Remember a BMC’s debate to surpass 8,848 ‘likes’ on Facebook in sell for giveaway swag and a lovie dovie personal summary from Kenton Cool on a slopes of Everest – coincidentally 8,848 metres in height, that is peculiar ? Well, a affection-starved towering lovies have upheld that aim successfully, though like all high-achieving mountaineers, they’re kicking on regardless.

Raise £1,000 For Porters’ Progress

The new aim is 10,000 ‘likes’ by 4pm today, Friday and, if they strike a target, they’ll be entertainment adult £1,000 in used tenners and promulgation it over to a guys during Porters’ Progress. Of march it’s all nakely manipulative in a horribly Machiavellian way, though we can’t consider of a improved mountain-orientated means brusque than Porters’ Progress, so we absolutely, unequivocably, titillate we to get over to  www.facebook.com/BritishMountaineeringCouncil courage your teeth and fake to like a BMC.

You could also still be in a using for a pointless esteem of that video summary from Kenton and a span of jackets from Icebreaker and Sherpa Adventure Gear.

Even if you’re not a large fan of amicable meeja, we can find out about Porters’ Progress at  www.portersprogressuk.org plus Kenton Cool groupies – and it’s a stone star name if ever we listened one, can follow his swell and a story of a Olympic bullion award at  at www.thebmc.co.uk/kenton-cool-everest-olympic-medals-expedition.

Finally, while we’re on a theme of a British Mountaineering Council, they now have a new President and Vice Presidents in a figure of Scott Titt, who takes over from Rab Carrington as a categorical man, and Kate Philips and Mike Watson who turn Vice Presidents of a climbing and hill-walking organisation.

It’s that time of a year again, REI’s biggest sale starts currently and runs by 5/28/12. Time to rigging adult for a summer. Take 20% off one object with a banking below.

This week, Chuck Regenold, age 63 and a father of GearJunkie editor Stephen Regenold, hiked a 96-mile Maah Daah Hey Trail in western North Dakota’s Badlands. The remote track, that a GearJunkie organisation mountain-biked final month (see a outing news “Back From ‘Maah Daah Hey’ Trail”), winds by dried and grasslands, climbing and forward constantly for a whole length. Chuck hiked a track solo and carried all food, filtering H2O from streams and during slightest one “cow pond.” (He remarkable he could “still ambience a cow” even after purification!) On a trek, Chuck battled blisters, deceptive track spurs that took him off route, and wild, free-range drive not happy to see him in their extending drift along a way. Here son Stephen Regenold interviews his father on a Maah Daah Hey experience.

GearJunkie (Stephen Regenold): Congrats, dad! Quite a hike. How did it go?
Chuck Regenold: It was a good adventure. we hiked from sunup ‘til dusk all 4 days. What a place! Very remote. we frequency saw anyone, no one in fact dual of a days. Overall, though, a travel went well. Physically it was not as tough as we suspicion it would be during first, yet a track got exhausting. we had vast blisters on a initial day on comment of wearing too-small track runners! They fit during home and for normal hikes, yet for a prolonged days on this track they were too small.

Any other rigging issues?
I grabbed a wrong backpack. My pack, an aged JanSport that we modified, usually did not fit right. The hip belt kept subtly relaxation as we hiked, solemnly putting some-more and some-more weight on my shoulders until they ached.

How many miles a day did we make it?
The track was 96 miles, and we consider we did 22 miles a initial day, 27 a second, 22 miles, and afterwards 25 a final day. That’s about usually a 2mph average, we know, yet this track is tough!

Hardest partial of a trip?
The initial 25 miles. Just removing going. There were also wash-outs adult there during a north finish of a track [he hiked from a north to a south, starting during a CCC Camp trailhead], and we once done a wrong spin adult there and accidently circled behind on a route. Classic reticent mistake.

How most food did we move and what form of food?
I started with about 7 pounds of food, finished with none. we ate like we would on an continuation race, including lots of small “meals” of about 200 calories each. Lots of MMs and beef sticks, energy-gel packs, nuts, granola, a few droughty meals. we got unequivocally ill of a MMs. Never suspicion removing ill of MMs was probable before this! we had to force myself to eat during times. we would run low on appetite and not feel like eating during all. But we done myself. This is key. You can feel it right divided when we eat, and afterwards we can get relocating again.

Was H2O an issue? This track is notoriously dry.
At a start we had 2 gallons in my pack! Lot of weight. But 64 ounces of that H2O was “do not touch” — we was saving that volume for an puncture in box we could not find H2O down a trail. But after a while we satisfied that did not make sense. we would splash this haven once we was removing tighten to a source. we had a sobriety filter from Platypus — what a good product! It done filtering H2O easy. we drank from murky streams, a Little Missouri River, an animal trough, and once a “cow pond,” that was a murky hole with leg prints around it. Even after filtering that H2O we could still ambience a cow! we did run out of H2O nearby a end, maybe a final 5 miles. Man, it’s tough to go but water! Glad we was during a end.

What was your sleeping gear?
No tent, usually a bivy sack, pad and sleeping bag. we brought a lightweight fleece blanket. Grabbed it during a final minute. Was that warm! we felt like it combined 20 degrees. we used a vast poncho as my tarp. It’s a sil-nylon poncho that translates to a tarp if needed.

Your rigging was not too ultra-light overall, right?
Well, we know we brought my hatchet. we don’t go but it! Think if a charge came adult and we had to bruise [tarp] stakes into that tough Badlands ground. we consider we started with 22 pounds rigging in all. Sleeping bag, pad, SPOT device, phone, whistle, knife, and a few some-more things. The H2O filter weighed 10 ounces. It all adds up.

What rigging was essential?
The Leki movement poles. we pushed off them a lot. They unequivocally helped get me down a trail. The Platypus Gravity Filter. That is an glorious product. That fleece sweeping we mentioned. we desired that.

Any recommendations for someone looking to travel a Maah Daah Hey like we did it?
Bring a right boots and pack! That was my vast rigging mistake. What worked on shorter training hikes unsuccessful on a prolonged trek.

The Maah Daah Hey is a remote stretch. How many people did we see out there in all?
No one on a initial day or third days. All alone. The second day we saw dual bikers. They were doing 35 miles that day. Then on a final day, when going by Theodore Roosevelt National Park, there were a few people. One man was solo thru-hiking. He was from Bismarck, N.D., and he had a light daypack on only. He’d gathering by a Badlands a day before and done “stashes” of food and H2O and rigging to squeeze along his trek. There was a lady and her dual sons hiking. They looked like they usually stepped out of an LL Bean catalog. They looked unequivocally slick.

You had a run-in with a free-range steer? What happened?
One night, low in a draw, we suspicion we saw this longhorn or drive crouched there and watchful for me. we did not wish to go down there in a dark, so we stopped hiking. we camped there. But in a morning a “steer” was indeed usually a log! Later in a trek, though, we did get tighten to a genuine free-range steer. He was giving me a uncanny look. He didn’t like me there during all and was creation bizarre signals and relocating strange. we suspicion ‘I have no where to run!’ There is no where to hide, no trees to stand out there. So we usually put my conduct down. we hiked fast past that drive and he left me alone as we got out of his way.

—GearJunkie owner Stephen Regenold credits his father for instilling a lifelong passion for journey in him as a kid. He canoed a Minnesota River with his father during age 3, camped and hiked flourishing up. As a teenager, a father and son set a year-long idea to learn to stone stand and afterwards rise Wyoming’s Devils Tower. They stood on a limit together in May of 1995, a few days before Stephen graduated from high propagandize during age 17.

Just in is Mountain Equipment’s new for open 2012 Javelin Jacket, a lightweight,stretchy, non-membrane towering soft-shell tip finish with a whopping good helmet-friendly towering hood.

Lightweight soothing shells don’t fit everyone,  but if you’re a arrange of chairman who tends to run on a comfortable side and moves quick afterwards they offer a unequivocally good change of insurance and comfort – as a extended generalisation, we’d contend that a some-more weather-resistant a fabric, a reduction breathable it’s expected to be and clamp versa.

One Jacket, Two Fabrics…

The Javelin feels like it should be during a some-more breathable finish of a spectrum and uses dual of ME’s Exolite, woven soothing bombard fabrics. The categorical physique of a jacket, middle sleeves and tools of a hood are done from Exolite 1, a light, elastic fabric that’s breeze and H2O resistant rather than being anywhere nearby ‘proof’, while a forearms, shoulders and sides of a hood are denser, some-more windproof, Exolite 2 for a bit some-more erosion insurance in pivotal areas.

Because of a widen in a fabric, ME has been means to adult a diversion on a fit front and a Javelin has a brilliant, close, technical cut in a body, while a sleeves are cut simply adequate to let we hurl a cuffs adult to bend turn for a bit of additional venting.

Hoods You Win

Up top, a two-way tractable hood grips a climax of your conduct simply and turns with it, though it also swallows a climbing helmet simply with no detriment of conduct mobility during all. Last though not least, Napoleon-style chest pockets with bondedin filigree liners give a bit of harness-friendly stowage.

We’re inequitable though we unequivocally like light, breathable soothing shells – Rab’s discount bucket Boreas was one of a favourite pieces of 2011 pack – and while a Javelin’s a lot some-more featured and some-more technical, a simple attractions aren’t that dissimilar: it’s light during 350g, it should be good and breathable too and give adequate continue insurance though removing too hot.

Great Expectations

So some critical expectations there then… we consider it’ll be good for fast-moving ubiquitous towering stuff, though should also be means to lift double avocation for biking and using when asked. The hoodless Arrow Zip-T in a same fabric would, particularly speaking, improved for a latter, though not as matched to a technical towering gig.

Finally, and we never suspicion we’d contend this. It’s lovely to see something in pale grey and colourless for a change. The usually splendid immature is in a neat, colour contrariety zips. Watch this space.

Price is £120. More information during www.mountain-equipment.co.uk.

Blogger and film-maker Terry Bnd finds melodrama in a Lakes with a Force Ten Helium 100.

Funny things video,  we’re arrange of equally amused, faraway and somewhat schmoozed by this Terry Bnd video of a Force Ten Helium 100 lightweight tent filmed in Langdale over 4 days by a blogger and film-person also famous as Terry Abraham – and no, there is no blank vowel in there…

Who’d have suspicion that a common lightweight, single-person tent could elicit such melodrama. But possibly you’re a fool for sumptious delayed suit billowing tent fabric and resplendence and inconclusive song or not, we have to acknowledge that a Lakes unequivocally do demeanour ridiculously immature and beautiful…

Amusingly, I’ve used an progressing Vango homogeneous of a tent in a northern Lakes and found a pattern meant a fabric sat worried tighten to my face while sleeping, afterwards again we have utterly a large nose… No song either, only a still whistle of high altitude sheep roaming during the man lines.

More from Mr Bnd during terrybnd.blogspot.co.uk. 

All Images

There’s something utterly calming in a approach that while Osprey’s designs are mostly packaged full of crafty small facilities and innovations, when it comes to technical towering packs like a Osprey Mutant 28, it’s a basis that win out.

Keeping It Simple

In this box that means a lightweight – 870g on a beam – simple, single-compartment container with tough though light materials and no additional gimmicks. The behind systems sums it all adult – there’s a simple, thermoformed, EVA froth behind row that won’t soak adult persperate or hang to lax snow, corroborated adult with a elementary inner support piece for a small some-more support and comfort. And that’s it.

Non-abrasive element covers a unenlightened foam, ergonomic, shoulder-straps, that should minimise wardrobe wear, there’s a elementary waist belt so as not to get in a approach of a strap and a simple, though apparently effective Z-compression complement to reason things in place. First impressions are that it sits and carries easily with a middle arrange of load.

Lids And Tools

The lid, with pocket, is both extendable for overloading and removable, that will save we a elegant 80 grammes and we like a neat lift to recover draw-cord fastener. Ice apparatus fasteners are neat shockcorded designs for ice-free palliate of use and there’s also hydration-system compatibility. Last though not least, a container is done from light though tough feeling 210d double rip-stop Nylon fabric.

What there aren’t are side accumulate pockets or outmost shock-corded stowage. The motive is, no doubt, to keep things light and clean, with zero to obstacle on a stone and a reduced risk of dropping things into a blank next accidentally, though that said, it creates a container somewhat reduction useable as an all-round towering climbing, scrambling and walking weal – as an aside, if we do wish something somewhat some-more featured, Montane’s container operation is an engaging median residence with technical towering lines though accumulate pockets borrowed from lightweight competition packs.

But if you’re after a clean, simple, technical towering container that should hoop anything from lightweight alpine things by to Scottish towering days, a Mutant 28 – or if we need some-more ability – a incomparable Mutant 38 – fits a check nicely.

Price is £70 – large hermit is £90 – some-more information during www.ospreypacks.com.

We reported final month in a essay “Climbing Season Kicks off on Big E” that Conrad Anker and Cory Richards would try a West Ridge track on Mount Everest carrying all their possess food, shelter, and equipment. Well, things have changed, as you’ll see on National Geographic’s Everest micro-site. Richards was evacuated from Base Camp to Kathmandu after a medical emergency. The West Ridge devise has been canceled due to vulnerable climbing conditions. Now Anker and other National Geographic Expedition members spin their courtesy to a peak’s trade route, a Southeast Ridge, with limit pushes ramping adult as we write.

Here next are a few new images from a movement on Everest this year. The photos, from a Jun book of National Geographic repository for iPad, uncover some of a beauty and play on this peak. The skeleton have altered for a National Geographic Expedition this spring. But a final goal, a limit of a world’s top peak, stays still a same. —Stephen Regenold

—Stephen Regenold wrote about rigging on Everest for National Geographic in a essay “Everest Climbing Gear—Then and Now.” GearJunkie.com lonesome a singular speed on Everest final month in a post “History Retraced on Mount Everest This Spring.”

Teenagers and freestyling youngsters have taken to a fixed-gear biking scene. An augmenting series of immature people in civic areas around a United States now hurl on bikes that not prolonged ago were usually pedaled by messengers or seen underneath racers on a velodrome track. Further, a “watch me!” generation, helmet cams always on, has constructed thousands of YouTube videos to uncover off tricks achieved on lane bikes once usually probable on a skateboard or a BMX bike versed with pegs.

Mea culpa: We during GearJunkie take honour in staying on a slicing edge, delivering scoops on new gear, and essay on trends before they strike a mainstream view. But… infrequently we skip a vessel altogether, as is a box (we recently discovered) with this activity, called fixed-gear freestyle, or only FGFS. Basically, FGFS means doing tricks on a fixed-gear bike, mostly a pared-down, BMX-like indication though with 26-inch wheels and no brakes. The strange idea, sparked off some-more than 5 years ago, was that “riding a [fixed-gear] lane bike is crazy hard, so anything we did on it in terms of tricks was deliberate flattering cool.”

That quote comes from Jeffrey Frane, a code manager during All-City Cycles, that sells a bike called a Airwolf (marketed as “the many complicated bound rigging freestyle support out there”) and is one of a vital players on a FGFS scene. Frane pronounced as early as 2007 people “started to see how rad they could get on a lane bike, it started with skids and progressed from there.”

In action, FGFS looks like an alliance of artful, choreographed track-bike riding and BMX trickery, and with a lurch of Danny MacAskill-like trials attempt work thrown in. The tricks are perplexing and slow, with bar spins, grinds, tiny air, and retrograde riding. It’s not witness friendly, and in fact it appears flattering constructed when compared to a fast-rolling movement of, say, skateboarding or an civic freeride session.

“BMX’ers as a whole typically hatred it,” Frane said, himself revelation that FGFS is “inherently kind of dumb.” He continued, “BMX bikes are approach improved for tricks, though a thing about FGFS is that it’s unequivocally fun and challenging, and a bikes are approach honeyed to only explosve around city on and use for transportation.”

A immature era of tricksters have taken to FGFS, and we here during GearJunkie are all for removing outward in a city and pulling boundary or only plain carrying fun. Is FGFS here to stay? In a bike world, there’s a satisfactory bit of recoil about a activity. (See “Does Fixed Gear Freestyle Suck,” a post on TheFootDown, for one example.) And even Frane concludes that other than a unsentimental inlet of these bikes as travel “there’s only no reason to do tricks on a fixed-gear other than a fact that we suffer it.”

Enjoyment? No matter a uncanny looks we competence get, honestly, that’s reason adequate right there.

—Stephen Regenold is editor of GearJunkie.com. Connect with Regenold during Facebook.com/TheGearJunkie or on Twitter around @TheGearJunkie.

A full day of journey and pristine life good lived in Portland, Ore., brought to we by GearTrade.com and Matthias Giraud, aka “Super Frenchie.” You gotta watch a whole thing!

We’ve already run a discerning preview of a Montane autumn 2012 highlights, though a spring/summer 2012 operation is accessible right now and includes some unequivocally handy-looking container including a new four-strong container range.

New Packs – Cobra 25

We’ve been super tender with a new Medusa 32 lightweight towering all-rounder – see a review – though there are 3 other bags in a operation as well, a Cobra 25, Anaconda 18 and a diminutive Batpack 6 lumbar pack/bum-bag.

All 3 share a Medusa’s high spec Raptor TL fabric – ’500D element with a strength of a normal 1000D one’ says Montane’s Paul Cosgrove – and neat facilities and detailing, though a one that unequivocally stands out as an all-round summer towering choice is a Cobra 25.

With a claimed weight of only 819g it’s light as, though it’s also really good specced with reinforced base, twin ice-tool loops, side accumulate pockets and application straps and a bombard clothing-friendly behind complement regulating non-abrasive fabrics to save wear on your clothing.

Unlike a Medusa it uses a zipped row opening with tip and side access, though it still facilities a neat ‘Buddy Pocket’ thought that lets your partner entrance your lid slot essence though messing with your hair / ears / sanity. If it’s as good as a Medusa, it should be mark on. In a shops now during £70.

Faithful Black Bag…

It competence have a bit of a bin-liner vibe going on with a silken finish to a ultra-lightweight Pertex Quantum GL Smock, though you’re looking during a sub-80g windproof smock with a slot no less, a snorkel hood and contemplative trim. Packs little as good creation it ideal for runners, racers and anyone else with space and weight issues.

It joins a even lighter hermit a Slipstream GL Jacket, that is around 65g, though creates do though possibly a slot or a hood, so for an additional 15g, you’re removing a satisfactory bit of additional useability. 

New Atomic Jacket

Also new for open 2012 is a Atomic Jacket. It’s a lightweight – 325 gramme - waterproof bombard done from Pertex Shield 2.5-layer fabric with a cost tab of £100. It’s close-fitting and orderly cut with venting pockets and a full storm-flap on a categorical zip and, if we wish to use it for climbing, you’ll be blissful to know that it also has a full, helmet-compatible hood.

The fabric used isn’t as breathable as a eVent used by Montane for their top-end waterproofs with a hydrostatic conduct of 10 metres and MVTR rate of 7,000, though it has a nylon face for continuance and should work good as a multi-use accumulate until needed, towering sleet shell.

Air Jacket

With a launch of Gore-Tex Active Shell and Polartec’s NeoShell, eVent’s been somewhat ignored recently, though it’s still adult there with a really best behaving waterproof breathable fabrics and it’s what Montane uses for a top-end waterproofs.

The Air Jacket isn’t new, though it’s one of a lightest eVent shells out there with a claimed weight of only 310 grammes and a minimal container size. The hood takes a climbing helmet and is entirely tractable with a connected rise and a pattern is reassuringly streamlined.

There’s only one big, map-compatible, mesh-lined chest slot creation it an ideal choice for anyone who doesn’t feel a need for a multi-pack preference of pocketing solutions and apparently also helps to keep a weight, bulk and complexity down.

Should be a good, minimalist, multi-activity, bombard coupler in a classical Montane quick and light mould. Price is £230.

Sonic Tees

Last though not least, there are dual Sonic T-Shirts, lightweight, high-wicking, summer-friendly designs done from DRYACTIVE Express polyester fabric with a permanent Polygene anti-pong treatment.

They’re cut slim and technical and have flat-locked seams throughout. Two versions: a Sonic T-Shirt that is a straightforward, round-neck tee with a cost of £30. And a Sonic Ultra which is zip-neck chronicle with a quarter-length venting zip and a low-rise collar for comfort.

Disappointingly, a Sonic Ultra wasn’t a Super Sonic. We call that a missed opportunity, unless there’s a Super Sonic on a way?

More Information

Obviously there’s a lot some-more to a operation and we can find full sum during www.montane.co.uk.