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72 Equipment Advice Equipment Advice 73
What to take with you on a mountaineering expedition and an alpine tour
» Battling with
materials«
Interview: Julian Rohn | Photos: Archiv Alix von Melle
An eight-thousander and more than 80 things to pack:
Germany’s most successful extreme mountain climber
Alix von Melle* tells us what she took on her Mount
Manaslu expedition – and gives helpful tips suitable for
the »normal« alpinist.
*Alix von Melle (40) is Globetrotter
Munich’s press spokeswoman and
has already climbed five eightthousanders.
The complete
Manaslu packlist including
prices and weights on
4-Seasons.de/manaslu.

74
Equipment Advice
Alix, last spring you went on a Mount
Manaslu expedition with your
colleague Rainer Jäpel from Globetrotter
Dresden and the DAV Summit Club.
You had to return before you reached the
8,163 meter high summit because of a
thunderstorm. What was your most important
piece of equipment on that day?
I guess I would not be sitting here if I
hadn‘t had my GPS. We couldn’t see
anything on our way down but had to find
the two fixed rope traverses. We would never
have found them without the GPS – it
was worth its weight in gold.
What was your protection against the storm
and cold?
At a high attitude the first layer I usually
wear is warm underwear made of merino
wool. Over it, a jumper and pants out of
power-stretch fleece. To keep the trunk
warm, I wear a Prima Loft Jacket. The top
layer is my down suit, I don’t take it off
once I’m above 7,000 metres not even in
my sleeping bag. I put a Buff around my
neck, protect my face with a neoprene
mask and snow goggles. Never without my
Beanie, of course.
Your packing list includes a hard shell jacket
and pants, known to every outdoor
person as protection against wind and rain.
Why don’t you wear them at high attitude?
Hard shell clothes protect you perfectly
against bad weather. I only wear Gore-Tex
clothes up to 6,500 metres though. Higher
up it is important to have real insulation, you
don’t need one hundred percent waterproofness
at such an altitude. The outer fabric of
my down suit is pretty waterproof. I leave my
hard shell clothes at the mid camp.
The notorious death zone lies between the
last camp and the summit. What is in your
backpack at that time?
A thermos flask with a hot drink, handkerchiefs,
another pair of goggles, a spare
pair of gloves, a little bivouac sack and a
»Close to the summit
I always use heated
insoles in my boots.«
first aid kit. Some mountaineers don’t take
a backpack at all on the last climb. I don’t
like putting a bottle in my down suit
though. I only put a little camera in my
pock et so the batteries won’t cool down. I
always have a muesli bar with me that I carry
in my down suit as well, so it stays edible.
Why do you bring a spare pair of gloves?
They don’t get wet in the cold, do they?
They don’t get wet but they are easy to
lose. At Denali in Alaska, I clamped my
mittens between my legs while taking a
photo. When I got up I totally forgot about
them. Of course they flew away immediately.
My husband Luis was luckily able to
lend me his overmittens. Ever since, I tie
my mittens on my wrist. And in addition,
there is always another pair of warm gloves
in my rucksack.
Nobody likes cold feet. Especially not in the
Arctic cold of the eight-thousanders. How
Manaslu 2012: Alix (left) and climbing partner Saskia Sippel.
do you prevent your feet from
freezing?
Right on the skin I wear Falke’s
thin Double-Dry socks. They
keep your feet dry and protect
against rubbing and blisters. On
top of them I wear the thickest
merino wool socks we have in the
program. As soon as we leave the
base camp, I use special expedition
boots. They have specially
integrated gaiters and the aluminium
lining keeps you nice and
warm. They also have warm soles
and inner boot. The boots cost
more than 700 euros but are
worth every cent if you want to
keep your toes. I also use heated
insoles…
You use heated insoles? Like any alpin
skier who is not used to the cold?
Exactly. The cheapest model is
the best one. Simply connect the
wire and put the box with the
four AA-batteries with the inner
boot. They keep warm the whole
day if you use lithium batteries
on medium level – rechargeable
batteries would flag quickly in
the cold. Sometimes I put a heat
pack on my toes. There is enough
space in the boots for it.
Approaching an eight-thousander
is a slow but steady climb. There
were four camps on the Manaslu,
the high camp at an attitude of
7,400 metres. Is there no sleeping
bag for such attitudes or why
did you sleep in your down suit?
I do use hardcore sleeping bags
like the Western Mountaineering
Bison, but only in the base camp.
At that stage it is important that
you sleep comfortably and relaxed.
For the high camp I reduce
the weight and only take a light
sleeping bag with a comfort zone
of -20 degrees. That is enough in
combination with a down suit.
The same for the mat: luxury in
the base camp, light in the high
camp. I took the new NeoAir
xTherm to the Manaslu: super
light, little pack space, and the
layers of reflective material recycle
the body heat.
So, air mattresses do not get damaged
when the moisture of your
breath freezes inside?
That is what many people say but
I have never had a frozen mattress,
even though you have to
blow the XTherm up hard. Maybe
that‘s because the volume >
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76 Equipment Advice
huskytrack
Manaslu – Mountain of the Spirit
The Manaslu (8,163 m) is located in the Mansiri
Himal in West Nepal. To the southeast there is the
Ganesh Himal and to the Northwest the Annapurna
(8,091). The name Manaslu comes from the
Sanskrit meaning Mountain of the Spirit. In addition
to the main peak, another two peaks rise from the
plateau: the east (7,992 m) peak and the north
(6,994 m) peak. The mountain was first successfully
ascending by a Japanese expedition. It is said
to be a bad weather mountain because of many
storms and heavy snowfall.
Ascent
Approaching the mountain up northeast face,
the base camp (4800 m) is located at the lateral
moraine of the glacier. Camp 1 (5,700 metres) is
set in mixed terrain. The route to Camp 2 follows
a long glacial ramp and a steep section of ice.
Beware of ice falling from séracs. The second
camp (6,300 m) is located on a glacial plateau
below the north col. The next steps lead along
steep snow slopes and a short ice slope to the
great plateau. Camp 3 is set up in a protected
hollow at 6,900 metres. A fourth camp is situated
at 7,400 metres before climbing the exposed ridge
to the summit.
Trekking in the Manaslu region
The Manaslu Circuit Trek is one of the great trekking
classics in Nepal. It takes two weeks and includes
the Larkya-Pass (5,135 m) amongst others. The trek
leads through several types of vegetation and civilisation,
still in its most remote and original landscapes.
A permit is compulsory. DAV Summit Club
offers the route as a guided Lodge-Trek. Information
on the tour and the booking: dav-summit-club.de.
Literature
Reinhold Messern: »Sturm am Manaslu – Drama
auf dem Dach der Welt«, Malik-Verlag, ISBN 978-34
92 40 33 51, Globetrotter Order Number: 16.51.08,
11.95 euros.
of the air reduces in the cold and therefore
the mattress is softer in the morning.
What else do you have to be aware of in a
high camp?
First of all: always try to keep weight down,
for example with oral care chewing gums
instead of tooth brush and paste. Secondly,
everything that might freeze has to go into
the sleeping bag like contact lenses, camera,
headlight, and thirdly, the pee bottle.
Why a pee bottle in the tent?
I drink a lot, at least four litres a day. The
better I adjust to the attitude, the more water
naturally goes out again. I have to go
pee three times a night. I used to go outside
but when I came back into the tent I
was chilled to the bone. If I did not go I
would not be able to sleep properly. The
pee bottle and a Whiz Freedom Urinal are
the perfect solution.
In the high camp, you have to melt snow to
gain water. Why do you use a fuel stove?
Apparently they don’t work very well in the
attitude or the cold…
It is fun to melt snow with the Reactor
MSR. Thanks to the large burner and heat
exchanger you get the optimal heat for little
fuel and therefore you again have little
weight. Furthermore, the base of the pot
serves as a wind protector. The mixture of
butane, isobutane and propane are very efficient
in the cold. At night, we kept them
in the tent.
Reinhold Messner wouldn’t leave without
his Speck Alto Adige (dry cured ham).
What did you eat?
During the day, I also eat speck and cheese,
as well as dry fruit, energy bars and >
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78
Equipment Advice
choc olate. In the lower camps we had a lot
of freeze-dried food and muesli. The higher
we went the worse the food got – we ate pureed
baby food because it is easily digestible.
Often you don’t have any appetite and
only drink soup because of the liquid.
Your husband Luis and you slept in a
single-wall tent. Why didn’t you take an
expedition tent with
an inner tent?
A single-wall tent is
lighter and takes up
less space. You usually
have to hack a platform
into the ice anyway.
On the Manaslu,
some climbers used
double-wall tents in
the higher camps.
They were torn up after
the first couple of
storm nights because
the wind got under
them better. Our tent
was in mint condition.
A disadvantage of a single skin tent is however
that exhaled breath freezes immediately
on the tent wall. You turn around and
it basically snows down on you inside the
tent. Very annoying.
Before you set foot on the Manaslu you had
to walk to the base camp for nine days.
How did you carry all your luggage?
Sherpas and donkeys carried our main luggage
to the base camp. So I only travelled
with a light backpack. In it I had a drinking
bottle and rain clothes, as well as a spare
shirt. In case it gets cold when we take a
break I always have a Power Stretch Hoodie
and a Primaloft jacket with me. Sun cap,
a Buff, a pair of windstopper gloves and a
Beanie are compulsory. Often we were at
Dinner is ready! Alix’ husband Luis Stitzinger.
»A few tents were torn up
after the stormy nights. Our
tent was in mint condition.«
the camp before the Sherpas arrived so we
had to wait for our tents.
So the food was probably much better in
the base camp than in the high camps…
There was a chef with us who even baked
bread. Two kitchen hands took care of the
supplies during those four weeks. They
brought chicken and fresh vegetables
from the valley. >

80
Equipment Advice
Climbing follows nine days of trekking.
There is a lot of waiting around on an expedition
like this. What do you do?
Read. Last year we spent ten days in the
base camp at Broad Peak, we were ready
but the weather wasn’t. It would be awful
for me not to have enough books.
After physical exercise you long for a shower.
How does hygiene work in the base camp?
When I happen to take a shower I use the
biodegradable body wash from Sea to
Summit sparingly because the water runs
straight into the snow. Often, cleaning wip-
es are good enough
because you hardly
sweat in the cold.
When I want to wash
my hair I use a bucket
of warm water from
the camping kitchen.
What happens with
the rubbish?
It gets separated in
the base camp and returned
to the valley.
Even the toilet, which
takes the form of a
barrel with bin liners
hung inside.
»Cleaning wipes are often
the better shower.«
On top of the mountain you are dressed
like polar adventurers, in the base camp
like trekkers. Does your wardrobe offer
some thing in between?
Absolutely. The equipment from the base
camp to the high camps is similar to normal
alpine tour equipment that you use in the
Alps: long underwear, a layer of Power
Stretch Fleece covered by another layer of
soft or hard-shell clothes. As additional insulation,
I always bring my Prima Loft Jacket.
Do you need special climbing equipment
for an eight-thousander?
Usually not. Near the glacier I wear a harness
with the usual equipment attached:
carabiners, accessory cord, ice screws and
of course crampons and an ice axe. I didn’t
wear a helmet in the Manaslu because
there is rarely a danger of rock or ice fall.
Unlike when in the Alps, on a high altitude
tour you clip the jumar onto a static rope.
Your Manaslu packlist combines luxury
and minimalism. Did you really bring an
inflatable pillow?
Sure. Perfect for the breaks and the evenings
in the cold dining tent of the base
camp. Expeditions are a little material
battle. You are outside for many weeks, you
do not want to suffer all the time.
What is it like to pack a normal backpack
after such a material battle – just like any
other alpinist?
Fantastic. I often get asked if I train for
such big tours with an extra heavy backpack.
No way! It’s enough when I have to
carry the damn thing on an expedition. <
The packlist and the interview in full length online: 4-Seasons.de/manaslu.
Alix’ website: goclimbamountain.de. Her colleagues Rainer Jäpel’s website: felsundschnee.de.
Watch videos on extreme mountaineering: 4-seasons.tv/extrembergsteiger.
Online-Reservierung sowie Bestellung von signierten Büchern, DVDs und Kalendern unter
www.michael-martin.de
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