Okay, this isn't going to be a proper blog where people spill
their guts horribly all over the web and expect you to pick them up,
it's more a chance for us to tell you quickly and informally about
kit we're using, have used or are about to use and maybe even tell
you a bit about what's coming up on the site in the next few months
in terms of kit testing.
It's going to start with last week's OS Outdoors Show at
the NEC though. You can see elsewhere on the site that we were
a tad underwhelmed by the overall spectacle, but there were still one
or two interesting bits and bobs lying around.
Not much from the big guys, though Berghaus were displaying
two new lines for autumn winter this year, 2006. The first was a
logical one, a selection of kid's outdoor clothing of the kind that
makes you go, ahhh, cute and, at the other end of the scale and also
housed in a glass case, a selection of hardcore, specialist big wall
climbing kit.
The latter seems to consist of a mad-looking jacket with weird
expandable cuffs fastened by a water-resistant zip plus a haul-bag
come pack with a dry-bag type roll-over fastening at the top. Good
news for the 20-odd committed big wall climbers in the UK we say...
We even took a photo.
Solar Energy, Man...
Anyway, enough of the future. One thing we've been using but not
quite enough for a full-on test is a Juice Bag Power Pocket.
It's a fold-out and relatively light sheet with a number of solar
panels on it and a selection of adapters including a car cigarette
lighter one, which makes it easy to link up anything that'll work
with a car lighter socket.
No half measures here, so we sent it to Nepal with a mate who was
trekking Everest. He was very impressed, particularly with the speed
it charged his iPod and the eyelets that allow you to hang it easily
from a pack while walking.
Unfortunately the big, fast-charging version we used costs a
whopping £220. However a more compact one retails for a more
reasonable £120 and Hugo Youngman - the importer who also brings
in Gregory packs - tells us that it will be available from both Ellis
Brigham and Snow and Rock around three weeks from now. Silva's equivalent costs around 80 notes, but from memory is heavier and has less charging capacity, though we may be wrong.
If you're toting a GPS, MP3 player or a phone away from
civilisation, it makes a lot of sense.
And Big Agnes
Also hanging around the Hike-Lite stand were a couple of
neat things from Big Agnes, which is the darnedest name we ever
heard. There's a sleeping bag with no base and a slide-in inflatable
mat, a concept we're unconvinced by as they're difficult to make
effectively.
More interesting though is a two-person, ultralightweight tent
that weighs in at under 1500 grammes, has a mesh inner and, pay
attention now adventure racers, half-decent internal volume and head
room. We're hoping to blag one for a quick test shortly. We didn't
take any pics mainly because by that point we were half dead with
show fatigue...
Oh, one last thing, Berghaus was marking its 'is it, isn't it' 40th
birthday by displaying an original and current Cyclops pack. Haven't
things changed...
