This is a follow-up to my original MSR WindBurner Stove System review.
Since I posted my original review of the WindBurner, a bit over two months ago, I have had to chance to put it to use a lot more as the end of the summer season and start of the shoulder/winter season starts up.
This will be a brief follow-up.
Earlier this month, over on my hikelighter facebook page, I posted that I was going to start doing some Q&A posts, so, here is the first one :)
Throughout the year I get a lot of questions from fellow adventurers, mostly via my contact form and facebook private messages. I try to get as many answered as I can, time dependant. Usually during the winter season I get caught up, though that does tend to mean some folks have to wait awhile before I get back to them. Hopefully they are not offended by the long response times.
I am not sure how many Q&A posts I can get published on any given year, but I am going to give it a go. Continue reading “Questions & Answers, #1”
Greetings adventurers!
2015 has been a truly amazing year for outdoor adventurers – be it weekend hiking, long distance hiking, trail running, ultra running, FKT’ing, fastpacking (whatever it is we are suppose to believe that is, on any given month), and of course packrafting and bikepacking and beyond!
We have seen some amazing new fabrics hit the market. We have seen some the movement of old school designs merged together with new technology (yes, you are welcome.) We have seen companies making drastic changes to their catalog of products to usher in a new wave. We have seen big name companies bring big name hikers into their folds to get real trail experience on their design teams. Perhaps the greatest of all has been the massive cross-over of products from different adventures types to different adventure types – garments that use to be used exclusively for hikers are now being used by trail runners, ultra trail runners, and beyond – and probably more importantly, vise-versa. Shoe companies are starting to see fast moving hikers using footwear used by ultra trail runners at an insane rate. Companies that traditionally only sold to hikers have expanded to entirely new outdoor markets. And the list could go on.
For this year, in my “Gear of the Year” article, I want to focus on just a few very specific pieces of gear. In previous years I have covered a broad swath of different gear I have used throughout the year. However I decided that for 2015, I am going to keep it very specific – to focus solely on those pieces of gear that I have felt are the top of the line pieces of gear – gear that will be going with me on my 2106 adventures – and really, is that not what is most important… gear worthy enough to make it onto the trail another year!
Been hesitant to write about something as common and possibly inconsequential as a method of making coffee while out on the trail…
So why write one?
Meh, do not really know. Perhaps this GSI UL Coffee Filter has just impressed me enough to spend the thirty minutes writing this up.
I use to drink Starbucks Via both on the trail and at home. I would buy the 50-count House Blend off amazon. But I eventually got to the point where it was just not all that pleasurable. Every Christmas I still buy a few boxes of the Christmas blend but that seems to be it these days.
I am not some kind of coffee connoisseur but I sure do love the flavor of a couple of brands of coffee. The first is Jamaica Blue Mountain Peaberry (amazon) and the second is New Mexico Piñon Coffee ‘Dark Piñon’ (amazon).
I have bought a number of different drip filters for hiking with, including a Finum Gold Filter that I used for about four years. When it finally gave out I was going to buy another one, but the GSI Outdoors Ultralight Java Drip (amazon) caught my eye. Continue reading “GSI Outdoors Ultralight Java Drip Coffee Maker”
Greetings Adventurers!
The MSR WindBurner is quickly becoming one of my favorite stoves systems. In a market that is continuing to get more and more myopic by companies flooding the market with nearly identical products, it has been a refreshing change to see MSR actually try to solve some problems and not just put to market something that is the same’ol’same’ol that everybody else is spewing out.
I remember when the MSR WindBurner was first announced and the internet was being flooded by hikers complaining about the weight of the system – comparing it to xyz-other brands, without even stopping to consider some of the advantages of that extra bit of weight – but, that is just typical hiker hyperbull and ignorant attacking that seems to be all too common these days by hikers, I suppose. It was a shame that those folks focused so much on the weight, yet utterly failed to stop and really take a look at the design.
Yes, when it comes to talking about gear, the purpose of the hikelighter.com website has always been to focus on some of the lightest of the lightest weight gear out there. But as my readers well know, I have on many occasions been a hiker that is willing to stand up and say that sometimes adding weight in order to get a better performance, experience, durability, and quality of life while out on the long trail, is a perfectly acceptable decision.
Over the course of this article, and future articles on the MSR WindBurner, I am going to be clear and honest about exactly how I think the MSR WindBurner is when it comes to that statement.
While the MSR WindBurner is a tad bit heavier than most other all-in-one systems on the market – and this really is key to understanding why the MSR WindBurner deserves some serious consideration — MSR put some serious thinking into solving problems.
Hey all, a very brief post/announcement:
I rarely do product announcements via my website (half dozen times at at the most since I started hikelighter)… but the second generation Six Moon Designs “Fusion 65” backpack was just made available for pre-order a few hours ago.
The Fusion 65 backpack has been, without question, the #1 backpack that I have been waiting for – and if you are wondering why, go read my thoughts about it on my “Gear of 2014” article.
I placed an order for mine as soon as I saw it become available.
Selected the “Gray” option with the “S-Curve” Shoulder Yoke!
This is going to be the backpack that goes with me on my Mojave Trail hike later this year – and likely throughout the 2016 hiking season (non sub-2267 gram trips of course).
Anyway, super excited about this backpack being released… just wanted to share the news with everybody.
Head over to: http://www.sixmoondesigns.com/packs/104-2015-fusion-65.html
(updated: Sept 14, 2015)
My backpack has arrived and here is a quick walk-around video of the pack:
Here is an excellent video overview of the 2015 Fusion 50 by Tom Willard:
The Mountain Laurel Designs “Spirit 28° Quilt“, my first synthetic sleeping quilt, has proven to be an exceptional piece of hiking gear. The quality of build, the attention to details, the type of fabric used, and of course the ClimaShield APEX, all make the Spirit quilt my quilt of choice.
Last year when I decided to make the move away from using goose/duck down products I knew that the selection of synthetic quilts to pick from was going to be small. I also knew that I would not even bother looking. The amount of hikers I truly respect that have given the MLD Spirit quilt the highest praise that can be given, just made the decision for me. I was not disappointed. Exceptional, truly exceptional.
Continue reading “Mountain Laurel Designs, “Spirit Quilt” 28°”