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ROFLburger posted:I'm going backpacking tomorrow for a few days and I'm wondering if it's uncommon to just not bring a stove? This'll be my first trip where I'll need hot water for food and my plan is to just use a campfire with a pot or whatever. I have trouble budgeting weight/space as it is, I don't want to try to accommodate a stove. I see stoves are always recommended but it just seems unnecessary to me? I've only gone backpacking a few times, though If you're only backpacking for a few days, the weight from a stove+fuel is pretty small, especially if you are carrying a pot anyway (as opposed to just forgoing cooking entirely). It's also a hell of a lot faster. So if you've been hiking for 15 hours and just want to eat your dinner and sleep, it's nice to have a stove. But if you have experience building campfires in the general kind of terrain you'll be backpacking in, know that there will be suitable firewood that isn't all frozen, and there aren't regulatory/fire safety issues, go for it. Especially if you are planning on making a campfire anyway just for fun.
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Apr 30, 2017 04:42
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CopperHound posted:I always scoffed at alcohol stoves, but today I had some denatured alcohol, aluminum cans, and time: You can just make a foil or w/e windscreen that weighs nothing, blocks the wind, and improves the efficiency of the stove to boot. There is also some company called Caldera Cone or something that will sell you this for $800,000. If you make one yourself, just be sure to have some ventilation holes at the bottom; there are plenty of good internet guides. I used to use canister stoves but converted pretty quick to alcohol stoves once I tried them. They make for a noticeably lighter cook system, you can get fuel anywhere, and you don't end up with a zillion maybe half full leftover canisters lying around. They are somewhat slower to boil than the best canister stoves, but there isn't really a qualitative difference. Some people who don't know what the gently caress they are talking about will tell you that they don't work in the cold, but I have used mine down to -30C without any issues. If you need to
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Apr 30, 2017 06:03
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bongwizzard posted:The best stove-cans I found were those aluminum bottles that Bud Light comes in sometimes. It's harder to cut but very easy to work with otherwise as it is nice and stiff. The big tallboy cans of coconut water they sell at hispanic grocery stores work well too. Even in California, when there are not fire restrictions (lol), there is no issue making campfires in wooded areas. Most of the non-fire related restrictions are for areas near or above the treeline, in alpine meadows, etc.
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Apr 30, 2017 22:11
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Pennywise the Frown posted:Ok I have one lead and one lead only. Apparently you can camp along the Ice Age trail as long as you camp withing 200 feet from water and the trail. The trail was carved out from glaciers and is over 1,000 miles that winds all around Wisconsin. There are only a few select parts you can set up shop and I think it's only in the Northern areas but that's excellent because North of Milwaukee is when the terrain starts getting really cool. I live in SE Wisconsin and everything is pretty flat besides some rolling hills. And ticks. Lots and lots of ticks. I'll have to do a lot more research and probably make some phone calls but I think I finally found what I'm looking for. You probably already know this but permethrin treating your clothes/gear/tent owns the gently caress out of ticks.
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May 11, 2017 05:05
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Pennywise the Frown posted:Ok, here's a gear question. I have a really thin Columbia rain jacket that's kind of torn up and not breathable and basically it just feels like a poncho. Way too thin. So I am in the market for a new one. I'd like it to be not quite all weather, but spring, summer, fallish. Mostly for somewhat cooler temperatures because I'm one of those people who are always cold. I wear jeans all year round even when it's 90F. So I'm looking for something that is somewhat light but breathable which is what I suppose I'm most concerned about. I'm quite frugal so I'd prefer not spending $300 on one. The only outdoors store I have around here is Gander Mountain and Dick's. I doubt they'll have exactly what I'm looking for. What is it for? If you just want to keep warm/dry in mild weather, a really waterproof rainjacket using a WP/B membrane like Goretex may not be the best option, especially if you plan to wear it while active and are concerned about breathability. For milder precip a simple fleece jacket/sweater + reasonably high denier nylon windbreaker treated with DWR is a cheap and better option. You can get this for like <30 bucks but if you want to buy "real" gear something like a patagonia houdini windshirt (~$50-100) plus fleece or other light breathable insulating layer is what I usually use if it's cold and windy/raining/snowing but not pouring. You could also get a stretch woven softshell but imo those are too expensive, less versatile, and weigh more than a simple fleece + windshirt combo without really adding any functionality. If its really pouring you probably want something made with a really waterproof material, but unless you routinely spend lots of time hiking in super poo poo weather the jacket you wear for these occasions can be just be an "oh poo poo" thing and not something you wear whenever it rains. A Frogg toggs jacket is super cheap and light and uses a good WP/B material, but they are kind of fragile so best used as emergency raingear. The marmot precip jacket can be found online for ~$50 and is an OK general purpose WP/B rain jacket. Whatever you do don't go buy a $300 3-layer eVent hardshell. For outdoor gear online backcountry.com is decent and has a good return policy. So does moosejaw. REI garage has OK deals sometimes. EBay and geartrade are usually your best bet for good bargains.
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May 11, 2017 05:33
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thatguy posted:I'm confused why people are so loving duped about the polyester industrial complex saying that wicking fabrics keep you cool. They never ever keep you cool. There is literally no fabric better than cotton for hot summer months for shirts and pants/shorts. If you want to jabber about hypothermia or your wet crotch, fine w/e I mean you can have a whole separate discussion about why cotton may or may not be good as a hot weather base layer (I think it ultimately depends on whether its warm/dry enough to evaporate your sweat faster than you produce it) but I think the bigger issue is that most fancy synthetic/wool baselayers are marketed towards activities in climates where "staying cool" in just your baselayer is not a concern during any month of the year. People don't avoid cotton baselayers while backpacking because they are worried about staying cool, they avoid cotton because it becomes a soggy chaffing heavy and cold shitpile that takes forever to dry out.
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May 13, 2017 07:50
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I tried a steripen and like the above posters found it didn't really have a clear niche. In the mountains, or anywhere else that has reasonably clear water, chlorine dioxide tablets are lighter, simpler, work reasonably fast, fit through any bottle, and there is no worrying about having to keep batteries warm in cold weather. When in the not-mountains, there's often enough sediment and gunk that you'll want some kind of prefilter in conjunction with the steripen (Just using a rag or cloth hasn't worked all that well for me in water that's actually grody enough for me to care), and at that point you may as well just use a sawyer squeeze or similar system and forego the steripen altogether. For me, the only real advantage I could see with the steripen was that it let me treat and drink clear mountain water without making it taste weird the way chemical treatment does. But for me that didn't justify the added cost, weight and hassle vs chemical treatment.
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May 23, 2017 11:14
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Landsknecht posted:so I need some poo poo weather pants that I can wear all day (not take on and off) My girlfriend just got through 3 days of scrambling in north wales in complete poo poo weather using $8 superlight rain pants she got on ebay. She stayed as dry as the rest of us who were using expensive foofoo pantaloons. What kind of weather are you expecting and what will you be doing? Spending $300-600 on arcteryx hardshell pants would be exceptionally poo poo value if all you need are all-day waterproof pants for rain/snow while hiking/backpacking.
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Jun 10, 2017 01:41
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A bag liner offers barely any insulation and won't help you sleep much warmer. If you have drafts a liner can mitigate them..but just sorting things so you don't have drafts will help a lot more. If your bag has a more or less appropriate temperature rating, I think your pad might be the culprit. A neoair xlite is probably not be enough to keep you comfortable at 30F. It has an r-value of around 3. Things vary a lot depending on your sleeping metabolism, personal comfort threshold, presence of any drafts, etc., but in general a person with a 98.6 F core temperature in a ~32F environment needs a total r-value of around 6 to be thermally neutral. This is including clothes, etc. Note that high loft compressible insulation like your sleeping bag and a puffy jacket don't contribute that much to your effective body-to-ground r-value since they insulate much less when compressed. This plot is a decent rough guide (for reference 1 r-value is approx 1.13 clo):  I think a good rule of thumb for comfortable sleeping in near freezing temperatures is to have a pad r value of at least 4-5. Less than this it's more or less inevitable that your core temperature will drop a bit below normal, which may or may not be comfortable to you. Personally I had a lot of cold nights in the 20-30 degree range until I switched from a 2.8 pad to a 5.6 pad. I would say it has to get to around -10F before I get as cold as I used to at +30F. Maybe try the xtherm instead of the xlite? It's only slightly heavier, packs down about the same, is significantly warmer, and is less loud too.
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Jun 13, 2017 18:44
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It's an xtherm.
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Jun 13, 2017 19:44
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ASSTASTIC posted:Is there a bigger image of this? Its hard to read, but looks really interesting. I'm sure i've seen one, but all I can find is the original post on BPL forums and that's the size posted in the forum.
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Jun 14, 2017 04:23
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If you are trekking along the main trail, and not intending to do any scrambling up mountains or anything, I think trail runners would be fine and possibly even preferable. My time spent in Scandinavia/Norway has always been in the winter and early spring so can't really comment on the summer. I can't imagine conditions in the summer are worse, though. Here are some considerations: 1. Proponents of trail runners are often from the western US (like myself), where a light breathable runner can be expected to dry very quickly after getting wet, whereas when a waterproof boot does eventually get wet, they can stay that way for days. This can be less true in cool humid climates, where everything pretty much stays wet unless there is enough of a breeze to dry them. If you get your runners soaked and its 7C outside, 80% humidity, and only a 1 m/s breeze, your runners are never going to get "dry", just varying degrees of less damp--pretty much the same as if you had waterproof hiking boots that got wet. The good news is that coastal Norway tends to be quite breezy, in which case trail runners should dry quickly. But if there isn't much of a breeze, don't count on it, since all your poo poo is gonna be within a couple degrees of the dew point the whole trip--very different situation than someone hiking in California or Colorado. 2. Trail runners initially became popular out west for people doing extended outdoor trips, like the JMT or even PCT. On extended trips, especially those with several water crossings, waterproof boots will eventually fail and get wet inside. Also, waterproof boots depend on the quality of their outer DWR treatment, and these will typically not hold up well after weeks on trail. This, combined with the fact that runners tend to dry extremely quickly in the climate of e.g. the PCT, make runners really attractive for such longer trips in that kind of climate. On shorter trips though, a waterproof boot is more likely to hold its poo poo together and keep you dry, whereas your feet will get soaked in runners the first puddle you step in. And if you are just going out 1-2 days at a time, with access to a heated indoors environment in between where you can dry boots, you don't really need to worry about how they will hold up to extended wetness. Finally, if you treat your boots with a fresh coating of nikwax or whatever, and are only out hiking for like a week, they will probably perform very well. 3. Norway can be boggy and muddy as gently caress in places. If you slog through mud in trail runners, it will go through the mesh / down your ankle and your socks and feet will get full of dirt. This can be a source of discomfort and blisters if you don't take breaks to clean your feet/socks, and may or may not cause your shoes to smell like poo poo forever. 4. If you are planning on scrambling up mountains or doing other off trail stuff, then, depending on the terrain, having the stiffer sole and torsional rigidity of a boot may be preferable. If you are staying on trail or within "trekkable" terrain, it shouldn't matter. 5. There are trail runners available with substantially softer and grippier soles than what is used in most mountain boots. Part of this is because boots need to have a structurally stiffer sole, and part of it is that boots are generally marketed as being able to last hundreds or thousands of miles whereas nobody is surprised if a trail runner falls apart after 200, hence very grippy but less durable sole materials can be used on runners. For this reason, I often feel a lot more secure especially in steep or slippery terrain in trail runners. 6. There is a huge variety both in the fit and function of various trail runners. You've only got like a month left for your trip, so if you are going to try trail runners you should try on a bunch of different pairs, preferably from someplace with a really generous return policy, go hiking in them, and see what works or doesn't I would probably just take my runners if I were going to Trolltunga in July. Because I'm more comfortable in them, they have better traction than my boots, they're lighter, and I feel I can hike more efficiently in them. But I wouldn't count on them keeping my feet as dry as boots, nor would I necessarily count on being able to dry them. Do definitely bring more pairs of dry socks than you think you'll need. Definitely don't put plastic bags over your socks in trail runners; it won't work, it'll be uncomfortable, the bags will get shredded,, and your feet and socks will get muggy and wet from sweat even if they don't. People sometimes do stuff like that to provide a vapor barrier when trying to extend the use of trail runners into winter conditions where they probably should just be wearing boots, there is no reason to fool around with it in July. Morbus fucked around with this message at 19:18 on Jun 14, 2017 |
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Jun 14, 2017 19:13
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Ah I see, that makes more sense. Verman makes a really good point in that even if conditions are such that your trail runners don't dry, they hold a lot less water than boots, and are better at draining/squeezing it out from walking. Edit: FYI you can something like a zlite sol foam pad with an R-value of around 2.5 for ~30 bucks new. Might be worth it if your current pad really is < 1. I used that pad plenty of nights to just below freezing, and while I wasn't warm I was able to sleep. Morbus fucked around with this message at 20:21 on Jun 14, 2017 |
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Jun 14, 2017 20:15
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Short answer is a typical upright gas canister stove, using isobutane mix (better than butane), will operate down to ~ -10 to -5C at sea level, and will be able to operate about ~1 C colder for every ~600 meters elevation gain. Be sure to take altitude into consideration if you have an OK time operating a stove at cold temperatures at high altitude, and later plan a trip in cold temperatures lower down. Note that the actual behavior of gas canister stoves is opposite to the common misconception that they suffer at high altitude. Cold is a problem, altitude isn't. For colder temperatures a canister stove that supports inverted operation will buy you at least another -10C. There are ultralight remote canister stoves that weigh the same as their upright counterparts, so its a good general purpose option if you ever plan on going to below freezing temps. Even at just 0C an inverted canister will perform noticeably better than an upright canister, which is great if you plan to melt snow.
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Jun 15, 2017 04:56
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Quilts are pretty great for easy thermoregulation. I have switched to them from mummy bags with no complaints. They are also pretty great for two person sleeping. Picnic Princess, when backpacking with your husband what do you do about sleeping pads? My girlfriend and I have tried tying together two inflatable pads, but someone always ends up in the gap, or one pad slides over/under the other. Plus the space between the two pads is noticeably colder on cold nights. I'm thinking about just getting a two person inflatable pad.
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Jun 16, 2017 05:49
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Flambeau posted:Someone asked about Alps Mountaineering gear earlier, and I can say that on a budget it is adequate in mild conditions. Ive been comfortable in their 20f down sleeping bag and liner with a klymit v2 inflatable (r-value 1.3) at 25F at low elevation. I also have their 65l pack, which is bulky and not nice to my shoulders. The bag is solid for my needs, but I plan to upgrade the pack. Yeah unless you are camping someplace where it is relatively warm at night, anything that is wet by sunset is going to be damp in the morning. But trail runners will dry during the day pretty quickly if you have dry weather. When hiking in the sierra nevada in summer I have literally soaked them walking through a river and had them dry after ~30 minutes of walking. It was extremely liberating when I found out I could do this, after being used to doing the shoe shuffle with my boots any time there was water above my ankle (or having wet boots the rest of the trip). Even in humid and damp climates, if I can find someplace windy during the day like on top of a ridge, I can substantially dry wet trail runners pretty quickly. Fat chance of anything like that happening with my waterproof boots. Also, with boots, if I wanted to refresh my feet by dipping them in a nice cool lake or river after miles of hiking, I had to take off my boots, and my socks, dry my feet before putting my boots back on....now I can just dunk my feet into a nice cold lake without even taking my shoes off, then continue on my merry way. Little pleasures like this have definitely made trail runners the undisputed king of 3-season hiking in non-terrible climates, for me. In winter I have not found any way to avoid damp shoes eventually. Really I just aim to not have them freeze because holy poo poo does that suck. I haven't tried anything like waterproof/neoprene socks or vapor barrier layers yet.
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Jun 16, 2017 06:18
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Picnic Princess posted:I've never really found it to be too much of an issue for us, it tends to get quite cold at night here and they're both mummy style so we cinch it as tight as possible. If either of us get too hot, we tend to just pull an arm out and that releases enough heat, like when you're in bed and you let a foot out to cool off. Ah OK. We didn't really have problems when we were using two foam pads. But my gf especially really prefers inflatable pads now and I don't think there is any going back. I think the reason we get a gap is that our inflatable pads are mummy shaped, so there is no real way they can be completely touching. Also they are super slippery against each other, which doesn't help.
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Jun 16, 2017 06:26
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As far as just rinsing dirt and dust away water works fine. Unless you poo poo your pants I don't think it's an issue rinsing your clothes or yourself off at the source. I don't think actual laundering with soap is necessary. I guess if you really want to you could just put some water + baking soda or mild soap in a ziploc with your clothes and squish it around. But why bother? If you are getting too stinky for comfort, merino wool is pretty great at staying relatively unoffensive after extended wearing. It can be expensive buying at full retail price but it's pretty easy to find good deals online. You can pretty routinely find icebreaker shirts that go for something ridiculous like $100 new for ~20 bucks on geartrade.com, often in excellent condition.
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Jun 16, 2017 08:36
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Some parks are easier to get into than others. I've been able to get campsites at Lassen Volcanic National Park in the middle of August just a couple weeks in advance, for example, but that's a long drive from OC. FogHelmet, depending on how long you are willing to drive, there is a lot of in eastern Sierra Nevada accessible along I-395, and it's about as far from your as Sequoia NP (3.5 - 5.5 hours depending on how far north you go on I-395). SoCal traffic on
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Jun 17, 2017 00:43
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Were you on a bicycle? (I know your pain, I spent 6 hours getting from LAX to I-15 once on a trip to Death Valley because I was a genius and decided to make that drive Friday evening on Valentine's Day weekend)
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Jun 17, 2017 20:12
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The "4 hour" contact time requirement for chlorine dioxide needs some clarification. -Bacteria and viruses will be nuked in < 30m. (Though it's almost impossible to get a virus from backcountry water) -For Giardia cysts, ~1hr contact time is fine even for near freezing water -Cryptosporidium cysts are notoriously tough and it is here where longer contact times are needed. Since cyrpto is pretty prevalent even in "clean" water sources this poses a problem for chlorine dioxide. You can kind of get around this by increasing the dose, but that is inadvisable especially for "stabilized" tablet forms where high doses may result in large amounts of leftover precursor that is not good for you. You can also just refill more frequently and carry a reasonable "buffer" so that you never run out of clean water. But this is impractical in situations where you are drinking lots of water, and even when you aren't it can mean carrying more water weight than you otherwise would need to. For example, if I am somewhere with plentiful water and just drink and fill as I go, I never really need to carry more than 1 liter. If I add another liter to hold me over for the 2+ hours I am waiting for disinfectant to work, I've just added a kilo of weight to my pack to save 100-300g on a filter. That said, for trips where there are not plentiful water resupply points or where they are of uncertain quality, you need to carry some kind of buffer anyway so this is less of an issue. Since I'm a big dumb idiot gram counter and don't like water filters, what I usually do is just rely on chlorine dioxide and use a contact time of at most two hours, probably closer to 90 minutes. This is not enough to achieve the EPA standard 3-log (1/1000) reduction of cyrpto , but my idiot reasoning is that in the overwhelming likelihood that my water had only 0-10 cysts to begin with, I have still substantially reduced my risk of getting sick and I don't have to wait forever to take a drink or fuss with filters. Being a moron t I will continue doing this unless the fateful day comes where I get turbo diarrhea. I should add that I went a long time never treating water in the high sierra, so even this was a big step forward for me.
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Jul 28, 2017 21:17
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On the topic of water treatment, the new(ish) Katadyn Befree filter bags look pretty good. Lighter than a comperable sawyer squeeze and with supposedly much faster flow rate. I'm gonna try one instead of chlorine dioxide next trip.
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Aug 1, 2017 06:33
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Picnic Princess posted:Wagons are great, my husband and I are shopping for one right now to replace our Camry. Have you looked at any of the Tarptent models? You have to order them since they aren't sold by retailers, but the lead times are pretty short compared to most cottage shops. The double rainbow in particular meets all your criteria, I think, and is only 1.4 kg and < $300. I think he has a new 2 person tent that is 2x trekking pole supported that is only 1 kg. Sierra Designs is another cottage industry that makes some good and very lightweight tents. Also the zpacks duplex doesn't really meet all your stipulations (fully closed floor with mesh sides but not full mesh, 4 doors but only 1 vestibuble) and is $600. But it's worth mentioning as it weighs only 0.6kg.
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Aug 2, 2017 21:40
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bongwizzard posted:I was mostly wondering if it was all poop-bugs or of there was worst stuff out there. Water filtration and treatment used by backpackers will not protect against chemical contamination of water. In fact, water filtration and treatment in general can not reasonably remove many chemical contaminants, including even big fancy municipal water treatment facilities. The best municipal sources can do is routinely test water for contamination, and if it is contaminated, tell you to drink bottled water until they get around to finding a better source or otherwise fixing things. So if you are drinking from rivers that are ultimately the source for clean municipal water, and you are not immediately next to sources of local contamination (abandoned mines etc.) you should be fine. The water would have to be pretty hosed up for it to cause you problems. It's not like you are drinking a lot of it. If you are backpacking in places administered by the NFS or other federal agency, they may be able to give you information about potentially contaminated areas.
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Aug 17, 2017 09:29
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For digging shitholes, a tent stake or suitably shaped rock work well enough. Surely they wont be as efficient as a 3 lbs steel shovel if the ground is hard or super rooty, but good enough. If you really want, there are plastic trowels that weigh 2-3 oz that you can pick up at REI or online for a few bucks, but I've never really felt like I needed a dedicated tool for the job. For camp chairs, bear in mind even the lightest ones weigh around a pound (although there are several good options that weigh in that range and not much reason to get a heavier one in my opinion). I often just use a BV500 bear canister as a stool if I am carrying it. Often the lightest option is to just carry a small closed cell foam pad as an rear end cushion, which can turn a lot of otherwise uncomfortable, awkward, or wet natural objects into perfectly good chairs.
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Aug 24, 2017 22:21
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Regarding ankle support, apart from all the anecdotal arguments you hear this way or that, this is (unsurprisingly) something that has recieved a fair amount of research attention in sports science and for the military. The bottom line is that any effects that are measured tend to be weak, and vary a lot from study to study. This is a pretty good sign that it doesn't really matter. I think ankle support shouldn't really be a factor in shoe selection. I prefer trail runners due to light weight, less moisture retention, and faster drying. I almost always use trail runners unless I have several good reasons to use boots. Reasons to use boots: -Can actually keep your feet and socks dry in dry snow -Warmer in snow -More authoritative plunge stepping in snow -Better crampon compatibility -Can get boots with substantially stiffer (albiet less grippy) sole material than runners. Good for snow slopes, and for some kinds of scrambling where edging is more important than traction or smearing. -Better ankle protection (but I find long pants + mini-gaiters provide good-enough protection in scree/talus and brush when wearing trail runners). So, as with Verman, mostly snow/mountain stuff. And even then, in shoulder seasons (or record snow years like this summer in CA) I will most likely use trail runners since the presence of significant amounts of ground water, wet snow, and stream crossings make boots a hassle. Regarding sleeping pads--if your pad is not warm enough, you can't really correct that deficiency with e.g. a warming sleeping bag, and foam pads have a limit to how warm they can practically be before getting huge. As you note, inflatable pads are pretty much categorically superior to self-inflating pads. I would just start with a decent foam pad with and r-value of 2-3, and consider upgrading if you find yourself being cold in whatever conditions you backpack in. For inflatables, I have been using a thermarest for awhile and it's great. But recently I got a 2-person pad from exped and holy poo poo is their valve & inflating system way more convenient than thermarest.
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Aug 29, 2017 05:51
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Liners won't do poo poo really, unless it's drafts and not insufficient insulation that is causing you problems. If you want to avoid doubling up on gear, my recommendations are: 1. Have a high r-value pad (at least 4, 5+ is better) 2. Use a lower temperature rating sleeping bag than you otherwise might for summer (i.e. 20F or 15F instead of 30F) 3. Use a quilt instead of a bag to extend the comfortable sleeping range of the above two into warmer temperatures...a mummy bag would be too hot in summer 4. Have a way to securely wrap the quilt around the pad, in a way that doesn't result in drafts though. This is important in winter. 5. Incorporate your insulated clothing into your sleep system to further extend the temperature rating. 6. Consider VBL clothing for very cold temps, especially if your insulation and quilt are down, especially for extended trips. With a 20F quilt, R=5.6 pad, and wearing long underwear, warm socks, light fleece jacket, primaloft pants, and belay jacket, down beanie, I am OK down to 0F, and comfortable at 10. The clothing isn't anything I wouldn't take anyway for winter, so they aren't just sleeping gear. If you already have like a 40F mummy bag and r=3 pad for summer and don't want to buy a new sleep system, then I dunno. You can extend the tempeature rating of your bag by wearing insulated clothing, but probably not down to very cold temps and in any case your pad will become a limiting factor (wearing down/primaloft insulated clothes won't help there as they will be compressed). Others and myself have mentioned it several times, but it bears repeating--your sleeping pad will become a limiting factor in cold weather camping since it is the only real thing insulating you from the cold ground and if the ground is conducting heat away from you too quickly it won't matter how insulated you are elsewhere. Unlike your sleeping bag, there are not clothing options or shelter options to appreciably extend the insulation offered by your pad.
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Sep 1, 2017 05:49
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Food is something that varies a lot individual to individual. When I started backpacking I worked out approx how many calories I would "need" to remain energy neutral, and packed that much food into the highest calorie per oz. stuff I could find. The result was that I was constantly forcing myself to eat when I wasn't hungry, was carrying extra weight, and invariably ended up packing out half of my last meal and scraping out its dessicated remains once I got home. These days I just accept that if I only eat when I am hungry I tend to run a large calorie deficit while backpacking, and that's fine since I can just eat like 6 cheeseburgers once the trip is over. My appetite tends to be really suppressed while I am hiking, so I just eat small (few bites) snacks or gel packs frequently during the day to keep my glycogen up, and then eat as large a dinner as I comfortably can at night when my appetite tends to be highest. This generally results in my consuming ~2500 calories a day, which is a large deficit but I don't feel hungry, have plenty of strength, and the few pounds of weight that I may lose on a trip are regained extremely quickly once I'm back to civilization. Anyway, no matter what you do, you'll want to initially experiment with several different recipes or pre-packaged meals and you will eventually find a small handful that really work for you. Most people I know have 2-3 "go to" meals that they end up using almost exclusively. For me, they are: -Macaroni and cheese with (lots of) bacon bits and fried onions. -Dehydrated beans + rice and taco seasoning with cheese and fritos (I stole this from Andrew Skurka's blog) -Rice + Furikake with olive oil and tuna/salmon from one of those fish pouch thingies. Those are all one pot meals that take < 10 minutes to prepare, are lightweight, and are consistently satisfying for at least myself and my girlfriend. Plus they make for relatively easy cleanup. I've also found things that just do not work for me, which include oatmeal in any form (which is weird cause I eat a lot of oatmeal normally), and instant mashed potatoes.
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Sep 7, 2017 23:12
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Gotta watch out for that HAFE https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-altitude_flatus_expulsion
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Sep 8, 2017 00:25
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For CA hiking/backpacking, trail runners are your best bet overall. That being said, there is a pretty huge range in what constitutes a trail runner these days. Some are barely more substantial than running shoes meant for roads, while others have rock plates as beefy as what you find in many hiking boots and relatively stiff mid-soles suitable for extended off-trail activities. There is also a huge range in shape and fit and there will be some brands and models that just don't work with your feet. If you are just starting out, go to a brick and mortar store and try on as many pairs as possible. Focus on getting a pair that 1.) fits your feet as comfortably as possible 2.) feels comfortable walking in 3.) has a grippy, aggressive sole with good traction. Other factors like rigidity, foot protection vs. sensitivity, balance, off-camber performance, are more subjective and you'll figure out as you gain more experience what you need/prefer. If possible, buy from someplace with a really generous return policy that will let you exchange shoes even after hiking in them if they turn out to give you blisters, or not fit after your feet get bigger. REI has a really good policy. One thing about trail runners is they will generally start to show real signs of wear and have noticeably degraded traction around the 100-200 mile mark and will be absolutely falling apart by ~500 miles. My most recent pair of La Sportiva Ultra Raptors are near the end of their useful life at ~180 miles, and this is a model with probably above-average durability. So, you will have to replace them more often than you would hiking boots....which isn't necessarily a bad thing when you are first getting into hiking/backpacking since you won't be committing to your first pair for too long and can develop a better understanding of what you need from your shoes by the time they are due for replacement. Edit: Btw, the Arc'Teryx shoes you mentioned are approach shoes, which are basically climbing shoes that have been sufficiently compromised to not suck total rear end while hiking. You can use them for day hiking, and they can be great if you are doing hikes with lots of scrambling or class 3-4 stuff. But for regular hiking/backpacking, the toe box will probably be a bit cramped and uncomfortable, the sole may be more stiff and flat than what you would prefer for walking, and they will have a tougher upper that, while more abrasion resistant, also doesn't breathe as well or dry as quickly as the mesh uppers in most trail runners. The soles may wear out more quickly as well. Morbus fucked around with this message at 06:47 on Sep 18, 2017 |
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Sep 18, 2017 06:36
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I used to be a big fan of pit zips too since, unless its very cold out, ventilating a waterproof/breathable jacket is the only way to really keep it from sweating out when active. But in very rainy or extended wet conditions you will just get soaked under your rain jacket if you leave them open, especially if you are climbing. Pit zips are pretty good for extending the comfortable range of your rain jacket into less rainy, less cold conditions, or for short duration bouts of rain where you nontheless still want to keep at least most of the water out and protect yourself from wind. But, for a variety of reasons, I've come around to instead using a 3-5 oz. windshirt over a fleece as my shell for less severe rain, while reserving the WPB jacket for really poo poo conditions--in which case I won't want pit zips anyway. I have to disagree about rain pants being terrible in practice. It really depends on conditions. When you need them (i.e. cold, wet and very windy conditions), you really need them.
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Sep 19, 2017 07:46
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Skye is awesome! You're going to have a blast. Since when backpacking you pretty much have to check some items (trekking poles, for example, are not usually allowed on planes), I usually just check a relatively sturdy suitcase and stuff things that would be impractical to carry on the flight in there. Foam pads, trekking poles, and stuff security may complain about like tent stakes or microspikes, should all fit inside a non-oversized suitcase. The backpacks themselves we just take as our carry-on and put most of our other gear inside them.
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Sep 20, 2017 03:16
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How are they getting tangled? Is the wrap coming undone? Also what kind of line are you using? In general narrower diameter stuff tangles much easier. Like 0.5 mm line may save you 1-2 oz of weight tops on 200 ft of line, vs. regular ol' 3mm paracord, but with the thicker cord you can generally toss it into a big dumb pile and not have to deal with tangles. For my tarp, I just leave the guylines attached and fold the tarp for storage. Or at least mostly fold then stuff. If you fold it so that there are only 1-2 guylines per "layer" of fold you can make it impossible or at least much more difficult for guylines to interact with each other. I've seen some people mess around with some nonsense like this https://youtu.be/fHTg5hK5mZM, but I can't be bothered.
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Oct 5, 2017 03:34
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If you, for example, 1. Start with the tarp flat on the ground 2. Lie one guyline onto the interior of the tarp 3. Fold tarp in half 4. Lie a second guyline onto the tarp 4. Fold again etc, etc., Then it will not be possible for any of your guylines to interact with each other unless the tarp becomes unfolded, which is unlikely if you fold it several times and stuff it in a stuff sack. You can even tie the last guyline around the folded tarp instead of folding it in with the rest, if your tarp is becoming unfolded..
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Oct 6, 2017 05:38
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Yeah I've used those twisty tie things from the grocery store to do something similar before, but if his guylines are managing to slip out of a figure-8 + hitch kind of arrangement just tying them up more may not help.
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Oct 6, 2017 20:19
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Does anyone here have a pair of "proper" 10+pt crampons that they can use reasonably well with approach shoes or "mountain" trail runner shoes like la sportiva raptors / akasha or similar? I don't really like wearing boots for really long dry approaches just because there are 2 miles of steep snow. Where possible I just take runners + microspikes but I'm not comfortable with just microspikes for much above 25-30 degree slopes. I've seen some people using strap on type crampons with lighter shoes but I don't have much personal experience doing that.
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Oct 16, 2017 23:39
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Thanks everyone. What I've been doing is using what meselfs suggested, just using some light b0/b1 boots with hinged strap on crampons. These don't really fit my trail runners for a variety of reasons, the ankle strap issue being one of them. This works OK, honestly my main problem with it isn't really that the boots are heavier or less comfortable than trail runners, but just that I can't keep GTX boots dry at all in the shoulder season conditions where "snow free hiking with intermittent and occasionally steep snow" is most common Verman I think you're probably right about the approach shoes, but I'd have a hard time justifying yet another footwear purchase just because I'd prefer to use something other than my light boots for these kinds of hikes. Especially since, like trail runners, I'd probably have to replace them frequently. I've seen some people running around with what look like crampons on what are definitely trail runners, but I think maybe they are using something like the kahtoola KTS/K10, which were specifically designed to be used with lighter & low-ankle footwear. While those look like they would handle steeper/more demanding terrain than microspikes, they aren't going to be as effective as crampons I am used to using. Then again, all I'm really looking for is something that can give me reasonably good traction on snow or neve up to 40-45 degrees tops, during the spring/summer, not anything technical. I guess I will just go try a bunch of other strap on crampons and see if they fit my trail runners, and try to get more information about the K10s or similar to see if they are suitable for me.
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Oct 28, 2017 22:15
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Most of the time just thermal underwear and softshell pants. But I always bring some light (and extremely cheap) semi-waterproof windpants that I will use if it is windy. If there is any chance of temps going below ~5F I will bring insulated pants as well. The insulated pants are mainly for camp or when inactive, but I've been thankful to have them in some cases where the weather was worse than expected. In general, if it's winter then snow can be very post-holey so I'll also have gaiters. These help with warmth too. Overall I find the light wind layer to be the most important addition. Hiking pants and thermals tend to be extremely breathable, and if its 0F out and even a little windy I may as well be wearing nothing down there. Some people like to use VBL clothing for very cold temperatures. I have never really tried it. I think the main motivation there is to prevent condensation inside your insulated clothing, especially over longer trips. Edit: Also, were you cold when standing/active or cold when sitting in camp? Because down/synthetic high loft insulation will do about gently caress all for you if you are sitting on it. For that, a small foam pad works best. Morbus fucked around with this message at 03:30 on Oct 30, 2017 |
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Oct 30, 2017 03:23
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Honestly in frigid temperatures, unless you plan on doing the straight-from-hike-into bed thing, it's definitely worthwhile to bring some down or primaloft pants. They will probably make a big difference. Glad to hear your dick is still OK!
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Nov 1, 2017 20:31
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I just rinse mine with a hose and bucket, walk around with them a bit to squish out extra water, and air dry them. As-is, I've never had a pair last even a full year, so I'm weary of tumble drying beating them up even more. But I live in a warm and dry climate so air drying is easy. If you live someplace more humid or cold, drying indoors with a fan works well. If your shoes smell washing the insoles with a water vinegar mixture can help. Edit: just noticed you have a boot dryer. Those are fantastic, and should work well for your trail runners.
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Nov 8, 2017 20:41
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