Santa Delivers....

So Santa has been and gone for another year.

His knowledge of lightweight kit for the outdoors is demonstrated in the gifts he left behind for me this Christmas.

First off was a NeoAir XTherm mattress. Weighing in at 430g for the regular length, it will provide a little more comfort when the mercury falls, at the expense of only a small weight gain over the standard NeoAir mattress.

A Rab MeCo 165 long sleeved  base layer top, with a mix of  Merino wool and something man made. Maybe it will smell a little less than some of my other base layers after a couple of days in the hills!

Inov-8 Roclite 295 Shoes. I must thank Tony Hobbs (@TonyHobbsFlight  and here) for his advice and guidance on selecting these shoes and a sock combo to partner them in wet conditions. It's about time I stepped out of my comfort zone  (no pun intended) and tried something other than a pair of leather boots for backpacking. So many people seem to have embraced  the light weight footwear revolution for lightweight backpacking, I felt that I had to give it a go. I'll let you know what I think in weeks to come. 

Sealskinz socks to pair with the Inov-8's. I have read mixed reviews of  these.  Longevity seems to be an issue for some. Again I'll report back soon and share my thoughts.

Oh  and a number of bottles of red wine (various origins and vintages)and a copy of Lord of The Rings.  Not exactly lightweight but that's not really the point!

My thanks to all my family who gave me such fantastic gifts to allow me to venture into such fantastic places.

Pitching advice

In my last post I mentioned that I would be posting some links to blogs that offer advice for a first-time pitcher of a Trailstar.

Well today I'll share with you this post from Whiteburn's Wanderings. In the post he explains the  rationale behind his search for a  lightweight shelter,  as well as  penning a review based on more than 90 nights under his Trailstar.

Included in the post are some good photographs illustrating the pitching process. He also proposes a novel approach to attaching the  door pole guy line using a micro carabiner attached to an entirely separate piece of guy line equipped with a linelok. By simply reclipping the carabiner he avoids the somewhat irritating process of having to re-thread the lineloks if you choose to move the location of the door, due say to a change in wind direction.

This would never have occurred to me. Ever!

He also pays tribute to Colin Ibbotson's well regarded Trailstar Review (posted on Andy Howell's blog).  It's well worth the read if you have not already come across it.

These links should save a Trailstar novice some time on setting up guy lines (lengths cut to 60cm ALL round) and on pitching. Live and learn…… in theory at least!

A new Trailstar

A couple of weeks ago I received my new Mountain Laurel Designs Trailstar. 

I was surprised to receive it so quickly, having ordered it on 19th November. With the MLD website suggesting order times on 8-10 weeks I was stunned to receive it so soon.

I made my choice of fabric silnylon rather than Cuben, based on a few blog reviews which suggested that Cuben fabric could be tricky to pitch.

I eagerly await the arrival of an Oookstar nest for my Trailstar.

So far my pitches of the Trailstar have not been in anger, but rather in more benign situations in local fields, whilst I get to grips with pitching. I cannot wait for this to change and to have an opportunity to pitch my Trailstar for real on the hills. I will attempt to post links to other blogs offering good, sound pitching advice as well as suggestions on guy line setup in coming days..

In the meantime I will merely post a few iPhone images of my new mountain-home-to-be. 

As a photographer I hope to add a few images to the library of a few excellent Trailstar images our there on the Internet. So stay tuned and check back here to learn of my adventures as my dreams unfold with my Trailstar. .