merino wool buff

It's no surprise that one of the above turned up as a present yesterday. Fifty five grams of tubular softness, it's much longer than the synthetic me-too buff that I'd been using. My flexible head gear system gets an upgrade, and more flexibility given the additional length. Handy that as I seem to have misplaced the powerstretch beanie...

golite adrenaline 20

Hood and centre zip

After my recent trip to the Lakes it was clear that my Marmot Hydrogen wasn’t up to dealing with temperatures below freezing, even bolstered with a bivi bag, a primaloft top and, well, I should state that I wore all my clothes including gloves and a wind shirt. I wasn’t cold but it is uncomfortable sleeping with that many layers on. I could of course packed my Rab Ladkh 800 it’s rated to -15c but it’s bulky, heavy, and been adopted by Penny. Earlier in the year I doubled up sleeping bags but that method is even heavier and bulkier that the Ladkh. An upgrade of my sleeping bag was needed particularly as I’ve slot on the Challenge. I know only too well what the weather is like in Scotland in May from experience and from listening to Bob’s podcasts.

So on my return to London I set about a search, my criteria were simple the bag should be OK for temps down to -10c, weight less than a kilo and be cheap. First port of call was the guys at Alpkit but they were out of stock of the Pipedream 600, and weren’t going to have any in until March 2010, fine for the Challenge but not for the intervening months. Next was PHD and I had a crack at making my own. I kept it simple short side, zip no collar just like the Marmot but with more stuffing. The result was an eye watering three hundred quid plus price tag. I then checked out Cumulus, one model fitted the bill but was a bit over budget.

I did a round of the high street stockists of Mountain Equipment, Rab, The North Face and Mountain Hardware, and only the Mountain Equipment Xero 550 made the grade but was more over budget than the Cumulus.

Back online I dropped by BPL UK and they have a small range of bags and the Golite Adrenaline 20 grabbed my attention. At £190.00 it was the cheapest I’d found so far, it weighs 900g ands is rated to -7c, not the -10c that I was looking for but close enough. I found a review done on the bag by Chris Townsend, which confirmed that it would be a good choice. Unfortunately Bob and Rose were out of stock, I had a long chat with Rose about other options but none came near.

Pertex Endurance capped foot

Back online I found that Mark Richardson had stock so promptly ordered one, not as cheap as BPL but still within budget. I’ve not had the chance to use the sleeping bag in its intended environment but I will confess that I did spend one night in it indoors. The lining is silky smooth, and bag is topped and tailed with Pertex Endurance which is waterproof. I don’t know why other sleeping bag manufacturers don’t adopt this approach because many a time I’ve found the foot of my sleeping bag damp, and this was a perennial a problem with one of the tents I used to own. I tested the material and the water beaded off nicely. The foot of the bag is shark tailed which matches the natural angle of the feet when at rest on your back. And it has a half zip on the front of the bag. How I get on with this unique arrangement will remain to be seen.

I hope to get out in the next few weeks to test this, the Scarp and the Golite Peak so more to follow.

the good wine shop

I stopped by the Kew branch of the The Good Wine Shop on the way home from dropping off Christmas presents for Ben, to pick up a bottle of La Flor to go with the sausages, and a half bottle of Rutherglen to go with the pud on Christmas day.

As always the very large (and very expensive) bottle of wine, that used to adorn the counter at the St Margarets store, is still sitting there. And as always the bottle became a talking point. I joked that I wished I had my camera with me so I could take a photo of it and post something about it on my blog. But as I hadn’t, the next time I was passing it would have been sold, so I took a snap with my mobile phone…

I also joked that if the photo was too blurry it still might get sold as I’d have to come back to get a better shot. Being a talking point The Deer in Headlights bottle has become a sort of emblem for this small independent, so it’d be interesting to see what they do if someone makes them an offer they won’t refuse.

So if you’re in the area pop your head around the door, and a strike up a conversation about the very large (and very expensive) bottle of wine.

henry shires scarp 1 - first look

I drove to Parcel Force's depot in Mitcham to pay the ransom that they and Customs had levied on the Scarp 1 and collected my belated birthday present (or early Christmas one).

The set up is straightforward; assemble the main pole and feed through the sleeve, locate the ends in the grommets, and with the six supplied pegs, peg out the corners and centre. Adjusting the pitch is equally easy. This is the first tent that I've owned that can be pitched as one and I like the idea.

As hoped I can sit up in the tent and there's plenty of space for one person. Ideal for a venture like the TGO Challenge in fact. It could even be used as a mountain marathon shelter for two as it has two porches. I'm going to have to persuade Penny to try this out on my next test pitch but will hold on to the idea that it was bought as a ONE person tent.

There's enough room in the porch space to park a pair of Terrocs and a rucksack so one could be used for storage the other for cooking, or not at all. If you're worried about cooking under cover then the inner can be pegged back to create more ground space however you'd still have the cross tension band in place.

Room for the shoes

Venting options are good; there are short zips at either end, two roof vents and the fly sheet can be gathered up the pole on either side. There's a buckle at the bottom of the zip that can be used to keep the flysheet closed and the zip open for another venting option. The zips on the fly aren't two way however but the buckle can be used to hold the flysheet in place with the zip either fully opened or partially zipped up. The buckle has another use in taking the strain off the zip which is a good thing. The zips on the ends don't have buckles and are prone to parting unfortunately, and there's also an elastic loop that I haven't worked out how to use yet.

End venting zips

The roof vents are closed by Velcro and an elastic loop and hook. And are kept open by a loop and hook internally. From my first attempt this can be done from inside (once you've had some practice).

Roof vents from the inside...

...and from the outside

Flysheet door venting mechanism

The inner is mostly material with mesh at the apex; it's a long time since I've owned a tent that's like this. Most are where the inner is wholly mesh or in the case the majority of my shelters the inner is wholly non existent. A double zip means that you can adjust venting of the inner on either side.

Mesh panel, double zip and D ring

At the top of the zips on the inner is a D ring and at the apex of the inner a clip. All ideal running a drying line or, in case of the clip, hang a lantern from. There is a pocket on either side too. Given the size of the pocket I'm not overly convince of their use; they could take a head torch like a Petzl Tikka but just that.

It will hold a cereal bar -just

I've found that there are two patches on Velcro on the under side of the groundsheet, I'll need to drop Henry an email as I'm baffled as to why they are there.

Curious patches

The inner doors can be rolled up and held in place by tying the two lengths of material supplied to do this. I've never found that this is a satisfactory way of keeping a door tied back. I may look to modify this by making a loop and using a friction toggle on the other, that can be feed through the loop to hold the door more securely. That said the simple overhand knot I used stayed put during the time I got in and out of the tent. The doors on the outer have Velcro retainers.

With Christmas and the end of the year fast approaching I'm not sure when I will be able to sneak out for an overnighter to give it a proper try out. Before I do I will be sealing those seams and especially the stitching around the Velcro patches on the groundsheet.