Technical Gear Review

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As I mentioned trekking poles in our last blog, it made us think about our gear and how, for the most part, good it has been! So with that in mind, we thought we’d do a kit review for anyone that may be interested and looking for thoughts / advice on the following:

1. Trekking Poles - Fozan compact 4 cork grip
Are trekking poles worth using?… yes!
Are these ones good?… yes!
Why’d you recommend?… Not only do they really help with hiking up and down hills (taking some of the pressure off your legs and knees!) and have been found to increase your efficiency in walking, but they have so many other uses too!:
- guide-rope marker to prevent tripping
- washing line (made from guide-ropes) holder / pole
- tent door holder / opener
- cobweb remover
- nettle basher
- mud/water/bog depth stick
- sock flag pole for lunch time stop & airing
- angry cow protection
The ones we are using are also foldable, so tuck nicely to the outside of your pack when not using / in busy urban areas. This also means they are quick and easy to extend/decrease a little for the changing elevations. The cork grips have also been great as they are soft to hold, good grip even when sweating and don’t seem to cause too much friction on the hands so no blisters there.

2. Rucksack - Gossamer gear silverback 55l
Is a good backpack important?… yes!
Is this one good?…Difficult to judge at present.
We really do love these packs, finding them lightweight, comfortable, very adjustable with easy to use straps in all the right places, effective modular design with handy pockets and compartments and built in whistle on the chest strap, and a pull out sit mat come back support! And whilst it’s not waterproof, it is water resistant, which, in combination with bag liners is not a problem. The 55l size also seems to be working well, as although there are times where a bit more room may be good, it has forced us to think about how much we are taking and therefore keeping us as light as possible.
So what is the problem you may ask? Well, durability. Given the higher pricing of these packs, you’d expect them to last a little longer then they seem to be, with our packs already showing signs of wear after only 2-300miles of use. Gorilla tape has already been deployed so, let’s wait and see if the wear and tear is just a settling in period or if it’ll get worse.

3. Tent - light wave s22 sigma; 2person, 4 season, single layer & additional footprint
Is a tent important?… yes! (Though a bivy bag would be a lighter & smaller option and what many hikers use).
Is this a good one?… yes! Mostly.
At 1.725kg, this tent is pretty light and compacts down really well, to slide the poles into the side of your pack and squish the tent&footprint on top. It’s really easy and quick to put up & down (with only 3poles and 12pegs; even I managed it on my own!) and seems to hold its own, with its compact dome shape, in miserable weather (although I guess we’ve not used it in a full storm as of yet). And when I say compact I mean compact; it does fit two wide sleep matts inside with a little space at the head/feet end but that is it. The bags and the rest of the kit is then stored in the vestibules and just about fit. It does have a vestibule each side though which means no need to clamber over one another when needing to get out - major bonus for camping couples! The small size does help though when needing to pitch up in a small space between thorny bushes and the semi free-standing ability of the tent is also a major bonus when pitching up and needing to move it around.
As with any single wall tent though, condensation is an issue. This tent is designed with a special condensation absorbing fabric which attempts to reduce this, and it does so well most of the time. We do still wake up to a wet inside fairly regularly, more so when it is humid with little wind, but can often dry it off enough with a sponge to pack away and is then quick to fully dry out when next put up.

4. Sleeping bag -Thermarest saros-6
Do you need a sleeping bag?…yes! Pretty much unless you’re going hardcore / somewhere really warm. There are alternatives though such as sleeping quilts which are increasingly popular when matched with a good sleeping matt.
Is ours a good one?…yes! A mummy style bag with a hood which you can pull round, extra foot box compartment to keep your feet toasty, and a small handy zipped pocket, it’s helped us have a cosy sleep several times even in a British January (albeit with some extra layers of clothes too). There is a thinner & lighter version of our bags which I’m sure would have sufficed but the extra comfort & warmth is worth the slightly extra weight coming in at 1.2kg. It’s also easily compressed down into its bag where it can then slide into our packs with relative ease.
Just to note as well, our bags go with our matts which means they have straps on the back to go around the matt to help keep the bag in place; particularly helpful if you’ve not managed to suss the mummy bag inside flip or of your a night time wriggler to stop you from getting all twisted up.

5. Sleeping matt -Thermarest neo air xlite, wide
Do you need a sleeping matt?…yes, if you want a good sleep.
Is ours good?… yes! Even having gotten the ‘wide’ version our matt still only weighs in at 438g, which isn’t bad for a full matt. There are many other designs and styles of sleeping matt, but having a full matt was important for us to help keep off the cold ground during the night. I’m also a side sleeper, and can just about manage this relatively comfortably with this matt (for some of the night). It’s so easy to inflate using the air bag, a few puffs of air filling the matt remarkably quickly and holds the air in well. It deflates even quicker when releasing the valve and can be folded and rolled to a very small cylinder that easily fits into our packs. Only down side is that it is pretty crinkly so can be loud (especially if you faff a lot in an evening and take forever to settle…right Paul?!)

6. Emergency bivvy - Sol escape lite emergency bivouac/liner
Do you need one?… it’s a good bit of emergency kit to have!
Is this a good one?… mostly yes. Small and light you can forget it’s in your pack! But I imagine we’d be grateful for having it if we ever found ourselves stuck somewhere. It’s also been good simply for adding an extra layer on a cold night as a sleeping bag liner due to it being breathable, adding about +5 C of warmth. Slight downside, is that it can be a little tricky to pack away as small as it came. It’s also a little less durable then we’d thought, having needed to tape the top opening a little already from struggling to get in it in the middle of a cold night.

7. Pillow - Thermarest air head lite
Do you need a pillow?… I said no and paul said yes, so he got one. Ask him now though, and he’s converted to the lightweight walkers ways of simply using a stuff sack with clothes as your pillow. No extra weight of an extra item and it can’t break & deflate on you like a pillow can! (as Paul experienced on only our second trip).

8. Cook Set - trangia 27-8 ULHA (hard anodised)
Is it essential?… unless you 100% know you will be walking through places with open restaurants/pubs/cafes (which you might, for instance the coast path) and happy to spend out each night, then being able to cook up some light meals means you need a cooker. It’s also key for early morning coffees!
Is ours good?… yes! It’s heavier then true lightweight cook sets (there are many varieties!) but still only 860g and we like how it all packs together, and is enough for two to cook & eat together. It’s been battered about and still going strong so very durable so far, been great in windy conditions and has proved easy to use in an efficient manner for on the go cups of tea ☕️ Using alcohol fuel, rather then gas, is maybe slightly heavier then the gas at the start of the trip, (say 0.5l if fuel plus bottle weighing 500g), but quickly becomes as light and then lighter as you use it. It can also take a little longer to boil water, but is so much quieter. And whilst it seems to be less widely used with it not really being available in common camp stores, methylated spirits are easily found in hardware stores. Importantly, it also means the cook system is maintenance free, with no moving parts to break and has been easy to use.

9. Shoes -Topo trailventure
How important is a good pair of hiking shoes?…VERY! Maybe just the most important thing.
Are ours good?…After many hours of searching, ordering, trying on and returning, the Topos instantly felt like they were the ones! Trainer style but with ankle support, wide toe box and arch support, decent soles with good tread (though wears fairly quickly), lightweight and quick drying (important as we chose not to have the waterproof versions to prevent hot&sweaty feet which are then wet inside anyway!), ability to change lacing style to suit various foot shapes and style of walking, and standard sizing (meaning, like many hiking shoes, 0.5-1 size larger then your regular everyday shoe). Whilst the above is what Paul would say, and I’d mostly agree, I have found my feet aching after a few days walking (probably just my trail fitness and high arched feet), and also feel they look pretty worn pretty quickly. But I guess, after some further trips away, we’ll see how they do; although as many seem to suggest, after that many miles we’ll probably need a new pair soon!

10. Waterproofs - arcteryx Zeta AR coat & arcteryx zeta SL trouser
Essential?… yes! Crucial in any hiking kit list for your safety and comfort.
Good?… yes! We have found our arcteryx waterproofs amazing. Very light weight, packs away small into its hood, seeming durable, breathable with pit vents, good sized pockets, and very waterproof. The trousers have also proved useful, with the long zip making it able to pull them on without needing to take shoes off, abs whilst you do swish loudly as you walk they don’t look as bad or sound as bad as many other waterproof trouser overlays reputations!

11. Merino Wool Clothing
Essential?… clothing yes but merino no, but we’d recommend it!
Good?…yes! It’s comfy, warm (even when wet), breathable, quick drying and the best material we’ve found so far in terms of not holding that stale / BO smell (that synthetics seem to do even after washes!). Any ethical people / vegetarians out there to be mindful though, to use merino wool that is mulesing free (an arguably painful and cruel process with alternatives available which has been banned in many countries but note, not in Australia!).

12. Water filter kit -Sawyer flow with the 1l squeeze bag &
Steripen ultralight UV
Necessary?… depending on your trip but a good safety , measure to have if there’s a chance you can’t access water points during parts of your trip.
Ours any good?… yes. This filter has been easy to use, pack away and clean, and we’ve not fallen ill using it yet! The main filter bit can screw directly on to a regular plastic bottle, or, like us, you can use the squeeze pouch into a bottle, therefore being able to fill and have more clean water to hand. This process is a little slower then we’d like but, filtering into our bigger bottles like this then allows us to use the UV pen for extra precautions, before pouring into our smaller drinking bottles. The UV pen may be a bit extra at times, and is a little bit more weight but small enough to carry. A slight downside may be how quickly it seems to loose its charge, though this is manageable with our battery packs.

13. Torches - Biolite rechargeable
Needed?…yes.
Ours good?…Having only done a few trips, with a lot of daylight hours, we’ve not really used these to their full potential, but so far so good! They’re small, pretty light, comfy on your head, lockable so they didn’t randomly come on in your bag, have a memory so they come on to the setting you last used (handy to not blind yourself in the night), and a good battery life with the micro-usb cable being the same as our UV pen & battery packs enabling us to use the same cable.

14. Battery pack and plug - Anker power core slim 10,000 & Lencent 4 port usb charger
Do you need one?… again, depending on your trip and charging opportunities, but as we rely on phones a lot it has been a life saver for us.
Ours good?… yes! The pack itself a a little heavy but not too bad, and small and solid so easy to pack. It charges itself fully within 8hours (handy for an overnight respite in a bnb!) and provides about 4 phone charges, give or take. The 4 port charger is a little chunky but has been great in ensuring we can charge all things quickly when we do have an electrical socket to use (trains, bnbs, cafes/pubs, some campsite recky rooms).

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