The new titanium spork weights 21 grams according to my scale compared to 9 grams for the plastic version (according to lightmyfireusa.com the weights are 8 grams and 17 grams for titanium) and feels rock solid.

I’m pretty sure it will last me for more than 3 hikes.

MyTracks (free)

MyTracks does one thing and does it very well. It’s great to record GPS tracks. You can upload the tracks to Google Maps or use them otherwise.

I haven’t seen an Android phone with acceptable battery live for ‘real’ outdoor use but there are a few things you can do to improve the situation: Change the logging frequency to once every 10 seconds and turn on Airplane mode. With this I was able to use my Nexus S for nearly two days, for example for my hike around Wildbad Kreuth and up the Schinder where I used it 3h45m the first day and 12h the second day.

Gaia GPS (6,92 €)

Gaia GPS is a GPS tracker and map viewer.

The map viewer functionality is great, you can download maps for offline use and one of the supported map providers is CloudMade. The CloudMade isn’t perfect but given the low price it’s pretty good.

The GPS recorder functionality is a joke. For an app that targets hikers that battery use on the Nexus S is not acceptable. Recording with screen turned off and Airplane mode on it went from 100% charged to <10% in 4h.

Overall: Use Gaia GPS for the offline map functionality and MyTracks to record tracks.

Bonus content, you don’t need these apps but they are surely nice to have.

GPSTest (free)

GPSTest is a basic utility application, the functionality is as basic as the icon, but it’s the only application I have found so far which is able to reset the GPS state if syncing takes ages. I had some issues with my Nexus One last year and GPSTest fixed them for me.

Peak Finder (1,81 €)

PeakFinder uses GPS and compass to show you a panorama of peaks around you with their names. Nice gimmick.

Terra Nova Laser Competition

Again worked great. No issues. The vast majority of tents I saw during the challenge were either Laser Competitions or Aktos. A little sad, I had hoped to see the newer Terra Nova tents in action or something new I hadn’t heard of. But that’s a topic of another post.

Anyway, the Laser Competation still worked great and I’m a little bit sad that I don’t have a reason to upgrade in the near future.

Summary: Highly recommended!

inov8 X-Talon + GoreBikeWear Socks

My feet hurt on tarmac but I don’t think I can blame this on the boots. Felt great, dried over night and with the GoreTex socks my feet were warm and dry all the time.

My pair is now 18 months old and I hiked at least 600 kilometers in them. By now the profile is disappearing and I have already patched a few holes in the top material. But they worked great for hiking on anything from tarmac, grass, mud and snow. I wore them for snowshoeing and on a via-ferrata and will replace them with another pair soon.

Summary: Highly recommended!

Marmot Super Mica

Light and good enough most of the time. The last day it was raining cats and dogs. The extremely strong wind pushed the drops with such a force that I could feel the impact through 3 layers (Super Mica, Montane windshirt, Odlo baselayer) and some water got through. So good enough for most cases, but I won’t use it again in Scotland.

Summary: Recommended!

Laufbursche HuckePack

After the first real test, I can attest that the HuckePack is really water proof. Even the things I carried in the top pocket were only a little bit wet, and this could be due to rain getting in when I opened the zipper.

The pack is light, comfortable to carry and big enough for all the gear I need and a few days of food. So I won’t have a reason to spend money on a new backpack anytime soon.

Summary: Highly recommended!

Canon G12

Pictures turned out really well (judge for yourself here). Battery life was awesome, I had to change the battery after 9 days and roughly 600-650 pictures.

Summary: Highly recommended!

Hama camera bag

It was convenient to have the camera accessible on the hip belt most of the time, but the bag is pretty heavy with 150g and the rain cover works only in very light rain.

I think I will replace it with a DIY bag with less features but which should be really waterproof.

Summary: Recommended!

Caldera Cone

Like all meth stoves, it took a while to boil my water. But this was no surprised and I’m happy to wait a few minutes if this means that I don’t have to carry a have stove and gas canister.

Summary: Highly recommended!

Exped AirPillow

A little luxury while hiking. Worked great! Very comfortable.

Summary: Highly recommended!

Thermarest NeoAir

The most comfortable mattress I ever owned.

Summary: Highly recommended!

Thermarest Haven

The combination of weight and warmth were great. But I started to miss a zipper. Most nights it was a little too warm for the bag. In a normal bag I would have opened the zipper a little bit, but with the Haven there was no way to regulate that.

Summary: Recommended!

Tilley Hat

I love the hat, it’s comfortable and protects well enough against a little rain and sun. But taking the hat on the TGO challenge was stupid. It was completely useless and I didn’t wear it a single time. Dead weight in a country like Scotland.

Summary: Not recommended (for Scotland)!

Light My Fire Spork

I like my spork. It’s light and works really well. But it broke.

The logical solution: upgrade to the titanium version

Summary: Recommended!

Building the Gödel was easy and overall took not much more than an hour. First I used a piece of cardboard to build a prototype in a size to snuggly fit my boots. Then I cut two pieces of aluminium to the same size and bent them in the vise into the final U-shape. To get the slit for the straps, I drilled a few holes next to each other and cut through with a Dremel. Five more holes each for the bolts and I was done.

The bolts are perhaps a little long, but were the only ones I had available where I found 10 identical ones. They are M5 16mm, but if this works I will probably replace them with 12mm ones. I’m thinking about sharpening the tips to improve traction, but I’m not sure if this is really necessary.

The material cost roughly 15€ (~9€ for the straps and 6€ for the aluminium) with plenty of aluminium still left for future projects.

The two Grödel weight in at 271g an I think I could get this down by using plastic buckles instead of the metal ones on the strips and drilling a few holes to get rid of some material.

This weekend I will test them on tour and will report here about the performance in real life.

More pictures can be found in this Picasa album.

Update 2011-03-11:

I decided to cut off parts of the screws to reduce the forces on the body of the crampon and cut a tiny ridge through the tip to increase friction.

As an added bonus this reduced the overall weight by 10g to 261g.

Update 2011-03-14:

I can’t report on the performance on ice, because it was a nice, warm weekend and the snow we encountered was soft and slushy. But I can report, that the crampons fit perfectly and it’s comfortable to walk in them… Will update once I have done a real test.

All but the cucumber I would consider a success. The machine runs very quiet, most of the time I used it, I let it run over night and sleeping in the next room was no problem.

Summary: Highly recommended!

Planned tours

So far I haven’t made a lot of plans. As you might have deduced from previous posts, I have registered for the TGO challenge. This will take up 2 weeks worth of vacation. I don’t know, how I will spent the other 4 weeks, but hopefully in a warm and dry climate after 2 weeks of Scotland

Gear

Generally, I’m happy with my gear. The only obvious thing still missing is a tarp shelter. The two leading candidates being Laufbursche Tanzpalast (if it will become available in the near future) or MLD Duo Mid.

But more importantly, I have too much redundancy. Last time I checked I had 3 Thermarest mats, half a dozen pots (even a few non-titanium pots), many different backpacks and a couple of pieces I haven’t used in years. So the most important gear resolution for 2011: get rid of at least one old piece of equipment, before buying a new piece.

According to the website a single pole weight 3.5oz (poles) + .2oz (baskets) + .45oz (wrist straps) = 4.15oz (117g) – my scale showed only 102g. In any case that’s less than 40% of my old ones and a big improvement.

I measured a maximum stable length of about 130cm with ~5cm of overlap between the two poles. This fits the 51″ (129.5cm) given on the product page.

Real world usage:

I’ve used the goat poles on multiple one or two-day hikes in the Alps, 10 days hiking in Jotunheimen and for 8 days on the WHW. While hiking in Jotunheimen I relied on them crossing a couple of rivers.

The poles felt absolutely stable even when I used just a single pole and put a lot of weight on it.

The only tiny drawback I could find in the minimal construction is the system used to adjust the pole. It’s a screw with some attached rubber expander that widens when compressed. Due to the different inner width the rubber can loose friction and turning the poles won’t tighten the screw anymore. When this happens you have to pull out the lower pole until friction is back, twist a little, push the pole back in and continue to tighten.

In reality this is not a big problem. I can remember only a single instance where a pole collapsed when I put weight on it and I’m not sure if this wasn’t my fault for not tightening it enough.

Stability:

To get some measurements I extended the a pole to my usual length of 110cm and put some weight on it. Initially I chose 2.5kg but this seemed not enough so I doubled it.

5kg bent the pole by a little over 2cm, this is about twice as much as I got from my old aluminum Black Bear poles.

Next I tried to measure how much force I could put on a single pole before friction between the rubber and the carbon fails. I could put my full weight (72kg) while leaning 45º forward before the poles slowly slide together. I tried to push myself up using two poles put this was too much, the poles twisted a little and I stopped the experiment.

Overall I’m really satisfied with the goat poles and I carry them with me on most hikes. Only disadvantage is the price. The poles are 130$ plus 32$ for shipping to Germany and I don’t know how much more for customs. I was fortunate that I could ship them to a colleague in Mountain View and pick them up during my next visit.

Summary: Highly recommended!

Thermarest Haven

When I stumbled over the Thermarest Haven the specs looked very tempting: a 624g bag with comfort range down to -1C. I had a few doubts in advance about the lack of zipper and the entry through a bigger hole in the back.

My experience after a few days use in Scottland:

• Warmth: -1C comfort range sounds realistic, the lowest temperature we encountered was around +5C and the bag was definitely to warm with a silk liner and wearing just underwear.
• Zipper: The missing zipper is no issue, getting in and out of the bag through the back is easy.
• Size: I would prefer a bigger diameter around the shoulders.
• Shape: The mummy-shape makes it difficult to use the bag as a blanket. When it got too hot I slept with the legs out of the bag but still covered by it.

Overall I’m still satisfied with the whole package. The bag is not perfect but the performance is great for the price.

Summary: Recommended!

Inov8 X-Talon™ 240 plus GoreTex socks

I’m a big fan of the Inov8 X-Talon™ 240 but they are not water-proof, a feature definitely needed in Scotland. To fix this a bought a pair of Gore Bike Wear GoreTex socks.

I wore Injinji toe socks and the GoreTex socks for 6 consecutive days in some horrible weather. The way down from Devil’s staircase to Kinlochleven I walked in ankle deep water for some time. At the end of the day my socks showed a few wet spots under the ball and the heel of my feet and I’m not 100% certain that this was water from the outside.

I’ve never felt so comfortable walking longer distances in foul weather and I’m pretty sure the socks will see a lot of future use.

Summary: Highly recommended!

About six weeks ago I bought a pair of Vibram Five Fingers Speed. The very next weekend I wore them on two hikes around Interlaken. The first day I played it safe and switched from the VFF back to ‘normal’ hiking boots (inov-8 X-Talon 240. well they are more normal than the VFF). After day one basically everything from my knees downward hurt but in a good muscle ache way. After some stretching and a good nights sleep most of the pain was gone.

The next day went a lot better. Parts of the trail were covered with tree roots, others with rubble or rocks. On terrain like this every single step feels like a foot massage. Even after three or four hours of walking my feet still felt great in the evening. Better then many evenings when I was wearing ‘proper’ footwear.

After wearing the VFF a few times the next two weeks I felt my feet had enough time to adapt. I put them on the first time for running. The run was only 1 kilometer, but even this short distance was enough make me feel like a cripple the next morning. Every step made my Achilles tendon burn and it felt like someone was pushing a big needle into my knee. Stretching helped a little but my barefoot running technique was still awful and I had put a lot of stress on my knee.

Over the last four weeks I slowly increased my distance to 10km. The direct feedback the VFF provide helped me learn quickly to put less stress on my feet and knees. Since last week I am finally able to run the 10km without hurting knees the next morning.

I can understand the feeling, I love taking pictures, too. And I’ve made the mistake of taking my DSLR on two longer hikes.

First I carried a Canon 300d with kit lense and tele lense while doing the West Highland Way. It was raining like hell and I got some water on the sensor, most pictures after day 2 needed post processing. Additionally, I carried the camera in my pack most of the time, because the camera bag wasn’t 100% waterproof.

This year I carried the 20d for ten days through Jotunheimen. Again a lot of rain forced me to carry the camera in my pack for quite some time. I was lucky that my better half uses a poncho. Sometimes she carried it, protected by the poncho, which allowed me to quickly reach for the camera.

On the other hand I carried the tiny Canon Ixus 800IS (protected by a crumpler bag) in the front pocket of my hiking shirt on many hikes in the last few years. Keeping it in the front pocket protects the camera from rain and I have zero overhead to get to the camera. The pictures are not SLR quality but I don’t expect this from hiking pictures and the easy access allows me to take a lot more pictures. Additionally I plan to upgrade to Canon S95 once it is available to decrease the difference in quality without sacrificing size and weight.

I will still carry the DSLR every once in a while. But these will be hikes where I intentionally set out to take pictures and will take this into consideration while planning the tour. I don’t want to carry 1.5-2kg of additional gear on an already strenuous hike.

Damon, a colleague of mine, is the lucky owner of a MakerBot and yesterday I was at his place and we printed a stickpic clone. The original design worked but today I spent some time learning OpenSCAD and improved (I hope ) the original design. My clone of Damon’s stickpic clone has rounder edges and is overall a little smaller and thus lighter.

Soon I stumbled over the X-Talon™ 240, according to Inov-8 the lightest hiking boots on the market.

I couldnt’t find a store close to Munich that had them in stock but thanks to outdoorseiten.net I got the phone number of the distributor for Germany. The service was just plain awesome. Because the X-Talon are pretty specialized boots most stores don’t stock them. But the distributor offered to ship me two different sizes to see if they fit.

I wore them for roughly 100km (tested in the Palatinate forest, a 2-day trip in the Black Forest, Brazil and the Alps) which should be enough to get to know the shoes.

Inov8 describes them as “Extreme lightweight boot. High levels of comfort and performance with an aggressive sticky rubber outsole make this shoe ideal for short trail, ultra light walking and mountain running with ankle protection.”

This is absolutely true. The shoes weight 255g (size 42) according to my scales which is roughly 1/3 of my “proper” leather hiking boots. Even while scrambling over loose gravel or polished limestone going up Kampenwand I felt save and in control. They are light years ahead of any running shoes which weight roughly the same. When talking to the distributor he warned me that the soft rubber outsole would wear out quickly, but this is something I can’t confirm yet. After roughly 100km the soles still look like they new give or take a few scratches.

As you can see from the picture, there are many spikes coming out of the sole. These spikes combined with the soft sole feel like an acupuncture when walking on flat ground and it takes some time to get used to the different feel. Unlike the solid soles I was used to from my Meindl boots, this gives you a lot of feedback about the ground and my feet like it.

Enough praise, there is still one little thing I would like to change: the hideous color!

Summary: Highly recommended!

Update 2011:

After using the shoes for roughly 18 months, hiking at least 700 kilometers in them, wearing them for hiking on grass, rock, mud, snow and ice I’m still absolutely happy with the shoes. I even got used to the color, so my verdict hasn’t changed.

By now the spikes coming out of the soles have lost a lot of material and the top has a few holes in it. But they are by far the most comfortable boot I have ever used and I have bought a second pair to replace the first one.

Summary: Still highly recommended!

My scale gives a little heavier results than Henrik’s. It says the whole set weights 279g (Hendrik got 269g), which is pretty good but not perfect.

For comparison I pulled out my Snow Peak Mini Solo Cook Set plus Primus Micron Stove Ti 2.5. This set contains exactly the same parts, the pot is about 50% bigger (780ml vs. 540ml for the Crux set). It weights only 240g.

All measurements for this review were made on the same scale so even if it is a little off, the relative differences should still be correct.

Optimus Crux vs. Primus Micron stove

The difference in the stove is negligible: 70g for Primus and 74g for Optimus. There are a few small differences between the two stoves.

The Primus is a little bigger than the Optimus, it’s hard to measure the diameter so I measures the distance between the tips: 9.5cm for Optimus vs. 11.5cm for the Primus. I don’t think this makes a difference for any normal sized pot. And if you want to use a huge pot, you probably won’t use these ultralight stoves anyway.

The Primus has a roughly 5cm “hole” in the middle. If you use a pot with a diameter close to 5cm it stand on the stove. This is not a problem for the pots included in both sets and I haven’t seen any other pot small enough to make this a real problem.

Primus uses a solid plastic knob to control the flow of gas, Optimus uses a folding wire “handle”. I personally prefer the Optimus solution, in my opinion the plastic knob is the only ugly part used on the beautifully engineered Primus.

Both stoves are tiny when folded. Primus has the smaller head but Optimus uses the space better. There is no “lost space” around the body where the arms fold back on the Primus.

Preliminary result: DRAW

Optimus vs. Snow Peak Solo pot set

Between these two pot sets the differences are more noticeable than between the stoves.

Just looking at the specs the Snow Peak set is clearly superior. It weights only 131g with 780ml pot (+19g if you carry the lid) compared to 184g with a 540ml pot. I filled both pots to the top, so the usable volume is probably closer to 750ml and 500ml.

The handles are a lot better on the Optimus set. Rubberized, longer and firmer. I especially like the folding mechanism used on the cup which folds the handle under the bottom. I’m not 100% certain how long the rubber coating will last. As you can see on the the pot, it has already taken some damage. But for now it feels great.

Both set have volume markings. Optimus in the pot, Snow Peak in the cup.

And the winner is…

For me the combination Primus & Snow Peak is still superior, but only by a tiny margin.

Both stoves are great, pick up whichever one you get cheaper – which is probably the Optimus. Optimus, build your set out of titanium and you are in the lead, your set is already more usable thanks to the superior handles. But I won’t pick a set that’s heavier and smaller. I think the size of the pot is big enough with 500ml but too heavy compared to Snow Peak.

And thanks again to Henrik for organizing this passaround. I will send the package back to you next week.

It’s still a prototype, but in weight terms, it should be bang on the money for lightweight shelters at around 1000 grammes all in.

And the price of 150£ (~172€) sounds awesome, thanks to the worthless pound…

Eigentlich wollte ich ja wieder die kleinste Größe nehmen, um die letzten paar Gramm zu sparen, und meine Füße auf den Rucksack oder sonstigen Kram legen (hat mit der letzten Thermarest ganz gut geklappt). Aber im Nachhinein bin ich froh, daß ich es nicht getan habe, da die Matte mit 6,3cm doch recht hoch ist und die Kante damit vermutlich sehr spührbar geworden wäre. Und die 150g trage ich gerne für den zusätzlichen Komfort, auch wenn mir dafür ultralight-Fuzzies sicher den Kopf abreissen.

Ich habe sie nur eine Nacht getestet und bisher bin ich voll zufrieden. Das Gewicht ist unschlagbar, vergleichbar mit einer “normalen” Iso-Matte. Das Packmaß ist auch super, in etwa das Volumen einer Sigg-Flasche.

Bonus Content: Bei meinem Shopping Trip zu REI sind mit noch die Sleeping Bag Slip-Not Straps aufgefallen. Also habe ich 6$ investiert und ich habe es nicht bereut. Ich weiss nicht, wie oft ich schon aufgewacht bin, weil ich mich im Laufe der Nacht langsam von meiner Isomatte gerollt habe und es kalt wurde. Die “Schlafsack Rutsch-Nicht Strapse” habe selbiges in 100% der Fälle verhindert (sample size=1).

Ich trage schon lange 2 Paar Socken übereinander beim Wandern und war bisher mit der Kombination von Falke TK4 über Falke RU4 sehr zufrieden. Aber nachdem ich die Injinji Socken zwei Tage getragen habe, werden die RU4 wohl ab jetzt daheim bleiben. Die Zehensocken sorgen dafür, dass die einzelnen Zehen nicht mehr aneinander reiben können und reduzieren damit die Wahrscheinlichkeit von Blasen.

Ich vermute beim Joggen werden sich die Dinger auch ganz gut machen, deswegen habe ich vorhin gleich nochmal einige gekauft.

Diesmal wollte ich einen deutlich kleineren Kocher bauen, da ich den Eindruck hatte, daß meine erste Variante unnötig hoch war. Außerdem habe ich bei outdoorseiten.net den Tip bekommen, kleinere Löcher zu verwenden. Deswegen verwende ich diesmal einen kleinen Nagel und steche damit die Löcher.

Sonst habe ich alles genau so wie beim ersten mal gemacht, deswegen spare ich mir weitere Worte.

English version further down

xZutaten:

• eine Becks Dose (eine beliebige “normale” Dose funktioniert hier)
• eine Red Bull Dose (hier hätte ich gerne ein Getränk verwendet, daß ich auch trinke, aber ich habe nichts gefunden)

Den Kocher zu bauen hat laut den Timestamps der Bilder keine Stunde gedauert. Für den ersten Testlauf hatte ich keinen Brennspiritus greifbar. Ein paar meiner Single Malts und ein Cask-Strength Whisky hatten noch mehr als 45% Alkohol, aber Jack Daniels war der einzige Whisky, den ich bereit war zu verheizen

Danach habe ich eine Flasche Brennspiritus gekauf und noch einen Testlauf gemacht. Der Kocher hat ziemlich genau 7 Minuten gebraucht, um 500ml Wasser zum Kochen zu bringen. Aber wie man auf den letzten Bildern sieht, brennt er nicht besonders gut. Ich muss mal sehen, ob ich die gelbe Flamme noch irgendwie wegkriege. So und jetzt gibt’s die Bilderserie, viel Spass damit…

Well, a few days ago I got the urge to build my first can stove.

Parts:

• one can of Becks (any normal-sized can will do)
• one can of Red Bull (couldn’t find a small can of something I actually like drinking)

According to the timestamps it took me less than an hour to build the can stove. I didn’t have any denatured alcohol for the first test run but I had a few whiskys (single-malt, one cask strength) with 45 percent alkohl or more. The only one I was willing to sacrify was bottle of Jack Daniels.

The next day a bought a bottle of denatured alcohol and not surprisingly it burned a lot better. The stove needed 7 minutes to boil 500ml water. As you can see from the last few pictures, the flame is not optimal and I will try to get rid of the yellow flame.

And here are the pictures in chronological order:

Eben war ich mal wieder auf deren Webseite und musste feststellen, daß ich nicht mehr das leichtests Doppelwandzelt habe. Das neue Laser Photon ist noch ein paar Gramm leichter.

The new Laser Photon is set to break our own record for the lightest two-skin tent commercially available. Breaking new ground for lightweight tents Terra Nova have created the definitive racing tent for Mountain Marathons and Adventure Races.

With a packed weight of just 790g the Laser Photon beats all comers, in the lightweight tent stakes, hands down. With the same shape and dimensions of the Laser Competition user comfort is not compromised and the Laser Photon will still sleep two on an event such at the OMM. New fabrics and pegs create the bulk of the weight saving after painstaking research by Terra Nova. Our new Titanium skewer weighs just 1g and is exclusively available on the Laser Photon. In another first for Terra Nova the Laser Photon features a silicon coated groundsheet, which allows lighter weight fabrics to be used and still maintain water repellant performance.

Es war eine gute Idee von Terra Nova die alten Kohlefaser Heringe durch Titan zu ersetzen. Das selbe habe ich auch getan, nachdem keiner davon einen Einsatz in steinigem Boden überlebt hat. Wer also ein ultraleichtes Einmann-Zelt sucht, sollte sich das Laser Photon mal genauer anschauen.