Breakfast in bed…
I did start outside but it started raining so now it is breakfast in my tent.
Alpkit
Backpacking Gear for 2015 – Therm-a-Rest are a bit cheap! @Thermarest
I have made some changes to this year’s backpacking gear, replacing some failures, a few new things and a few Christmas presents.
See the new page here.
This Neoair XLite mat is probably the biggest change this year – the valve failed on my old mat – this one packs smaller and weighs less than the old mat.
However Therm-a-Rest were a bit mean with their £120 mat as there is no stuff sack supplied to protect it!
Backpacking Gear for 2015 – Therm-a-Rest are a bit cheap! @Thermarest Read More »
More Weight Saving
I packed some of my lightweight backpacking kit for this trip – to use whilst walking – and to review with the idea of saving some more weight for this year’s backpacking trips.
Wind shield, chopping board and stove board
My current stove wind shield is a commercial aluminium model that I cut on half. It works well with my meths stove but was useless for my MSR Pocket Rocket as it was too short and not quite tall enough for my new Alpkit Kraku stove.
I decided to replace this wind shield with something taller and ideally something lighter.
I bought two platters, made from heavy duty aluminium foil from a pound shop (2 for a £). Once I had cut off the lip I could flatten one of them out and I cut a 15cm x 30cm panel. To make it a bit more rigid I folded a small lip around the edge. I then folded this into a four panel wind shield.
Weight saved
Old wind shield 81g
New wind shield 26g
I use a small wooden board under my meths stove. When I originally cut the board I also used it under my Crusader stove, which is larger. It was time to cut the board to the right size.
Weight saved
Old board 38g
New board 23g
I was using a cut down plastic wall tile as a cutting board, I swapped this out for a plastic lid from a pot of fruit. It is about 9cm in diameter and the lip is useful to stop bits rolling off when I use it.
Weight saved
Old cutting board 18g
New cutting board 4g
I am no longer going to carry the case that I used to store all three items in – another 9g saved.
Total weight saved 93g – every gram counts.
More Weight Saving Read More »
Alpkit Kraku Backpacking Gas Stove
First use of the Alpkit Kraku Backpacking Gas Stove
It was my first opportunity today to use the new Alpkit Kraku gas stove. It is very small and I carried a small gas canister to make it a very portable unit. The small size of the burner unit does mean that some care must be taken when fixing it to the gas canister, it can cross thread very easily and if over tightened the shoulder of the valve can jamb on the lip of the gas canister. Once together and the pot supports are set up it does make a very stable stove. I used my MSR titanium mug with lid on it and it sat very well. Once lit, it only took a couple of minutes for the water to come to a rolling boil – I had the stove set up in a very sheltered spot and I was using a wind shield. In the photos you can see the pot support glowing cherry red.
The actual flame head is also quite small, especially compared with my previous MSR Pocket Rocket, it worked well under my mug and I am sure it will work under my Alpkit MiTiMug but I expect it will struggle with a larger pot. It probably will not deliver enough heat for group cooking. When I go camping later in the year I will try it out with the small frying pan I use when static camping. However I bought this as a personal backpacking stove where weight is everything and it is considerably lighter than the MSR stove and when camping on my own it should still be sufficient.
Overall (so far) I am very pleased with the Alpkit Kraku stove – it is very small and light. Well made and efficient – boiling a mug of water significantly quicker then if I had used my meths stove. Because it is so light I may be changing my backpacking habits and using a gas stove more than the ultralight Vargo titanium meth stove I currently use.
Here are some more detailed photos of the stove – More is less.
Here is the post about the walk where I used this stove.
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Walking today – Craigellachie National Nature Reserve Aviemore
With the weather forecast for the day being reasonably good, I decided not to waste any time driving but set off to Craigellachie National Nature Reserve – with a plan to go up onto the ridge and walk along the top.
The weather was great and relatively warm (for January in the Cairngorms), I did not need my gloves, hat or jumper nor did I need to zip my coat up until I got out into the wind on the exposed ridge and summits. One thing I did have on though was the new Helly Hansen Lifa Dry base layer Diana bought me – and it was excellent, it kept me warm, was comfortable to wear and did not absorb any sweat when I was warm so when I did need the insulation on the top, it worked.
Have you ever wondered who puts the rock steps in the footpaths? Well I met two of them today.
Rather than get my stove out to make a coffee, I took hot water in a thermal mug, for the first stop. I had a number Octagon Technology emails and texts to deal with – if there is one problem with the titanium mug I normally use is that on a longer break, like this one, the drink would get cold too quickly. But not when using a thermal mug. I had packed it for this trip having recently read a blog of a backpacker who used one to keep water hot for his late night hot chocolate. He boiled the water when he made his evening meal so it meant he could pack his stove and pots away for the night and still have a hot drink later. I bought my thermal mug a number of years ago but it has had little use but I am going to try it out on this trip and if it works out I may pack it for subsequent trips.
Lunch
Lunch was soup and crackers. I really like the “Squeeze and Stir” tomato soup but I have found it difficult to stir in and dissolve all the paste when I have been making it for lunch when walking and backpacking. I tend to use cup-a-soups which are really easy to make on the trail. But today I had a thermal mug. I put the paste in the mug and half filled it with boiling water. Then making sure the lid was on firmly I vigorously shook it. After about a minute I topped the mug up with more boiling water and I had perfect tomato soup – and once I was finished no messy mug to clean up, I just put the lid back on and packed it away.
click on the above image for a larger version
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