Yes-Gear For 2012 – Follow-up

~ John B. Abela (HikeLighter.Com) ~ 5 Comments

Greetings Hikers,

A little over 5 months ago I posted an article called Yes-Gear For 2012! in which I detailed some of the gear that I had already bought this year and some of the gear I was thinking about buying.

I figured that with it being just a week or so short of 6 months after that article, this would be a good time to review how my list has gone so far.

As most hikers eventually realize, there is an initial period of your hiking life when it seems all you are doing is buying gear, buying more gear, selling off gear, and than buying new gear in hopes that it will work better. At times it seems I encounter hikers who bought some initial gear when they got into hiking and use it for years without every buying or trying anything else. That has not been me – I have easily bought and sold over $10,000 worth of gear – granted a rather large percentage of that has been for the express purposes of building prototype gear, and paying to have a lot of my custom hand-made gear that simply did not exist before I went through the process of prototype development and eventually seeing at least three of those items now in the market place and being used by hikers around the world, which is really awesome.

But over the last year, my buying of gear has very much started to slow down. Two years ago I went through six different shelters, costing well over $3,000 bucks for them. Thankfully I was able to recoup most of that money when I sold them. I have also slowed down the process of buying backpacks. While not as expensive as shelters, at $150-$200 bucks each, they add up rather fast. And I do not even want to think about how many stoves and pots I have bought, sold and even thrown in the trash some of the truly horrible ones – and of course a few of them have blown up (err: had catastrophic failures) on me, as I have shared on different websites over the last few years.

So back when I posted my Yes-Gear For 2012! article I had hoped that the article would help me slow-down on the buying-gear-addiction that I was having – and thankfully it did. It helped me really stay focused on the gear that I knew that I needed to buy, and give me time to think about some of the gear I had thought about buying, but I was not sure about. It was a quest to end the “oh, now that I have just got to get” whenever I was reading another blogger talk about gear, or watching a youtube video, or keeping up to date on what was being released from OR events.

I have still been testing gear that has been in prototype development, and I have been testing gear for a few guys getting ready to bring products to market, and I have added a couple of new sponsors this year – so the gear is still flowing, but not so much and thankfully, it is not costing me much or anything at all.

 

Yes-Gear Progress:

So, how have I done on my Yes-Gear For 2012! so far? Let us take a look!

Here is the gear that I stated I was planning to buy:

Black Rock Gear Vest — I have bought this and I freaking love it!!

Montbell U.L. Super Spiral Down Hugger #1 — I plan to buy this in the next month or so before the winter season arrives.

Icebreaker Layer 1 and Layer 2 Clothing — I have now purchased three IB items. A t-shirt and two top base layers (120 and 160)

LifeProof iPhone Case — Have not bought this yet. Not sure if I will not or.

Suunto MC-2 Global Compass — Purchased. A truly exceptional compass, far from the lightest compass out there, but it can do double-duty as a signalling device, as a mirror to shave or other medical needs, and much more!

GoLite Race Visor — I decided to go with the ‘Kavu Chillba Hat’ instead for this hiking season – it is heavier but provides the best protection of any hat I have ever used.

Rite in the Rain DuraCopy paper — I have not needed it yet, so have not purchased it yet.

Sealskinz Waterproof Thin Socklet — I actually decided to go with NRS Wetsocks.

ZPacks Heximid Solo w/o Beak w/Netting — I decided against buying this and instead decided to devote myself fully to the Six Moons Design, Skyscape X.

ZPacks Zero, Size Small — I actually decided to go with the Hyperlight Mountain Gear, Stuff Pack. (I will share why in a future article)

Hyperlite Mountain Gear Cuben Stuff Sack Pillow — Have not talked myself into buying this yet. It seems high priced for what it is.

 

Gear I Stated I was Considering Buying:

Here is a list of items I stated I was thinking about buying but I was not sure about.

Numa Optics Prescription Glasses — I have not bought these yet, but got my eye-doctor to fill out the information to send them.

Iridium Extreme Satellite Phone — The hike I was planning on using this for never happened, maybe next year!

Mountain Laurel Designs, Patrol Shelter — Decided to not go with this, as I am trying to give the SMD SX a lot more use!

Kestrel 4500NV Pocket Weather Tracker  — Decided I did not need to spend 400 bucks on this.

BushBuddy Ultra — If my QiWiz FireFly does not work out on my new pot I will probably end up buying this, though at 5.1 ounces, it will be a hard choice.

Evernew 900ml Ti Pot — I just ordered this pot today!! A crazy heavy 6.2 ounce pot and pan. I might not like it, but hopefully I will.

TiGoat The Bug Bivy — I still very much want one of these, but giving the SMD SX a go for its money!

KUIU Skeleton Caper Knife — The guy that makes these knives sent me an email offering to make one for me, I responded back to his email, and never heard back from him. Sigh.

Other Gear I Have Bought:

Not a whole lot, as I indicated above I have been trying to stick to this list of gear.

I have bought a couple of different shoes trying to find something that fits me better. The Inov-8 X-Talon 212 that I have been using for the last few years I have started to have trouble with. My feet continue to get flatter and flatter and I have gone up almost two full sizes in shoes, and I have noticed that the larger these 212’s get, the worse that they provide side protection. Not sure what I am going to do, nothing else I have tried seems to be working as well as the 212’s do, yet provide lateral support.

I have also bought some more carbon fiber stakes, a North Face Windstopper High Point Hat (because I have gotten tired of waiting for Black Rock Gear to make a hat that protects my ears), and I bought (tried and than sold) one of the Gossamer Gear, Murmur Hyperlight Backpack (2012 editions) which end up just being 1000 cubic inches too big for me. I also bought some of the Bonnie’s Balm that Skurka has been pimping lately, as a potential replacement for Hydropel and after using it discovered it to be a total and absolute joke and waste of money. And lastly, I spent another $25 bucks for another year of membership at backpackinglight.com which is still the best backpacking website that exists (the forums are worth the money/support) and I also picked up a Mountain Hardware Way2Cool t-shirt to try (which worked really well, except it has a seam point at the very top of the shoulders, thereby making it totally suck-worthy for hikers with backpacks on their shoulders)

Anyway that about does it for my update on my 2012 hiking gear!!

-Abela

Long Term Review: MontBell U.L. Super Spiral Hugger

~ John B. Abela (HikeLighter.Com) ~ 5 Comments

Greetings hikers,

I have been waiting a while to write up this review, and over this past weekend I passed the 250-nights of use with a MontBell U.L. Super Spiral Down Hugger sleeping bag, and I told myself I would write up a review of this bag when I hit the 250-night mark.

The MontBell U.L. Super Spiral Down Hugger (herein I will simply annotate it as the ‘MBULSS’) is not exactly a sleeping bag that falls into the model of a SUL or XUL hiking setup. It is very much possible to carry this sleeping bag as a SUL hiker and it could be possible to do a XUL hike with the MBULSS #5 and maybe the #3 (but that would be really hard). So I realize that this sleeping bag might seem to be one of those sleeping bags that does not typically get reviewed by a SUL/XUL hiker, but if you are a SUL/XUL hiker you have probably come to learn the very valuable lesson that sleep comfort is almost as important as knowing your route and knowing how to maintain your core body temperature. So for me, having a sleeping setup that is above-par is a near-must. A little over 1000 grams of my 1800 gram BPW setup is devoted to my sleeping system (shelter & bag). Yes I could save 115 grams or so of weight (around 4 ounces) if I switched over to a ZPacks sleeping bag or an Enlightened Equipment Epiphany, but the simple fact is (for me) the comfort of the MBULSS is worth those three or four ounces. Hiking Lighter does not always mean hiking with the lightest possible gear in the world.

I have owned both the MBULSS #3 and a MBULSS #1 and have loved them both.

The #3 has an EN Rating of “40 comfort” and a “30(f) Lower Limit” and a “3(f) Extreme” rating. My thoughts on these ratings, as a cold sleeping, is that they are way off. I own the previous version when they were rated at 30(f) rather than 40(f) and I often found myself rather cold at anything under around 46. I made the mistake once of taking it out when it was going to be 30 and I pretty much froze all night, even with all of my clothing on. Whoever these “extreme” hikers are that can take this bag down to 3(f)… well, huge props to you guys!!

The #1 has an EN Rating of “26(f) comfort” and a “15(f) Lower Limit” and a “-19(f) Extreme” rating. I would say that these are a bit more accurate – again, I am a cold sleeper. The problem with the #1 is the bulk size of this bag. If you really stuff it, it can get down to around 7″ by 14″. As I almost never compress my sleeping bag, it can take up a rather large percentage of my ~1000 cubic inch backpack. The #1 also breaks the 2-pound limit, at 2.5 pounds, of which 1.5 pounds is 800 down fill and the other 1 pound is material. Compare this to the 17 ounces (482 grams) for the ZPacks 30(f) bag (remembering it is hoodless bag.)

I typically consider the 30(f) range the sweet spot in which sleeping bag to choose. Realistically anything under around 42(f) and I am cold. So a bag that can get me down to the 30(f) mark is a sleeping bag that I am going to shoot for, knowing that it should get me down to the freezing range, which is not all that common here in the Redwood Forest of Northern California, but it is very much possible to reach sub-freezing only an hour away from the Redwoods.

Perhaps the three biggest competitors to the MBULSS #1 is the Western Mountaineering AlpinLite, which is a 15(f) bag and is 31 ounces (1 lb 15 oz) (of which 19 ounces is down fill) and the Marmot Helium which is a 15(f) bag and is 38 ounces (2 lbs 6 oz) (of which 21.5 ounces is down fill) and the Nunatak Alpinist which is a 20(f) bag and is 22 ounces (1 lbs 3 oz) (of which 12 ounces is down fill).  [all bags based on 6′ length sizes]

The Nunatak is the only one of those three that I have not had the chance to try. Based on its specs I am not sure I would like using one – for the same reason that I do not like using the other two: they are not wide enough. I, like the vast majority of the people in the world, am a side sleeper. I am not only a side sleeper but when I get cold I very quickly go from being a side sleeper to being a fetal sleeper, and that requires a sleeping bug with a lot of width to accommodate the bent knees. And that is where the MontBell U.L. Super Spiral Down Hugger shines at.

It is no secrete that the problem with wide bags is that you end up sleeping colder, because of the larger amount of mass air inside the sleeping bag. The MBULSS solves this by being, well, a super spiral bag. When I am in a fetal position, it hugs my knees and bag. When I am in a standard side sleeping position, the bag hugs my knees and bag. If I happen to be sleeping on my back, the sleeping bag still hugs my sides. That is the awesomeness of the super spiral technology. There is very little dead-air space inside one of them. Perhaps the largest pocket of dead-air space of the entire sleeping bag is in the foot area, as it is not aggressively narrow in the foot region, which can be both good and bad. It is great when you want a bit of foot room, but I have also had my feet freezing a bit when I was pushing the limitations of the bag.

With over 250 nights of use on my #3 (and around 45 nights of use with the #1) I can definitively say that the sleeping bag has lost a fair amount of loft and thus warmth. I have washed it, treated it, and everything else I know of to try to bring back some warmth to the bag. If it falls below 50(f) I have found that the #3 is just not warm enough unless I put on a base layer of clothing or use a silk insert. It is rated at 40(f) so I would guess that it has lost around 8-10 degrees of warmth over the last 250 nights. I have never owned any other sleeping bag with this many nights of use so I am unaware of whether this is on-par with other bags or if this is rather poor performance. At this point the #3 is very little more than a summer time sleeping bag, or if I feel like carrying an additional 20-odd ounces of clothing to compensate for it. However as I previously mentioned the bulk of the #1 is significantly more than the #3 and in my backpack I have a hard time getting everything stuffed into it when I have to use the MBULSS#1. So I am more and more finding myself looking at one of the ZPacks sleeping bag and than a Nunatak Balaclava to compensate for the bag being hoodless. But, each time I do the numbers on the weight and the price, I just continue to think to myself that the pleasure of the pure comfort of the MBULSS sleeping bags are worth the bulk and the few extra ounces.

-Abela

In accordance of Federal Trade Commission 16 CFR, Part 255: I hereby declare that the disseminated content within the review of this product(s) is free of endorsement(s) between myself and the manufacturer(s) of any product(s) disclosed herein and meets all FTC 16 CFR.255 compliance requirements.

My thoughts on “stupid light”

~ John B. Abela (HikeLighter.Com) ~ 19 Comments

There is a term in the hiking world that is becoming more popular these days, especially as more hikers such as myself in the sul/xul world are educating UL hikers in the ways of SUL hiking, that is called “stupid light”. It is a term that is being used by very experienced hikers (most of whom I greatly respect) and by HH/UL hikers who just do not ‘get’ what sul/xul hiking is all about. The term is taking on a whole new level of meaning as those of us in the sul/xul world strive to push ourselves and our gear further to the extremes and have started educating others about it.

In all but a few of the cases that I have seen some of the worlds top hikers use the term ‘stupid light’ I have found myself disagreeing with them. I fully and completely understand that their reader audience and followers are thousands and sometimes tens of thousands more than what I and other sul/xul hikers have, so they have the responsibility to their readers, to those who they are educating, to approach things from a “99%” rather than the “1%” such as what I do. By this I mean that the xul world of hiking makes up around one percent (probably less than half of one percent) of all of the hikers from around the world. Within sul hiking that number goes up a small percentage, but for the most part, when you take the millions of hikers that have hiking gear some where in their house, those who are going out for 10+ day trips with a SUL backpack are just not that large of a percentage. So I can respect these fellow hikers with massive followings and their need to write and speak to the broader audience at large.

I think that the problem that is being faced by those of us who are sul/xul hikers and who are doing these things that others consider “stupid light” is not that what we are doing is wrong, nor is it unsafe, nor is it stupid – but rather the term itself is wrong. “Stupid light” should more aptly be termed “very experienced hikers light” or something along those lines.

Many of these guys throwing around this term over the last year, that have huge followings, have been out there using exactly the gear that they now call “stupid light” – as can be easily researched when you look at their gear lists for previous hikes that they have done. This is not me being critical towards those hikers, but rather I think it is important to point this out because it shows that “stupid light” is not about being “stupid” – it is about being “experienced” and knowing exactly what your gear is, how to use it, how to keep it in good shape, how to repair it should something happen, and how to just use your brain in general when things do not go as planned. The exact opposite of being “stupid”.

For the record, I do not strive to have a massive following. My style of hiking, and the hikelighter.com website, is all about the sul/xul styling of hiking. I accepted the fact that I would loose 90+% of my followers when I went to only talking and educating others about sul/xul hiking, and that is exactly what happened, and I am perfectly fine with that. What it has done is it has allowed me to connect with a much larger group of hikers who are sul/xul hikers than I ever did when I was focused on UL/SUL hiking. It has also given me the amazing opportunity to help a few dozen hikers break through the UL levels of backpack and work their way down into the SUL world – and good for them!!

So here is my request to those hikers out there who are using the term “stupid light” in their course of communications: The terminology is simply not right – and most of you know that. To claim that those of us in the hiking world, who collectively have tens of thousands of miles as sul/xul hikers, are “stupid” because we have the experience to go out onto the trail with gear that the 99% have no right to be out there using, is not “stupid”. We are experienced hikers using gear that can keep us as safe as any hiker with a 20 pound setup. We are experienced hikers who are helping to revolutionize the hiking industry as a whole by seeking out new gear and new materials and new methods of approaching how to solve the problems hikers face. Stupid has nothing to do with it – it is all about experience.

-Abela

Preparing For Shoulder/Winter Season, Clothing

~ John B. Abela (HikeLighter.Com) ~ 12 Comments

Hello Hikers,

I figured with it being mid-June that I should probably start putting some thoughts into the 2012 shoulder and winter hiking season. If you have been following my articles for very long you know I am not a big fan of that white stuff that so many others seem to enjoy so much, and thankfully here in the Redwoods of Northern California we do not get a lot of it.

Earlier today I was catching up on some fellow hiker articles and one of my favorite hikers from New Zealand posted a article about his planned base-layer for the rest of the year, and that is what got me thinking that it is getting close to that time of the year where I need to start planning my own setup.

So below I will outline what I am planning at this point in time for my 2012 shoulder and winter hiking season clothing setup. I would love to have other hikers out there who are planning and writing up their own shoulder/winter gear lists drop me a comment with your own setup! Each year the hiking industry is getting larger and larger and I am sure there is gear out there that some of you are using that I have no idea even exists and could be better than what I am planning to use!! Continue reading “Preparing For Shoulder/Winter Season, Clothing” →

2 Ounce Cook Kit

~ John B. Abela (HikeLighter.Com) ~ 15 Comments

Greetings Hikers,

It has been awhile since I posted an article on a cook kit, and my good buddy Chad recently decided to post a blog on his cook kit, which he and I worked on a bit to finalize (and I think he really nailed his) so I figured I would go ahead and share with the world what cook kit I have been using lately. The difference between his and mine is somewhere around 0.1 ounces so these will be pretty close to identical. I also know four or five other hikers out there who have contacted me the last few months and are building themselves nearly identical cooking setups. Most of them SUL hikers, one I think was UL wanting to just have something light and simple.

I feel it will be important here to start off by saying I have typically been a “no cook hiker”, which means that my meals are able to be made without the use of any hot water. For 2012 I have told myself that I will not abuse myself as much as I did last year (in my quest to go hard core XUL, with sub 2 pound BPW setups) and so I have switched back to carrying a cook kit. This does result in an additional 8 ounces of weight per section of trail (1 ounce per day of fuel + cook kit, on average of 6 days between resupplies) but the ability to have a warm cup of coffee in the morning, or some eggs, or a hot meal after hiking in the rain all day, well it really makes up for those extra eight ounces, when it all comes down to it. Continue reading “2 Ounce Cook Kit” →

June 2012 Hike. 5 Days, 115 Miles

~ John B. Abela (HikeLighter.Com) ~ 6 Comments

Hello Hikers,

Well I just got back from a 5 day (115 mile) hike and figured I would share a few thoughts and photos and a rather short and low quality video, as so many of you who follow me keep ragging on me for not taking pictures and videos of my hikes in the beautiful Redwood forest. So, this time I carried the additional 137 grams (4.8 oz) and carried along my iPhone. Sadly for reasons I do not yet understand no videos from day 4 or 5 got saved to the device, even though I know the record button was pressed. Sigh/Oh’well.

Gear Thoughts:

You can view my gear list for this hike if you are interested in such things.

My base pack weight was 3.22 pounds, which included the weight of the iPhone which I begrungingly took, otherwise I would have been at 2.91 pounds.

My consumables were 3866 grams (136.3 ounces / 8.52 pounds) of which 7.6 pounds where food, following my standard 1.5 pounds per day rule.

Food for this trip was primarily OvaEasy Powdered Whole Egg and Nido mixed together for breakfast, along with one packet of Nestle Carnation Instant Breakfast Essentials. Lunch and dinner was Santa Fe Bean Co, Instant Southwestern Style Refried Beans (cold lunch, hot for dinner) mixed with Roadkill Summer Sausage and dried cheese. Snacks was fresh fruit (first 2 days) and a combination of more summer sausage and a mixture of Macadamia and Cashew nuts.

Daily mileage was 27, 22, 25, 16, 24, for a total of 114 miles, plus probably another mile for side trips. Total elevation change was around 4200 feet, with one day a bit over 3,000 in elevation change. Decent mileage days consider it is the first 5 day hike for me for the 2012 season. I have done a few two and three day trips so far, but to go out and do a 5 day trip with a three pound setup is always a trial and a fun time to push yourself. With the exception of not having a wind jacket I think that the gear that I took with me was perfect for the trip. Average day time temps were 56-58 (f) and night time temps were 45-48(f) so I was able to get away with not taking a lot of heavy cold weather gear. Continue reading “June 2012 Hike. 5 Days, 115 Miles” →

Gossamer Gear Murmur Hyperlight Backpack (2012), First Hike Review

~ John B. Abela (HikeLighter.Com) ~ 5 Comments

Greetings Hikers,

Two weeks ago I had the opportunity to acquire the new 2012 Gossamer Gear Murmur backpack, which is the first non cuben fiber backpack I have bought in many years, because by the numbers the Murmur is one amazingly impressive backpack! The numbers were so impressive that it pretty much forced me into buying it (giggle) just to see it and put it on and take it for a hike.

As most of my blog and video followers are aware I have been using a multitude of cuben fiber backpacks for the last few years, with the ZPacks Blast 26 (now called the Blast 30) and the ZPacks Zero (X-Small) as my primary two backpacks, the latter of which is all I used in the 2011 hiking season, for a bit over 750 combined miles. Somewhere along the way I had a HMG WindRider as well but in the end it proved to be overbuilt and too heavy for my requirements (25 ounces is more than 1/3rd of my Base Pack Weight at this point.) Before I made to move to cuben fiber backpacks I was a big time ULA owner, having owned all of them from the catalyst down to the smallest ohm – but I moved away from ULA when I got into the mid-level UL range and have never looked back due to their larger capacity.

The Gossamer Gear Murmur is my first backpack from Gossamer Gear. Going away from cuben fiber was something I thought I would never do. None the less a backpack that is sub-10 ounces (283 grams) deserves the attention of anybody – especially when it is a fully featured backpack!

In traditional style (with the exception of my one article about the zpacks waterproof breathable cuben fiber rain jacket unboxing) I have tried very hard to never write a review, or do a video, about a piece of gear that was totally untested. It just seems wrong to write an article or do a video on something I have never even used. So, even though I did not have a trip planned for this weekend, when the backpack showed up and I took a seriously hard look at it to see if it would be worth spending a few days on the trail with it, it did not take me long to stop looking and just go dump the gear out of my other backpack and throw it into the Murmur and jump in my truck – and that is exactly what I did.

Being a SUL/XUL hiker, in true tradition, I went without a camera and video recorder, so for those of you interested in what this backpack looks like check out the official Gossamer Gear Murmur website and the following other reviewers (which all helped me make the decision to buy one) Brian Green, Philip Werner, JERMM, and Jhaura Wachsman.

My Weekend Trip Stats:

Over the last three days I did a total of 57 miles (91.7 kilometers) – which granted is not very far for an initial review on a backpack, but it was all I could pull together for such a short planned three-day trip. The backpack felt very nice and performed beyond what I was expecting it too, reminding me of the days of having a ULA backpack on my back (I have always considered the ULA Backpacks to be the most comfortable backpacks out there – but that comes at the price of being way to heavy for my style of hiking these days).

When I started the hike I had a Total Pack Weight (total pack weight = all gear + all food + all liquids) of 4176 grams (147 ounces / 9.20 pounds).

Continue reading “Gossamer Gear Murmur Hyperlight Backpack (2012), First Hike Review” →