Hiking, backpacking, trekking, mountaineering...

firstborn · 6 May 2017 at 10:08

touch said:
It's a race. Total time is going to be 4/5 days so 15mins to boil some water for a dehydrated meal doesnt sounds like a lot but when you add in time to stop, dig all the kit out of your bag, setup, cook, eat, clean and pack up again - it can be over an hour of stoppage time. Even if I have just 1 hot meal a day, that'll be at least 4 hours onto my total time.

It's in Scotland so there won't be any huge stretches without resupply. Worst case scenario is about 1.5 days. Although, I'll be cycling for ~18 hours a day so I'd want to eat about 7000 cals in that time.

In my opinion you want at least one hot food meal to look forward to from a morale point of view, especially if you want to be taking in that many calories. A Jetboil is light and can boil 0.5L in less than a minute - you could stop, eat and be on your way in 15 minutes.

touch · 6 May 2017 at 14:29

firstborn said:
In my opinion you want at least one hot food meal to look forward to from a morale point of view

A hot meal isn't really that important to me - hence why my original question was about pre-prepared stuff. There are a few small towns and villages along the route so I might be able to get some hot food but I'd happily go 5 days without. The self-heating meals that Jokester suggested would be good but it's not worth carrying any sort of stove.

It's entirely self-supported so there's no option of a support crew waiting for me unfortunately.

katinacooker · 7 May 2017 at 15:50

Walked up Schiehallion yesterday. My 2nd Munro so far, though i've done a few other Corbets & Grahams before. Couldnt've asked for a nicer day

darkgen · 7 May 2017 at 16:42

Wow; that's some view. I was watching the Travel show on BBC News earlier today which had a segment on the Lake District. The UK really does have some beautiful and spectacular views. I wish the indigenous populace appreciated it more!

Jokester · 7 May 2017 at 20:09

Was up Scheihallion today, first hike of the year and similar weather to you katinacooker, bit chilly and breezy at the top but could see all round.

Metalface Mark · 7 May 2017 at 21:33

Clarkson said:
Which route are you taking up Kili? I did the Umbwe route > Western Breach in September last year and I'd definitely recommened it. Didn't see anyone else on our route up except for Baranco Camp which is like a big cross-roads of routes. Came down one of the main tourist ways (can't remember which) and honestly it was terrible in comparison. Over-crowded, uninspiring landscape, and loads of dust. I wouldn't have fancied going up that way.

Also did Mt Meru (and little meru) prior to Kili and that's also great. Arguably a more beautiful and striking mountain to stand atop of with quite a small summit area and jagged ridges/big drops.

Hope you enjoy in any case!

Im doing the lemosho route. I think we come down the Marangu route.

leemk · 9 May 2017 at 11:16

Tested the Luxe Sil Hexpeak for a night , headrooms great but no good for someone who is 6'6" lying down unless you remove the inner.
But i did manage to get my Vango Mirage down from 3kg to 2.4kg by getting lighter bags , using dyneema cord and changing the 300g pegs to 56g titanium pegs.

Also my Big Agnes decided to leak a bit , when i got home for some reason it had developed several hundred pinholes at the head end , have not got a clue why but it is 8 years old.
Bit of Seamgrip seems to have sorted it though.

The square blob of seamgrip on the right was not needed but did make it look better.

Avenged7Fold · 9 May 2017 at 13:25

If you want some easy hot food, this stuff and the rest of the range is not only tasty, warm and cheap but you can boil the pouch to heat it.

I usually keep a few in case of food emergency when i am fishing/festival/camping

https://www.tesco.com/groceries/pro...gclid=CJ6VvMfm4tMCFcO17QodOFUF4A&gclsrc=aw.ds

Cant argue with a quid!

ci_newman · 9 May 2017 at 19:28

Avenged7Fold said:
If you want some easy hot food, this stuff and the rest of the range is not only tasty, warm and cheap but you can boil the pouch to heat it.

I usually keep a few in case of food emergency when i am fishing/festival/camping

https://www.tesco.com/groceries/product/details/?id=293258598&sc_cmp=ppc*GHS+-+Grocery+-+New*PX+|+Shopping+GSC+|+Top+Offers+++Tesco+Brand*PRODUCT+GROUP293258598*&gclid=CJ6VvMfm4tMCFcO17QodOFUF4A&gclsrc=aw.ds

Cant argue with a quid!

There is barely any calories in that though, its about 240cals for that whole pouch - when you're hiking you need something much more calorific

Glaucus · 10 May 2017 at 20:19

trying to sort out my sleeping comfort this year, going to attempt to make my own quilt, but as for sleeping pads before I press buy,
does anyone know of a sleeping pad that is ~30" wide with a good R-value but lighter than the klymit static v insulated luxe which comes in at a massive 992grams

ideally want something around 500g but cant find anything lighter.
https://www.klymit.com/insulated-static-v-luxe.html

Rannoch · 23 May 2017 at 11:03

Heading for Glencoe tomorrow. Aonach Dubh on Thursday with a wee visit into Ossian's Cave.

£15 · 23 May 2017 at 20:47

Glaucus said:
trying to sort out my sleeping comfort this year, going to attempt to make my own quilt, but as for sleeping pads before I press buy,
does anyone know of a sleeping pad that is ~30" wide with a good R-value but lighter than the klymit static v insulated luxe which comes in at a massive 992grams ideally want something around 500g but cant find anything lighter.
https://www.klymit.com/insulated-static-v-luxe.html

I'm not sure it meets your width requirements, but have you checked out the Thermarest NeoAir XTherm max?

I've just got one, but haven't used it yet. I'm hoping to next weekend on a family camping trip.

Glaucus · 23 May 2017 at 21:08

BadMojo said:
I'm not sure it meets your width requirements, but have you checked out the Thermarest NeoAir XTherm max?

I've just got one, but haven't used it yet. I'm hoping to next weekend on a family camping trip.

yeah unfortunately no where wide enough, although thermalites are lovely, got one of the other models currently.

found the exped ultralight duo, but its 40" wide and wont fit in my tent, but only ways 790 grams with r of 3.3. Such a shame as that would be luxurious at a sensible weight
http://www.campsaver.com/exped-synmat-hyperlite-duo-sleeping-pad

is there anyway to add r-value to a pad for very little weight, like putting it ontop of a mylar sheet or something?

ordered the fabric and its on its way from the states, so DiY hiking quilt if I don't mess it up.

And booked flights for a month hiking in Sweden for the kungsleden trail, hopefully keep the pace up and finish the whole lot. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kungsleden
can't wait, roll on 14th of july.

Street · 24 May 2017 at 13:07

Glaucus said:
trying to sort out my sleeping comfort this year, going to attempt to make my own quilt, but as for sleeping pads before I press buy,
does anyone know of a sleeping pad that is ~30" wide with a good R-value but lighter than the klymit static v insulated luxe which comes in at a massive 992grams ideally want something around 500g but cant find anything lighter.
https://www.klymit.com/insulated-static-v-luxe.html

Exped Synmat 7 UL MW? About 26" wide, R3.3 and 550g. Or a Downmat Winterlite MW? R7 and 615g. I swear by Exped mats!

I did a traverse of the Rhinogs at the weekend, such an awesome part of the National Park and very rarely visited by anyone else. Unfortunately I also seem to have destroyed my achilles tendon doing it so am off to see the physio tonight as I can barely walk. Just what I wanted, coming up to the summer!

ShiWarrior · 24 May 2017 at 19:38

im doing Snowdon again, only done it once and that was a fair few years ago with my family (brother in law did it load of times so we followed him) this time its just me and my mate !

10 june we are doing it, just not sure how warm ( or cold) its going to be?

Glaucus · 24 May 2017 at 20:04

ShiWarrior said:
im doing Snowdon again, only done it once and that was a fair few years ago with my family (brother in law did it load of times so we followed him) this time its just me and my mate !

10 june we are doing it, just not sure how warm ( or cold) its going to be?

it can still be cold and miserable. last time I went was end of may a year or two back and it was heavy snow from halfway up.
look here for some good info, but always wise to take some waterproof, windroof and warm clothes with you
http://www.mountainwalk.co.uk/snowdon-weather.html

and take one of the other route up rather than the main path.

ShiWarrior · 24 May 2017 at 20:26

Glaucus said:
it can still be cold and miserable. last time I went was end of may a year or two back and it was heavy snow from halfway up.
look here for some good info, but always wise to take some waterproof, windroof and warm clothes with you
http://www.mountainwalk.co.uk/snowdon-weather.html

and take one of the other route up rather than the main path.

thanks

thinking of doing Pyg track up , then miners track down

Glaucus · 31 May 2017 at 22:19

Fabric arrived so I can attempt to make a hiking quilt. This is going to save me many hundreds or be a total failure.

The green and purple is the shell and the black is actually mesh for the baffles. All are downproof. The shell is 1oz per square yard and the mesh is 0.5oz per square yard, not quite the lightest fabric but not far off, and got enough for two if all going well I'll make a summer one alter on, if it goes badly I can have two attempts. Haven't brought the down yet in case it all goes wrong from the start.

if anyone wants to know more then

So down flll power is how many inches cubed per oz. So 860 down, 1 oz will ill 860 cubic inches. Most places over stuff by 20% so you just need to work out the volume of each baffle area, then add 20%.

and the best video I've found so far is.

I'm just doing a quilt no fancy stuff, i'm a side sleeper, move around a lot and like rolling myself up in it. Will be going for 1.8" baffle and probably a double duvet size or a bit smaller, need to work out the exact weights and decide how much comfort/weight.

Street · 31 May 2017 at 22:31

Sounds like a fun project! How much is it going to cost you? What's the weight for warmth going to be like at the end? Never know, you could end up being the next Rab Carrington!

Glaucus · 31 May 2017 at 22:48

for a double duvet 78"x78" at -1c rating using 860 (there are higher fill powers, but prices goes up a lot and gets hard to find).
fabric weight = 9.4oz
baffle weight = 0.9oz
down weight = 15.2oz

so 25.5oz or 722 grams but that doesn't include thread. Don't really know how much that will add.

total cost around £170 , if I brought something similar you're looking around the £300-£350 mark(even those aren't these size)
fabric £50(so that's actually £100 worth of fabric there) and down will be £120, that's with a fair bit of waste on both.
i'm sure with a fair bit of effort finding a uk supplier then it could work out fair bit cheaper.

single duvet is only 53" wide. I may go for something in-between.

it is a missing market in the UK, its becuase through hiking isn't so popular so most people don't carry everything and just hop from one hostel/hotel to the next and the comfort but ultralight weight market seems to be missing practically everywhere. 99.9% of places are about cutting weight as much as possible, where there could be a middle ground (like the Klymit luxe sleeping pads).