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world’s lightest day pack?

I need one of these.

The Gear Junkie:

It stuffs down to a size smaller than a baseball. Its manufacturer, Sea to Summit Inc. of Perth, Australia, suggests using it as a keychain. But unpack the Ultra-Sil Day Pack and its crinkly “siliconized” Cordura nylon quickly takes shape, a backpack materializing from a tiny ball right in front of your eyes.

As outdoors products go, the Ultra-Sil Day Pack is certainly strange. It is far from technical gear. The backpack, a basic sack equipped with shoulder straps, carries its stowed items with scant support. Lumps protrude from the thin fabric where a shoe or a water bottle might be stuffed inside. Objects dig into your back.

But what this $28 backpack lacks in performance it gains in improbable convenience. The Ultra-Sil Day Pack weighs just 2.4 ounces. It fits in any pocket. Unzipped and open, there’s about 20 liters of space inside–enough area to stow a day’s worth of supplies while traveling. …

The Gear Junkie Scoop: Sea to Summit Ultra-Sil Day Pack

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tweet, facebook from anywhere on Earth

Here’s a system I would use. Posting my geolocation along with text trip report updates.

Details on Gadling:

… allow adventurers to more effectively communicate from locations that are not covered by cell service.

The new device pairs one of DeLorme’s GPS units with SPOT’s next generation Satellite Communicator, to send custom message from the backcountry. The Earthmate wil have all the regular features you’d expect from a GPS, including base maps, in this case covering the entire world, navigation, electronic compass, and so on. But it will also wirelessly pair with the Communicator, allowing the user to type text messages and send them to friends and family back home via satellite. …

It’s designed so you can call for help from anywhere, should an emergency develop.

… it also lets the user to share tracking information and custom messages that can easily be interfaced with Twitter, Facebook, Geocaching.com, and SPOT’s own SPOTadventures.com. …

Pricing not available until the Earthmate PN-60w is made available later this Spring.

If you are interested, click through to the article – New device will let you text, twitter from remote places

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hike the Shania Twain Track, New Zealand

The beautiful Shania Twain has sold over 65 million albums worldwide. Come on Over is the best-selling album of all time by a female musician.

I missed this story from last year.

Shania Twain and husband dedicate hiking track over their property near Queenstown New Zealand

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Unfortunately, Twain and ex-husband Mutt Lang separated shortly after. But it seems they are committed to the hiking trail. In fact, Mutt has purchased more land.

Yet another reason to return to New Zealand for hiking. I’m thinking … 2011.

UPDATE: Maple Kiwi of Love in a Tent heard rumours the couple were not all that happy about the Track. They are famously private people. … But that it was a condition of them purchasing the land.

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in search of the Himalayan Tahr

I was disappointed not to see this beautiful animal in Nepal on my recent Everest trek.

The Himalayan Tahr (Hemitragus jemlahicus) (or Himalayan Thar) is a large ungulate related to the wild goat. Its native habitat is in the rugged wooded hills and mountain slopes of the Himalaya from Central Asia in northern Kashmir to China. …

… Adult Himalayan Tahrs range from 135 to 180 kg (300 to 400 lb) in weight, 120 to 170 cm in length, and 60 to 90 cm in height. They are herbivores, subsisting on grass, shrubs, and trees. …

Feral Himalayan Tahr are an introduced species in the South Island of New Zealand, with herds forming in the Southern Alps. In large numbers tahr are regarded as a pest because their browsing has an impact on native vegetation. Tahr hunting is a recreational sport and commercial activity. It has also been introduced to New Mexico, California, South Africa, and Ontario.

Wikipedia

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#9 best hike in the world is …

The Haute Route

Also known as:

• The Walker’s Haute Route
• Chamonix-Zermatt Haute Route
• “High Route”
• Mt Blanc to the Matterhorn
• Chamonix to Zermatt

It’s official. The Haute Route in the Alps replaces the Tour de Mont Blanc at the #9 position in our list of the top 10 hikes in the world. The TMB is awesome, … but too crowded.

Long live the Haute Route!

“the greatest collection of 4000m peaks in the alps!”

Why we love it:

  • the best hike in Europe!
  • Alpine charm: valleys, lakes, glaciers
  • great food, history, culture
  • from Mont Blanc, the highest peak in Europe (4810m, 15,781ft)
  • … to the Matterhorn, the most beautiful peak in the alps
  • staying in huts, and eating your meals there, you can hike with a very light pack
  • see ibex and chamois in the wild
  • finishes with the 2-day Europaweg – a true high-level path opened in recent years (and sometimes closed due to avalanche)
  • some mountaineers use this trek for altitude acclimatization, climbing Mt. Blanc, the Matterhorn or, best, Weisshorn, after they finish

    • Considerations:

  • Rain is highly likely. It can even snow on high passes any day of the year.
  • mid-July through August accommodation may be full
  • mountain huts can be crowded & noisy (we prefer tenting, to be truthful)
  • in 2009 cost was around $70 for bed, bedding, breakfast and an evening meal
  • iron ladders bolted into the mountain en route, though there is a way to bypass them
  • cable-cars and chair-lifts are cheating, but you certainly may want to use them to shorten some hiking days

    • German is the main language of the Haute Route though French is useful too. Anglophones may struggle.

    statue of St. Bernard on the Euroweg section

    Get our preferred guidebook long in advance of your trek – Cicerone – Chamonix to Zermatt: The Walker’s Haute Route by Kev Reynolds.

    Details on our Haute Route information page.

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    Indian Himalaya – new trekking routes

    High on my list of future hiking destinations is the Indian Himalaya.

    Good news on Gadling:

    Adventure travelers were given even more incentive to travel to India recently when it was announced that the government would begin allowing access to previously restricted areas in the remote Jammu and Kashmir provinces. …

    Backpackers will find plenty to love in this remote and stunningly beautiful region as well. High altitude passes and trails that have previously been off limits are now open to foreign travelers, including a route that leads to the village of Turtuk in the Nubra Valley. …

    Kraig Becker – India opens remote trekking and mountaineering routes

    I’ll get a copy of Trekking in the Indian Himalaya (2009) and start planning.

    The author’s favourite trek is Markha Valley in Ladakh. I’d like to do some of the recently opened region on the same trip.

    If interested, be sure you get the most recent edition. It’s great to see Lonely Planet updating their excellent trekking guidebooks.

    I may even buy, for the first time, the PDF version. You can “Pick & Mix“, buying only the chapters you need. I’d put those on my iTouch for the trek rather than carrying paper.

    The PDF version has free samples including the Table of Treks (PDF).

    Now … when will independent hiking be allowed in Bhutan?

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    AMERICA’S 10 MOST DANGEROUS HIKES

    You can tell we are SERIOUS from the all caps typeface.

    Kelly Bastone in Backpacker posted this list in 2008:

    From a slippery Sierra catwalk to a treacherous Hawaiian paradise, we name the country’s 10 most hazardous hikes. Then we break down the dangers and provide local beta for conquering each route.

    The Maze, UT

    Bright Angel Trail, Grand Canyon, AZ

    Barr Trail, Pikes Peak, CO

    Mt. Washington, NH

    Muir Snowfield, Mt. Rainier, WA

    Huckleberry Mtn., Apgar Range, MT

    Kalalau Trail, Kauai, HI

    Buckskin Gulch, UT

    Abrams Falls, Great Smoky Mtns., TN

    Mist Trail, Half Dome, CA

    click through for details on each – Backpacker

    Buckskin Gulch

    Flash flood is a greater worry to me than getting lost or being avalanched. Recall April 2008 when 7 of 12 “canyoneers”, most students, were killed in a flash flood in New Zealand.