Gear In Gear Out Gear Fav

so its been a while since I've posted here. I've used my gear a lot since then primarily in south korea and utah. I tried to stop buying gear, but somehow the drive to buy never diminishes. I'm truly well setup now, I can't think of anything else I'm going to need for any trips hear on in. Definitely gotta put some old stuff on ebay and recoup some capital =)

So what have I bought recently. Hopefully I will have the diligence to document these items as I get to use them.

• Montane Quickfire Jacket
  
• Titanium Snowpeak cup + new silicone lid
• New minibulldesign voodoo stove
• Motorcross body armor for injury protection
• Canon IXUS 70 + stick pic
  
• Slack line
  

In lieu of all this travelling I've really taken a liking to certain bits of gear

• black diamond headlamp - so excellent, bright and compact. So many times it has made itself so convienent. Mainly when I hike out and stay for the sunset and stupidly have to walk out in pitch black
• mountain hardware ultralamina 15F sleeping bag - my love of skiing and the cold leaves me in cold places sometimes. Despite not being able to use it as much as I like in outdoor situations, this sleeping bag has only let me down in the sense that it was too warm. Otherwise its always a sound night of sleep. I do wish it weighed less.. =P
  
• leukotape, duct tape, bic lighter - never travel without it. NEVER.
  
• my super old kathmandu backpack - this is a revival. Its the most boring pack but its small which makes me pack small. I took the metal supports out and its light and compressible so it comes with me on most trips. My bigger bag got a big of use in south korea, but i still love this one.
  
• my replaced titanium cup - now reaccessoried and redressed, hopefully never to be lost again. I made a nice silicone lid for it which doubles as a cup and a strainer at the same time. Also a bit of rubber to stop me from burning my mouth. Its quite the perfect size, currently I enjoy making huge cups of green tea and honey in it and drinking it at work.
• etymotic er6i - replaced many times but still my favourite headphones for travelling. If only it was more durable but couldnt imagine a flight without it, or my ipod.
  
• Nalgene bottle - no reason, its just super bomber.
  

stick pic

So i saw the Stickpic and thought instantly it was such a great idea for taking photos especially when i'm always travelling by myself. But unfortunately it's so expensive and limited. You can only point it along the stick, so much potential for so much more. So i got thinking, wouldn't it be kewl to make something that's a stickpic and a monopod combined.

To do this, my idea is to combine the head off a cheap tripod I had bought a long time ago with the rubber feet you get for the walking sticks. The fricion fit should be enough to easily hold a camera on, and the gimbal head will let me convert it from a stick to a variable height monopod. Such an elegant solution!!!

So now, to make it! I found the single screw thru the flexible rubber feet was way too flexible and was not gonna stop a camera from popping off the end with at least 30 degrees of flex. So struggling with some super glue and duct tape I got a nice and tight solution, taped off to resist bending.

Still there was an approximatley 10 degree flex in it, when i popped on my fz7 camera (not a light camera by any measure). I needed something to support the weight. A pen clip! lightweight and just the right length. I installed it on one side bent and tensioned with good old duct tape.

Problem solved! now I have an excellent little gadget that will make photography even more interesting. Combined with my el cheapo hacked canon digicam, the next ski trip should be interesting =)

solo cook kit

 

mesh bag, used for holding eveyrthing together and fine enough to filter crap out of water
lid, plastic lid, doesnt really fit, needs some holes for straining
titanium cup - 700ml
small mesh bag - keeps all the inside stuff together
instant coffee - why not? =)
windshield
kiwi fruit knife-spoon
gsi spork
bottle of oil
100ml of fuel for stove
small box of salt, pepper and cayenne pepper
small alcohol stove
wire pot stand
still needs cloth for cleaning.

hopefully will get to test it out soon.

*shakes fist at the USD*

Luckily i did do a little bit of shopping just before the USD seems to be bottoming out. At 0.65c!! *sigh*

got a new cooking kit and a new pair of waterproof pants, which i will hopefully review, some time soon =)

boiling water...

 

This is excelleent all round food for both breakfast, lunch and dinner. All you do is add 160ml of boiling water and 5 minutes later you have a nice bowl of nutritious goodness. Personally i dont care for couscous but the speed and flavour is unparallel for when your on the road and on teh move. How are you going to get your hands on boiling water though? Mmmm well it's not always possible but i guess it would rehydrate with cold as well if you are THAT hungry. The little bits of veggy and mixing in olive oil/butter and cayenne pepper make it a real treat.

Another favourite. Have some cheese handy to slice in and melt off while your rehydrating. The cup is a bit superfluous but can be handy in a pinch. Once i get my smaller titanium pot i'll probalby move onto the non-cup packaging to save space.

boiled EGGS! eggs are awesome, they can survive at least 4-5 days i reckon out in the open not in a fridge, too bad once one explodes you're left with a mess. My quick experimentation involving a mesh bag and a kettle kinda showed me that you can get some nice soft boiled eggs by boiling them in the kettle, and then leaving them in for about 10 minutes. So conceivably, you could use a dutch oven sort of a setup when there is no kettle about. The flip side is that it does require a lot of water...

Snow gear set

things to note:

• frost on the fly, both sides. Melts and dries quickly with towel and sunshine
• pot tipped over twice, devastating on food + fuel. Do not let happen again
• Zippers on jackets are not to be trusted. Do not overload, do not carry anything thats important and not tied down.
• Media pocket on jacket is useless, will not keep snow out and will drop things
• keep leatherman nearby and handy, do not risk losing again. Invest in high vis duct tape
• Sparklight hard to get going in the cold. Has trouble getting up to temp, bic lighter works much better.
• Medicine - need to label
• Carry more TP or tissues in case of cold
• stock up on decongestion tablets.
• invert gloves to dry faster
• Bring an extra waterproof bag/garbage bag for putting wet stuff in while sleeping.
• helmet gets very hot even with venting

Ultralamina 15F sleeping bag.. my fail safe

sleeping bag packed, tight

the event dry compression bag at work

extracting the sleeping bag

So here is my new sleeping bag, all packed up in a sea-to-summit event compression bag. This should keep it nice and dry in case i fall in a lake or soemthing, which will hopefully never happen. As you can it packs really small, just about football sized. =) It's still a bit bulky but it's a -9C bag, so it should be a little fatter then normal. I also went synthetic over down because i'm sure somehow i'll get it wet and i don't want to freeze to death if that happens =P

the sleeping bag unfurled...

look at the water pool, looks good.

As you can see the sleeping bag is unrolled and lofts up. I poured a bit of water on the bag and you can see it roll off to the edges and pool in some areas. Not penetrating the surface at all, so excellent there. I got in there for about 30 minutes and i was cooking in there and had to make a quick exit to avoid sweating.

Last night Brisbane temperatures dipped below 4C, so i decided to test out my gear make sure it all works well. So my sleeping setup involved a emergency bivy ground sheet + OR downmat 7 short on top of the ground sheet + the ultralamina + backpack to prop my legs up. I really enjoyed the side zipper right by the face on the ultralamina, where i could chuck my head lamp in while i'm sleeping. The setup even uses the pillow that comes with the downmat, so very very comfy.

me sleeping on my verandah with my laptop =P

So i slept through 4 degree weather only in thermos and didn't feel the the temperature at all. My face took the brunt of hte cold but it was a minor annoyance as the rest of me was very well taken care off. This will be my winter setup and i'm confident that it will work very well. Worse comes to worse i supplement it with a down jacket and i should have no problems.