For those of you with a weak disposition, here is a warning. This is a very geeky post and, perhaps, more than a tad obsessive. Feel free to turn away now!

I get a lot of emails about gear, usually following something I’ve written about here. Recently, I’ve noticed a trend for people to talk about some substantive piece of kit and then tag on a question about stuff-sacks! Which stuff-sacks would I recommend!

This is a difficult area mainly because manufactures change their lines quite regularly. I suspect this is because many of them commission in buy in bulk, have stock for a few years and then simply move on at a later date. Over the last five or six years I’ve found some great and light sinylon sacks from Golite, Granite Gear and others. More often than not when I’ve gone to replace sacks or buy new ones the product I really rated is no longer available! So, if you’re concerned about stiff-sacks the first rule is to shop around — which these days means shopping around on the web.

Exped bags are very popular. They are tough and have a good waterproof role top. But they are heavy. By preference I wouldn’t use these often although I do use them for heavier duty stoves and cooking equipment as they are very strong. I prefer lighter sinylon bags though.

I search for my bags through the usual channels. Hike Lite often have good stuff here. I find the Granite Gear sacks to be very useful and light! Backpackinglight.co.uk have Exped as the mainstay of their line up but Bob regularly stocks lighter sacks although they may not be branded makes. As ever, drop Bob an email or chat to him or Rose on the phone. Winwood Outdoor also have good stuff, and their website is good at letting you know what is in stock.

But you can get lighter than sinylon. I’ve got some good sacks made of spinnaker fabric but more recently have been exploring cuben fibre sacks.

Cuben fibre is very strong and completely waterproof. But cuben needs to be worked by people who really know what they are doing! Ron Bell at Mountain Laurel Designs is now offering a great range of cuben sacks. These are described as envelope shaped but — when full — they look like tubes. For years I have kept my down sleeping bag and down jacket in a large Mountain Hardware plastic pack liner (these are branded differently in the USA). These are light-ish and waterproof. Not only are Ron’s cuben sacks light but they are compact and take up room. The problem with large capacity sacks or packs is that they tempt you to use the space! Volume is as much a curse as sheer weight for the ultralight hiker.

Ron’s cuben sacks are a bit pricey and it seems a bit odd to be importing stuff sacks. However, if you are ordering anything else from Ron then you really should consider adding some of these sacks to your order. A tip here. The MLD website recommends a certain size sack for your sleeping bag. This may seem too small but trust Ron; it will fit!

There may be people closer to home who will supply, or make, cuben sacks for you. I’ve lost touch with him recently, but Wayne at teamio might be able to help.

Skeptics who have continued to read this may well be rolling around the floor in laughter …

… but remember, ultralight hikers get to that point by being obsessive about every little bit of kit they carry. And they’re reasonably balanced individuals

It’s your hobby. Why not look at ultralight stuff sacks? You can shave more grams than seem possible by re-thinking your packing. Compact sacks mean less volume and ultimately contribute to the need for a lighter pack.

I’ve spent quite a lot of time here looking at mapping solutions for Mac OSX desktop environments but I haven’t looked much at Mac/phone mapping solutions.

Background

Not that long ago we had these new GPS systems. They were quite basic. They would give you a grid reference and would allow you to upload basic routes from a computer. They would also allow you make a track of your route as you walked. I still have a basic Garmin Gecko that I use when in Scotland. I use it to simply get a grid reference.

The we saw the emergence of PDF sized GPS machines that could display topographic maps that were loaded by a solid state expansion card.

And now we have maps on smart phones. If it isn’t here already we are fast approaching the point where we need only carry one machine with us on this hills.

MObile mapping solutions work best when working in tandem with computer mapping on your computer. Topographic maps are available on the iphone from a number of places including from mainstream companies such as Memory Map and Anquet. However, Memory Map is not available for Mac OSX. Anquet is now available but the Mac version is a port by a gaming company which is receiving very mixed reports from users. Routebuddy is the only truly Mac-native product. Routebuddy is a small UK company which is slowly building a functional and quality product. At the heart of the Routebuddy approach is the use of raster graphics for maps, rather than the bitmaps used by competitors. On my large desktop screen the quality of the Routebuddy graphics really show even if the product isn’t yet the ‘finished’ article. So, how does Routebuddy look on the iphone?

Routebuddy Atlas

The Routebuddy Atlas app is available for free download from itunes. It used maps bought from the Routebuddy store — more about that later.

First things first. Load up Routebuddy on an iphone 3 or 3g and you are presented with stunning map graphics. These raster graphics really seem to get the most out of the phone screen. Load up Routebuddy on an iphone 4 and you are presented with something that is even more stunning. The iphone 4 has a screen with four times the resolution of most smartphones. Apple reckon that the resolution is as good as fine print on paper, and they’re not exaggerating! Every now and then a product or combination of products gives you an insight into the future. Routebuddy Atlas on the iphone 4 is how mobile mapping will look way into the future!

The initial screen is simple and to the point. In the main window a list of maps loaded onto the system. Simply double tap to load the map onto the screen and to see those graphics.

At the bottom of the initial screen are three simple icons, maps (in which you are in), GPS and Settings. GPS simply carries a GPS function. You can upload routes, track routes and so on. Start tracking and the system will give your location, your speed of movement and altitude. This section is easy to use if you’ve ever used a GPS, indeed, it is easier than many GPS machines.

The final icon for Settings has a range configuration options which are important for obtaining maps (see below)

Using Maps

But it is the map screen where will spend most of our time.

As I said the quality is superb. The system very quickly finds your location and the electronic compass accurately points towards either true north of magnetic north. Zooming in and out os done by the usual pinch gestures. The screen can be used in landscape or portrait modes.

A few small icons at the bottom of the screen are easy to grasp. One simply locates your current position and two others allow you to turn tracking on or off and add waypoints. Two others take you to a list of waypoints and zoom out to show the whole map.

Just above the icons is displayed the reference to either the middle of the screen, your location or the selected waypoint depending on how you are using the system.

Usually this reference is in longitude and latitude. But tap this and you can run through a series of other options which include OS grid References; in effect you can change the default to OS references (in the UK). I mention this because Routebuddy for MacOSX presently does not work in OS Grid format (although this blog has been told to expect these in RB 3 which is out late summer/autumn).

A search field allows you to search for any location on the map. This function works well and quickly.

The Maps

Topographic maps are available for the USA and the UK at the moment. The UK maps are from the Ordnance Survey and include the 1:50 Landranger and the 1:25 Explorer ranges. These can be bought as individual sheets, as National Park collections, as regions or as the whole country.

As the computing power of smartphones increases we’re going to be able to store a lot of maps on our phones. My iphone 4 (32 gigs) now has the full 1:50 map of Great Britain loaded on to it, running in memory and not on a solid state card.

Maps are bought from the Routebuddy Store and you can use the map on both your desktop Mac and your iphone.

However, there is slight limitation is moving maps to the iphone (at present).

Maps are loaded from your computer to phone over a wifi network — so you will need wifi to do it. If you don’t have wifi at home you will need a laptop and some wifi spot to have a crack at it.

To transfer the maps you have to go to settings on the phone and enable server mode. This gives you an IP address of the phone. Go back to the desktop and connect to this IP address. Instructions for this are given on the Routebuddy site. On a Mac system this is easier than it sounds using two finder windows or a program such as Pathfinder. Instructions are also given for transferring the files from Windows to the iphone. I guess you could buy the maps and download them to a PC even though you can’t use them on the PC itself! But manly here we are talking about Macs.

The phone software does have a button to allow you to buy maps directly from the store to your phone. However, this is currently disabled but I can assume this feature is coming shortly!

Non Topographic Maps

The Atlas program comes configured for the OpenStreet Map system (and Open Cycle and OPen Piste maps). These work from a web server rather like Google Maps. The street map has far more information on it than Google Maps and its inclusion is a real bonus.

Summary

If you use Routebuddy on the Mac Routebuddy Atlas is a simple addition. The quality of mapping on the phone is the best by far. However, Mac using hillwalkers have been put off by the limitations of the desktop software which doesn’t think in OS Grid or display height information. However, these features will be coming to Routebuddy 3 soon.

When Routebuddy 3 is around Routebuddy Atlas will become the natural choice for mapping with Apple systems. As it stands at the moment the iphone app is superb and just waiting for the desktop version to catch up.

Routebuddy

Neoair Short, 279 grams (including stuff-sack)

Just what we need: another review of an inflatable mattress! The Neoair mattress has been around for a couple of years ago now, and I certainly couldn’t be called an early adopter. But there seem few full reviews covering it, so here goes.

Introduction

My first Thermorest was an inflatable mattress. It was long, thin and very heavy. Worse than this it seemed to have been made of some exceptionally slippery material which had you moving all around the tent during the night! things improved with the lighter Prolite range, which was the first of these ma tresses that I felt comfortable backpacking with.

The Prolites were still heavy. I graduated to the Torsolite mat from backpackinglight.com. I liked this a lot and it proved that you don’t need a full coverage mat to be comfortable (you just shove packs, clothing and so un where your feet are). My first Torsolite was much loved. It was patched over and over again. And then the patches couldn’t take it and I bought another. the new one seemed to have something wrong with the valve and just prior to the 2009 Challenge I realised I couldn’t rely on it. At very short notice I went back to a closed cell mat and was surprised to find it as comfortable.

I stuck with the foam mat — a Gossamer Gear Torso mat — for a while. It was my bad back that did for it. I was in so much pain on the Challenge that I decided to buy one at Braemar Mountain Sports. Many of those I’d met on the way swore by their Neoairs. I’m not sure the mat did my back any good, but it was certainly a very impressive piece of kit.

The Mattress

On first impressions the mat feels and looks very different to a standard Thermorest. The material seems much thinner and there is no foam insert. It comes in a standard colour of horrible yellow.

Blow the mat up and it looks nothing like a standard camping mattress. Bob Cartwright says it takes 12 man sized puffs to inflate. Nonsense! But you soon have it inflated.

Once inflated you have something that looks like those old ‘air mattresses’ you used to get for the beach — until too many little yobby kids, and stupid Dads drowned at sea on them. What you have is a mattress which is formed out of ‘inflated tubes’. The mat may be light but it is far thicker than any other on the market.

Uneven Ground — Banished for Ever

I’ve used the mat a fair amount now, both when backpacking and casual camping. Its great characteristic is that it makes nonsense of undulating and uneven ground. A foam mat will not save you from horrible undulations. And often neither will a conventional inflatable. Use either of these outside the Sheilin of Mark Bothy and you’ll have an uncomfortable night. The Neoair is so thick that it evens out all of the undulations. No mean task that.

Hard or Soft Mattress sir?

The Neoair is also more adjustable to you personal preference for a mat. I like my mattresses hard. If you really inflate the Neoair you can mimic a firm mattress quite easily. but if you like things a little softer, no problem: just let a little air out of the valve. I was recommended to have it a little sloppy, to aid the back. But sloppy o firm I could really see no difference. So I opted for hard.

On uneven ground there is no doubt that — once adjusted for personal prefernece — the Neoair is remarkably comfortable, more so that any other mat I have tried.

Torso/Short

If you want to keep weight down but the short length. This may have been short but it was still far longer than any other short mat I have bought, while staying in the same weight range. I’m six foot. I could happily have my pillow (or stuffed-sack) on the mat, while still having a lot of coverage over my legs.

Tougness?

The material does look fragile. I don’t know if it is but to me it seemed robust enough. I placed my Neoair straight on the ground with no inner tent to protect it. I slept in my bivy bacg on top of the mattress. Various people who saw this looked horrified. But there was nothing to suggest that it would suffer. Scotland is very grassy. on more rockier ground I might carry one section of the GG mat with me to protect the Neoair.

As with all inflatable mattresses it pays to carry a Thermorest repair kit.

Conclusion

This is a very impressive piece of design and manufacturing. If you want a comfortable mattress when camping then look no further.

I have only found two disadvantages.

Firstly, when there are two of us in the tent I’m at a very different level — which is a bit peculiar. However, you adjust quite quickly — happy in the knowledge that your mat is the most comfy …

Secondly, the mat is expensive. Bob Cartwright at backpackinglight.co.uk is selling them for £80 — and I think I have paid more than this at Braemar Mountain Sports.

When I bought my mat I carried around Braemar for an afternboon. At the Hungry Highlander I left it on the counter. When I realised the girls were gathered around marvelling at the price.

“That price: you must have a very bad back”

“I do have a very bad back” I replied.

 

Quite simply this is the most comfortable mattress I have every used, and it is still less than 300 grams. On some trips I may stick with the foam mat. But on anything challenging, the Neoair will be first choice.

Sometimes you really do pay for what you get.

 

While the back may have kept me off the hills for a few weeks there has still been a lot of time to play with gear and to ponder great thoughts!

On thing that has caught my attention this year has been the esbit tablet which is beginning to seem to be a fuel source that is worth considering. Esbits are solid fuel tablets that are rectangular shaped and about a couple of centimetres long. This is a fuel that I’ve long associated with the military. Being solid these tablets are long lasting, portable without danger of spillage and effective enough for a basic meal. In the past I’ve always seen this fuel source as one that will heat food and water to a safety point if one that falls short of a full ‘rolling boil’. Some people like them but I’ve never really seen any advantage over meths. The new, small, meths stoves are my preferred fuel of choice, especially when trekking alone or taking part in shorter trips. Canisters, of course, have great convenience for the long distance walker and they are both versatile and effective. Canisters are not very environmentally friendly though. Thoughtful and considerate disposal of spent canisters is something of a nightmare. Still, there are times when they are useful. I used one on this year’s walk across Scotland — mainly because I already had some full canisters at home. My favourite stove is the Bushbuddy wood burner but you do need the weather for it. The last time I used it on a long walk was in a sunny climate (and with a small alcohol stove as a backup).

On this year’s Challenge younger hikers — followers of lightweight principles — were far more prominent than in previous years. Many of these folks instinctively network through blogs and other social media (Twitter being the best place to find them). These guys and girls take their kit seriously and they seem to spend a lot of their income on it — I guess young famlies haven’t impinged that much yet. This group will almost certainly not be using canisters. Meths/alcohol is very much to the fore. But esbit tablets are there too.

I first began to think again about esbits a couple of years ago when wild camping with Colin Ibbotson in Snbowdonia. We set up camp and both got on with heating our food. I was using a pretty fast alcohol stove (the Whitebox I think) and Colin was using his own design and manufactured esbit stove, the design of which is featured in the Colin Ibbotson pages elsewhere on this blog. Colin’s food was ready before mine. We were both using small titanium kettles but Colin’s food was hot to a boil, not what I’d expected. Bob Cartwright is the only other person who’s regularly gone on to me about Esbits, but then Bob is a stove fanatic and gets excited about things in the way that only Weird Darren can! Colin’s system clearly delivered results.

On this year’s Challenge I kept coming across the Caldera Cone system from Trail Designs. I’ve been aware of this for a while, of course, and Chris Townsend reckons it to be the best meths system he’s used (which is good enough for me).

At Coylumbridge I met up with Steve Horner who was using a Caldera Cone with an esbit stove. Interesting. Later on in the trip I was chatting about stoves to Rob Slade who was also using a Caldera but with meths, but he’d been thinking about the benefits as esbit.

When I returned home I ordered a Caldera Cone, custom designed by Trail Designs to take my Mountain Laurel Designs titanium pot. The Cone system is both very effective and ridiculously cheap, even when ordering from abroad. The concept is very simply. The ‘cone’ is a piece of aluminium (I think) that is engineered so that it can be put together as piece of kit that is both a wind shield and a pot support. You order your cone to fit your pot — Trail Designs are able to supply cones shaped to fit almost all popular pots. The pot slips into the top of the cone and is suspended at exactly the optimum height to get the most out of your stove.

The Cone comes with a very light, beer-can-type stove. Indeed, what you get through the post is a complete system that includes a lightweight measuring ‘thimble’ and a convenient small plastic bottle which allows you to easily add the correct amount of fuel without spillage. You can use the cone with other small stoves — Trail Designs themselves are making a lot at the moment of the Evernote alcohol stove that Bob is selling. But the basic stove that arrives with the cone is pretty effective and efficient. The cone provides brilliant wind protection and together with the optimum height arrangement for the pot really does give you a lot of power for the least fuel. I’ve been very impressed with it.

But order a Caldera Cone and you have an option of adding a Trail Designs esbit stove — the Gram Gracker, which is small, ultralight and cheap piece of kit. I think this was the stove that Steve Horner was using; it was certainly the piece of kit that Rob had been talking to me about. I decided to have a look at the Gram Cracker and ordered one with my cone.

The Caldera Cone arrives in a plastic tube that both protects the aluminium cone and contains all your other bits and pieces. At first I was a bit annoyed by this. The container is additional weight that I didn’t think I needed. But, it doesn’t weight much and is made of taste neutral plastic. You unscrew the tube in the middle and you then have one or two plastic mugs that can be used for food or drinks. The whole package weighs very little.

As I opened the package I almost missed the Gram Cracker it is that small. Included in the deal are a few sample esbit tablets and these gave the game away and ensured that I didn’t throw away the Gram Cracker with the packaging!

Initially I experimented with the alcohol stove and the tablets were left to one side. But I’ve finally got used to using them and I’m impressed!

The Gram Cracker is really a narrow strip of bent metal. That being said Trail designs reckon that it is designed (as the meths stove) to be the perfect height to get maximum benefit from the fuel when using the cone. You slip a tablet onto the stove and you can control the flame, to some extent, by adding or removing side panels. If you need a longer burn you can stack two tablets one on top of each other.

Now, in all honesty, I have’t used this system on a proper wild camp yet. I’ve just experimented with it in the relative shelter of my back garden. But first results are impressive.

Colin regularly makes use of just half a tablet to heat his food. First impressions suggest that — so long as your careful with the measurement of dried food and water — half a tablet is indeed all you need. When trekking Colin never prepares hot drinks and he tells me that this cuts down his fuel consumption dramatically — and this of course means less weight carried; just one of the Ibbotson tricks this. Me, I like my tea and coffee when out in the wild.

I now use a Mountain kettle because of its capacity. It is almost as good as my MSR 2 person pot but with a footprint that is smaller than my single person MSR kettle. When camping solo this allows me to boil a full pot’s worth of water, use some of it to make a drink (in the plastic cup/cone tube) and then to add dried fuel to the remaining water. The pot can the be placed in its pot cozy and allowed to dehydrate properly. In the back garden I’ve been amazed to find that I can get a good temperature for the water using only half a tablet. I suspect in the wilds I might use a whole tablet but I’ll have to see. I’d be interested in feedback from those who use esbits regularly — Steve/Colin?

So, this fuel — in this kit at least — seems to offer more than I’d considered before. Now we have to think about convenience.

A two or three week trek, without re-supply, would be interesting and I’m not sure that the tablets would win over alcohol. But for three or four days at a time they make great sense. On something like the TGO Challenge you are able to re-supply every three or four days and so bulk of fuel is not such a problem. But as Steve pointed out to me, you can easily add tablets to fuel parcels and send them through the post, something you shouldn’t really do with bottles of meths.

This arrangement might also provide a cheap and light back-up to alcohol as well. I find it quite easy to use more alcohol than planned. In remote places like the Highlands replenishing the fuel can be quite difficult — this year Phil Turner was mightily relieved when he found a bottle of meths in the chemist in Drumnadrochit. I know how he felt as I’ve been in a similar situation myself. Bring along a Gram Cracker and three or four tablet of emergencies would be an effective insurance policy against alcohol blight!

There may be other downsides to the tablets. Some complain of the smell of some brands, though this is not a problem with the stuff I’ve been using. Others have written dire things about carbon monoxide fumes and other emissions. But my shelters are always well ventilated and I’m quite happy if the fumes kill bugs but leave me alone!

I’ve not really experimented with other esbit/tablet stoves but the Gram Cracker and the Caldera Cone does the business. This is a combination that would be worth any ultralight backpacker having a look at. And if you want an even more versitile system you can buy one of the Cones that is designed to operate (also) as a wood burning stove. I think Colin Ibbotson used this system on his recent Arizona trek, at least there seem to photos of one.

I’d be interested in more feedback on esbit tablets. Do you use them? have you experimented with them? How do you use them for optimum performance?

Trail Designs — Caldera Cone

Not sure if you’ve seen this but Bob has started thinking about some kind of live video review thing.

To be honest I don’t know what the point of this is but there you go … What’s the advantage over just a video you can watch at any time?

Anyhow, if you want to take part he can see details here.

Yet another good blog I’ve missed. This is from John the Shed Dweller — no I don’t know why!

Anyhow, this is an outdoor blog from the geeky gear stable.

John is a great guy and very funny. Worth following.

Shed Dweller’s Moments

You are a demanding lot! It has been pointed out that I haven’t posted by customary review of my gear yet! As I’ve still got to finalise the journal I thought I’d better post something here.

Shelter and Sleep

I’ve reviewed the Mountain Laurel Duomid separately and you can read this here.

I decided not to take a groundsheet, which seems to have been an unusual decision. However, this is something else that can just get wet. Wild camp pitches in Scotland tend to be good and I didn’t miss one for a moment.

Protection was provided by a Mountain Laurel Soul Bivy. The Soul is a perfect companion to the Duomid. It has a bathtub/waterproof floor but a breathable upper. this is by far the most breathable bivy I have used. The bivy has a built in bug net in the hood and I nearly always use this. The net can be attached by chord to the roof of the tarp but it also comes with a wire frame which can be bent to ensure that the bug net does not sit on your face. I tend to use the wire. The hood also has a second set of zippers which allow you to close a fabric hood opening. This is rather similar to pulling the draw chord of your sleeping bag closed. This can raise the temperature inside of the bivy considerably. As always you get a little condensation but in practice this is not a problem with the Soul Bivy. A great piece of kit.

My sleeping mat arrangements changed during the Challenge. I started off using my Gossamer Gear torso length foam mat. This is a fantastic and light piece of kit which keeps you well insulated from the floor. Sadly, this seems more difficult to get hold of in this country — Winwood OUtdoors sell them but they seem permanently out of stock.

I had a real problem with my back during this event. At Braemar I decided to invest in a Thermorest Neoair, which everyone was raving about. I’m not sure if this really helped that much but it did even out the ground very well and made it easier to sleep, which helped. The Neoair is the most comfortable inflatable mat I have ever used. It seems to be more robust than it looks. I used a small size, in kind of torso mode. I found this was more than adequate for me. At 120 cm this is the longest mat I have used for years. I simply stashed clothes and drybags under my feet to keep them warm. The Neoair is expensive but is a very effective piece of kit.

My sleeping bag was once again my PHD Minimus 400 bag. This keeps my comfortable to down to around zero. It seems to have lost some fill be I’m always surprised by how effective it is. I used this with a Rab silk liner.

The nights at the beginning of the Challenge were cold. I bought a pair of Icebreaker merino long johns for the cold. I didn’t rally find these that comfortable and they simply were not breathable enough in the sleeping bag and bivy. Next year I think I will use a pair of OPHD down pants. On cold nights I also worse my down jacket and was perfectly warm. For most evenings the bivy and bag were warmth enough, too warm sometimes.

Cooking

I took a canister stove — the Peak Ignition stove — again this year, simply because I had some unused canisters at home. I really don’t like canisters and most of the time these days I stick with alcohol stoves. This year I was impressed with the Caldera Cone system and have since bought one. I reckon this will become my default stove when the Bushbuddy is not viable. I’ve also purchased a Gram Cracker esbit stove which I shall experiment with (using the cone).

I had one pot, the MSR Titan Kettle. This I used to eat and drink out of it.

Fuel use was kept to a minimum by using a pot cozy made from a backpackinglight.co.uk’s kit.

Other kitchen gear included a fire steel, a platypus carry water container and a titanium (folding) spork.

Pack

I used my trusty ULA Conduit backpack once again. This is a frameless pack which is very comfortable — the shoulder straps are the very best I have ever used. This dyneema pack has an internal capacity of just over 30 litres but copious side pockets and a large pocket on the face of the pack. With a lightweight load it is possible to carry five days worth of food quite easily.

The Conduit has now been redesigned and as far as I can see all of the changes are improvements! These have to be imported from the USA but if you don’t fancy that it is about the same capacity as the Golite Jam.

Feet

Inov8 Terrocs again. Wonderful shoes. These have been modified lately. I’m not sure what the differences are but I think there is a little more padding in the ankle. they may also be a bit more hard wearing in the sole department. New for the CHallenge mine still look rather pristine.

Terrocs mean wet feet. I find X Socks, Trekking Lite, are the perfect companion socks. They don’t hold water and are easy to wash through.

I alos carried a pair of Smartwool socks for cold nights. A pair of Sealskinz socks were used not for walking but for camp and civilisation when the shoes were wet. Works well this system. Saves me carrying a pair of sandals or crocs.

Clothes

Paramo Velez trousers and Paramo Third Element jacket (follow links for reviews).

I also carried a pair of Paramo summer trousers, the Merapi Vent trousers. These were carried for hot weather (but never worn) and used in pubs, hotels, etc.

Baselayers were Icebreaker, one long sleeve and one Polo short sleeve shirt. I carried one pair of Icebreaker 200 boxers.

My PHD Minimus down jacket was as wonderful as these always are.

Poles

Pacerpoles — aluminium. I love these poles. Mine are 6 or 7 years old and have taken a pounding They’ve had new base sections and new tips. They now need replacing as everything bends easily now. In a peat bog I managed to bend the middle section of the pole which can’t be properly bent back! I will stick to aluminium as I’ve seen too many carbon poles shattering on the Challenge! I also carry a Pacer camera connector which turns a pole into a basic monopod.

Notable Accesories

Toilet trowel (from backpackinglight.co.uk), Ortleib map case and mobile phone case, Swiss Army knife, Garmin Gekko – a very basic GPS. My watch was my Suunto Observor. This was carried in a pack pocket as the strap broke. This is the second time this has happened in two years — the plastic just seems to perish in the rain! Annoying.

 

And that’s about it I think!

 

 

 

Here you can see my Tilly Hat, in the state it came home from the Challenge. It is a bit battered these days, the elements having taken their toll. I think ultra violet light has knocked it about quite hard.

Look carefully at the top of the hat — front centre left — and you’ll see that a hole is appearing.

Surely I’ll soon qualify for a free replacement. the store I bought it from has long closed. Does anyone know the procedure for claiming against the lifetime guarantee?

It’s enough to send Weird Darren over the edge. A new little stove thing turns up in the post and it starts to rain outside …

… and no, I’m not putting up a tarp just to test a stove

Three cuben fibre Duomid Tarp Tents on the 2010 TGO Challenge

I’ve been using this cuben tent since late last summer but thought it only right to review properly after using it on the trail for a few weeks. The TGO Challenge was a good test of this tent. Although the weather was good this year Scotland is always something of a challenge.

The attractions of the cuben Duomid are pretty obvious. The Duomid provides more protection than a straight tarp and yet weighs only 340 grams. On this year’s Challenge there were five Duomids, four made from cuben (Spectralite 60) and one from Sinylon. Others have obviously ben quick to see the benefits of the Duomid. So what is it like in use?

In Use

This is a huge tent for one person. It pitches using a trekking pole in the centre of the teepee style shelter. Angle the pole and you create a great deal of useable space for one person. You should have no problem using this if you are not taller than six foot three or so. There is more space under here than you would find in a dual person tent with large vestibules. Cooking under the tarp is safe and easy. You can sit upright in the middle of the tent without brushing the roof or sides.

In the UK the Duomid is likely to be pitched pretty close to the ground. However, you can raise the tent high to create a greater airflow and if the weather permits you can open up both sides of the front of the tarp. In this mode the Duo mid can be pitched back into any wind turning it into a kind of lean-to tarp.

The cuben fibre may well be light but it seems to be as tough as old boots. A taught pitch seems to be able to cope with most things that the weather can throw at it. You will need to seam seal the tent yourself but when you have done so carefully your Duomid will,be completely waterproof. The tent comes with enough seam sealant to seal effectively. I hung mine from a shower rail and found it pretty easy to seal along the seams of the tent.

The first time I used this tent was last autumn out on a coastal path. I pitched late on the day, on very uneven ground. It was not a good pitch (I’d not got the centre pole high enough). As a result the tent thrashed around a bit in a pretty violent gale. The cuben fibre seemed tough enough to cope with quite a thrashing. This poor-pitch experience to give me some confidence in using the Duomid in bad weather.

How Strong is the Cuben?

Very strong. Ron Bell at MLD uses different weights of fibre for different parts of the tent. He seems to have mastered the art of sealing different sections of fibre. High tension stitching areas are supported by the use of sinylon sections and there certainly seems to be no problem with the stitching used. Stitching can pull through the plastic cuben under real pressure, one reason why I’d always recommend buying from a company like MLD who seem to have mastered the use of the material.

Speaking to Ron bell before I ordered I asked him weather the Cuben was up to bad weather. Ron felt that the Cuben was bomb proof, as strong as Sinylon with one small exception. The zip/zipper used here is smaller and lighter (I think) than the one used on the sinylon tent. Care needs to be taken when opening and closing the zipper.

At the base of the zipper is a lightweight buckle and press stud or popper. These should always be fastened when the zip is opened or closed. The buckle takes the strain off the zipper itself. Other than this you will would be advised to treat the zip with zip lubricant once a year or so.

Pitching

Don’t take your tent straight onto the trail like I did! A little practice with pitching will make a big difference. As I mentioned earlier, a taught Duomid seems to be able to cope with very strong winds.

They key element in pitching is the height of the centre pole which Ron reckons should be set to about 58 inches for a close to the ground pitch.

Measure this our on your poles. I found that my Pacer Poles, when extended to the STOP mark on the extendable sections, were exactly 58 inches long! Pacer Poles use standard pole sections and you may well find something similar if you are using adjustable poles.

On flat ground 58 inches is about right although you may need some adjustment for uneven ground. For this the pole extender (included with the tent) is useful.

I use the pole extender for all pitches as it allows you to angle the pole and to create more room in the shelter. But first I pitch without the extender with the pole fixed dead centre. I then ensure the tarp is pitched tight and only then move the angle of the pole, attaching the extender. This is pretty easy once you have done it two or three times.

Two Tightly Pitched Duomids

To get a tight pitch follow Ron’s instructions.

Firstly, peg out the back wall of the tarp so that it is taught along the length. Peg out the font corners of the tarp but leave these with some slack in. Insert the pole and raise the tent. Once you are happy that the pole is central stretch out the front corner tie outs and you’ll have a tight pitch all round. If you move the front corners in towards the door you’ll find that the front/door forms a kind of beak shape. Pitch the front corners as far as possible from the middle of the tent and the front door section will be lower.

In practice you don’t need to worry about the tarp being raised a little. For nearly all of my pitches the front door is raised a little off the ground. So long as you are pitched carefully — and your stakes are firmly in the ground — the tarp will cope very easily with high winds (wind is less harsh at ground level anyway).

On the MLD site you will find a guide for the lengths of chord that are useful for the base pitching points (dyneema chord is included with the tent). The tent also has mid panel, bungee, tie outs which extend the internal width of the tent and take some strain in high winds. In the UK I would always recommend using these and everyone else using the Duomid on this year’s Challenge had mid panel guys attached. Be careful not to over stress the mid panel guys though as they will be taking 75% of the stress from wind, which is probably a little too high for the tie out panels. I use mini line locs on my light mid panel guys — they make it easy to ensure that there is a little slack on each line.

Coping with a Single Skin

Even in Scotland the single skin of the Duomid presents few problems. Single skins can be prone to internal condensation but the walls of the Duomid are angled so that the moisture runs down the side of the walls rather than dripping on the inhabitants of the tent.

MLD do sell a bug protection inner and I saw Rob Slade using this with ease and confidence. Myself, I prefer to use a MLD Soul bivy which comes with a very effective bug net around the opening the bivy. Bivy, guys and tent weigh in at just 500 grams.

In practice I find the Soul Bivy gives me all of the protection I need. I didn’t use a groundsheet in Scotland — you pitch mainly on good grass. I figured that a ground sheet is just another thing to get wet. If you need a ground sheet though MLD can supply some very lightweight material, or you can use Polypro.

Conclusion

This is a wonderful shelter that is more than strong enough to cope with UK conditions. Having this much space is a real luxury. I’ve no doubt that we shall se more of these in use over the next few years.

I would be reluctant to use this as a two person tent in UK conditions. For us it is really a solo tent. Ron sells a Solomid but I really don’t see the benefits of this — go for the Duomid. If you need a two peson tent — and you want space for gear and so on — go for the Supermid. I’m beginning to see the Supermid with inner nest as a two person option — it will be more than half the weight of my current 2 person tent.

For the UK the Duomid is a wonderful trail companion, especially for those windier months when a tarp might be less effective. And for an event like the TGO Challenge the Duomid is near perfect!

Ron Bell designs and manufactures wonderful products!

Feel free to ask any questions here. If you’re a Duomid owner I’m keen to see how you’re getting on with it!

Mountain Laurel Designs