Found this interesting video via Alastair Humphrey's blog. It's a short presentation by a guy named Nick Weston who built his own tree house in the woods and lived off the land for 6 months.
Hikers of Dune
2 years ago
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
How to hank cordage
I guess most of us have experienced a mess of tangled up guylines after not doing a tidy job of packing down a tarp or tent. A way of preventing this is to "hank cordage", creating nice bundles that can be quickly released. There are several ways to do this - the method I'm using is the one demonstrated in the "Tarp DVD" by backpackinglight.co.uk.
Recently there was a thread about this at hammockforums.net and I contributed by making this short video to demonstrate how I do it:
How do you guys do it?
Recently there was a thread about this at hammockforums.net and I contributed by making this short video to demonstrate how I do it:
How do you guys do it?
Monday, March 22, 2010
Spending money where it makes a difference
Most of the time I think spending extra to buy light and high quality stuff is a wise move, but sometimes I see products that are just ridiculously priced and with no real benefit or advantage compared to a lower priced one.
Case in point, I stopped by the sports store XXL today to buy some shoes and while standing in line I remembered needing a long handled spoon, and having seen one earlier in the hiking/backpacking setion of the store. I had planned to get one from BPL, but I don't think they'll ever get back in stock? Well, I went to find it and the first thing I saw was a "STS Titan long spoon" from Sea to Summit with a price tag of 239 norwegian kroner! (40 USD). I was thinking "ah, ok, that sort of explains why I haven't picked one up earlier", and was about to leave when I saw a similar model from the same manufacturer made out of "ultralight hard anodised aircraft alloy" at a price of 89 kroner (15 USD), and it looked just as great and I of course bought it.
Why on earth would I want to spend 25 USD extra on the ti version to save 5 grams in weight? The aircraft alloy (aluminium) version will of course be just as durable and the weight difference is miniscule. I really hope people don't buy invest in this stuff and instead spend their money one one of the big three (shelter, pack, sleeping bag) to get their base weight down.
Well, anyhow, rant over. I really like the spoon and I think it will make it a lot easier to get the last good bits out of the "Real Turmat" bags. Oh, and I like the small carabiner that comes with it. Probably smart to use it to clip the spoon to the pack or something so it won't be lost, or to use for other purposes, for instance hanging stuff from a tarp ridgeline.
Case in point, I stopped by the sports store XXL today to buy some shoes and while standing in line I remembered needing a long handled spoon, and having seen one earlier in the hiking/backpacking setion of the store. I had planned to get one from BPL, but I don't think they'll ever get back in stock? Well, I went to find it and the first thing I saw was a "STS Titan long spoon" from Sea to Summit with a price tag of 239 norwegian kroner! (40 USD). I was thinking "ah, ok, that sort of explains why I haven't picked one up earlier", and was about to leave when I saw a similar model from the same manufacturer made out of "ultralight hard anodised aircraft alloy" at a price of 89 kroner (15 USD), and it looked just as great and I of course bought it.
Why on earth would I want to spend 25 USD extra on the ti version to save 5 grams in weight? The aircraft alloy (aluminium) version will of course be just as durable and the weight difference is miniscule. I really hope people don't buy invest in this stuff and instead spend their money one one of the big three (shelter, pack, sleeping bag) to get their base weight down.
Well, anyhow, rant over. I really like the spoon and I think it will make it a lot easier to get the last good bits out of the "Real Turmat" bags. Oh, and I like the small carabiner that comes with it. Probably smart to use it to clip the spoon to the pack or something so it won't be lost, or to use for other purposes, for instance hanging stuff from a tarp ridgeline.
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