long as you provide us advance notice of your needs, ideally at the time of your booking or no later  than 2 weeks from the date of your climb, whichever is closer to your climb. 

  • Climbing Harness

  • Climbing Helmet 

    • a ski helmet will NOT work 

  • Mountaineering Boots

  • Crampons 

  • Ice Axe 

    • 2x Technical axes for ice climbing, 1x mountaineering axe for Mt Washington

Nutrition: Your body needs more calories when its cold in order to keep itself warm. Do not skimp on food! For Mt Washington days I will pack a lot of food, generally with as much “real” food as possible. Most sports bars, Cliff bars, Nature Valley, Honey Stinger, etc, tend to freeze up in the cold, and become difficult to eat. 

  • 2-3 liters of water

    • Do NOT use a camelbak. The hose will freeze up. Hard plastic, nalgene type, bottles work well. Putting hot water into your bottles at the beginning of the day is a pro move. Bringing along a small thermos with hot coffee/chocolate/tea is another. 

  • Enough food to facilitate 7-9 snacking breaks throughout the day. We will usually NOT stop for a full, sit down lunch, instead eating a little as the day goes on. 

Please reach out with any questions/comments/or concerns!