ADZPCTKO

[Colleen Clemens]

attended the Kickoff last Saturday (4/28). the Kickoff is always fun, lots of gearheads & hikers and lots of fun talk about places & gear. plus the latest offerings from most of the big names in cottage gear! ULA, Six Moon, Titanium Goat, TarpTent and Gossamer Gear were all there.

Got to see a prototype GG solo shelter made out of Cuben (the for-sale models won't be Cuben, though), and so i got to TOUCH Cuben for the first time. it's actually really cool stuff. too bad it's so flippin' expensive.

Also got to see the ULA Arctic pack (looks sweet) as well as the yet-to-be-released Ohm pack. The Ohm looked like a slightly larger Amp, with some external stays. The stays were probably carbon, but Brian was pretty busy the whole time i was there and i forgot to ask him. He and Josh Leavitt from Titanium Goat have developed an electric bear bag that they were playing video of and had on display. it looks promising, but of course it's new and who knows how well it will play out in the field.

lots of homemade gear on display too, and multiple options for desert hiking were discussed – ways to rig up a GoLite Chrome Dome (looked like a very popular choice this year), water belts, etc.

At the "gear inventions" contest there were some neat entries, but possibly the coolest of all was a guy who has built a movable-joint carbon fiber frame and then simply wraps gear around his Bearikade Expedition (which he also carries some gear inside of). He also had a roll-out shade that is very promising, but he made it out of silnylon and i haven't found sil to be very good sun protection.

i had a ton of fun and met at least one other BPL forum user – Anitra Kass, who will be hiking the CDT this year and who was a volunteer at the fundraising silent auction. hi Anitra!

[Anitra Kass]

Hi Colleen, it was great to meet you too!
NITRO

[Colleen Clemens]

Anitra, we were interrupted by you having to go do your duties at the auction, but we were talking about down jackets. i have an older REI down jacket that weighs 16 oz and is an, um, "attractive" shade of teal, but is FAT and warm. i'm sewing a thru-hiker down jacket to replace it, so if you are interested in a slightly heavy but warm down jacket for your CDT hike then perhaps we can make a deal. my email is com.yahoo@tarbubble (dunno if spambots are already wise to that)

[Aaron Sorensen]

Is there going to be an article done by BPL about the ADZPCTKO?

It would think that it should be out by know unless it's already in the works.

There is more and more gear that I have heard about that needs to be addressed much further.

I would hate to wait until who knows when it hits the market to be able to find out any more info on the latest and greatest products that were there.

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