Red Yeti's Blog

09 Jul, 2009

Stretching to breaking point my excuse that “I will be carrying it for seven weeks so I’ll get whatever kit is necessary”, I’ve decided to have the legendary pole-hood of the TN Laser Competition re-worked in Cuben Fibre by Morph over at Team IO.

To me, the original hood is at odds with the rest of the cleanly designed Comp’ in being rather over-specified. For instance it’s only about 14cms (less than 6 inches) wide and yet it’s got a taped seam running down the full length of it.

I know that TN say that it’s “optional” but it’s only optional if you don’t mind doing without the full strength, waterproofing and anchor points of the tent.

And although you could leave it at home for an overnight trip during good weather, in the UK mountains with our very changeable maritime climate that’s unlikely to be a very sure bet. And as for predicting whether I’ll need it across seven weeks, even in the more stable continental climate of the French Alps…

So, I want the things that a pole-hood gives me on the Comp’; two extra guy lines, waterproofing on the central seam and some stability provided by the compression of the pole.

But I don’t like the weight. What are the options?

No pole hood or guy lines:

No good. I want the guy-lines for stability, the compression strength of the curved pole and waterproofing.

Though of course I could use silicone seam sealer. Which adds to the weight somewhat.

Just guy lines:

There are three tie-outs that the pole-hood attaches to along the pole. But just using two of them for attaching the guys won’t work since the tie-outs simply aren’t designed to be strong enough.

The pole-hood is designed so that one guy line pulls on all three tie-outs and, when in tension, also against the guy on the other side, compressing the hoop formed by the pole.

Still no waterproofing with this option.

Guy lines linked with a length of cord

What about taking the cords from the edges of the pole-hood and linking the two guys, as well as the points where the pole-hood attaches at the pole ends and attaching the guys to them?

Well the cord would simply try to take the straightest line between the three attachment points on the tent thereby not providing any real transfer of the load I don’t think. Also, there’d be no compressing force applied to the pole and obviously no waterproofing.

Guy lines linked with a length of cord, linked with lateral cords

To improve on the last idea, link the two cords taken from the pole-hood with lateral cords running across the pole.

Meaning the cords stay in roughly the sample place as they were when threaded through the edge of the pole-hood and give compression to the pole.

Well it’s almost there I think. But you’d end up with a great big mess of cords that would be a nightmare to untangle and pitch each time. And you’d still have to add the weight of the seam seal to provide the waterproofing.

So, without serious re-working of the structure of the tent itself, or perhaps compromising the strength, it has to have the pole-hood.

But why does it have to be so heavy?

I asked Wayne if he could remake it and sure enough he’s taken it from 73 grams (with original cords) to 33 grams (with new cords) for just the hood on its own. Add in the guys and my scales make it 84 grams originally and now 44 grams total weight.

I’d guess the new cords alone must weigh around 8 grams and as explained above, I don’t think they’re expendable. Factor in what has to be another 8 or more grams of silicone and carrying the actual “hood” part amounts to the equivalent of a piffling 17 or so grams.

For £30 it obviously adds a bit to the cost of the tent. However it also takes off about 4% of the original weight and a 4% weight saving can’t be bad!

You can see from the pictures that it’s beautifully made. Amazing work, welding the material together and running the cords through the edges like that.

I reckon it’s at least as tough as the original. I’m looking forward to trying it out in the Alps…

29 Apr, 2009

We used to use the excellent Terra Nova Solar II but when the Superlite version of the classic Terra Nova Voyager was produced I couldn’t resist shedding the half kilo or so of weight.  (And now it seems it’s 300 grams lighter still).

Nice and roomy. Very well made, as all Terra Nova stuff is. Although being a Superlite it does technically require seam-sealing to be utterly waterproof. Though, from what TN tell me, I seem to be the only person to ever have found it to leak slightly.

Another thing worth mentioning is that it does only require 12 pegs even though it has 13 pegging out points (as standard).  The two middle loops don’t require pegging. They’re just there to be used if you really want to use every point possible.

Yes, yes, but what of the toughening?

Well, ours took a hell of a kicking on some of its early outings. Partly it’s that we tend to pitch high and with more of an eye for the sunrise than for shelter. Partly it was just a series of extremely windy weekends that we happened to pick.

But despite getting almost a full “vacuum packed to the ground” effect on a couple of occasions, it came through with no damage on all but one occasion.

That was was when the wind turned overnight and instead of coming from the tail came from the front.

Now, if you look at the way the Voyager is put together, wind from the front, at first glance would seem to be no big deal.

Except that you then notice there are no guy lines on the front. In fact there are only two guy lines on the whole tent – at the rear flank. (The picture shows wind from the front and side, it also shows a failed attempt to use a Grip Clip as a guy line. It failed as the silnylon is too slippery to hold it).

So, wind from the front pushes on the fly, and sends the single transverse pole backwards, sliding up inside the fly until the two longitudinal poles really start to feel it at the back.

But looking at it, the solution seemed simple.

Since the problem is that the pole slides along the inside of the fly, away from the porch, just attach one of the same clips that the inner attaches to the poles with, to the fly, at the top of the transverse pole.

I doubt it adds more than 8-10 grams to the weight but it solves the problem as the pole is now anchored by the pegs down at the front of the fly.

Which is fine, as long as the wind is coming straight at the front of the tent.

But of course it didn’t. Since is started at the back, it moved around to hit from the side for a time. At which point the whole tent tried to flatten sideways with only the rear guys putting up a fight.

It did well. Slightly banana’d the transverse pole but it survived. Boiling water for breakfast was a matter of holding down the groundsheet with as much weight as possible to stop the stove getting thrown about. We couldn’t even cook in the porch that morning (don’t try this at home folks ;).

So the solution for that is far less cunning. Just attach a new guy point on each side at the joint between the porch and the main body. Nice long guy lines, and hey-presto – bomber semi-geodesic tent with enough guy lines to give it a fair chance in wind from any direction.

And the guys themselves have been replaced with Dyneema. It’s lighter than the original cordage and stronger than steel weight for weight. If that’s not impressive enough it’s 40% stronger than aramid fibre (Kevlar, the thread used in the bullet proof vests in the later part of the last century, is an aramid).

The tensioners have been replaced with the excellent (and very cheap) Mini-Line Loks. They are far, far easier to use than any other tensioner I’ve come across and yet manage to grip even the thin Dyneema cord without any sign of slippage.

Sharon Brogdale over at TN said that she’d spoken to the designer of the the new version of the Voyager about the door hook and the extra guys and they were considering them for the new design. But sadly they didn’t make it (I imagine it’s the weight they are concerned about).

Whilst I was sending it back to TN for new poles and the above re-working I had them replace the rather overly stretchy shock cord on the pegging out points with much shorter but tougher grade cord. That also helps stabilise it as the stretchier cord allowed the fly to move about a bit too much for my liking.

TN charged very reasonable money for all this. The shock cord was £2.50 a point (five of them), new guy points £10.00 each  and the hook above the door only £5.00. Another £5.00 p&p brought the whole lot to £42.50.

Don’t get me wrong, I think this is a great tent even as sold. But for pitching in really silly places in even sillier weather my modified version is as close to carrying a TN Quasar as I’m likely to get (until they make a sub 1.5 kilo Quasar Superlite…).

Edit: 09/ May 2009: Duh! I should have said – it weighs in at 1966 grams. A 104 gram gain on the original weight of 1862 grams.

25 Apr, 2009

If you’re reading this, you’re an outdoorsey sort of person and probably know all of this – but maybe not. Maybe there’s just a nugget of information in here that you’ll be glad of. One of them I can even claim as my own idea…

We like tents and not bivy/tarps because we like snuggling up together. It’s a couple thing.

Here are a few pearls of wisdom that I’ve picked up about them.

Scrunch don’t roll (unless you want to)

When packing a tent on the hill there’s no need to flatten, fold and roll it all up, if you prefer you can just stuff it in (like you should always do with sleeping bags – which should never be rolled). It won’t do the tent any harm, at least not according to Bo Hilleberg if a thread on OM is to be believed.

Of course rolling works really well for some tents particularly where the inner is usually left attached to the fly.

Pack it in a couple of big stuff-sacks

Something that Chris Townsend mentioned in an interview with Bob Cartwright (I can’t find it now – grab them all they’re all great!) was not to carry the tent in the original bag but to split inner and outer into two largish stuff-sacks instead.

This works amazingly well in transforming your tent from a giant, intransigent, sausage-shape in to two compressible, slippery pillow-shapes that can be squeezed down the side of the pack, under your lunch and food-stop clothing, right out of the way.

I use silnylon sacks to keep the weight down of course and it also makes them far more slippery and therefore easier to pack.

Even if your tent pitches inner+fly together, repacking it in a larger bag can help it to squash around other things and actually achieve a smaller pack.

Snapping poles together

You’re always told “Don’t let the ends of the tent poles ’snap’ together under the force of the elastic cord”. But how will it damage such tough poles? I’d always wondered.

Well the instructions that came with the Terra Nova Voyager Superlite finally let me in on the secret. It’s because they might be scratched, and that scratch will remove the very thin anodised layer, and they will start to corrode at the joint, which will weaken them and they may eventually fail.

Guy lines

Generally guy lines should be as long as possible to allow them to “pull” in the direct opposite direction to the wind. A short guy line will only pull towards the ground. Just look at the length of the lines on full-mountain tents like the Crux range. Of course in a camp site, a short guy line may stop someone falling on to your tent!

And of course replacing them with Dyneema and Mini-Line Loks means lighter, stronger and easier to use guy lines.

Striking in high wind

Taking down a tent in a high wind is a risky procedure. A tent is only at full strength when everything is assembled. As you take it apart you risk something being strained in a way it’s not designed for and failing spectacularly.

This is something we worked out with the Voyager but it should apply to many other tents. Get into the porch, un-clip all the inner except the top above the door, and the where the poles cross.

Using your your body inside the tent to keep the poles from snapping as the tent is buffeted, un-clip those and immediately pop the poles out of the eyelets; collapsing the tent.

Whilst you’re still under the flapping fly, un-peg all the inner attachment points and bag it.

Then pull the pegs from fly but make sure you pop the lee-side first to stop the fly just flicking over and releasing from the last pegs – before disappearing off across the hillside!

This also works well for striking in the rain where it can keep the inner dry, saving you weight. Also saving you from getting water inside the tent if, like the Voyager Superlite, there are mesh panels in the inner.

A cunning porch closure method

I can’t be the first person to have thought of this but I can claim to have thought this one up all on my own (not everything is pinched from somewhere else in the Interweb you know!).

Attach a spare bit of guy-line to one zip on the porch. I use some shiny, white Spectra.

It naturally tends to trail toward the door when you close it.

So in the morning when you’re sat with your bum in the tent and your feet in your freshly laced shoes outside the tent you don’t have to bend-double to reach a zip. You just grab the cord and pull. No more walking forward on your knuckles wishing you’d stuck with the yoga.

And, as in the picture, you can even use it in reverse; to close the tent: Use a toe to grab the zip whilst holding the cord and close the zip with your foot (trust me – it’s far easier than it sounds).

01 Jan, 2009

White gas (Coleman Fuel) is hard to get in Iceland. Although we did find it, it tends to only come in 5 litre containers. Since we’d run into that exact problem in northern Sweden a couple of years ago, and ended up leaving the hut-shop staff with lots of free fuel for their own trips, we decided that it wasn’t worth using the MSR.

One of the Iceland crew did bring an MSR and we had some fun trying to work out how to get a pump to dispense a very small amount of unleaded fuel into it.

Another factor in my not bringing it was that I had one empty, dry MSR pump pinched by the nice people at Copenhagen airport on the way home once (must remember to wash it with detergent and put it in an OP Sack next time!). So I am rather wary of that happening at the start of a trip. Also, overall MSRs work out heavier than canister stoves.

My one objection to canister stoves was that I used to end up carrying more than one canister because I couldn’t tell when one was close to being exhausted. But with the arrival of kitchen scales it’s easy.

Weigh the canister when new, and write the weight on the bottom. Weigh it when back from a trip and write the weight on the bottom again. The net weight of the actual gas is given on the side so you can tell how much you’ve used for a given trip. From that, you can tell how long the remaining gas will last you.

Having read the excellent Carbon Monoxide related articles on BPL, the bushwalking.org Stove FAQ and the BPL Canister Stove FAQ I decided that since it was very nearly the lightest stove and it had extremely low CO emissions I’d go for the Snow Peak Tifrom a US based ebay shop: Camp Buddy. Though the current weakness of the pound probably means it’s as cheap to buy in the UK now.

All gas canister stoves warn of dire consequences if you use a wind-shield. Cooking without any kind of wind-shield seemed crazy to me but I thought I’d try it. We burned through 54 grams of fuel per 900ml of water (our standard drinks+food requirement).

So I made up a heat reflector and wind shield that fits around the burner. It’s made from the aluminium foil from the best Swedish Ostkaka available in the shops (just about my favourite dessert).I’ve also used a strip of stiff foil as a wind shield around part of the gap between the casing and the pan (not shown in the photo).

It’s more like an MSR set-up than a “normal” wind-shield since it doesn’t reflect heat back on to the gas canister.This is specifically what the manufacturers are warning against since heating a gas canister hotter than you can hold, means it might actually explode (that is the golden rule – if it’s more than “Ouch” hot then you’re in danger).

Ryan Jordan also came up with something similar.

With that in place we consistently only got through 18 grams of fuel per 900ml over the whole summer and in all kinds of conditions. It works as much as a heat reflector as it does as a wind-shield and is worth having regardless of how windy it is.

I found I had to make sure it had plenty of air coming in. Sealing it by running the strip of foil completely around the base of the pan (as Ryan Jordan’s version showed) would almost extinguish the flame. In fact any change in the flame from blue to orange should very likely be avoided. As Chris (one of the Iceland crew) observed, blue is an efficient burn and orange isn’t. Inefficient burning produces CO. CO can produce death!

For sparking up the flame I used my trusty old Spyderco Ladybug (the old model) and the excellent Mini-FireSteel that Ryan Jordan commissioned for the Arctic 1000 walk but that’s now in normal production from Light My Fire.

As for the gas, you can’t take it on a plane so it has to be found in Iceland.

We shared a cab (for six it worked out almost the same as a bus) from the BSI bus station (where you arrive from Keflavik airport) to the Kringlan shopping centre to visit a supermarket for food.

Whilst there we went to a rather large (but rather “high street”) gear shop for the canisters. We’d contacted the shop in advance and had them reserve some for us since we were unsure of whether the demands for gas canisters from six people might exhaust their supply. They certainly wouldn’t have done on that day.

Since we stayed in a hut one more night than planned and we double-dayed the last day we had gas left over. So we just left them with Thor at the Three Sisters Guesthouse as he said people were always happy for some free, half-used canisters. Easy.

19 Aug, 2008

I’ve been dropping hints about this for months now… finally I can show you the first prototype Cioch Liner Jacket.

Neil and Helen at Cioch may decide to call it something different if they ever decide to put it into production but at the moment “Liner Jacket” seems the most appropriate name. And since I “designed” it, that is what I’ll call it.

Well, I say I designed it, but it’s so simple that’s probably over-stating it. Helen and Neil also came up with some great tweaks particularly to the hood.

As you may have noticed, we both really enjoyed using the Glamaigs during the winter. I was not looking forward to going back to my eVent shell for the summer. Impressively breathable though it is. So I started wondering about how I could reduce the weight of the Paramo fabric based system even more.

A Paramo fabric based jacket is made of two fundamental parts; the outer and the pump-liner. The outer is there partly as a windproof but critically, it is there to slow raindrops down. If they hit the pump-liner at terminal velocity, they explode through it. Making you wet. But it struck me that I carry something just like that anyway during the summer; my Montane Litespeed jacket. Importantly, the Litespeed has a hood.

So surely, I thought, all you need is a pump liner on its own that you can wear under the Litespeed when it rains?

The answer is a resounding – yes!

You can see the design in the pictures. Bear in mind these were taken in a very stiff breeze so the material is rippling and plastered to me in places. (I am trying to do my best Eddy Meechan impression, but I haven’t got the eyes… the eyes…) Helen has come up with a good face panel that I’d not thought of. There are poppers instead of a zip and short sleeves to save weight.

I’m reserving final judgement on the short sleeves. They do save weight and I have only had one, brief couple of minutes when I had cold arms. And although wearing a micro-fleece under it meant the arms of the fleece got wet they were still warm and dried quickly. This is for summer use after all.

The only thing I’d change is the Velcro Omni Tape (they now seem to have re-branded it Anti Snag) volume adjuster at the back of the hood (Cioch don’t use Omni Tape – I supplied that to them). It should be vertical along the centre line of the head, allowing as much or as little of it to be overlapped as required to change the volume of the hood, but we got our wires a little crossed. But the hood fits so well I’m not convinced that it even needs a volume adjuster.

Price on application (to Cioch not me) but Neil reckons a maximum of £80. Weight is excellent at 252gms, bear in mind I’m not small. The event Rab Drilium that it replaces is 353gms. But for a full waterproof you also need the Litespeed: 186gms. Making a total of 438gms for the Liner + Litespeed. But of course I’d be carrying the Litespeed anyway. It’s too versatile during the summer not to.

So that’s a total of 539gms for the Drilium + Litespeed. Meaning an overall weight saving using the Liner Jacket of 101gms.

But the weight isn’t the main point for me. In fact I may even have considered carrying this if it worked out heavier. It being lighter is just a big bonus. The main point is the supreme breathability.

I’ve tried it in very warm conditions in late June during wet weather mixed with bright, hot sunny intervals and I found that it had my hoped-for massive comfort range. I would have been throwing my eVent jacket on and off regularly but with the liner jacket I hardly had to change at all.

So it might be warmer in a sense, it’s two layers, but they’re thin layers and they are as breathable as a T-shirt. Which means overall, even in summer conditions, you remain comfy.

Is it the perfect summer rain jacket? Well not quite, but as as I’ve said before; there’s no such thing as perfect kit.

The poppers are a slight fiddle. The fact that you have two jackets to throw on in a downpour is a slight extra faff. Though of course you’re less likely to be changing clothes so much as I’ve just mentioned.

Probably the worst point is that the hood has no peak. I’ve not had time to think about it in much depth. Maybe it could be given a stiffened brim but that may interfere with the brim of the Litespeed.

So far though I’ve had no problem since during the summer I walk with a Tilley hat (hey if Ryan Jordan and Chris Townsend love theirs who am I to argue?).

As you can see from the picture, it forms its own brim nicely. Again it’s not perfect, the rain does tend to run around and onto your cheeks. But for a very, very wet weekend in the Peaks recently it did me fine.

Does it keep me dry? Do I really need to say? Of course it does. Bone dry.

To give you an idea of how much I like it and already trust it, it will be coming to Iceland this week, a very wet place indeed, instead of the eVent jacket.

08 Aug, 2008

Back from a great trip to Sweden to see the Out-laws (the last summer that I can refer to them as that before they become the In-laws…). Managed to fit in a couple of gorgeous days of canoeing, with an overnight camp, on a long narrow lake; Stråken. The weather was very hot and sunny almost the entire twelve days we were there with temperatures often in the low thirties centigrade. Magic.

So, what of the sleeping?

I’ve already posted about sleeping bags but they are only part of the story.

Sleeping Bag Liners

We use silk bag liners to keep the sleeping bags clean and add a fraction more warmth. They also give some flexibility if it’s hot because you can use them instead of the bag. Not a problem we expect to encounter in Iceland however (the clue, being in the name).

Silk liners are usually eye-wateringly expensive but the ones from Jag Bag of New Zealand are far more affordable. They are available very easily in the UK from Paul over at Terre Vista Trails.  They come in either Fine (lighter) or Endura (heavier, tougher).

They are very light – the fine is reckoned to be only 85gms on the site but I must admit mine is 108gms.

It’s worth the weight in my opinion because it keeps the bag so much cleaner. And clean down is warm down. Also I don’t want to send them to W.E. Franklin more often than I really have to.

Sleeping mats

Foam sleeping mats won’t deflate so on long trips this can be quite an advantage. Just try finding a leak in an inflatable mat without a bath full of water and washing up liquid! But foam mats aren’t as comfortable or as small as an inflatable mat.

We’ve been experimenting with all kinds of things. Including aluminium faced bubble wrap used as insulation in construction. However we’ve found that it’s far better suited to use as a pot cosy or wind-shield since it’s actually heavier and colder than the same-sized piece of cheap foam mat.

For the main mat we’ve been using Torsolites. They’re very comfy and warm, at least for the area that they cover.

They take a little getting used-to as you tend to roll off them more easily than a larger mat. But for the weight and incredibly small packed-size they’re worth it.

We’ve discarded the stuffsacs that came with them in favour of a loop of 4mm shock cord of the same diameter as the stuffsac. Although the cord is fractionally lighter (only by about 2gms) we mainly prefer it due to the lack of faffing-around trying to get the mat back in the bag.

Torsolites don’t work so well on their own though since there’s nothing under your legs and so they can get cold. So one third of a cheap Gelert camping mat does the trick. It only weighs about 58gms once the edge has been shaved down by 10cms. Who needs that much width anyway?

With the foam mat we also get some contingency should the inflatable mat get a puncture.

It’s worth pointing out that, despite what this picture might seem to show, the mats actually cover the whole length of the sleeping bag apart from my head which I rest on a Gecko Micro Fleece. I simply pulled the silk liner down a bit to show the PHD bag underneath and hadn’t realised that it makes it appear as if the mats are even more minimalist than they really are.

Ear plugs

If you’re sleeping in a hut, or even with a snoring tent partner, ear plugs can be a lifesaver. We’ve recently been using Ear Seals Earplugs and find that they really do block out noise.

Hat

A hat isn’t the first thing most people think of for sleeping kit but the difference they make is astonishing. All this winter I’ve been using one of my all-time favourite bits of kit; the Extremities Power Dry Beanie (Extremities is the brand name used by Terra Nova for their clothing range).

I’ve found that if I ever wake up cold, it’s because the hat has been pulled off my head as I’ve moved about. Putting it back on warms me up in just a couple of minutes.

We’ve also found that hats are especially useful if you’re hair is wet, like after a sauna for example.