Trekking in Colorado - Gear Report

WM Ultralight. My first backpacking bag was a WM Iroquois, a 38 degree sewn-through bag. The bag weighed in at 27 oz on my scale, one under specs. I love the Iroquois and find it the perfect 4 season back for the South East. I've used it to 20 degrees in my home made overbag at which point it is really outside its limit. The biggest problem with the Iroquois is that it is sewn through and I find that it is cold at the seams. The ultralight lives up to the WM name of being the best bags around and better yet it is designed specifically to be, guess what, ultralight. The material is very thin and different than their standard ripstop, it is much shinier and slicker. On first appearance it is just a very simple well constructed bag, the 5" of loft it is rated as having is the minimum loft at the baffles, the actual loft is as much as 6" in the foot box. The side draft tube is large and does a good job. The inside size is exactly the same as the Iroquois, so it isn't for a large person. My only complaint is that it comes with a heavy stuff sack, why couldn't they make the stuff sack out of 1.1 oz sil nylon? I want a slightly larger stuff sack as well as I'm worried about it being too tight and losing loft.

WM bags always make me feel secure on the trail, just pulling it out of the sack makes me feel better, especially on a cold evening after a long day. I found this bag to be wonderful. The temps didn't get down to 20 deg, but they were in the lower 30's a couple of nights. Either bag suffices for these temperatures. I did get some rain a few nights and lots of condensation inside my Nomad. The Ultralight material sheds water very well and even when it gets damp it doesn't seem to soak through to the down. A very important feature for a down bag. I think conditions would have to be pretty bad for this bag to lose it's loft, and you'd better hope that you are prepared enough to keep that form happening. My brother's experience in the bag was somewhat different. He is just over 6', and found it to definitely be a tight fit and not to keep him quite as warm as he would like. He was cold in the Iroquois under the tarp. The only area were WM seems to be optimistic about there bags is the height of the person who can use it, if I were near 6' I would be sure to try this bag or one with the same dimensions before purchasing. This is also important if you are, shall we say of medium build. If you are compressing the down, then you lose loft and the bag will not be warm for you. I strongly suggest trying the bag before you buy it. For the record, I'm 5'8" and about 145 lbs, even I find these bags to be tight.

Olympus Stylus Epic. I got this point and shoot camera in an attempt to leave behind my 2 lb Minolta, I shot over 10 rolls of film on this trip with the Epic. The camera weights under 6.5 oz (on my scale) with the battery and a roll of film! The camera is weather proof and has reasonably good macro capabilities (to take pictures of flowers). I am very happy with the camera, the weight and quality of the pictures is ideal, the size is also great as it goes in my pocket so I am more likely to use it. It is easy to use, and has some useful flash options for on the trail (allowing you to take sunset pictures with people in them, see the photo of my brother above). I found that the battery compartment popped open once or twice, but this isn't that big a deal considering the kind of use it had. My one complaint is that the view window is very small and I have a difficult time finding it, this obviously isn't a big deal. You can see the pictures from the CO trip here and make judgements yourself. While not containing the advantages of an SLR camera, I found that this makes a good compromise between the very heavy cameras and none, and takes good quality photos for the trail.

GVP Gear G4. This pack looks very nice, Glen has done a good job designing it, and the weight came in at slightly under the 14 oz specks. I found the torso length to be somewhat longer than I wanted, it would have been nice to get it reduced by 2 inches for my 20 inch torso. The roll top, which I believe has been eliminated, was great, a very nice feature. The pockets are also very nice and useful. So, out of the box and in trial runs I was very happy with the pack. On the trail I found that it carried very nicely, although it seems kind of baggy, meaning that it doesn't have much shape and kind of hangs out. This is probably the price to be paid for having such a large pack at this weight. Ryan's new pack is going to have much more form, but it will be quite small, much smaller than the G4. I found that the lack of form didn’t bother me on the trail. On the trail I put a clip (the kind used on those cheap key rings) on the two loops so I could close the sternum strap, added the foam to the waist belt, and used two extra socks for the shoulder straps.

The problem with the pack was the second day out in Never Summer Wilderness. We were crossing a talus slope and needed to get off the slope to get below tree line in a lightning storm. On the weight I slipped on the wet rock and took a nice fall. Once we had settled down I checked the pack over and was glad to see no apparent damage. However, when we got into camp 3 miles later or so there was a larger, 3 inch rip in the bottom panel of rip-stop (not the cordura), right under the back pocket. There were also a few small tears in this panel and one small hole right under this in the cordura. I still can't verify for sure that this rip came from the fall, but, I am very good with my gear and have used sil nylon tents and tarps for a while now with no problems. My feeling is that it must have started when I took the fall. Using a piece of duct tape on the inside and outside of the pack I was able to finish the trip with no more tearing, and for my remaining trips I went back to using the Duraflex Journey. The G4 is currently at a local seamstress who is replacing the ripped panel with a heavier cordura nylon pack cloth. My general sense is that I like the pack, I certainly like the weight, but I don't think it is durable enough. My ideal would be to make this out of spectra, maintaining the simplicity and much of the cost (probably an additional $30 for material) with a much more durable pack. I would not take this pack bushwhacking, it will tear. I should note that both my brother and I found the Journey to be a good pack. Everyone I've loaned it to likes it.

Wanderlust Nomad - Standard one awning one person edition. I've used this tent for well over a year now and put many nights on it. It is still going strong. The problems are still there as well, I was hoping that the drier air in CO would lead to less condensation, no such luck. The one thing I'll add is that it did very well in strong winds. Many of the nights I was at or above tree line with constant winds, the tent flapped around a lot and was a little scary (can that thin fabric really handle 40 mph winds?), but it never failed. Be sure to set it up correction in the wind and rain. There is now a very small hole in one corner where the pole comes down, I'm going to have to repair this.

If you want info on any of my other gear feel free to email me or post it to the BBS.