Tag: Gear

Gear notes Norway 2022

In Gear & Skills, Trips, Europe, Gear, Skills, Norway

A few details about gear and skills in my 2022 Norway trip that I’ve found worth mentioning.

Locus Gear Khufu DCF tent

I got this tent in the months prior to the trip with the intention of making it my main, 3 season thru-hiking shelter, lightweight enough to take it anywhere, solid enough to take it to places like Norway. I had the chance to use the tent and play with the different setups before the Norway trip, if only to learn about pitching and know what to expect. I didn’t have the chance to use it under challenging conditions. What follows is about the Khufu in the Norway trip.

Anker PowerPort Solar Lite 2 review

In Gear & Skills

I used solar power for the first time in a backpacking trip (or anytime) on my hike of the Iberia Empty Quarter. As discussed in the trip report, I had previewed this need, then I did an extensive search for the best solar panel for my needs and settled with the PowerPort Solar Lite 2 from Anker. This is a review of the product based on this single trip use.

Gear for the CDT

CDT Gear Review, part 1: The Big Three
Shelter, Pack and Sleep systems say a lot about a hiker. Here's my CDT Big Three manifesto.
CDT Gear Review, part 2: Layering System
Clothing is where function meets fashion more than anywhere else. Bring on the colors.
CDT Gear Review, part 3: Everything is important
Shoes, poles, stove or a kitchen wipe. Everything is important.
CDT Gear Review, part 4: Planning & Navigation
Map sets, smartphone apps, guidebooks and devices to plan and navigate the Continental Divide Trail.
CDT Gear Review, part 5: What didn’t work
Gear & Technique working fine should be no news. The most interesting comment comes from something that didn't work. This is it for my trip on the CDT.

The case for convertible trousers

In Gear & Skills, Gear

Zip-off convertibles are often disregarded as touristy items rather than serious hiking trousers. This is mostly a factor of the available designs more than the idea. Finding a well designed pair of convertibles may be a tough, frustrating shopping job but if you do find them they’re a very interesting item, particularly for thru-hiking, where you’ll need both shorts and full pants at different times along the way.

Rugged, thru-hiking worthy convertibles

There are other ways of having shorts and full lengthies but convertibles are best at minimizing the carried weight, which amounts to nothing when worn full and it’s very low when worn as shorts. Convertibles are also reasonably good at the transition either way. Fiddling with zips is often unwelcome but the alternatives -tights underneath, wind trousers on top- are not really any better.

And the case for non-stretchy fabrics

I miss the old fashioned, non-stretchy fabrics for trousers, so common around the turn of the century. It seems all meaningful fabrics nowadays have got some elastic built-in. Such fabrics may feel more comfortable to the movement but I don’t like how they wear and I particularly dislike how they cling to your legs. I like the breathing room of non-stretch fabrics. Such stuff seems difficult to find nowadays but this applies to both regular, long trousers and zip-offs.

In 2019 I’m thru-hiking big time and I’ve made an effort to find the best gear for my hiking style. I went shopping and I was too happy that I found a pair of properly designed convertibles in bi-component fabric with barely any stretch built into it. The bi-component fabric is great for a do-it-all garment, it may get uncomfortably warm in hot weather but that’s a price for a do-it-all that the forgiving legs can pay and you’d be wearing them as shorts anyway. The bi-component is great for cold or damp weather thanks to the excellent moisture transfer, the nice touch against the skin and the very limited stretch that tends to leave a gap and not feel suffocating.

I’ll be wearing them for 3000 miles so they better work well.

Navigation New Order

In Gear & Skills

My trip in Newfoundland was heavily impacted by the loss of all my checked-in luggage, i.e. most of my stuff. One of the things I lost was my paper maps and one of the things I saved was my smartphone.

Navigation set, 20th & 21st centuries

I could have worked hard to get new (paper) maps before I started hiking but I had so many things to replace that this one was not high on the scales: there was a valid alternative.

Newfoundland IAT, Gear Review

In Trips, North America, Newfoundland

This was bound to be the typical trip gear review article until something unexpected happened: I lost nearly all my gear on the flight into Newfoundland. I couldn’t do gear review articles without gear so I set out, got a whole new kit on the spot and I went hiking with it. Then, this otherwise typical review article got somewhat wicked and probably a lot more interesting.

Chart from lighterpack.com

When plans go wrong, make new ones

In Trips, North America, Newfoundland

In July-August 2017 I had a finely tuned plan to hike the International Appalachian Trail in Newfoundland. It was devised as a rather open, do-as-you-go idea from the moment I’d set foot on the trail but carefully designed to minimize travel time to the trail head. It all went down the drain when the St. John’s airport belt stopped and my pack didn’t show up. Then a whole new trip began.

Boarding everybody but not everything

Newfoundland IAT Gear Preview

In Trips, North America, Newfoundland

I’ll be hiking in Newfoundland in the summer of 2017. If you’d ever wonder which gear a lightweight, long distance backpacker would take to a place like Newfoundland, you can see my version here.

Pack Smart: Sunglasses

In Gear & Skills

This is one of those small things that matter from a packing efficiency perspective. It is actually a very silly, common sense little topic but where market trends may easily lead us to the dark side.

Gear

In Trips, Iceland

Pack / Tent / Sleeping bag / Mat / Stuff sacks / Clothing / Towel / Poles / Stove

This is about gear, Iceland and myself. It’s all mixed together. I mean to assess how my kit worked in Iceland but some of the sections are necessarily decontextualized, if only because I love to talk about gear, in essence because I’m talking about myself.

Gear Preview Highlights

In Trips, Iceland

I dream of the gear I’ll take to Iceland. These are my current thoughts:

Shelter

Stephenson’s Warmlite 2C

Wamlite 2C in the Lapland hills

It’s exposed and potentially windy in the Iceland highlands so the shelter of choice must be wind-worthy. The other key factor in shelter choice is sandstorms, which may not be an obvious feature of a sub-polar region but it is in this particular case: Iceland is all lava. In the highlands, fine volcanic dust covers wide areas devoid of any vegetation that could help stopping it being blown around. When it is, it gets into the most intimate corners.

Gear

In Trips, Iberia, Cantabrica

The trip was planned in non-supported, lightweight style. I packed food for 8 days and didn’t plan on any town visit. I was aware that some of the road passes I’d hike along that I didn’t know previously might have some sort of services. Two of them had.

Hyperlight Mountain Gear 3400 Southwest mid-term review

In Gear & Skills

At maximum load

I got this pack as my new thru-hiking pack. No frivolity, I really needed a new one. My old thru-hiking pack was worn out beyond usability after more than 10 years. Not bad. I researched the market for a pack that would meet my requirements and the Southwest won.

HMG 3400 Southwest pack short-term review

In Gear & Skills

A weekend (2 days and 2 nights) out in mild, post-summer conditions is not the most demanding use case for a pack this size. The Southwest was not fully loaded with only two days worth of food and minimal spare clothing, base weight below 4 kg. Yet it was my new toy and I was eager to try it. This is how it turned out.

Hyperlight Mountain Gear 3400 Southwest: my new pack

In Gear & Skills

I have a white pack

My previous long-distance-backpacking pack is more than 10 years and thousands of miles old. That’s a lot for a lightweight pack. I’ve used it until it’s so worn out that it’s not usable anymore.

Pyramids

In Gear & Skills

Pyramid in the land of the yurts

Pyramids fascinate me. And it’s nothing mystical.

Understanding layers

In Gear & Skills

There’s nothing really fancy in the layering paradigm. In essence, it’s what many of us already do in the urban environment as a daily routine in response to changing conditions like getting into the office block: layer down one coat.

In the backcountry, there are additional factors though:

Keep hands comfortable in sustained cold & damp conditions

In Gear & Skills

Warming up cold hands, armpit technique

Hands usually have a problem when working in sustained cold and wet conditions. Mine surely do. I say “working”: it should be fine if you can keep the expected activity level with hands in pockets but this is often not the case.

Gear Review

In Trips, Europe, Alps

Most of the stuff is just as usual. I’ll comment on those new or somehow relevant items.

Shoes

Inov8 Terroc 330

Maybe the most comfortable shoes I’ve worn on the trail, surely the lightest and probably the less durable. The Terrocs performed well and were very gentle on my feet but barely made it to trip end. The shoe body was still ok but the soles suffered; one of them got a crack under the ball of the foot that turned into an alpine glacier crevasse exposing the midsole which eventually also cracked.

Gear

In Trips, North America, Rockies

As this is no fashion show, there’s not new gear every season and many items are the same as those for previous trips. Most key items are. I won’t be commenting again on those that already were in 2007 or 06 and I’ll focus on the new items or the new life from old ones. As usual, there’ll be a few lessons learned.

Gear Performance Analysis

In Trips, Europe, Lapland

Shelter / Pack / Sleep system / Clothing / Shoes

Nordkalottleden was a bit off the typical 3 season conditions of a temperate climate and I had to make a few adjustments to my gear list to reflect that. There was also quite a bit of uncertainty as I was not so sure about what to expect so it was a bit of a challenge to gather a gear list I could trust and was still reasonably lightweight.

As usual, gear and technique are one in this discussion. It’s not possible to understand one without the other so this will not be a fancy presentation of cool looking equipment but a hands-on essay on how my gear and me got together in the arctic fells.

Gear

In Trips, North America, California, Sierra Nevada, Cascades

I’ve been a very gear conscious hiker for years, always looking for that perfect balance between weight and function. This trip was, among other things, a test for the viability of my 3 season system from a versatility and durability point of view, hence it was important for me to keep the gear kit consistent throughout the whole trip: no gear swapping or even replacing

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