Hi All.

A friend of mine is going to do a mountaineering trip to climb Aconcagua and I would like to get her a gift but I’m not sure what.

Boring option is to give her money to spend on what kit she wants. But I’d like to surprise her with something so don’t really want to use this option but will if that means she’s gets something genuinely useful for her trip.

Another option is to buy her something like a really nice fancy base layer or top which she could use on this trip and other activities she gets up to. Its low risk I can find out her size and know she could use it skiing and hiking and other adventures.

Or maybe something like a Go Pro / Action camera so she can take pics and phots of the journey. I don’t know how practical it is to use your phone at 5Km+ up a mountain so thought an action camera of some sort might be better to record her trip?

I was wondering if there are any other cool useful bits of kit or gadgets that she could use? Something thats beyond basic checklist of item you need, something nice to have but not essential that you might buy because you are treating your self?

Budget is anywhere from £50 to £250! So please give me some inspiration ….

thank you in advance …

A Llama.

An extra lung?

Really difficult – nice lightweight walking poles? – I got two CF ones for £50 that saved me 300g over standard leki poles.

Swizz army knife?

Is she a kit junky? Might she have a lot of this stuff already?

She’s generally a very outdoorsy person so has lots of outdoors clothing but doesn’t have lots of gear and probably lacking in mountaineering kit as she’s only done a few of these trips in the past.

I know she certainly doesn’t have an action camera and I thought it would be nice for her to be able to take photos and videos of her journey.

A Power of Attorney, so if anything goes wrong and she’s incapacitated, there are no delays in being able to act in her best interests.

Bet that’s something she doesn’t have.

SheWee?

😉

Some EPO. 🙂

I imagine she’ll have either pored over her kitlist in great detail, or have been supplied one by the guiding company. Aconcagua doesn’t involve much if any technical terrain. She may be not wanting to carry too much extra stuff up there.

Really good quality base layer isn’t a bad shout though.

https://www.keadventure.com/holidays/argentina-climbing-trekking-aconcagua-mendoza

Kit list for a guided Aconcagua trip here…

Flashy has it. Shewee if she hasn’t got one already. Being able to pee in your tent at altitude in the middle of the night is an unimaginable luxury.

A Llama

A cetazolamide, more like

Heated insoles maybe. No direct experience, but while Aconcagua isn’t, by the normal route, very technical, it is very high and very cold. You might need to do some googling to work out which ones work for mountaineering use. Ditto gloves.

She’ll also be spending lots of time in tents, so something like a Kindle might be a thought. The thing about electricals on expedition is charging them, I quite like the Goal Zero solar panels, something like the Nomad & Plus might be useful matched up to one of their battery packs – should cope directly or indirectly with headtorches etc.

https://www.goalzero.com/shop/solar-panels/nomad-7-plus-solar-panel/

Climbers can be quite picky about personal clothing etc, so I’d maybe steer clear of that side of things.

Again, don’t know how technical it is but might she need goggles, ice axe, crampons etc. Not the sort of thing you would normally have

Hand warmers and feet warmers maybe, they’re quite helpful. How about camping gear? Has she got a decent mat and a warm bag. Something like a neoair xtherm would be ace

As above, Kindle or some kind of solar powered powerbank…..it’s a lot of time spent doing not a lot on these type of trips!

I know it’s not really technical, but I still believe she’ll need an ice axe on Aconcagua, so maybe an ice axe?

As an aside, it’s not got a particularly high percentage of summiters I don’t think.

Vapour barrier socks
Sleeping bag liner
Wide brimmed sun hat
Glacier glasses
Buff
Wet wipes
Mendoza restaurant guide

As an aside, it’s not got a particularly high percentage of summiters I don’t think.

100% failure here 🙂

Whitby / Zippo hand warmers are great – they run off lighter fuel – stick them in your boots overnight and they’ll be warm and dry in the morning which is bliss on multi-day expeditions

Thank you for the ideas thats a good selection of different things. I’ll have a look at what she has already and pick something appropriate.

Also had a crazy idea, is a hip flask at that altitude a really stupid idea?

Not sure if a little drop is OK/nice or in those conditions you risk loosing too much body heat?

You could offer to buy her some insurance from someone like https://aacuk.org.uk/ of she doesn’t already have any.

* Please read the small print! IIRC they do different cover depending on altitude

Also had a crazy idea, is a hip flask at that altitude a really stupid idea?

Not spectacularly stupid unless it’s incredibly large and she drinks it all at once – high altitude hangovers are appalling. I can’t imagine the odd sip will do anything particularly bad though. I guess all this depends on what your gift is trying to say / achieve? Is this a romantic thing? If so then woolly socks and a Sheewee probably don’t quite work.

Spanish phrase book? Oh, and if you do, Latin American Spanish is different enough in vocabulary that ideally you want a Latin American-specific one. Anyway…

She wee and piss bottle.

Viagra – it helps with altitude sickness

These are the poles I got. I am very impressed with them on a cost / weight / utility basis and I think they would be a good bit of kit if she does not have poles

https://www.ultralightoutdoorgear.co.uk/equipment-c3/trekking-poles-c67/all-trekking-poles-c168/fastpacker-carbon-trekking-poles-p5844

Also had a crazy idea, is a hip flask at that altitude a really stupid idea?

The thing about Aconcagua is that you get to base camp with the help of mules so you can take as much stuff as you want to pay for. We took a bottle of brandy. I wouldn’t take any alcohol higher than base camp though.

When is she away?, perhaps a winter course at glenmore lodge in preparation for her trip

Professional backrub for after. Don’t get a Gopro unless that’s something she would actually like. I’d be leaving it behind and taking a proper camera*. Some people live videoing themselves and sharing it on pussbook, I can’t think of anything worse.

* Nothing massive but a camera rather than an action cam.