Category: gear

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MEC Transparent PVC-Free DryBags


Mountain Equipment Cooperative (MEC) in Canada (my favourite gear shop) has a great new product.

I love being able to find things without digging blind into the bag. And they are good for the environment, too.

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MEC Transparent Dry Bag – $13.00 – $26.00 CAD – Made in USA

MEC believe they are the only completely transparent PVC-free drybags available at a consumer level. Not only that, in selecting a 0.5mm thick clear polyurethane they’re convinced the bags are also more flexible and more abrasion resistance than standard PVC drybags.

Treehugger – MEC Become Transparent with PVC-Free DryBags

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Therm-a-Rest NeoAir mattress

The highly touted Therm-a-Rest NeoAir is now available.

Backpacker 2009 Editors’ Choice Winner: Therm-a-Rest NeoAir review on YouTube.

I just added this item to my Amazon.com Shopping Basket for the coming season. Details on Amazon.

For now I’ll abandon my heavier Exped air mattresses. Both I’ve bought have leaked from the valve insertions.

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nude hikers in Switzerland

A growing number of unclad hikers are wandering the Alps, near Appenzell. Some Swiss legal experts say that banning nudity in public would be unconstitutional.

nude-hikers-switzerland

In recent years, it has become fashionable for a growing number of Swiss and some foreigners to wander in the Alps clad in little more than hiking shoes and sun screen. Last summer, the number of nude hikers increased to such an extent that the hills often seemed alive with the sound of everything but the swish of trousers. …

read more in the NY Times – In Thin Air of the Alps, Swiss Secrecy Is Vanishing

I tried it myself on the John Muir Trail in California for about an hour. … Too short an experiment to get “comfortable”.

Fans of hiking in the buff should subscribe to the Nude Hiker blog.

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GoLite Ultra 20° sleeping bag


Saw a strong recommendation for this bag on Seattlepi.

Ultra 20°

1 lb 3 oz. | 540.0 g
Rating: 20 deg F | -7 deg C
$225.00

A premium 800-fill goose down, 20º sleep system that offers superior warmth, unmatched comfort and versatility for the ultra-lite purist. Waterproof Pertex® Endurance Arid Zones™ at the head and foot of the bag protect against condensation in critical areas. The comforter-style top can be attached directly to a sleep pad at variable girths for ideal temperature regulation.

Fill Weights: Small 257g; Medium 270g; Large 297g

Sleeping Bag Specs

* Rating: 20 deg F | -7 deg C

<a href="http://www.golite.com/Product/proddetail.aspx?p=SS7500&s=1">product details</a>
product details

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sleeping bag – bear costume

Cure your fear of bears by pretending you are the mighty hunter and have slayed the terrifying bear. Then strut around the room wearing the huge bearskin to show off your prowess. OR take the sleeping bag camping and you can scare the be-jezuz out of your friends when they wake up next to you.

Both are possible with this incredible new sleeping bag by artist Eiko Ishizawa. This fun design is so cool (and a little creepy looking) that we just had to share it with all of our readers. …

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My Bad Pad

(via campingblogger on twitter)

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hiker Brian Frankle of ULA

Tom Mangan— I’ve heard that name before … somewhere — published an article on hiking guru Brian Frankle of ULA-Equipment.

Frankle’s ULA-Equipment essentially goes out of business every fall, when he shuts down his garage-based backpack factory in Logan, Utah, and hits the trail, typically for weeks or months along little-known routes like Utah’s Hayduke Trail or Idaho’s Centennial Trail.

Then it’s back to the sewing machines.

“Basically, from the day that I reopen in November until all the way to the day that I close, it’s full-on,” Frankle says. “I’m in here 10 to 12 hours a day, seven days a week.”

Sounds like a crazy workload, but Frankle’s grown into it over the decade since he completed the Pacific Crest Trail in 1999. He started ULA-Equipment in 2001 to bridge a gap: commercially built backpacks were too heavy, and ultra-light packs were too bare-bones.

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Trailspace – Gear Maker Profile: Brian Frankle of ULA-Equipment

(via Two-Heel Drive) … and Facebook

I am looking for a new multi-day hiking pack this season. My beloved Granite Gear Virga is getting “holey” and is somewhat underfeatured to carry my preferred gear list.