Advice for Your First Expedition

May 17, 2021 Alex Metcalfe

I reached out to several friends and the good folks in the UKClimbing forums recently, and asked them if they had any advice for someone going on their first expedition and for my own trip to Kyrgyzstan. Here’s what they had to say.

Preparation

Scope the approach and descent of your climb before you head off. Not only will it minimize the chances of getting into trouble, but it will give you peace of mind to fully commit to the route itself, without worrying too much about those other bits.

Doing a recce of approaches and descents also acts as a test-run for your clothing and gear. Are your pants too warm? Are you getting blisters? Is it a lot windier up the valley? Are you 40% slower than at home? Are you looking at the wrong mountain? Etc, etc, etc.

Aim low. The travel, logistics, health, altitude, and relationships will all make it harder to climb as hard as you do back home. So pick objectives well below your technical limits. Things will be bigger, longer and more involved than you thought from looking at photos, maps or even from BC. If they're not, consider yourself lucky and go again.

In both climbing and travel terms, have a Plan B, Plan C, etc. Things almost never go 100% as planned - and this is often a good thing. Uncertainty is the essence of adventure.

Check your insurance cover very carefully before heading out. Make sure you are covered for any eventuality, and always read the small print!

If possible, get out on a long climbing weekend with your team before the expedition. This way you can test the dynamics of the group and find the most suitable climbing partner.

Physical Prep

To prepare for the routes you are going to climb, try and shape your work-out routine to suit the terrain and objectives you will be facing in country. Even better, get out to the Alps for a month with the above in mind.

Fill a backpack and go for long yomps over rolling terrain to build up stamina for those snow plods.

Mental Prep

Envision what life will be like at camp and whilst climbing. What problems do you see arising on the trip?

Think about how other people have climbed routes similar to your own. What kit did they take, how did they do it, time taken, season, etc.

Health

Tom suffering on Kolovy Stit, Slovakia. It may have been the altitude, or just the really big breakfast he couldn’t resist.

Taking your time with acclimatisation will pay dividends towards the end of the trip. Getting wiped out early can take days to properly recover from, days that could have been spent acclimatising!

Don't rush because of some schedule you have, or read, or because someone else is super keen. Almost all mountaineering expedition schedules do not allow enough time to properly acclimatise, and up high you're usually on the border of trouble, medically speaking.

Don't use alcohol wet wipes for toilet paper if it's cold.

Prioritise hand hygiene above all other things (and encourage your partners to do the same). If a trip is unsuccessful because of weather/conditions/acts of god then c’est la vie; if a trip fails because you all get the shits due to being dirty scumbags then it’s perhaps a bit harder to be philosophical!

And also, (this is from bitter experience in Kyrgyzstan), do not trust any water supply, even if the locals tell you it's fine. Take sterilisation tablets and rehydration sachets in case your stomach is unhappy.

You can't buy prescription drugs over the counter [in Bishkek]. We had a doctor with us who managed to persuade them to sell us some antibiotics, but you wont be able to get strong painkillers etc.

Take plenty of those small hand sanitiser dispenser bottles and be really religious about using them. I always carry a ziplock bag with hand-sanitiser, toilet paper and a lighter.

Food

Think about food. Make sure you get enough calories and have enough treats at basecamp to keep moral up. On my first expedition we ended up with a massive calorie deficit as dogs ate most of our meat leaving us with a big bag of carrots and some noodles. I lost a lot of weight.

It's worth trying to hire a translator for a day. It’ll make getting the food much easier and they’ll know where the best places to shop are. We ended up with huge amounts of tomato ketchup that we thought were pasta sauce.

A bottle of fine scotch is essential, either for celebratory or commiseratory purposes.

Don't be a vegetarian and where available, try to only drink bottled water. Check the seal on this too! Sometimes locals will refill bottles from the tap to resell.

Making flat bread is a great rest day activity. All you need is flour, water and yeast. Butter makes them even better. Add mixed herbs, chilli powder, pepper, cheese, mustard powder, etc for some variation. Buy lots of small packs of yeast as it goes off pretty quickly. Fry them in olive oil. Have lots of arguments over which are better - thin or thick (thin obviously).

Take milk powder. It’s ridiculously high in calories for the weight.

Learn

Accept you will make mistakes. Don't beat yourself up too much about it, or each other.

Be present, enjoy the little things and what is happening right here and now. You will never be there again at this time in your life. Don't obsess over whether you're on schedule, if what you're doing is in the plan, or how you will report/explain this to someone afterwards.

Do your research and respect your predecessors, but don't get caught up in what you think are the traditions of talking and writing about your trip afterwards are. Be honest about your failings, and your successes. Don't fall into a faux-humble understatement, or minimisation of troubles to try and appear tougher than you are. The mountains are always tougher.

Try, as much as possible, to divorce your enjoyment of the trip from succeeding on your objective.

Things will often not go to plan; the weather might suck, the objective might harder than you thought, or you might make poor logistical choices, and for these reasons, you might fail. That doesn't negate the fact you get to spend weeks in a beautiful and remote mountain environment that a vanishingly small percentage of the population will visit in their lives. Keeping that in sight is really important, but also really hard.

Go for an adventure, any climbing you achieve is a bonus.

Gear

Think about how you distribute crucial gear between bags, incase one gets lost.

If the airline loses a bag, can the show still go on? It may be worth making sure any vital items that can’t be replaced in-country are in your hand luggage and that you wear your mountaineering boots on the flight.

We lost one of our Garmin In-Reaches due to a hold bag going missing. Fortunately it wasn’t a deal-breaker for the trip, but it wasn’t ideal.

The same thing applies if you use porters, mules or pack horses on the walk-in. If you get separated, are you carrying sufficient gear to look after yourselves?

We walked in ahead of the horses to find a good base camp site. We had put all the light, bulky gear on the horses to try and keep their weight down. This meant when the horses didn’t turn up at our planned base camp we didn’t have any tents, sleeping bags, or even warm clothes. Fortunately, we managed to find them just as it looked like we were going to be having a long shivery night!

Take a base camp tent you can all fit in, a single skin teepee one will do. On my first expedition we tried to make one out of locally bought plastic sheets and sticks. It sucked. Sitting outside in the cold to eat at night also sucks.

You can never have too many re-sealable zip lock bags! Take hundreds of the things in various sizes. IKEA make the best ones.

Buy your gas in country. Check if the tour operator is sourcing this for you and make sure they understand gas as camping gas, not petrol! Ideal gas would be a propane/ butane mix.

Morale

Take a decent amount of entertainment to base camp. Take cards, Uno, a speaker, roll up chess, books, art supplies and even a cricket bat and ball. Cricket matches with the locals are always memorable.

Leave time at the end of your trip to enjoy some of of the cultural sights. With the difference in economy you can have a mega posh meal for practically no money. And the nightclubs [in Bishkek] are mental!

It may seem like a luxury, but take a folding chair each! Even if weight limits are really tight you wont regret it. Get the 'Moon Lence Ultralight' on Amazon.

Bring some luxuries to basecamp with you. Good tea, coffee, chocolate or a can of pop can make all the difference when you come off the hill.

Respect

Remember for you this is a holiday, but out there you are in someone else's backyard - their home, their workplace, their family property. Think about how you like visitors in your home to act.

Don't haggle too much or cheat the locals. That little amount is much more valuable to them than you. If you can afford to do this trip, you are already rich.

Speak to and learn about the local people around you (one of the best aspects of expeditions, in my opinion). Learn some of their local language and share some of yours.

Years from now, you won't remember much about the climbing or the summit, but you will remember the people. Act kindly and accordingly.