RTW gear brainstorming

[Haiku]

Hi all!

My first post here, been enjoying reading the forum for a couple weeks.

I am in the midst of planning a RTW trip for 2015 (April to whenever…I'm hoping at least through December if not longer)

I'll be in pretty much every variety of climate and who knows how many countries…will do what I can to avoid EXTREME cold but will definitely face some colder weather as well as that of the tropics.

Hoping potentially to get some sponsorship deals but we'll see…in the meantime I've been travelling fairly light for trips of 2-4 weeks, I guess about 6 in the last 2 years?

My current gear setup (Big 4):
Pack: Jansport Cordillera 33 (2 lbs 4 oz, 2000 cu in)
Sleeping bag: Aleutian 2S 40 degree bag (2 lb 1 oz)
Tent- generally none, though I do have a "lightweight" 2 person tent picked up in a Carrefour in Oman for $12- prolly 3 lbs?
Jean Baptiste pocket trumpet (4lbs, 4 oz w/mouthpiece)* necessary for me!!

I will definitely be doing some camping at least during the first few months of my trip in Japan, Russia, Mongolia, 'stans and then not really sure where I will go after (either Nepal and SE Asia, or towards Turkey/Balkans).

The first thing I'm excited to get down is replacing the metal pocket trumpet (4lbs) with a plastic one (1 lb) if all works out. Part of my trip will be to play said trumpet in a variety of settings around the world, different festivals, wilderness, what have you. Pop on a plastic mouthpiece (.3 oz) and I'm all set. Uncertain how I will pack it yet but thinking either to wrap in my stuff, or (easier access) in some sort of cut-down plastic tube, like an art tube, under the pack. Potentially having the tube wrapped around sleeping bag or quilt if that works.

Packs- my 10 year old Jansport has really gotten me its $40 worth time and time again. I guess I was working on UL though before I knew what that was! However, it is fraying really badly on the straps and one of the clips is broken. So I am investigating whether or not it's worth replacing. Only complaint about pack is that heavy weights for long times can bother my trap/shoulders/upper back- I know most UL packs have this issue though.

Pros- already own (free), reliable, has some support in the back, can take a decent amt of weight, like the design, especially unpadded hip belt which seems unnecessary to me and like it would add weight if padded.

Negs- fraying/coming apart, could save a few or more oz with a new pack. As you know these things add up. I recently lifted my pack without anything in it, was surprised how heavy it was.

So the 4 models I'm looking at are GoLite Jam 50, MLD Exodus, and Gossamer Gear Gorrilla or Mariposa. GoLite obviously is a lot cheaper, but not sure if any of them are head and shoulders above the others.

Sleeping bag: I will be staying in hostels, but I also will be camping. I run cold and am the sort to put on my bag on cold planes/buses, or even in the hostels, so for a trip like this I am 95% certain it would be a good idea for me to have a sack (when I don't bring the bag I always am glad to have a microfleece blanket- my fav is the one I pilfered off a Thai Airlines flight- really nice!). It seems like a quilt option would be best and I am thinking Jacksrbetter Shenandoah is looking best value at 15 oz.

Tent: I know I won't need it for the whole trip, but I'll definitely need it fairly often (looking like 20-50% of the time) in Japan and Central Asia/Siberia so I am thinking of something light but disposable. Ex: http://www.gofastandlight.com/Ultralight-Low-Cost-One-Man-Bivy-Tent/productinfo/T-WF-BIVY/

With a few mods should be under 2lbs which I'd be happy with. I'm going to mess with the tent I have as well but I think it will be harder to get that low, because there are 2 long poles.

Love your feedback as I'm cutting down weight!

[Haiku]

Tech gear part 1:

Video: I've been talking with some acquaintances about ideas for film gear. The gopro is really looking like the best bet as far as filming goes. Holy schnikes, I can't believe it's only 2.6 oz! Of course with accessories it will be more, but wow! No idea these were this light. Will see how much extra accessories I think are appropriate here.

Camera: I am thinking to also bring a camera as well. My photographer friend recommended an ELPH Powershot by Canon (the one just prior to the newest model, the 330) as a good combo of lightweight/reasonably priced/easy to use. These are about 5 oz, plus any accessories. I will likely purchase this soon and test drive it on a trip to the Caucausus this summer, since it's no longer being produced.

Phone: I'm not sure if I will bring a phone or not. My gut is to not; but I've never been gone for this long, and it could be useful in making contacts. Couple people pointed out that the iPhone actually takes pretty good pictures. I don't have a smartphone currently so who knows. I am thinking no.

Computer-types: Currently I have an acer 720 Chromebook, that I put in a larger SSD harddrive on. It also runs linux. I like having a bigger laptop but am not sure how this will work out with any editing I want to do; I've mostly been using it for consumption only. It weighs 2.8 lbs, and I'm thinking that's without the charger.

I am considering going back to a tablet + keyboard, and hopefully one that will let me use a USB charger. Tablet + keyboard really isn't that much lighter, but I would save on the charger weight. Not sure yet what is best.

On another note, someone just gave me a pair of about $200 Eddie Bauer pants and they are pretty decent and not fugly. They are pretty lightweight, loose enough to put long johns under, could easily wear them in the city and the trail. Might very well invest a few bucks to get them tailored to my size and take 'em on the trip.

[Haiku]

With no comments I will continue to amuse myself here…

Good news! Not one, but TWO of the new lightweight plastic trumpet companies are interested in hooking me up with a trumpet and potential sponsorship. So this will cut quite a bit of weight. I will keep my fingers crossed that I get one soon- would love to try it out on my upcoming 3 week trip to Turkey/Georgia/Armenia. Anyway, 1 lb vs 4-5lbs, yeah.

Still haven't figured out how I will carry it, so I'm still weighing (pun intended) options. It looks like I'd need a pretty wide diameter (6-7" at least) art-tube or pvc pipe, which seems hard to find.

I've also a friend who will be trying out a plastic trombone on his next trip so we will see how that goes.

My roommate for the month has a gopro so I will get to test that out a bit. I am looking excited to see what those 3 oz or so can do. Haven't scared up a camera yet and am still not sure what I will get, the more I investigate options.

[Dan Yeruski]

DIY trumpet case can be made with a sonotube available at Home Depot. get one for the trombone also.

I wish you well on your upcoming adventure :-)

http://www.homedepot.com/b/N-5yc1v/Ntk-Extended/Ntt-sonotube?otn=true&wxsOverride=true

[Dan Yeruski]

I can visualize you on a mountain top early in the morning
playing "First Call"/"Reveille" :-)

[Dan Yeruski]

What is planned for meals, fast food joints :-)?

[Haiku]

Oooh, perfect! And well-named. I'll check these out in the next few days.

Food- really will vary. I tend to eat a lot of street food on my travels. The good thing about Asia is that instant noodles are ubiquitous and lightweight. I don't know all the deets of camping and where yet.

My estimates are the following:
Central Europe (3.5 weeks)- mostly/exclusively day hiking if at all. Will be in a mix of cities and the Carpathians in Hungary/Slovakia/W Ukraine. So food easily available.

NZ- obviously will need to do a lot of planning here. My main ideas are sites like groupon for the odd fancy night out or specialty I really want to try, otherwise groceries/hostel cooking. I don't know yet exactly details on when I'll do any camping here.

Pacific paradise- probably a weekish somewhere. I hope to do this with hotel points and I have status with some of the hotel groups I collect points with that often = free food. Free food, that I don't have to carry anywhere. Otherwise I might stock up before since I imagine groceries in Fiji or whatnot are even more expensive than in NZ

Japan- I went for a week to Tokyo this year and was able to eat really cheaply. I'll be in Hokkaido so a mix of ramen bowls, stuff from the kombini, and cheap sushi in certain locales, and instant noodles and dried foods while camping (also really cheap). 3 weeks to a month here. I need to do more research but am considering not buying a stove till I get there so I don't have to lug it around before then.

Russia- again depends what I do. Considering a WWOOFing opportunity in Kamchatka (would have free meals) or taking the ferry to Sakhalin and then at some point getting to Siberia. I will at some point take the train to Lake Baikal and then to Kyzyl where I have contacts for a music festival and a homestay hookup. I know they often sell stuff at stops on the train. Need more details (and even suggestions) on where to do some camping in E Siberia. This will likely be hardest part of trip to arrange.

Mongolia- likely trekking through a community tourism board, with homestays (they will have food). Will also see who I meet in hostels and such. At Naadam festival I'm sure there's a zillion food vendors.

Stan's- still doing research. Investigating community tourism/trekking, volunteering, and arranged tour (most necessary in Turkmenistan). For homestays I'd have food provided.

(not sure how to get to Serbia; very well may fly if low on time)

Serbia- no problems with street food

(itinerary not sure)

At some point I'll get to India/Nepal but I will be aiming for more light trekking, like tea house trekking where I don't have to carry much if any food. Also temple stays often there is food provided.

[Bob Gross]

"Also temple stays often there is food provided."

In some of the temples in Kathmandu, they feed the monkeys. If they don't feed the monkeys, the monkeys will steal food from the visitors.

–B.G.–

[d k]

The p-bone plastic trombones are awesome; someone in my orchestra prefers them for jazz playing, and I've heard him play it – it sounds very good indeed. I saw someone playing a "french horn" made of garden hose, funnel, and a standard mouthpiece on top of Mt. Whitney when I was there several years ago. Not quite the tone quality of the real thing, but certainly packable!

[Dan Yeruski]

How long has this trip been in the planing? what is the approximate guesstimated cost?

Haha, when I went through France on down to Barcelona, Spain by train it was fun buying food out the windows from vendors at the train station stops.

[Adam Kilpatrick]

Quick thoughts on the big 4…

that pack is pretty small. No way you'd fit your gear in it inc a trumpet, unless you get some quite light gear (not the stuff you mention!)

S/bag. 40deg is not very warm for where you are going, outside of the (3) summer months. You won't always be able to predict exactly your sleeping scenario. I would personally shoot for a 20degF bag or warmer, esp if you think you are a cold sleeper. Take a look at enlightened equipment revelation quilts, in the 750 loft-great value.

Pad, you didn't mention it, but make sure you have an insulation pad of some kind. You can pick up a CCF pad in Japan easy enough, and they are durable.

Tent…some of the places you mention, the wind will rip a cheapie store tent to shreds. Also, if you are playing to stay indoors a lot, carrying 3lbs for rare use isn't worth it much. One option is a solomid (1 person pyramid) or a trailstar type tarp shelter (either regular trailstar, or the new, 1 person cricket tarp version), learn to pitch it hunkered down to the ground, it will shed some bad wind and allow you to camp in bad conditions if you have to.

Pack-any you mention are fine.

Cooking, it can be handy to have a spoon, bowl (say a 1L Ti pot) for eating with people. Fuel for stoves depends wildly on country. In the stans and mongolia, Nepal, I know its pretty common for cycle tourists to go with a multifuel stove so they can burn kero, petrol or deisel as alcohol, gas canisters, esbit are impossible to find in many places. But these are heavy.

Water-save on bottle water, get a Sawyer Mini filter ($25) and a bottle to go with it. Definitely worth it.

Best of luck :-)

[Daniel Hou]

I spent 2008 traveling around Asia, the Middle East and Southern Africa with my now wife.

You can read about it on our no-longer-maintained travel blog: http://www.thetravelingduo.com/

And I've still got some pics here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/danhou/collections/72157604794885567/

Now that I've established some bona fides, some thoughts:

– Independent travel can be quite different from backpack camping, with very distinct gear lists. I'd cluster the camping portions of your trip together, and come up with separate gear lists, before and after camping. So after you're done with say, Asia, you can ship all the camping supplies (stove, tent, sleeping bag, etc) back home and lighten your load.

– Depends on where you go, but it's generally easier to find heat than A/C. If you're super concerned about sleeping cold, I'd suggest ditching the sleeping bag and instead carrying a super compact down puffy (I love my montbell UL) and a silk sheet. Puffy can be worn outside of a cold bus situation, and the sheet is super useful for sketchy hostels that might have bugs.

– I carried water treatment tablets, and never used it once over the entire trip. Carry maybe a half dozen in your FA kit, and ditch the rest.

– Highly recommend a pair of flip flops to go with a more versatile, rugged set of low profile shoes. True hiking boots are overkill, and you want something that won't look completely out of place at a decent part of town. Flip flops are super compact, light, work as river and shower shoes in a pinch, something to walk around in the hostel with, etc.

– Don't invest in expensive watches or sunglasses. Maybe it's just me, but I lost my watch along the way, and had two pairs of nice ray ban aviators break on me while climbing on various ruins or what not. El cheapos work just fine, and if you lose one or break it, you can always pick up another.

– Compactness almost counts for more than weight at a certain point. Because its less about lugging bags around all day, and more about having it fit under the seat in front of you on the bus or train. The last thing you want is to have to stow your baggage on top of the vehicle, where its out of sight and someone could make off with it. If its small enough to always be with you (even on your lap), you don't need to carry around security nets/cables or anything like that. I never used mine the entire year, and never had a problem, would leave it at home next time. I didn't even bother carrying a "security pouch" for passports and what not, waste of money and weight.

– I definitely would go with an unlocked smartphone over a laptop. Both the phone AND the charger are an order of magnitude lighter than a laptop and the power brick. Especially if you're using it for consumption, its way less obtrusive than a tablet, doubles as a camera in case you don't have yours handy or lose it, and for countries where you'll be sticking around for a while its super easy to pick up SIM cards and text hostels in advance to make sure they've got a spot. Or couch surf, or whatever. It's perfectly adequate for typing out blog posts and emails as well, and if you absolutely positively need a large screen and keyboard for some unforeseeable reason, there are internet cafes everywhere available for dirt cheap.

That's all that I can think of off the top of my head. Pumped for you – I had a blast. Hit me up if you've got more specific questions.

[Haiku]

Answering all out of order!

Thanks for insights about the sleeping options. I already plan to have a down puffy (UNIQLO ultralight down puffy which I have a coupon for- and they are opening a new store in my city, have a heads up on deals for it). I was thinking silk sheet + puffy + 40 degree bag would be ok, might get the bag with some extra fill or rethink the degrees. I will also check out the other model. Not tied to any of those! But puffy+silk sheet alone is definitely not going to be enough for me. I lived in an [insulated] RV in LA for a year and a half, and I had to wear a down puffy in my 35 degree bag as well as bundle up in winter, and I was still cold. In Los Angeles!

The trumpet will go under the backpack, in straps underneath. I am considering using the quilt as padding around the trumpet and putting that in the "case". Might even go with a drawstring bag in that case- trumpeters have used a (granted, more sturdy) drawstring case by Allora bags, so I will look at their design again too. I also just considered using the sleeping pad (will likely get a cut-down foam type one) and using that in lieu of the concrete tube.

I'm starting to reconsider bringing a tent at all, I am thinking I very well may not, see how it goes. I like the idea of doing some community-sponsored tourism in the stans/Mongolia and they will provide lodging. Still it's recommended to have a bag though.

I don't have money to spend on watches/sunglasses and frankly don't really care. Though I do have a really bling pair of glasses w/these weird rodent-serpent things I got in Dubai for $5.

I didn't start to talk about clothes yet in detail but I do enjoy looking reasonably fashionable. I plan to bring 3 pairs of shoes:

Merrell Glove shoes (not sure which brand, but they are more the trail runners than normal running shoes. Vibram which is great. These have been great for last year for me)

One of the similar Merrell or other glove type walking shoes, that look more like ballet slippers, but still have the vibram bottoms (still need to get) These are really popular now so shouldn't be hard to find something nice that fits, at a good price.

Pair of waterproof sandals that can be worn for dress up if needed. Crocs have some ok ones but I haven't found ideal ones for me. Really don't like thongs, but I have narrow size 11 feet and they slip out of a lot of sandals that the strap goes across. PS- I hate shoe shopping.

I want to have one dress thingie that can become different lengths. It needs to come to ankle length for certain religious sites and be a neutral but flattering color. Trying to find one that doesn't wrinkle TOO much but not too bulky.

1-2 pr pants- 1 outdoorsy type and potentially jeans of a thin but sturdy material.
Maybe a third capri or long short type thing for sleeping/casual wear, in a thin material.

Couple shirts and I have to decide on these still. 1 sweater, likely merino blend.
Scarf or two and a hat and gloves.

I don't know about the phone, I just LOATHE phones and I can't imagine doing a blog or work on it. Will still need to figure out if I will keep my computer or get a tablet. I am thinking more and more towards tablet.

[Haiku]

This trip has been in the planning for a couple months I guess. I am not sure how much money it will be yet, but it definitely won't be as much as others (many seem to budget 10-20k/yr).

Turkmenistan I know will be most expensive because unless you are on transit visa (generally 5 days) you need to go with a tour agency. I got a really good recommendation on a company and it seems reasonable enough if I can join a tour. Still that is the most at 1-2k for 10-20 days or so. Luckily other countries are much, much cheaper.

I think I can scare up somewhere between 6-10k before I leave, plus sell my van for hopefully 3k +/- $500. Besides working (sucks working 35 hrs/week while being enrolled in med school full time, but what can you do? Wish we had a living wage here though- 9-10/hr is awful), I will likely do a kickstarter (actually crowdrise, a different site) and at least one concert to raise money. The trumpet will be free at least. Flights I am good at getting deals on and already bought first two (LA to central Europe, and central europe to Japan) for just $300, and then roundtrip Japan-New Zealand-Fiji-Japan is 25K miles which I already have. I will have another 40-50k miles at least which can help and hopefully some other miles/vouchers. I will buy tickets early to save money too- ex: nakedbus in NZ has $1 fares on every bus, and yes, you can find them if you look early enough.

I will try to update more if I can find data of estimated cost per country for instance. It will be helpful for me! I may post this on my blog if that's more appropriate there since it's not gear related.

[Dan Yeruski]

Wow! great cost gathering info, thank you! I met a couple up in Norway that worked in motels to get funded for their backpacking adventures. One worked as barkeep and the other cleaned rooms. They were in their early 20's They were in the north countries summer and fall, went southern for the winter months. "snowbirds"

I need a used van, what state are u in? :-) I'm in Illinois

[Haiku]

The Van (a 1998 Chevy Express) is here in Los Angeles. PM me for info if you're interested!

Re: can't fit all that stuff in my bag- I have been travelling for 10 yrs with trumpet in tow with my Jansport pack. Very first trip was 3 weeks in Iceland/France with C trumpet in there (I had just broken my foot and was on crutches- no way was I gonna cancel my 1st trip outside of the US! #onebag lol). No issues there. On more recent trips I've been using a pocket trumpet, which is smaller, but still much heavier than the plastic one that hopefully is here any day now. I always strap the sleeping bag beneath though, instead of in the pack, so that there is more space in there.

The packs I'm looking at are all larger volume-wise than what I already have, so I'm not really worried there as long as base weight is low.

Right now I am leaning towards used MLD exodus-es, so hopefully one works out!

[Author]

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