Your best gear of 2009
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Let it begin! (you're not using anything that new in the next few weeks, anyway) Try to keep it to three items, as an intellectual exercise, and recall: this is most interesting when we hear and see how it worked on trips, not just in your backyard!!
For me, the first item on my list is an easy one:
2009 was the year Big Sky released Moose Drool in a can, and made beerpacking the world over better and more diverse. Try though I might, I'm just not that much of a liquor person. Good scotch I can appreciate, good wine I like, but nothing says lets sit on top of this mountain, was the dust away, and watch the world disappear like a cold beer. Fat Tire in a can is not bad. Newcastle is great, but hard to find consistently. Moose Drool is a thinking man's beer for all seasons. One of the best BPin' moments of this year was sitting on the south shore of Shoshone Lake in YNP on a calm, bluebird day in late September, eating salami and cheese, watching the clouds not exist, and drinking a Moose Drool.
The second item is a trend, really, because 2009 was when I actually started making my own gear from scratch, not just modifying and hacking existing stuff. So the second best item of 2009 is my homemade All-Pack.
The best part of making your own gear is of course tailoring it so you get exactly what you wanted. And with this I did.
I've always needed and wanted less suspension for a given load than most, and appreciated a dead simple design that flexed and moved, and was overkill bombproof at the same time. A pack with my zippers, no pockets, and a doubled Ballistics bottom will get you that.
A thread with futher details is here (http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/forums/thread_display.html?forum_thread_id=20430).
Highlights and things I learned about this pack:
-The Ridgerest provides the perfect balance of flex and support for the burrito approach to suspension.
-Thin and narrow straps are just fine provided the padding is firm and the fit perfect.
-A webbing hipbelt is fine for 30 pound loads. The canted bottom means that the burrito-pad doesn't go all the way down my back. I stuff the tarp into the bottom, sleeping bag on top of that. The result is that the fabric bottom hugs my waist perfectly, and the friction of the fabric helps it carry surprisingly well.
-The beavertail pocket rules, especially for winter toys.Making and using this thing has been immensely satisfying.
The third item is shown in the picture above, and is as simple as it is essential to all wilderness trips: the black wool beanie.
The Smartwool cuffed beanie is the one hat to rule them all. Wool works better for this than fleece, even if it does dry a bit slower. The Smartwool is big, no worries about cold ears, and flexible. It stays on my head through a night of restless sleeping. And now, with the BPL SUL beanie, I have a lighter hat with all the requisite features.
On the whole, 2009 was a good year for backpacking. I did a bunch of trips, and most especially really saw a lot of Montana. I've got a good backyard now, and am more psyched than ever to keep investigating it (winter and summer).
To backpacking!
myog custom bug bivy for my kifaru paratipi, my wife and i kept our sanity in Greenland this summer thanks to it, i was even setting it up at mid day pause so we could take a break in peace and eat without headnet, rain clothes, and mitten with 30°c/ 86°F temperature
all of that for 350g/12,3oz.
my neoair, my old bones say thanks :)
i never slept that well while hiking,2009 was the first year I really started to adopt the UL mindset, so this is a bit difficult for me. I switched over to a ULA Ohm from a Gregory Z55, and started loving (backpacking) life. Bought a TiTri Caldera Cone with an MLD Ti pot, and sitting around at camp cooking became much more than a chore. My NeoAir allowed my old bones to get the cushion they needed at much less weight than before. But if I had to choose only three:
1. My Warbonnet Blackbird hammock. I simply have never had such a good night's sleep in the woods as I have in my hammock. Not exactly UL, I guess, but still lighter than the REI tent I had before I started down the UL path, and I don't need a pad/mattress. Below pic is somewhere along the AT in PA. I've used the hammock down to around 25 degrees, and with a good underquilt and overquilt, stayed quite warm, even with a slight cool breeze blowing. I'll be using this for quite some time to come.
2. My Tim Marshall cuben/down quilt. I had this covering me on the above mentioned 25-degree outing. It kept me warm with minimal layers (a BPL beartooth hoody and Montbell Thermawrap jacket). I've used this an an underquilt on the hammock (pic below) in gusty winds and 35 degree weather, I've used it in an MLD Soul bivy with no layers (other than an Icebreaker 200 zip-T and 150 leggings) in 30 or so degree weather (2 inches of snow around my SpeedMid that night) and stayed so toasty I had the bivy unzipped for part of the night. And it only weighs 13 oz! A wonderful piece of gear.
3. Nunatak Arc AT quilt. Finally, a sleep covering for summer. Even when it's hot I like some type of covering. And even in summer the temps can dip at night. Enter the Arc AT, a 3/4 length down quilt that's well made and absolutely perfect for me in warmer climes. It quickly replaced my GoLite Adrenaline 40 degree bag and gave me some of the most comfortable (temp wise) slumbers over the past summer from WV to PA to NJ. 8 oz. Quilts overall were a big switch for me this past year. I no longer own a sleeping bag (the last one, a GoLite Adrenaline 0 degree, is in the process of being converted into a quilt by Tim Marshall). But it was the Arc AT that got me started.
I can't wait to do more backpacking in the coming year, including a trip to Scotland for 10 days late April/early May!
Absolutely my Montrail Continental Divides. This year saw my sixth and last pair. I'm sad that they've been discontinued. I've hard a hard time finding a new shoe.
I'm new to backpacking – but committed – as a result I acquired most of my gear this year making it hard to pick an absolute favorite, to name a few favs: MSR Hubba Hubba, OR MicroNight Bivy, MSR PocketRocket, Big Agnes Lost Ranger bag/pad combo, and what I'm choosing for my absolute favorite my Sherpa Halka Shell I got at at our local outfitters going out of business sale (so sad) for 75% off retail. It's got all of the perks of every other high end lightweight shell out there but I particularly like the fit and style!
I found these this year in the housewares section of a local Asian grocery store. About 3.5 oz. for the pair. Not only really light but the balls on them give you sort of a foot massage. Nice after a long day on the trail. I should have bought out the supply because when I went back for more they were gone. Simple but my best find of '09.
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