Walking and Climbing

Here's a short-lived link.

Last time, the waterproof jacket was made with Toray Delfy fabric

seem tey have some offers on the sunday aswell. tents, rucsacks http://www.aldi.co.uk/uk/html/offers/2867_9631.htm. Are these anygood for first timers?

So how do you make a "LINK"??

Cheers

Linky!

Click on the little chain above the dialogue box, put the url in the top line and your witty description of it in the lower box. Simples!

Metric Kate wrote (see)

Linky!

Click on the little chain above the dialogue box, put the url in the top line and your witty description of it in the lower box. Simples!

I had a look at this lot of specials.

The waterproof looked pretty good, with a soft feel fabric.  Fairly reaonsable design, and a 2-way adjust hood (not reinforced peak, though).

The boots had a very flexible sole.

Other interesting things:

44l dry bags (heavy PVC things) £7

3 piece non-stick cookset £9
looked like Trangia 25 size
included frypan with a good base
plastic gripper handle
cleaning cloth
mesh sack

5 LED on/on/flash headtorch £5

got a bamboo T shirt, nice feel, but tad concerned  about comment about it being bio degradable.

We picked up a couple of the sprog-sized softshell jackets.  We don't actually meet our prospective kids until tomorrow, so it's a bit of a guess if they'll fit, but for the money they seemed excellent value for a kicking-about jacket.  Also a couple of the kids' waterproof smocks: at a fiver each you can't go that far wrong, and we've got a while to take them back if we did guess the fit wrong or they hate the colours or whatever.

Pete.

Pete, couldn't find the kids waterproof smocks or softshells on the website. Was it a store specific thing?

(Good luck with tomorrow btw.)

I bought 2 bamboo baselayer t shirts.  Comfy but do not wick very well - relegated to work or as stand alone t-shirts in summer.  Tried out yesterday - damp patches on back and chest within 20 minutes walking in cool early morning conditions on the moor(with windshirt and midlayer).  On closer inspection of labels they do contain some cotton....  Fine for general use. 

Also bought a midlayer - much better - used it as a base layer under windshirt - wicks really well - some sort of 2 layer polyester fabric. Cut a bit basic/baggy, but good collar/zip set up.  At £5.99 a bargain. Wish I'd bought 2 instead of the baselayers...

I noted that the  sizing was quite generous - mediums were more like a large for me.

Looked at the breathable waterproof - looked very well made -but couldn't get the (YKK) zip to engage on the only one in my size....

Bought socks for other half -  bit like 100 mile socks with a lining built in - too bulky for me, but she likes them.  Bargain at £2.99

Can't complain with the build quality though...

Had lots of soft shell fleeces in Exeter branch.  Not my thing though.

> I bought 2 bamboo baselayer t shirts.  Comfy but do not wick very well

Had you washed it first?  That may improve the wicking.

> Pete, couldn't find the kids waterproof smocks or softshells on the website. Was it a store specific thing?

Lots in the Reading town centre store (kids' soft shells, that is).

> I noted that the  sizing was quite generous - mediums were more like a large for me.

I found the waterproofs were the opposite; the remaining M fit me quite nicely; I'm usually S.

Rocky, they were on the website, but were in last Thursday's batch, rather than the lot for Sunday.  A relatively small selection of sizes at Dundee, and I went on Thursday evening, so I wouldn't be at all surprised if they'd been away altogether by Friday afternoon (thanks for the good wishes, btw!).

The softshells are a pretty typical sandwich with a fleece inner, probably a barrier layer and something inna Powershield stylee on the outside.  Couple of zipped hand pockets, blue or mauve, £9... Not what I'd personally go for up a mountain, but for a kid's jacket to generally abuse it looks great.   The waterproofs are classic over-the-head smocks which pack into their own pockets.  Nothing radical, but £5.

Pete.

captain paranoia wrote (see)

> I bought 2 bamboo baselayer t shirts.  Comfy but do not wick very well

Had you washed it first?  That may improve the wicking.

captain paranoia wrote (see)

I found the waterproofs were the opposite; the remaining M fit me quite nicely; I'm usually S.

I agree that the sizing on the waterproof jackets is about a size smaller than in most other brands which means if you are normally an XL like a friend of mine you will be out of luck as the XL is more like a Large.

Nothing on the "swing tag" or the Jacket itself gives any indication as the the "brand" of the material or the laminate used.  The Label just says its a bonded 3-layer lamination waterproof 10,000mm (which I assume refers to the hydrostatic head).  As with most YKK waterproof? zips its a bit of a struggle to do up. The small internal pocket is not very large and based on the design looks like its ment for an MP3 player or the like.  The two chest pockets also have waterproof? YKK zips but are not as big as they look.  You can just about get a 1 : 25,000 OS Explorer map in the Pocket.  They have a layer of the same waterproof material inside rather than mesh so would not be much good for venting purposes in the absence of any underarm "pit zips".

When I saw the high Cotton content on the Bamboo baselayer T Shirts this put me off but the quarter zip long sleeved baselayers at £5.99p seemed good value.  They are made out of 100% Polyester (50% Micro Polyester/50% Polyester-Topcool).  The swing tag suggests that the "Topcool" is a "technical" fabric that is designed with slots so as to create a "siphon effect".  Used one on the Walk yesterday and while it did not work as well as some coolmax tops I have it seemed adequate and good value for Money for the asking price.

Took the waterproof out on Sunday for a walk in the Dark Peak but "sods law" not a drop of rain to be seen so no idea yet as to how waterproof or breathable it is.