What’s Santa Bringing You?

If I am correct it will be a Garmin Foretrex GPS unit ;-) If not, it'll be new earrings. Let's hope fer the Foretrex!

First off, let me say DAMN YOU to BPL's 2006 picks. I thought my gear list was set in stone.. silly me. ;-)

– PAC MaxThermo 3/4
– REI Sahara pants
– OR Gaiters
– Patagonia t-shirt
– Patagonia boxers

My next big temptation will be the new Golite Jam2 and a tarptent

Montbell Thermawrap Parka!

Giving away 3 5×9 tarps, and a dyneema gridstop pack to my friends to help them see the light.

It won't happen this year. Maybe next year there'll be a BMW UL Titanium Mulit-Tool Potty Trowel in my stocking. It'll sure beat making them myself.

A Coleman Xtreme stove! Roger Caffin, our stove editor, is a total genius and he swears by it. So I'm in- the Simmerlite (my go-to winter and mountaineering stove) is going to be put away for a while. Cool stuff!

I also have a newborn at home. Henry just turned 7 months so we're getting a Sherpani Rumba Ultralight child carrier for winter snowshoeing as well as our first baby backpack which will happen in April on the Olympic coast when he's 11 months. I'm already daydreaming about that trip!

We're getting a Sierra Designs Bedouin 4 for car camping(not exactly UL gear!). After being the BPL tent editor for years, I can hardly fathom that a tent can weight 13 1/2 pounds!!! I tried car camping with my Rainshadow 2, but it just didn't cut it. This thing will be HEAVEN!

Merry Christmas!
Doug

"First off, let me say DAMN YOU to BPL's 2006 picks."

Sorry Frank! We're our own worst enemies there- you should see my gear closet(s). ARGH!

I just bought a new Gerber knife becuase it's 0.2 oz. lighter than my old Gerber knife. This is an illness- I need rehab!

A BPL subscription, whcih came early, and a Montbell UL Pillow.

Doug, offtopic, but did you look at the Halfdome 4 man? We use that for family car camping, and it is nice! (and weighs 9lbs or so). Not that I'd carry it on MY back, but it would be doable for even backpacking with a young family, if split up. We have used it on snowshoeing trips even. Solid and heavy ;-)

Doug, hope you like the Sherpani. i have its predecessor, the Madden Caravan. who'll be on baby-carrying duty? my husband could never get the Caravan to fit him well, so it became mine and he picked up an REI Piggyback for when baby duty was his.

back on topic, i have no idea what Santa is bringing me. i did buy myself a Max Thermo and a few stocking stuffers from BPL (pillows, mini compass, etc.), but if "Santa" is getting me anything then i don't know about it.

I think Santa is bringing me a lump of coal… you think it will work in a supercat stove?

I'm done… almost out of money before my New Zealand trip, but I feel like I made some very good decisions:

1. Montbell ADH #3 replacing Slumberjack SuperGuide 30
2. Tartpent Double Rainbow replacing TNF Tadpole 23
3. Thermarest Prolite 3 Short replacing old Thermarest reg.
4. Evernew 0.9L Ti pot and Coleman UL F1 replacing Jetboil

For a total weight savings of 4# 13.5oz!

As for Santa, he's getting me trip insurance for NZ.

Even more time to hike in the coming year.

>Doug, hope you like the Sherpani.

If not, I second the recommendation for the REI Piggyback. I've put over 300 miles on mine and it's still going strong.

What I want,

If I could have one item this holiday it would be to magically fuse together a pair of cycling bibs and backpacking shorts. For some reason I would like a smooth interface where pack and shorts meet. Shorts that never fall down but also some spandura on the butt for abrasion resistance and some nice fabric on the rest to keep the skin dry.

The problem is is that I have been dreaming of these for two summers also.

Randy

Andy,

>3. Thermarest Prolite 3 Short replacing old Thermarest reg.

I did the same thing, but now I'm going with the PAC Max Thermo 3/4. You'll gain back 2oz, but the 1.5inches of extra comfort might be worth it:

See this thread: http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/xdpy/forum_thread/4999/index.html?skip_to_post=35511#35511

I'm hoping for new raingear (GoLite Virga and Reed) and maybe some Smartwool long undies. I'll probably also get a few REI giftcards from my family. Too bad I couldn't get more vacation time as a gift…!

A couple of jacket kits from thru-hiker.com.
I plan on learning how to sew on them.

I'm waiting until January to see what MLD comes out with in terms of bags/quilts. That will save me the hassle of sewing my own and make for a good late Christmas/early birthday present.

Hopefully more time to hike, like Dondo.

Adam

I'm wishing for a Hennessy hyperlight backpacker asym, but that probably won't be until spring. New polypro long undies and silks, and a couple pairs of Smartwool socks will be enough for me. Sewing a new pack for my son, hoping it's done before Christmas.

Lots of little things I'd like to have, maybe they'll be stocking stuffers!

And the Moonstone Lucid bag I just got will count as a great "self-serve" gift!

Hi Kevin-

I'm reviewing that Hyperlight right now- it's one sweet hammock!

Sarah- I looked at the halfdome 4 but I figured it I wasn't carrying it, I might as well be able to stand up in it! Last week i slept in a Rab Summit Extreme with all of 28 inches of height…this SD tent will be INSANE!

The Sherpani pack arrived yesterday- we tried it out before wrapping it :-) and it's SWEET! I'm not sure yet if I'll be carrying Henry aand the really dense stuff in the carrier with Amy carrying the rest of the bulk or if I'll have my Gust jam-packed and with Amy only carrying Henry and a few other items. But I know for SURE that I'll be asking the community here for advice when we get closer to the trip!

I can't tell you how jazzed I am to be taking Henry out to the coast to watch the tides and eagles, and to walk out in the tidepools. He'll be 9 months old.

WAY off topic- here's Henry chewing on a Firelite SUL 500 kettle. I'm hoping he'll acquire a tast for titanium right from the get-go!

I must say that I am lucky in the fact that my mama takes me to store and lets me pick out what I want. This year was a whole lot of outdoor clothing. :)

You'll love that first trip out with the cutie pie, no matter who is packdonkeying the kiddo ;-)
I had my son in a Kelty for a couple years, and our Olympic trips are some of my best memories. Wish I had had the pack you two have though!

Thanks Sarah! I can't wait until I get to buy him his own oudoor stuff. That must just be SO cool! How great that your kids grew up enjoying the outdoors like that!

I grew up enjoying the outdoors too, but in a slightly different way…I was on an offroad motorcycle with training wheels that my dad custom welded at age 2! Now, THAT was a Christmas present!!!

Yep, my son Ford is 9, and backpacks with me constantly :-) He has all his own mini-me gear. If I have it, he has it. From trekking poles to MSR snowshoes, he has mini versions. But…someone (Ie…The Husband) banned me from buying Ford gear for Christmas gifts after I tried to pass a Deuter Fox 30 pack 2 years ago as a gift. Well, Ford liked it!
You get them going young, they never know any way else ;-)

I apologize for extending a thread hijack, but hopefully this will be useful to somebody. If anybody is interested in more, maybe they could start a kid-packing thread…

My son and I hiked most weekends in Hawaii from when he was one year old. One of the most important things I did once he was old enough to start walking on his own was to rope him up. Most of the official trails in the Olympic mountains are tame, but I can remember a few areas where I would definitely have held his hand. In Hawaii, hairy trails are the norm. Even on some of the highly traveled trails it's typical to have a two-foot-wide trail and a 30-foot drop onto rocks in a streambed. It doesn't take more than a butterfly for a kid to walk right off the edge. Holding a kid's hand for a several miles of rough trail gets tiresome and painful for both.

I bought a Petzl Ouistiti childrens climbing harness, and we fit it to the kid and bar-tacked the heck out of it. We used a locking biner to join the front tie-in loops and instead tied into the back (no sense jerking the kid around in a half-circle on every fall). Along with 15 feet of climbing webbing and another couple of locking biners, the total weight was 26.1 ounces. He was clipped into my Conterra Assault/Rescue Belt (8.4 oz) in case I dropped the leash, which I usually held coiled in my hand or in my biner on safe sections of trail. This allowed him to hike safely regardless of hazard, and since he loves to climb he could do so because I had him top-roped. When he was just starting to walk he would fall often, of course, so I held light tension on the leash so when he fell he just dangled instead of skinning his hands and knees. This made hiking much more fun for both of us.

Left: my daughter enduring the obligatory harness test. Right: a five-year-old friend 'hiking'.