One of the privileges of being an outdoor journo is getting hold
of kit to use before it's even in the shops; sometimes months before
it's in the shops, sometimes just a week or so.
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The editor strikes a pose next to
celeb walker, Ian Pennington
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Last weekend, at the OUTDOORSmagic meet in Eskdale, I had a couple of
products that hardly anyone else will have used and, along with Bob
Cartwright's exhibition of ultra-lightweight kit, they underlined
just how far the lightweight revolution has come in the last few
years.
It's Small, It's Lite, It's e+LITE
We've already previewed Petzl's radical new e+LITE
headtorch and we'll test it properly once it's actually available in
the shops in October, but in the flesh it really is quite amazingly
small and light with any number of OMers captivated by its feathery
charms.
Not only is it tiny, about the size of a smallish wristwatch
without a strap, it's fiendishly cunning with a built-in clip that
you can use to attach it to, say, the stiffened peak of a cap or hood
or a laminated flap. It also has a stretchy adjustable and removable
lanyard so you can use it as a conventional headtorch mounted on your
noggin and the whole thing swivels on a ball joint so you can shift
the direction of the beam at will.
Then there's the choice of three white or one red LED, so you can
preserve your night vision or, at a pinch, use it in red flashing
mode as a rear light on the road or even on a bike.
None of which would matter a damn if the light wasn't up to much.
The good news is that it is. Petzl claims, I think, a 17-metre range
and walking back from the pub that seemed about right. Just bright
enough to walk by, a bit like the original Tikka, but weighing just
27 grammes. I reckon Petzl is going to sell these by the
sack full...
I was totally absorbed...
The other new and light thing I was using was an Osprey
Talon pack. That's not due out until near Christmas time, so I'm
not going to go into exhaustive detail about this new
ultra-lightweight pack except for one thing. As with some of TNF's
hydration and day packs, Osprey has thankfully given up producing
back systems with big wads of soft foam that soak sweat up like a
sponge and end up giving you a cold, wet back massage with no obvious
plus point.
The Talon uses closed-cell foam EVA with a flexible alloy tube
perimeter frame derived from the Atmos - it's quite minimalist, but
with light loads it's more than adequate and the great thing is that
it doesn't soak up sweat. Sure, your back will still dampen
noticeable under the pack, but at the end of the day, you don't have
a portable marsh strapped to your back.
I reckon that's a pretty good thing and the sooner more pack
manufacturers accept that it makes more sense to simply reject sweat
than soak it up like a sponge, the better...
So there you go, two things we promised faithfully not to tell you
about, and sort of didn't. Watch this space for full tests later in
the year.
Ian Pennington
