On Friday night I escaped to the North Yorkshire Moors for a sneaky overnighter. It was a rainy night but as I left the car the rain stopped and I enjoyed a rain free evening until I got back under the tarp just after midnight and the rain cam down for most of the night.
A quick kit geekfest video was taken just before I packed up which I share with you now.
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Showing posts with label SUL Pennine Way 2012. Show all posts
Showing posts with label SUL Pennine Way 2012. Show all posts
Sunday, 10 July 2011
Monday, 20 June 2011
Summer Quilt
As part of my drive to drastically reduce my kit weight (as well as belly weight) for next summers SUL attempt on the Pennine Way I’ve been putting a lot of thought into my sleeping arrangements.
Currently I own two sleeping bags, both made by PHD. I have a minim 300 which appears during their sales, this is rated down to 0C comfort and weighs 598g. My other is a the Piqolo which was until they did a lighter version, the lightest commercially available sleeping bag in the world at 395g. Mine weighs 430g and is comfortable down to around 8C. I find the PHD temp claims a bit on the optimistic side, I don’t put any blame on PHD for this, it’s just that my body must run a wee bit cold.
Being cold on a night on a long distance trip is something that must be avoided. Bad, or no sleep can lead to unhappy days and with this in mind I wanted to develop something that would be light and keep me warm down to 5C. I think this is as low as I can expect the night time temperatures to go in the hills in England during the summer.
I’ve been looking at quilts and quilt users with a wary eye for a year or so now. They claim that quilts are warmer and more comfortable than bags. All the insulation is above you so nothing is compressed and wasted. I’m guessing a number of you readers will be quilt users or familiar with the argument. So onwards to a making moment…
I managed to get hold of some old Pertex, that was apparently some of the last stuff made by the British firm before they sold the company. I can’t vouch for what exactly it is. All I know that it’s pretty light weight, very water resistant and downproof. This cost about £25 with postage. I wish I had bought the remaining roll as it’s not available any more.
For the quilt I looked to the internet for tips and hints and what I found was this. Brilliantly put together comprehensive instructions on how to MYOG quilt. All I can say is thank you to Jamie and to all potential quilt makers following these instructions was a dream. I would recommend this as a good first MYOG project. If you can sew a straight seam in thin material you can make this quilt easily and quickly.
Right back to my attempt. I slightly altered the size of the quilt as I am 1” taller than Jamie, and therefore the size of the baffle spacing. The maths are easy enough. The pattern ended up being 80" long. I then cut out the material. I have a 8’x4’ plywood sheet that sits on the kitchen table, I use a fine pointed soldering iron and a lightweight Aluminium I beam for a straight edge. This reduces the need to mark and then cut the material as you can “draw” down the straight edge with the hot soldering iron and leave an edge that will not fray.
The material was then sewn together as per the instructions, the baffles marked with chalk and these also sewn together. As this was a sewn through baffle quilt the sewing is a very quick and easy process.
The down was purchased from £55 including postage for 200g of the 860fp stuff. I then used the hoover method to fill the baffles. This method is fantastic, quickish and more importantly mess free. There were a few down clusters floating about the kitchen at the end but nothing to worry about.
A word of caution about the hoover method. I nearly caused hoover apocalypse as I underestimated the air resistance of compacted down. Top tips to avoid hoover meltdown. Firstly remove the bag from the hoover to increase air flow into the motor. You won’t need the bag as the noseeum mesh stops anything entering the hoover itself. Secondly don’t run the motor when vacuuming the down for more than ten seconds or so. You can usually pick up around 4g of down with each suck. I ran the hoover for around 30 seconds on the first go trying to hoover up the half a bag of down, the motor cut out and proceeded to get very very hot which resulted in a quick motor extraction from said hoover. No long term damage but I may not have been so lucky.
I put all 200g of down in the quilt just to see what would happen. Jamie puts in 172g in his slightly smaller quilt. I reckon that with the slightly larger size and the bits that got away I put in about 10%-12% more down. I had inadvertently overstuffed the quilt, i.e the fp of the down if fully fluffed up would fill the chambers of the quilt, the down I had put in would fill a quilt with 10% more internal volume. This means that the quilt now feels a lot firmer than the PHD bags that I’ve got, which in turns means the baffles stay lofted a lot easier and don’t compress as much.
There is about 2” of loft and the quilt is warm, really warm. Once the rest of the seams were sewn up and 18” of Velcro was sewn on the edges to create the footbox the quilt was nearly done. A few small loops of ribbon were sewn on the edges for the purposes of keeping the quilt wrapped around me during cold spells.
I’ve yet to use the quilt outside but from the appearance and testing on the sofa I think it will comfortably keep me warm down to 5c and will be a useful addition to my other bags into the colder months. With a bivi bag and clothes on the quilt is uncomfortably warm inside. I would say it is as warm as my PHD bag rated to 0c. This is a very unscientific test. The quilt finished up being 68" long when fully stuffed which is plenty long enough when the footbox is cinched and velcroed up.
Following are a few pictures of the finished article. Oh and the final weight now that it's finished is 460g.
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Currently I own two sleeping bags, both made by PHD. I have a minim 300 which appears during their sales, this is rated down to 0C comfort and weighs 598g. My other is a the Piqolo which was until they did a lighter version, the lightest commercially available sleeping bag in the world at 395g. Mine weighs 430g and is comfortable down to around 8C. I find the PHD temp claims a bit on the optimistic side, I don’t put any blame on PHD for this, it’s just that my body must run a wee bit cold.
Being cold on a night on a long distance trip is something that must be avoided. Bad, or no sleep can lead to unhappy days and with this in mind I wanted to develop something that would be light and keep me warm down to 5C. I think this is as low as I can expect the night time temperatures to go in the hills in England during the summer.
I’ve been looking at quilts and quilt users with a wary eye for a year or so now. They claim that quilts are warmer and more comfortable than bags. All the insulation is above you so nothing is compressed and wasted. I’m guessing a number of you readers will be quilt users or familiar with the argument. So onwards to a making moment…
I managed to get hold of some old Pertex, that was apparently some of the last stuff made by the British firm before they sold the company. I can’t vouch for what exactly it is. All I know that it’s pretty light weight, very water resistant and downproof. This cost about £25 with postage. I wish I had bought the remaining roll as it’s not available any more.
For the quilt I looked to the internet for tips and hints and what I found was this. Brilliantly put together comprehensive instructions on how to MYOG quilt. All I can say is thank you to Jamie and to all potential quilt makers following these instructions was a dream. I would recommend this as a good first MYOG project. If you can sew a straight seam in thin material you can make this quilt easily and quickly.
Right back to my attempt. I slightly altered the size of the quilt as I am 1” taller than Jamie, and therefore the size of the baffle spacing. The maths are easy enough. The pattern ended up being 80" long. I then cut out the material. I have a 8’x4’ plywood sheet that sits on the kitchen table, I use a fine pointed soldering iron and a lightweight Aluminium I beam for a straight edge. This reduces the need to mark and then cut the material as you can “draw” down the straight edge with the hot soldering iron and leave an edge that will not fray.
The material was then sewn together as per the instructions, the baffles marked with chalk and these also sewn together. As this was a sewn through baffle quilt the sewing is a very quick and easy process.
The down was purchased from £55 including postage for 200g of the 860fp stuff. I then used the hoover method to fill the baffles. This method is fantastic, quickish and more importantly mess free. There were a few down clusters floating about the kitchen at the end but nothing to worry about.
A word of caution about the hoover method. I nearly caused hoover apocalypse as I underestimated the air resistance of compacted down. Top tips to avoid hoover meltdown. Firstly remove the bag from the hoover to increase air flow into the motor. You won’t need the bag as the noseeum mesh stops anything entering the hoover itself. Secondly don’t run the motor when vacuuming the down for more than ten seconds or so. You can usually pick up around 4g of down with each suck. I ran the hoover for around 30 seconds on the first go trying to hoover up the half a bag of down, the motor cut out and proceeded to get very very hot which resulted in a quick motor extraction from said hoover. No long term damage but I may not have been so lucky.
I put all 200g of down in the quilt just to see what would happen. Jamie puts in 172g in his slightly smaller quilt. I reckon that with the slightly larger size and the bits that got away I put in about 10%-12% more down. I had inadvertently overstuffed the quilt, i.e the fp of the down if fully fluffed up would fill the chambers of the quilt, the down I had put in would fill a quilt with 10% more internal volume. This means that the quilt now feels a lot firmer than the PHD bags that I’ve got, which in turns means the baffles stay lofted a lot easier and don’t compress as much.
There is about 2” of loft and the quilt is warm, really warm. Once the rest of the seams were sewn up and 18” of Velcro was sewn on the edges to create the footbox the quilt was nearly done. A few small loops of ribbon were sewn on the edges for the purposes of keeping the quilt wrapped around me during cold spells.
I’ve yet to use the quilt outside but from the appearance and testing on the sofa I think it will comfortably keep me warm down to 5c and will be a useful addition to my other bags into the colder months. With a bivi bag and clothes on the quilt is uncomfortably warm inside. I would say it is as warm as my PHD bag rated to 0c. This is a very unscientific test. The quilt finished up being 68" long when fully stuffed which is plenty long enough when the footbox is cinched and velcroed up.
Following are a few pictures of the finished article. Oh and the final weight now that it's finished is 460g.
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Friday, 10 June 2011
New Backpack
Hello all
This is just a quick post to show you the first complete pack of a new design that I've been working on for a few months now. A previous post explains the basic design.
This pack is fully functioning with straps, which I find quite useful and a zip, something that is not often found on lightweight packs. This is a light pack weighing in at 218g. I reckon it's in the 35l range plus slightly larger mesh pockets than the first mock up.
This is just a quick post to show you the first complete pack of a new design that I've been working on for a few months now. A previous post explains the basic design.
This pack is fully functioning with straps, which I find quite useful and a zip, something that is not often found on lightweight packs. This is a light pack weighing in at 218g. I reckon it's in the 35l range plus slightly larger mesh pockets than the first mock up.
The tin of beans is for scale.
Side pockets that nicely fit a 500ml water bottle and angled for easy access.
Home made ultralight straps from closed cell foam,, mesh and grosgrain type ribbon.
I'll do a video when I've got more time. There's no hip belt, or sternum strap as it's designed for light loads. I think I will need a sternum strap and I wait to see if I can cope without a hip belt.
So far 88g under target weight for this bit of kit for the SUL trip along the Pennine way next year.
Tuesday, 17 May 2011
I have a plan.
Sometimes I need a grand plan, something big to consider, ponder over and a reason to make kit. No doubt this year will see a lot of this mainly in the form of renovating an old house that I’m hoping to buy. I know from past experience that when taking on such a big project as a whole house renovation I need to be able to daydream about something that’s going to be there when it’s done. Daydreaming about stuff when I’m stuck, hacking off plaster for the tenth evening in a row and getting thoroughly sick of having no spare time.
Watching @philoutdoors and others crossing Scotland via the magic that is http://new.socialhiking.org.uk/ also gets me itching to plan a big trip. I had to pull out of this years TGO for a number of reasons, mainly for the sale and subsequent purchase of houses. So I started looking into doing the Pennine Way. An iconic trail in the UK and one that’s not talked about as much anymore.
If need be I could pack for the entire trip with stuff from my gear cupboard, although I’ve sold a lot of stuff recently I’ve still got a full range for three season camping from lightweight gear to air beds and gas stoves for car camping. But no really lightweight stuff. This led me to thinking that I wouldn’t mind making some really lightweight summer kit and using this kit for the trip along the Pennine Way.
Followers of the blog may have realised that I start a lot of projects, get partly through them, find a problem and stop. Some projects get used, the cat cut tarp gets regular use as does the bivi bag. That process of going wrong, or as I like to think, discovering something you didn’t know, is important. Unless you have someone to learn from you have to just jump in and learn from your mistakes. I think I’m at the stage now that projects seem to be going right and I’ve set myself the task of walking the Pennine Way in the summer of 2012 using a Super Ultra Light (SUL) base weight of 5lbs or 2.268kg.
On the face of it, it seems practically impossible to walk safely in the hills in the UK with such a small amount of gear. But… with modern materials and making kit that specifically for your own size and needs you can cut down on weight. I’ve already started designing and making some kit and I’ll post about these separately as it’s the kit you want to hear about! Below is a list of big stuff that I want to carry and target weights for each piece and you can see that it does seem possible.
Backpack 300g
Sleeping bag/quilt 450g
Sleeping mat 100g
Bivi 200g
Shelter/guylines 300g
Pegs 75g
Pot and Stove 130g
Waterproofs 100g (yes that’s 100g, I have a plan, I'm sure I mentioned that?)
Total 1,655g
Obviously there’s still quite a bit to add to list and I’ve only 613g to play with, insulation included and I’m up to my base weight. But I’ve given myself a bit of wiggle room in the target weights. There has to be some minimum specifications for the kit, I don’t want to suffer and I want to be safe. The shelter will be designed for three seasons, you don’t get one season weather in the UK unless you’re lucky. The sleeping bag/quilt will have to be good to 5c without the need for further insulation and I need to be able to cook and brew tea.
I’ve got a 100 ideas buzzing about in my head about the kit, how it’s going to be made, multiple uses for it. Some of it’s been made or part made some of it is still just ideas. I hope that by having a plan that a lot if not all of this gets made, it gives me something to daydream about and you something to comment on and chuckle about.
I welcome any comments, suggestions, or any well meaning criticism of the plans or my intentions and I promise to post more about kit and do shiny pictures and videos soon.
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