by Alicia MacLeay
Jeff Lowe's still-frozen VauDe pack
(Photo: David Black)
Outdoor Retailer starts next week and the teasers and press releases announcing new, revolutionary gear are abundant. But, it was some 20-year-old, recently thawed gear that caught my eye today.
In the winter of 1991, Jeff Lowe abandoned his pack and rope on the Eiger's North Face after nine days of solo climbing, when he couldn't find any anchors. Lowe continued climbing unroped to the summit and was rescued by helicopter before a storm.
This March, while in Switzerland filming for Jeff Lowe's Metanoia, American climber Josh Wharton recovered Lowe's VauDe pack after 20 years frozen into the North Face.
Next week, Lowe's pack and its contents will be on display at the Outdoor Retailer trade show, and viewers, like me, will be able to see what two decades frozen on the Eiger's North Face does to a climbing pack, aluminum cook pots, a Snickers bar, and other gear.
In case you missed them the first time around, check out the videos below of Wharton excavating the pack high up on March 25:
And, on, April 2, Lowe opening the mostly-thawed pack on the deck of the Bellevue Hotel at Kleine Scheidegg:
