More nuts than me

WilliamC said:
He's been at it for a while.
UOG Blog

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Just curious to know where he fit water in?

The reason why, is that I have been using the Sierra Designs Flex Lumbar 7-10l for day hikes and that would be my ultimate pack for a multi day hike but no way water fits in if the water bottle holders are stuffed with the tent and sleep pad. Surely he can’t just be drinking water as he finds it?? I had to put my ‘mini’ 350ml Toaks alcohol set up in one pocket and my 600l bottle in the other and no way a similar gear setup would fit in the main compartment.
 
fluffkitten said:
CF tarps are nowhere near as compressible as the Gatewood Cape, its a great bit kit to build a compact load out around.
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I have/had both. The Gatewood Cape doesn’t pack anywhere near as small as a ZPacks DCF pocket tarp and nowhere near the weight, but since, he seems to have diverted to an Outdoor Research Helium Bivvy. He says to avoid wind. That makes sense after seeing his pitches with the Gatewood as it did seem to be holding on by its fingernails in wind whereas the ZPacks tarp would have coped more admirably.

The thermal benefit of the Helium Bivvy must feature too in his calculations. I wouldn’t expect a +5C benefit from a Gatewood but +5C from the Helium would be realistic.
 
Personally it's the running but I find crazy, but to each their own.
Seems like he knows the terrain, the gear and his own limits well, which is half the battle.

One bit - handling the freezing water - did make me question his relevant skills/experience for the situation though:
There was a long rumination on what to do with the water bag (a Platypus 2L), which was already turning to slush. I couldn't bring myself to tuck it inside the sleeping bag and expend valuable energy melting it.
...
After a decent sleep, I discovered that I had in fact survived the night - in comfort, no less, and with all fingers and toes still intact. The water was almost completely solid. But I took comfort in that almost, dribbling the remaining thimbleful of liquid into the pan. With an iterative process of heating, decanting back into the ice-bag and repeating, I managed to boil enough for breakfast and coffee.
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Surely he must have been in a similar situation before, yet despite a "long rumination" he basically does nothing about the problem.
He could avoid the bottle freezing altogether by filling it with hot water, then puting it in the sleeping bag. Now I'm not sure if the platypus can hold hot water, and he might not have the fuel to justify it. But had he filled the pot with water before going to sleep, then he wouldn't have had to rely on a 'lucky thimbleful water' to start the thawing, he could just start melting the water in the pot, and it would undoubtedly save fuel compared to what he did.

I don't think it's a big deal, he could find water again in the morning. But it did somewhat tarnish the impression of him as a person with the relevant experience and skills to push his limits in freezing conditions on a mountain.
 
AmateurHiker said:
Yes, but with no water in during a run?

Edit: ok, I now see he fit the BeFree in the waistband pocket. Only viable on routes with lots of water.
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Hi AH/(and edh).

Yes, actually carrying water is out of the question at this level of minimalism - filling both the BeFree and Platypus would double my carried weight.

All these jaunts are in the Lakes, where availability of water is rarely an obstacle. One nice outcome of that is forcing me to develop a pretty thorough mental map of every high-altitude spring in Cumbria. If you want a watering-hole finding, I’ll go head-to-head against any elephant matriarch.
 
BogTrotter said:
I have/had both. The Gatewood Cape doesn’t pack anywhere near as small as a ZPacks DCF pocket tarp and nowhere near the weight, but since, he seems to have diverted to an Outdoor Research Helium Bivvy. He says to avoid wind. That makes sense after seeing his pitches with the Gatewood as it did seem to be holding on by its fingernails in wind whereas the ZPacks tarp would have coped more admirably.

The thermal benefit of the Helium Bivvy must feature too in his calculations. I wouldn’t expect a +5C benefit from a Gatewood but +5C from the Helium would be realistic.
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Hi BogTrotter and fluffkitten

I’ve always been a tad sceptical of going to DCF for my shelter because of noise, compressibility and the trade-off of increased height and heavier pole. (OK, the pole would only be 25g heavier but still…)

Really intrigued how well you speak, BT, of the Hexamid’s compactness and wind-worthiness. Maybe I should reconsider.
 
dueurt said:
Personally it's the running but I find crazy, but to each their own.
Seems like he knows the terrain, the gear and his own limits well, which is half the battle.

One bit - handling the freezing water - did make me question his relevant skills/experience for the situation though:


Surely he must have been in a similar situation before, yet despite a "long rumination" he basically does nothing about the problem.
He could avoid the bottle freezing altogether by filling it with hot water, then puting it in the sleeping bag. Now I'm not sure if the platypus can hold hot water, and he might not have the fuel to justify it. But had he filled the pot with water before going to sleep, then he wouldn't have had to rely on a 'lucky thimbleful water' to start the thawing, he could just start melting the water in the pot, and it would undoubtedly save fuel compared to what he did.

I don't think it's a big deal, he could find water again in the morning. But it did somewhat tarnish the impression of him as a person with the relevant experience and skills to push his limits in freezing conditions on a mountain.
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Hi dueurt

Yeah, fair comment, that was pretty lazy of me. And, self-evidently false economy: for the sake of two minutes on the evening, I could have chucked a pan of warmish water into the Platypus and tucked it into the Moonlite, instead of spending ten minutes thawing the damn thing out in the morning. *slaps forehead*

I generally aim to make one schoolboy error per trip. One of the most memorable was forgetting to loosen my laces on a summit camp and being completely unable to get my feet into my frozen shoes in the morning. Descending in socks was a non-starter so I had to slosh hot coffee over the shoes to loosen them. A tragic waste of caffeine, but it made my Inov8s smell a bit better.
 
NormanHadley said:
Hi BogTrotter and fluffkitten

I’ve always been a tad sceptical of going to DCF for my shelter because of noise, compressibility and the trade-off of increased height and heavier pole. (OK, the pole would only be 25g heavier but still…)

Really intrigued how well you speak, BT, of the Hexamid’s compactness and wind-worthiness. Maybe I should reconsider.
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Welcome along Norman. One of these days I may figure out getting my pack tetris skills to somewhere near yours. :D
 
NormanHadley said:
Hi dueurt

Yeah, fair comment, that was pretty lazy of me. And, self-evidently false economy: for the sake of two minutes on the evening, I could have chucked a pan of warmish water into the Platypus and tucked it into the Moonlite, instead of spending ten minutes thawing the damn thing out in the morning. *slaps forehead*

I generally aim to make one schoolboy error per trip. One of the most memorable was forgetting to loosen my laces on a summit camp and being completely unable to get my feet into my frozen shoes in the morning. Descending in socks was a non-starter so I had to slosh hot coffee over the shoes to loosen them. A tragic waste of caffeine, but it made my Inov8s smell a bit better.
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To be fair, I learned that lesson the hard way. After a night of -16°C all our water was frozen solid. Luckily I had been too tired to do the dishes in the evening, and my pot had some leftover potatoes in a bit of water. They were frozen solid, but was easily thawed.
Now I always have either a bottle of hot water, a pot full of water or both if I expect serious cold.
 
NormanHadley said:
Believe it or not, fluffkitten, I've since developed an even more eye-popping setup. I'm now getting consultancy requests from Mary Poppins.
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I noticed a comment of yours on the Extra Ultralight youtube saying you were working on a setup based on a 5l running vest. That'll be extremely good going. 😁
 
BogTrotter said:
That’s a lot better.
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For my emergency shelter, I ummm’ed and ahhh’ed between a Gatewood Cape and Slingfin Tarp and after a year or more of indecision went with the Slingfin. This was because I realised I’m not a mad fan of long ponchos (I’ve just cut one down) so the double use of the GC disappeared and secondly, I have a Hyperlite Splash Bivy which is a lot lighter than the Serenity Net and fits it well and lastly I think it probably packs down even smaller although without the Gatewood I couldn’t swear to this.

Got it over winter and I’m away at the moment so yet to unpack it and give it a test. I’m a shortie so hoping that I can sit up in the front if I pitch it high enough. Anyhow, it is supposed to be just an emergency shelter. Still love my XMid 1 even if it feels heavy compared with all the ultralight stuff around.
 
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