Video: Jeff Lowe opens pack of gear after 20 years

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Video: Jeff Lowe opens pack of gear after 20 years

by Alicia MacLeay
posted Friday, April 29, 2011 at 3:26 pm

Last month, Jeff Lowe's 20-year-old frozen pack was retrieved off the Eiger's North Face by Josh Wharton. The pack was frozen sold after two ice-and-snow-encrusted decades on the Nordwand.

Below, you can watch Lowe open his "old VauDe backpack" (after thawing) and examine the contents, for the first time since he was forced to leave it while doing his first ascent of Metanoia in the winter of 1991. It's fascinating, like watching a time capsule of gear being opened.

Watch it for yourself to see what's in this thing.

Watch the video of Wharton retrieving the pack.

www.jefflowemovie.com

Filed under: Gear, climb, Jeff Lowe, VauDe

Comments

trouthunter

MODERATOR REVIEW CORPS

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April 29, 2011 at 7:55 p.m. (EDT)

Wow...that's cool!

It must have been kinda surreal for him to go through that pack.

I have the same, or a very similar VauDe pack.

Alicia MacLeay (Alicia)

TRAILSPACE STAFF

256 reviewer rep
2,614 forum posts

April 29, 2011 at 8:05 p.m. (EDT)

trouthunter said:

I have the same, or a very similar VauDe pack.

Does yours have a 20-year-old Snickers inside too?

Robert Rowe

0 reviewer rep
1,238 forum posts

April 29, 2011 at 10:54 p.m. (EDT)

VauDeVille.

alan

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1,023 forum posts

April 29, 2011 at 11:13 p.m. (EDT)

That's a great video. What an unusual thing to be able to do after all these years. The two videos make me want to watch the movie when/if it comes out.

DrReaper

14 reviewer rep
318 forum posts

April 29, 2011 at 11:35 p.m. (EDT)

I bet he would have had something cool in there if he knew this could have happened. Note to self always have something cool in pack.

mahoosicmayhem

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190 forum posts

April 30, 2011 at 7:31 p.m. (EDT)

Amazing.

trouthunter

MODERATOR REVIEW CORPS

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April 30, 2011 at 8:40 p.m. (EDT)

Alicia said:

trouthunter said:

I have the same, or a very similar VauDe pack.

Does yours have a 20-year-old Snickers inside too?

Alicia, a snickers bar won't last 20 minutes around me.

The Vaude pack has lasted since I bought it used in the early 90's, I don't use it all the time, but it seems to be well made.

Rick-Pittsburgh

MODERATOR TOP 10 REVIEWER REVIEW CORPS

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May 1, 2011 at 7:10 p.m. (EDT)

This is really great. I wonder if the loft in that bag could be brought back to life.

N2DaWild

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69 forum posts

May 2, 2011 at 8:58 a.m. (EDT)

A sense of closure in that chapter. Very nice indeed.

algentry1

28 reviewer rep
12 forum posts

May 3, 2011 at 12:07 a.m. (EDT)

"Note to self always have something cool in pack."

LOL

I have Spanish Doubloons in mine. I can claim to have lost it in the early 1600s. (kidding of course)

GaryPalmer

142 reviewer rep
3,103 forum posts

May 18, 2011 at 3:56 p.m. (EDT)

In 2001, I opened a food cache in the high Sierra that I had not seen since 1980. I started placing food caches for month long trips in various National Parks in 1978 in Denali Park in Alaska. I have used them in Denali,Yosemite,Glacier(MT),Grand Canyon, the Ozarks and the High Peaks of New York.

The cache in Yosemite's high Sierra was all still good. I had placed macaroni and cheese, Top Ramen, Lipton noodle/rice meals, dry milk, dry butter (ButterBuds), granola bars, hot cocoa and instant coffee and instant oatmeal in a metal old paint can I had found near Lake Teneya the winter of 1979-80.

Everything was double bagged in Ziploc's. I had left it near a tree with a huge granite boulder on top. The rock was still on top and the tree had actually grown closer to the can. I had left a note inside the top of the can decribing the contents and a note asking anyone who found it to leave it as I would be needing in soon. It took 31 years before I got back to it.

Robert Rowe

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1,238 forum posts

May 19, 2011 at 6:32 a.m. (EDT)

Well ... that WAS soon ....

Yogi Robt

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