My mountaineering sled!

[hikingfish]

One thing I hadn't thought about was to prepare sleeves in case my poles break. I just came back from the machine room @ work and made myself some nice aluminium sleeves!

Fish

 

[Kevin Rooney]

If I use EMT than the hole could abrade the cord...so I would have to look at a webbing/grommet attachment unless you have other ideas.

You can purchase nylon sleeves for EMT which help with abrasion issues (a concern in the electrical industry as well). Mine are blue - don't know if that is a universal color or whether it's size-specific (i.e., 1/2").

I've drilled a hole at the end of my poles thru which I've threaded nylon climbing rope which in turn is attached to a D-ring I've attached to my web belt. It's a snug fit, with no slippage, so abrasion is not a factor in this particular arrangement.

 

[g o]

i have used my home made sled for almost ten years now including many bsp trips and a few ski descents from chimney pond to roaring brook. since my wife got me a store bought a few years ago, the homemade one is used for training on the property, hauling about 50 lbs of firewood around my trails. the key to its longevity is a single aluminum conduit pipe bent into the shape of a "u". of all the trace designs i have seen, the single piece "u" is by far the strongest. pvc, white or gray, will break when stressed in the cold. not a question of if, just when.
and i second the aircraft quality hardware comment - would not use anything else.

 

[Neil]

Fish, you may want to check out "de Fil en Montagne" in Montreal. (www.defilenmontagne.com)
With Bernard Voyer they develpped a belt especially for hauling sleds. I was just looking at it and it looks excellent. Considering that M. Voyer took it to the South and North Poles I assume it works well in the field.

 

[hikingfish]

Fish, you may want to check out "de Fil en Montagne" in Montreal. (www.defilenmontagne.com)
With Bernard Voyer they develpped a belt especially for hauling sleds. I was just looking at it and it looks excellent. Considering that M. Voyer took it to the South and North Poles I assume it works well in the field.

Hi Neil!
I actually did call them and they said they couldn't sow through my arcteryx belt I purchased on eBay. So I decided to make my own belt with the help of my mom.

Here's the pic of the results. The little scraps on the side will have carabiners on the metal loops (they're located at the end of the small straps, but you can't really see them in this pic). The pole ends will have a loop that will go over the webbing loops and the carabiner will go through the webbing loops to lock everything in place (this is all according to Ed's skipulk.com's guide by the way!!).

After seeing how good my mom is at sowing...I think I'll ask her to make a velcro bracelet for my suunto so I can wear it on the outside of my jacket in the winter!

Edit: by the way, the padding in the belt is the blue sleeping pad available at outdoor stores, which should be pretty durable.

Fish

 

[hikingfish]

Hi All,
I just got back from my trip in Quebec's Chic-Choc mountains. We wanted snow...and we got some. Lots of it too. Because we were doing the Mt Logan circuit on snowshoes (it's usually a XC skiing circuit), we usually got up a bit earlier than the skiers...which meant we broke trail most of the time

This trip marked the first try-out of my homemade sled! I'm happy to report that the sled was rock solid: no failures (minor or major ) were experienced. I did notice that the sled's cover had a tendency to slid under the sled towards the back, so I've already machined the pieces needed to try out a solution for that at lunch time.

Even though I didn't experience any mecanical failures, I did experience "physical" failures. Here's what I did on the first day: I had a day pack (bit of food, clothes, water, spare mitts: max 15 lbs) on and I had all the rest of my part of the gear in my sled (40+lbs). I found that pulling the sled didn't work my strong quad muscles, but rather worked my groin, lower back, butt, hamstrings/glutes(?) muscles considerably. This was quite a surprise and nearly ruined the trip for me. Has anyone else experienced this? Note that I was pulling the sled both uphill and on "flat" terrain.

I probably made the mistake of taking on a bit more gear than I would normally carry (and carrying that Wine Nalgene for the third night wasn't that great of an idea either), but when you pull your sled, would you also carry a day pack?

In the end, I found it better to carry in my backpack most of the heavier items, and pull the big/cumbersome (but lighter) items in the sled. Is this what you'd do as well?

I'd really appreciate your views on this...

Edit:: Check out the pics !

Thanks!

Fish

 

[yardsale]

I had a similar experience when using the hip belt as an attachment point. I suspect using the sling based system favored by the *snow walkers* (see my post #17 in this thread) allows your body to work as an integrated unit when pulling rather than taking your entire upper body musculature out of the equation as a hip belt does. Remember, these folks pull 200 + pounds with this setup! That said, they don't usually pull loads the 1200 vert. you climbed getting onto the escarpment at Logan.

You might try just a simple rope sling on level ground to see if it is more comfortable for you. If yes, and you want downhill control, try the hybrid system described in my post. Alternately, you can fabricate or buy a harness system that combines a hip belt with a shoulder harness which would also serve to distribute the load more effectively for you.

 

[bobandgeri]

We use a Fanny Pack simliar to the one we linked to that also has a shoulder harness - it allows us to balance the pull to be equal on our hips and shoulders. By dividing where the pull on your body is, you can fine tune it for the most efficient placement to the point you do not feel the pull. The only thing we carry on the fanny pack is some gloves, hat, snacks.

 

[focusonbalance]

I found my limit carrying a 40lb pack and pulling a 35lb sled up to Nauman site up Crawford Path last March. We were toting tents and kitchen supplies up to help smaller scouts out the next day.
Anyways, I was completely spent! My muscles were not used to that at all. I shifted the stress to my shoulder strap attachments on my pack versus the hipbelt. IT definitely made it much easier. Was it in my head or is it a physics deal? Maybe it's because I'm short ?

 

[prino]

Allright!

Hey Fish! great thread with some neat ideas.

Glad you enjoyed your trip.
Nice pictures of Chic-Chocs such an awesome place.pics from last Feb.

I would have preffered a sled than hauling 30+lb on my back last Feb up there. Interesting that you found the sled a little cumbersome though.

After reading most of the posts it seems that most were of the pros and cons between Steel v. PVC... whereas you were using fibreglass, which, in my opinion was a better choice. I actually own a couple of those rods for sweeping my chimney, but am now thinking of putting them to better use.

Mine are 5ft lengths.... not sure if they come in shorter sections, but was thinking about Chris B's post about needing longer lengths for skiing and shorter for s.shoeing. These poles can be screwed together which might work if they came in 4ft lengths. (two for skiing and one for SS)

 

[hikingfish]

Thanks all for your great posts.

From what I can read, it seems I need to further refine my [homemade] belt and include some shoulder straps to it. Hopefully that will help.

Thanks a bunch everyone!

Fish