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Platystemon posted:You want to murder people Not particularly, but I expect no prosecution when I run them over going up a hill after asking to pass for two minutes and them not getting out of the way.  I lost a Hillsound "trail crampon" today. Even with the over-strap one foot came off. I was coming back down the single track --- the only other track terminated 1.5mi from the summit --- and happened upon it 2ft down in the bottom of a snow chimney. Well look, that's mine and I didn't even know it was missing! Does not bode well; I've only had them a month. :/ Was also the first time I actually hiked with a headlamp. The mountains are very beautiful in the PNW clouds before sunrise. Also saw some bear tracks in the snow.
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Jan 29, 2018 11:00
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On the AT when no one was around I'd occasionally use my small Bluetooth speaker for podcasts because I was sick of headphones but immediately paused it if anyone was around because I'm English.
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Jan 29, 2018 12:07
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bongwizzard posted:I have had exactly one amazing encounter with someone blasting music on a trail. I actually had a really cool experience with music at Red River Gorge... We were walking through the sites heading to to Henson's point and I heard some notes wafting through the air and started getting huffy because people with speakers are dicks, but I wandered over, and it was some dude who brought his mandolin to camp, and was just plucking away, merry as can be. I stopped and chatted with him for a free minutes, he was a pretty cool dude! It had never even occurred to me that mandolin would make a great lightweight camp guitar. I now own a mandolin, though I have yet to take it backpacking. Once I get banjo down, I might pick up an open back to take with me... I really really want to play dueling banjos whenever I see someone coming down the trail 
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Jan 29, 2018 13:11
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Backcountry.com has their Prana stuff on sale including the Brion and Zion pants that people here seem to like
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Jan 31, 2018 18:16
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Josh Lyman fucked around with this message at 19:45 on Feb 1, 2018 |
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Feb 1, 2018 19:24
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I have a Mountain Hardwear down jacket that's leaking a lot of feathers. Is there an easy fix for seams that don't seem to be holding, or should I just have it replaced under warranty?
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Feb 2, 2018 06:59
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Vivian Darkbloom posted:I have a Mountain Hardwear down jacket that's leaking a lot of feathers. Is there an easy fix for seams that don't seem to be holding, or should I just have it replaced under warranty? Tenacious tape might work - seam repair or replacement is likely a better option.
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Feb 2, 2018 12:15
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Vivian Darkbloom posted:I have a Mountain Hardwear down jacket that's leaking a lot of feathers. Is there an easy fix for seams that don't seem to be holding, or should I just have it replaced under warranty? If it's still under warranty, definitely have it repaired/replaced professionally. Out of warranty, duct tape/gorilla tape will be fine to patch up small holes. Not sure about seams.
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Feb 3, 2018 00:44
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Does anybody here do SAR? Care to share your experiences with it?
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Feb 4, 2018 04:49
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Electoral Surgery posted:Does anybody here do SAR? Care to share your experiences with it? This thread might have some Sar types as well. https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3490050
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Feb 4, 2018 05:11
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Does anyone here use solar rechargeable USB battery packs for extended excursions? Eg for charging a phone to use as a camera. I'm trying to figure out whether the consumer stuff is worthwhile to buy yet, or whether the technology needs another few years of research to be efficient enough.
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Feb 4, 2018 22:38
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I don't have personal recommendations but I defnitely see a ton of solar chargers for people doing thru hikes. I'd check out some blogs or forums for thru hiking to see what people like and is well reviewed. My impression is that they do work if you have a lot of stuff to charge and can often be setup on the back of your pack to charge while hiking
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Feb 4, 2018 23:18
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Electoral Surgery posted:Does anybody here do SAR? Care to share your experiences with it? I have a funny SAR story that involves a 50k/50 mile trail run. This was 3 years ago I think. It was a ridiculously hot day for a trail run. We had probably 200 runners for the 50k and about 50 for the 50 miler. It was our biggest year yet and our radio operators handled all the tracking of in-and-out at aid stations. The way the course goes is the 50k and 50 milers all run the same course then the 50 milers go back out and run a portion of it again in reverse. Because of the heat we had tons of 50 milers drop down to the 50k race and drop out. As the day went on our tracking list got more garbled but straightened itself out. Except for runner #34. (Fictional number to protect the idiot) Runner #34 was shown checked in to all aid stations and back out. Except he never showed up at the 50 mile aid stations. We chalked this up to a busy course. His pace was good and he would've been running through at the same time the slow 50k people were coming back. Those folks tend to need more TLC at the end of the race so we just figured we missed the guy. Fast forward to dark. He's the only guy on the course. The terrain is rugged. The runners don't have headlamps (they start with them and drop them off so they don't need to run at night). Now our sweeps are going out to clear the course and no one is finding this guy. The undergrowth is dense and we're seriously worried he's fallen off a cliff. So we call in SAR. First the sheriff shows up with a trailer and 4-wheelers. Then the tacticlol guys (like 20) show up with dirt bikes and horses. They get a mobile HQ set up. At this point we're bystanders, but these guys are like the cover of a Prepper Magazine. Bandoliers. Velcro vests. BDU's. Digital Camo. This terrain is so nasty you have a hard time just hiking it, so I'm not sure what they planned on doing with 4-wheelers, dirt bikes, and horses. Finally the state police show up and then the magic happens. So we'd kept calling the guys cell phone, but no answer, straight to voicemail. The State Police make a call and tell us that his phone was just pinged south of Milwaukee. They get the Wisconsin State Police to find the vehicle and pull it over just north of the Illinois border. They do a safety check. And there's our dude. It seems after he checked out of the 50k aid station to head back out he changed his mind and just got in his car and left. Everyone packed up and left. We realized that the SAR folks were woefully unprepared to actually find anyone on the trail that was incapacitated. They could handle stuff on or near back roads or where a person was known to be injured, but to actually find someone, well, if the dude was unconscious there was no way. We've since tightened up protocol and changed procedure to prevent this, but basically if you hit your head on a rock and fall under a fern, you're fairly well hosed.
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Feb 5, 2018 00:04
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I've been asked more than once on trail if I'm search and rescue but I definitely don't wear tactical gear while hiking. I came across county SAR training on Mt Washington one rainy day (in the Cascades, so they get called out every weekend in the summer because of Seattle fewls), and thought they were a scout troop given how they were lumbering about. They had about thirty people so I couldn't make it past the line before they started moving and got stuck in the middle. Chatted with the person in charge while walking. He had the radio and was coordinating (and was maybe 25). They had a wheeled litter with the "injured hiker" to get down the trail. Most amusing part was when I said "We're a couple minutes from the road" and the response was "Really?! I had no idea we were so close". So I guess radio duty precludes navigational skills. I know SAR here is divided into orgs: Radio, 4wd, ground SAR, and some others. Last I checked they required a few weekends of grueling winter training and availability commitments. I thought about it but would much rather spend my weekends hiking than standing around on the nice trails here. ps My father was a volunteer fire chief for fifteen years but I guess it didn't rub off. I haven't volunteered much in the last decade.
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Feb 5, 2018 01:08
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OSU_Matthew posted:Does anyone here use solar rechargeable USB battery packs for extended excursions? Eg for charging a phone to use as a camera. When I looked at it last year it seemed like unless you were planning to be out for a week or longer, you would be better off weight and cost wise with a few extra batteries to charge off of, instead of the solar charger and batteries for it.
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Feb 5, 2018 02:09
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bringer posted:When I looked at it last year it seemed like unless you were planning to be out for a week or longer, you would be better off weight and cost wise with a few extra batteries to charge off of, instead of the solar charger and batteries for it. That was my conclusion last year too, but now I've got a weeklong backpacking trip planned for April, and I don't want to be missing photos. Plus I wanted to do a GPS track, which will probably eat up battery on my tracker watch. Later this year I'm looking at a five day cycling trip where I'd be chewing through battery with guidance and stuff, so I think I'd get decent use out of a light and durable solar panel. Normally I'm just doing 3-4 day trips, so a battery pack is perfect when I put the phone on airplane mode. I'm just trying to stretch what I'm doing and I wasn't sure whether I'd be better off with a bigger and heavier battery bank, or a solar charger.
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Feb 5, 2018 03:32
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The difference in weight either way isn’t going to be extreme, so go with whichever you want. Maybe you value not worrying about running out of charge with no way to refill, or maybe you value being able to stick the thing deep in your pack and forget about it till you need it.
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Feb 5, 2018 05:13
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Verman posted:This thread might have some Sar types as well. Bookmarked this thread for future binge reading. I'm guessing there is lots of good batshit craziness about how many guns one needs to take into the woods.
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Feb 5, 2018 06:02
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Solar panels just aren't very good. They're heavy and don't give a great charge in the woods. On the AT last year people were sending them home. My phone lasted a ridiculous amount of time in airplane mode, and my candy bar Anker battery pack filled it up twice before a recharge. I was also watching movies at night in my hammock. Just bring a rechargeable battery pack, use airplane mode and download pixoff for Android.
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Feb 5, 2018 09:38
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n8r posted:Bookmarked this thread for future binge reading. I'm guessing there is lots of good batshit craziness about how many guns one needs to take into the woods. Also knives and axes
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Feb 5, 2018 12:42
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Alan_Shore posted:Solar panels just aren't very good. They're heavy and don't give a great charge in the woods. On the AT last year people were sending them home. My phone lasted a ridiculous amount of time in airplane mode, and my candy bar Anker battery pack filled it up twice before a recharge. I was also watching movies at night in my hammock. Just bring a rechargeable battery pack, use airplane mode and download pixoff for Android. This. I never needed more than a 10,000 mah Anker for the entire AT.
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Feb 5, 2018 12:46
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n8r posted:Bookmarked this thread for future binge reading. I'm guessing there is lots of good batshit craziness about how many guns one needs to take into the woods. Not really, but people being dumb about sort of stuff is literally why they started their own hiking thread. I think TheRat is the only one who regularly hikes with a rifle and it seems to primarily be a way to watermark his photos
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Feb 5, 2018 13:39
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PhantomOfTheCopier posted:Chatted with the person in charge while walking. He had the radio and was coordinating (and was maybe 25). They had a wheeled litter with the "injured hiker" to get down the trail. Most amusing part was when I said "We're a couple minutes from the road" and the response was "Really?! I had no idea we were so close". So I guess radio duty precludes navigational skills. To be fair, normally the radio operator in a military squad is focused on their comms tasks, and it's the responsibility of the squad leader and the guide to know where the unit is in relation to the terrain. Of course you have to hope that everyone is paying attention to that sort of thing, particularly in a domestic SAR team where it's not like everyone else is busy looking out for ambushes. And if the guy was in charge then he definitely should have known where they were, and probably should have delegated the comms tasks so he could focus on actually leading. Kaal fucked around with this message at 17:33 on Feb 5, 2018 |
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Feb 5, 2018 17:29
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A couple friends and myself are planning a 8-9 day trip to Banff/Jasper in mid-late July and need some advice. The plan is to set up camp for 3-4 nights in each park and hike each day. After doing some preliminary reading, I'm worried that Banff is going to be too crowded and crazy. Can someone compare the two parks and recommend some good hikes in each one? Long hikes are fine as we're all experienced in the back country.
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Feb 8, 2018 03:42
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marsisol posted:A couple friends and myself are planning a 8-9 day trip to Banff/Jasper in mid-late July and need some advice. The plan is to set up camp for 3-4 nights in each park and hike each day. After doing some preliminary reading, I'm worried that Banff is going to be too crowded and crazy. Can someone compare the two parks and recommend some good hikes in each one? Long hikes are fine as we're all experienced in the back country. I didn't spend a ton of time in Jasper except to go up and see the Icefields, but also consider Yoho and Kootenay since they're right there too. Yoho: Takkakaw Falls, Emerald Basin/Lake, Iceline if you're adventurous Kootenay: Stanley Glacier, Kindersley Pass, Floe Lake Banff: Plain of the Six Glaciers, Bow Glacier Falls, Eiffel Lake, Wenkchemna Pass The busy areas like Lake Louise, Moraine Lake, yeah it'll be busy down at lake level, but as soon as you start doing more than like 200 feet of elevation gain it drops off like crazy. I went around the same time of year and I think there were at least afternoon storms (sometimes all day light rain) 80% of the time, if not more.
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Feb 8, 2018 05:27
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marsisol posted:A couple friends and myself are planning a 8-9 day trip to Banff/Jasper in mid-late July and need some advice. The plan is to set up camp for 3-4 nights in each park and hike each day. After doing some preliminary reading, I'm worried that Banff is going to be too crowded and crazy. Can someone compare the two parks and recommend some good hikes in each one? Long hikes are fine as we're all experienced in the back country. Are you planning backcountry camping? The regular camp sites are likely all reserved for the summer at this point.
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Feb 8, 2018 17:31
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Any Aussies here who have done the Great South West Walk? Was thinking of doing it and wondered if anybody had any advice
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Feb 9, 2018 04:27
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marsisol posted:A couple friends and myself are planning a 8-9 day trip to Banff/Jasper in mid-late July and need some advice. The plan is to set up camp for 3-4 nights in each park and hike each day. After doing some preliminary reading, I'm worried that Banff is going to be too crowded and crazy. Can someone compare the two parks and recommend some good hikes in each one? Long hikes are fine as we're all experienced in the back country. Banff is definitely the busier park, it has several major world famous places and the most famous place in Jasper is right on the border between the two (Columbia Icefields/Athabasca Glacier). Pretty much all of the campsites that you can book online will fill up the day they're made available, I have much better luck booking Jasper online, but you should get on it fast. Weekends are going to be the hardest to come by. There's still many campgrounds that are first come first serve so it's not impossible to get a good site. One of my personal favourites is Wilcox Creek campground near the Athabasca Glacier. The sites are really tiny so keep that in mind. Wabasso campground in Jasper is my personal favourite for places to stay near the townsite. Good hikes that I like as a local are Banff: - Helen Lake/Dolomite Pass - almost all alpine meadow. Might see horses. - Bourgeau Lake, can be extended to the summit of Mt. Bourgeau if you're an experienced scrambler - Saddleback Pass at Lake Louise, can be extended to the summit of Mt. Fairview which is an official trail maintained by Parks Canada and a great beginner summit (not the same as Fairview Lookout but have the same trailhead) - Cory Pass, which does a loop that circumnavigates Mt. Edith - Inkpots - Starts through Johnston canyon which is super touristy but once you get past the Upper Falls the crowds disappear - Rockbound Lake which is tucked in behind Castle Mountain - Skoki region, which is near Lake Louise, if you're speedy you can get to Deception Pass and back in a day, maybe even bag a small summit, but the first 4km is on a ski hill access road. There' a backcountry campground about 7km from the trailhead if you're inspired to spend more than a dayhike there. Jasper: - Parker Ridge and Wilcox Pass are short enough and close enough to do in one day. - Skyline Trail - you don't have to do the whole thing, you can get great views just doing part of the trail starting from Maligne Lake. It is a linear backpacking trip but it's difficult to book because it's a world-famous trail - Sunwapta Lower Falls is really short and a good leg stretcher stop if you're sick of being in a car. Most people only go to the upper falls, and the lower falls are only a kilometer away - Tonquin Valley is loving gorgeous but kind of far as a day hike unless you're a machine. Be fast or look into splitting it into 2 days while staying at a backcountry site halfway there. Cavell Road is closed this summer to upgrade the day use area so you would have to go in via Maccairib Pass Trail. - Indian Ridge where the gondola is looks great, but the day I planned on doing it, it was sleeting like crazy so I haven't bagged it yet - Maligne Canyon, popular and touristy but the farther you go the more the crowds thin out. Also, Sunshine Meadows in Banff is one of my favourite places. It is possible to hike there, but it's a slog and a half, or you could just pay to take the gondola or shuttle bus. I usually start a linear backpacking trip there so I'm happy to spend a bit of money to skip that lovely start. Howard Douglas backcountry campground is only 5km from the ski lodge and as such is not commonly used because it's not hardcore enough to bother stopping there. Also also, you can check out my Canadian Rockies thread here: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3763897&userid=0&perpage=40&pagenumber=1 I posted a bunch of educational type stuff for people there. I did some photo essays of the parks in the Take a Photo thread too Banff Part 1: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3756620&userid=131806#post455277215 Banff Part 2: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3756620&userid=131806#post455318237 Jasper: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3756620&userid=131806#post455353996 My Jasper post was made before I spent a week there, I should do up another one. single-mode fiber posted:I didn't spend a ton of time in Jasper except to go up and see the Icefields, but also consider Yoho and Kootenay since they're right there too. All these are great too. Stanley Glacier in Kootenay is kind of like the poor man's Burgess Shale. Lots of cool fossils but you won't see the crazy cool things like at Walcott Quarry or the Stephen Trilobite beds. Which you can go to, but it's by guided hike only because of the level of protection those areas are under. Afternoon storms are 200% a thing here and I've been caught in a few at uncomfortable elevations. It might even snow. I was caught in a blizzard at Lake Agnes on the summer solstice at about 8 pm. My best advice is to start early, and always carry warm and waterproof layers if you're going more than a few km in even if it's sunny and hot when you start. My husband attempted a summit that wasn't even very high, only about 900m elevation, sunny and 25C at the trailhead, had to turn back just before the summit because it was sleeting heavily and all the rocks were covered in a sheet of ice. Trailhead was still sunny and 25 when he returned. SulfurMonoxideCute fucked around with this message at 21:39 on Feb 9, 2018 |
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Feb 9, 2018 21:34
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Picnic Princess posted:Awesome Stuff Thank you so much for this. I'll definitely check out the other thread. Any provincial parks you absolutely recommend in the area?
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Feb 10, 2018 02:58
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marsisol posted:Thank you so much for this. I'll definitely check out the other thread. Any provincial parks you absolutely recommend in the area? Assiniboine is accessible by foot or helicopter. It's just across the provincial border in BC. Mt. Robson Provincial Park is also in BC, about an hour west of Jasper townsite. It has the easiest accessible lush inland Columbian rainforest I've encountered so far bar none, but you can also experience these forests at the aforementioned Emerald Lake and Emerald Basin in Yoho. Alberta side, I love love LOVE Peter Lougheed and Spray Valley in Kananaskis Country. As much as I love Banff, I consider those parks as my home away from home. You might notice in that photo thread, my post about Kananaskis is MASSIVE. One of my personal favourite places in the whole world is where a little known place called Engadine Lodge is located. There's an unofficial trail that starts nearby that follows this tiny creek called Commonwealth Creek, and is a super easy yet quite long hike to some pretty dramatic mountains. The most common name of the trail is Birdwood Tarns. The only thing is that since it's not maintained, there's quite a few big logs you need to cross. Before last year there was only one. Now there's way way more because there were a few major avalanches that cleared brand new swaths through dense forest. They were so big they travelled up the other side of the valley. I wasn't aware of this last time I was there, assumed it was easy as always, and ended up clambering over big fallen trees in a hiking skirt. So I hiked in this:  In this terrain:  You can see my friend. Some of the logs were stacked waist high. That was on the upslope on the opposite side of the valley. But it's worth it. 
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Feb 10, 2018 03:45
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Alan_Shore posted:Solar panels just aren't very good. They're heavy and don't give a great charge in the woods. On the AT last year people were sending them home. My phone lasted a ridiculous amount of time in airplane mode, and my candy bar Anker battery pack filled it up twice before a recharge. I was also watching movies at night in my hammock. Just bring a rechargeable battery pack, use airplane mode and download pixoff for Android. Counterpoint: newer Anker solar panels are awesome and weigh less than a battery pack. Just used mine on the 3 week trek up Aconcagua and it kept my Kindle, my watch, and my phone happily full. This is most important in base camp where you have lovely WiFi that eats batteries but no power.
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Feb 11, 2018 13:38
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Well, solar panels are good for hikes where you have a high degree of exposure because they're constantly getting sunlight. If you hike in an area that's mostly under tree cover, they're not going to be effective, regardless of the quality of the panels themselves. Comparing Aconcagua to the AT is really apples and oranges, they're good for some applications and not good for others.
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Feb 11, 2018 16:24
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Well, I just bought the 21w Anker solar panel set for a weeklong backpacking trip out to the Grand Canyon, so here's hoping it'll work alright out there. I wanted to get a gps track off my watch and plenty of photos, so I don't want to risk burning through a battery pack. I'll be especially interested to test it out there versus back here in the long green tunnel of Appalachia. I've got a USB Anmeter, so I'll post some pics and comparisons soon as spring rolls around and we get some leaves to test it out under. Testing a bunch of devices here at work, I've noticed that the modern gen smartphones ones will consume ~1.7 amps on average, so a 21 watt panel should be enough to charge two devices at peak draw (21w/5v=4a for reference). Even at 50% shade, that should be enough to charge up a single device or battery pack at speeds comparable to a wall outlet.
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Feb 12, 2018 18:39
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You will for sure find plenty of sun in the Grand Canyon...
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Feb 12, 2018 19:25
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Levitate posted:You will for sure find plenty of sun in the Grand Canyon... As someone from East Tennessee who mostly hikes areas around the Appalachians the biggest adjustment I had to make to hike out west was the sun. Every hike we did was right after sunrise to avoid both the sun and crowds. We did make a mistake of trying to do several hikes in one day, and we ended up doing a 3 mile round-trip hike to Delicate Arch around noon. Because of mileage we already put in that day plus how bad the sun was that 3 miles round-trip almost was one of the toughest hikes we did out west. Even tougher than 3 Mile Rest House in the Grand Canyon which did at sunrise. It did give me a new found appreciate of hiking of 3 - 5 miles of green tunnels to an overlook in the Smokies. nate fisher fucked around with this message at 20:31 on Feb 12, 2018 |
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Feb 12, 2018 20:29
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Yeah desert sun almost requires a white hat for me to reflect some of the heat back
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Feb 12, 2018 21:06
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Nice little hike in Big Basin.
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Feb 13, 2018 00:23
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pokie posted:Nice little hike in Big Basin. That's incredible, I'm so jealous... Everything around me is the shade of sludge gray. Half the time I can't tell where the horizon ends and the sky begins.
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Feb 13, 2018 03:57
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Hamilton Mountain, WA on Sunday. Unseasonably nice day! My trekking poles decided not to work though.  Admittedly I hadn't used them in a couple months but I couldn't even get the drat things to open -- the lower section of both of them was stuck in there really solidly. They're aluminum with flick locks; anything I can do to rehabilitate them? Alternatively, are those Cascade Mountain carbon poles any good?
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Feb 13, 2018 04:06
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Vivian Darkbloom posted:Hamilton Mountain, WA on Sunday. Unseasonably nice day! I have those exact poles, from Costco. I've been using them since Christmas and I really like them.
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Feb 13, 2018 04:16
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