After nearly 3 weeks of doing the rounds of international fairs for work, I managed to get a long weekend in the Gran Canarias in Agaete. This was a winding-down trip with my wife rather than a camping trip, but I planned at least one serious walk in Tamadaba

However, in the packing and repacking that was necessary to get my wife’s and my clothes into a small suitcase suitable for RyanAir, meant that my daypack and some other stuff got left behind. Anyway, the gear that made it, pacerpoles (wonderful) and my new Salomon Wings 2 worked really well. Being volcanic and after severe storms, I had dry rock, wet rock, mud and hardpack.

The Wings were great and have replaced the innov8s. They held my foot much better, no slipping and no pain at the end of the day. A keeper. The only downside is they don’t have the tread of the Innov8s.

However, I didn’t experience any problems, so hopefully they will work out.

I really want to go back for a backpacking trip as the landscape has so much.

None of the above photos were mine, all taken from tourist websites, no photographer’s name to be credited.

Duo Mid,

A work of  art. The build and design are great. I’m not going to gush over this as there are enough details on the internet. I use it in A pole configuration, which give lots of room. I use a polycro groundsheet and place the bivy in the middle. I can then pitch the tent fairly high even in bad weather and keep the ventilation, and not get splashed. In wind I batten down the hatches a bit more.

Paramo,

Works well. Comfy, good ventilation. BUT is not a good combo with merino wool. Dunno why, and this doesn’t happen with my original first gen Paramo jacket, but with a merino base layer, the paramo doesn’t wick enough and the inside is permanently wet. I’m not cold, but I am wet. This DOESN’T happen with a synthetic base layer. I sweat a lot, I’m the type of guy who sweats sitting down if the room temp is 22deg C, so when I walk, the merino is wet after 10 mins, and it stays wet. My first gen jacket copes well with merino, but not the new one. So I’m looking for a synthetic top base layer. My merino longjohns work well, and I’ll keep those.

Aarn pack,

Heavy, (1.2kg)but worth it. Complicated to put on as there are a lot of straps and you feel as if it is some bizarre bondage gear (!) but, once on, I wouldn’t be without it. I can walk more upright, for longer an carry more. I need to carry all my water so this is important. For three days I’d take 6 litres – 2 in the main pack and 2 in each of the front pockets (there is room to spare). The pack is superbly balanced.

GG Caldera Keg (Esbit)

Works like a chalm, a keeper.

Terroc 330s.

Still not sure of these. I put a sorbothane foot bed in, which helps, but still not enough support for me. I like the uppers and sole a lot, but the comfort ain’t good.  On the downhills they really pound my feet, and my ankles seem to twist more in them. I’ll keep them until I wear them out, then look for something else. Just hope someone comes up with an aggressive soled trainer.

I’ll post some about Tim Marshalls quilt and bivy -  the quilt I love, the bivy I like too, but I made some mistakes in what I asked Tim for, but I’ll post more about these items with pics later.

It is full-featured, and is designed as a wear-all-the-time jacket.

There is a long under arm zip that runs from mid arm almost to the waist.

You can open this from either end. If you open from the bottom, you then have access to the handwarmer pockets.

Inside there are 2 large pockets, one on either side of the jacket.

It seems really comfort to wear. I ordered large and it seems to be a snug fit but with room underneath for a small fleece. Can’t wait to try it out!

Anyway, the Paramo stuff has been shipped, as has the stove from GG, no news of the PHD down sweater…

It describes the authors search for the untouched, wild places devoid of human influence. What started out as a look for the most remote places in GB, turned into the acceptance that Wilderness can be found in many places, not just mountain tops, and that remoteness isn’t always necessary. As with most things to do with an experience, attitude and awareness play as big a part as does situation. He has described this in other examples of his writing as “ditch vision” – an ability to find the extraordinary in the rurally local.

What impressed me most about this book was the authors genuine desire to experience the places he hiked through and to. When I’m walking, I’m counting kilometers – am I going fast enough, will I make the destination in time for the train/bus, how much time do I have to stop and admire the view etc etc.

This guy does something totally different. I guess his style is UL as very often he talks about setting his bivy bag up in the shelter of a tree or a boulder, but the emphasis is always on the experience. ‘What is it like to bivy in a mountain in storm conditions’ – not, ‘ok maybe there will be a storm and I can sit it out’, but – ‘I want to experience this impending storm so I’m night camping on the top to get the full feel!’

The mind is very often concerned with percpetion – I know from my own experience as a photographer, that when I am photographing on the street, I am in a state of high concentration, I am ‘working’ on the images I’m making. It is why I don’t carry a camera when I hike, I don’t want the intensity of the concentration on the image, I want to be ‘in the moment’ of what is happening around me, without constantly constructing images in my head. Macfarlane however seems to get this focus on the experience. His intensity is a lesson in relearning how to connect with a wilderness experience regardless of where we are.

When I hike, I’m carrying my own little ‘wall’ around me – thinking about how the pack feels, is the tent pitched right, distance/time travelled, clothing, food in the pack etc it is for this reason, I’m almost kicking myself for ordering a duomid rather than a tarp – as I’m just putting another set of doors around me. The tarp would stop that – maybe for warmer months!

The Mountain Magic 33 is a new pack due to be officially launched in March, but you can buy from the manufacturer. The specs are these:
Mountain Magic 44 32L + 12L 1156gm

The pockets are attached by what I’m taking to be aluminum stays to the hip belt. There is then an adjustable stability strap to the shoulder strap, but the weight is transferred directly to the hip belt by the stays, which in turn acts as a counterweight to the load on your back. AFAIK this is an arrangement that only the Aarn has and offers severe performance improvement over accessory pockets available on other packs. the whole system really IS a balanced, integrated system, where everything works together.

Aarn recommends putting something heavy like water in these balance pockets. Each pocket should hold a 1.5l bottle. The pockets are balanced, but you can fine-tune how close to your body they are.

There is a velcroed roll-top which opens the dri-bag inner, thus doing away with the need for a pack liner. There is a piece of alu running across the top from side to side which is joined to the main frame stay. This frame stay runs from halfway down the pack to over the top of the pack which then joins to the load lift system. When I first saw this I thought it was too complex, but having used it, the effect of this is that the load moves much more closely with you, and the centre of gravity doesn’t really shift as you lean forward, up or sideways. The load is very stable as the frame, the pack closure and the lifters are linked in a fluid way.

Packing is slightly different than a normal pack. Aarn advises that the heaviest items for the back go in first, with the quilt and lighter items at the top. The weight should be low, which keeps the fore/aft balance centralised. Heaviest items in the front pockets.

To put the pack on you loosen everything off. Do up the hip belt, fasten the chest cross strap, tighten the hip belt, tighten the shoulder straps, fasten the pocket buckle, tighten the two straps on each side of the pockets, by pulling the loop they make, sort out the load lifters if need be…. yeah, not the most intuitive, but once you get it all worked out, it becomes pretty simple.

The compression system works really well, and again, this integrates well into the load lifter and the top frame. Plenty of mesh around the outside for wet gear storage.

I’ve had an hour with it on the Elliptical Trainer in the gym, loaded up with 6 litres of water in the back padded out with a bed quilt, and two 2 litre bottles of water in the front pocket ( plus clothes to pad them out), in other words, more weight than I’d normally carry, and it was very stable and comfortable.

I’ll put some pics up in the next few days, but can’t find any charged batteries for the camera!

Time will tell, but it does leave the option open for a cuben pack for summer with an immediate huge weight saving!

Pics and more ramblings to follow…

I was actively involved in the outdoors for may years – backpacking, walking, kayaking, mountain biking, it all came to a stop about 16 years ago for various reasons, part health, and part other stuff. When I moved to Spain 9 years ago I weighed 10.5 stone. At the start of last year I was over 96 kilos as a result of integrating too much into the Spanish culture which involves a lot of good food and wine!

At the end of last summer, I realised that this year I would be 50, and I was a fat lazy bastard who had stopped doing a lot of the things he had enjoyed and had become disconnected from some pretty important things. So I started walking, exercising, exploring the Catalan natural parks. Got the weight down to 79 kilos, 40 mins of cardiovascular every day etc etc

I like walking alone, the silence, going at your own pace…

As a birthday present from my wife, I decided I was going to re-equip myself to get back into backpacking. So I started looking around for gear, and realised there was a wonderful world of Ultralight backpacking. Carrying a lighter pack meant that my bad back would be hurting less, and I’d be able to go further. And,what was more, some of the things now popular to reduce weight, I’d been doing years ago. I’d been a pioneer! OK, perhaps not.

For instance, my old solo tent was a Saunders Jetpacker. I had a hateful relationship with that tent. I could never get a good pitch. The inner would always touch the outer in storms, the outer would flap around making a hell of a noise. Until one night below Helvellyn, in the middle of a storm, I got so fed up I unclipped the inner and slept on top of it. I never used the inner again. Just the Jetpacker outer and some black garden plastic as a ground sheet.

Folk now seem to appreciate the value of a hood-less quilt in place of a mummy bag. I used to use a Mountain Equipment synthetic bag which I ripped the hood off and always slept with it with the zip open.

There are some truly inspirational people doing some stuff with incredibly light loads. When I started looking around for gear, I came across Colin Ibbotson. This guy is serious about his weight! Using a lightweight tarp, he takes on anything, including the TGO Challenge.. So that was kind of settled. A tarp. Made of cuben. By MLD

And just to publish a statement of intent – I’m aiming for the TGO Challenge in 2011. before that I need to get the mileage up, mountain skills back, and do some Scottish training.

Then scooting around the internet, I came across Andy Howell who had just put his tarp to one side in favour of a DuoMid. He was kind enough to share his thoughts, so the idea of the tarp went in favour of a cuben DuoMid. But there is a MLD tarp in my future for the summer months.

The incredibly adaptable Tim Marshall agreed to make me a 22oz quilt and a 7/8 oz bivy. So done and dusted. That, with the addition of a not-yet-released pack from Aarn make up my big three. The pack is heavier than I’d like but will help my Ankylosing Spondylitis along. I’m aiming for a base weight of 5 to 6 lbs.

This post celebrates the successful paypal activity, that has this stuff winging its way.

More soon.