Note To Self

One of the great things about having a yard during winter time is that it makes it safe and easy to check out the temperature ratings of your gear. Last night's low was in the upper twenties at the cabin so I set up the X-Mid with my new quilt and spent several 10-15 minute intervals in the tent using various combinations of gear to gauge the temperature range as well as practice winter camping skills such as setting the tent up in the dark in the snow and cooking on cold snow. Here's what I learned: The Enlightened Equipment [...]

After reading through Training for the Uphill Athlete I picked up a heart rate monitor (a Fitbit Inspire HR) and have started using the treadmill three times a week for an hour at a time. I wanted to record my starting stats so that I could refer to them later in the year. In order to build endurance 80-85% of your exercise volume needs to be in heart rate zones 1 and 2. The book suggested using Phil Maffetone's 180 formula to determine the beats-per-minute that define the upper limit of your zone 2. The formula is simple: Zone 2 [...]

In a comment on r/ultralight, fancy outdoorsman Dan Durston links to the following paper in The Journal of the Textile Institute which supposedly shows that at a given high dose of UV radiation nylon was reduced to 15% of its original strength whereas polyester remained above 99%: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00405000.2013.796629 As much as I'd like to read the paper for myself, at $50 a pop I'll take Dan's word for it. When I was out tent shopping it became very clear that one advantage of polyester over nylon was that nylon sags when wet and polyester doesn't, something I can personally vouch [...]

One of the data layers for Gaia GPS is OpenStreetMap, a collaborative mapping platform (think of it as Wikipedia for maps). Often times features such as campsite locations, toilet locations, etc. are missing from OSM and thus missing from Gaia. Here's how I add new locations to OSM such that they're visible to all Gaia GPS users: Export the point from Gaia as a GPX fileLog into OSMSelect Edit with iD from the Edit dropdown to bring up the in-browser editorDrag the GPX file onto the editor to add the point as an overlayClick on the Point icon at the [...]

I was organizing my gear bin when I came across my Suunto Clipper compass, which I had apparently forgot to attach to my pack - whoops! The clipper is typically shown as being attached to a watch band but I wanted something that would hold it much more securely than just the friction/pressure provided by the clip. Fortunately there's a small hole in the back of the compass which you can run some cord through. Here's what I came up with: Top: bowline to middle chest trap loop. Bottom: bowline through compass hole. Middle: slipknot through bottom chest strap loop. [...]

I was doing research on which tarp to buy for this season (spoiler: it's the Borah Gear 7'x9') when I stumbled across a YouTube video that blew my mind: in ONE TARP // ONE POLE // TWO PITCHES the guy removes the bottom segment of his trekking pole to use as a the short pole for an A-frame storm mode pitch. And here I was worried that I'd need to carry a second trekking pole in order to start using a tarp. I had already upgraded from a Paria Tri-Fold Carbon Cork to an Element Equipment Carbon 3000 pole for [...]

There's so many outdoor gear companies these days that I can't even begin to remember them all. As a memory aid I'm going to start dumping them into this post for future reference. 32 DegreesBear Paw Wilderness DesignsBig AgnesBig Sky InternationalBlack DiamondBorah GearCascade Mountain TechDannerDarn ToughDecathlonDeFeetDrymaxDuluth Trading CompanyEagle's Nest Outfitters (ENO)Enlightened EquipmentEquinoxExOfficioFeathered FriendsFrogg ToggsGarminGarmontGoosefeet GearGossamer GearHelinoxHigh Tail DesignsHoka One OneHyperlite Mountain GearInjinjiKatabatic GearKeith TitaniumKeltyKlymitKS Ultralight GearKuiuLightHeart GearLocus GearMarmotMassdropMontaneMontbellMountain HardwearMountain Laurel DesignsMountain Safety Research (MSR)MountainsmithNemo EquipmentNitecoreThe North FaceNunatakOboz FootwearOspreyOutdoor ResearchPa'lanteParia Outdoor ProductsPranaRabREISawyerSea to SummitSierra DesignsSimply Light DesignsSix Moon DesignsSnow PeakSuluk 46Superior Wilderness DesignsSuuntoTarptentTherm-A-RestTread Lite GearULA EquipmentVargoYama Mountain GearZpacks