Major Tom has landed :D

"All the way from America"...and brought me a Klymit crush pillow and klymit Static V sleeping mat.
In response to my search for a wide lightweight mat it seems to fit the bill. Very pleased. Pillows nice, light (!) comfortable and versatile.
Now if only the weather would dry up a tad I could use them.

rufus748 wrote:"All the way from America"...and brought me a Klymit crush pillow and klymit Static V sleeping mat.
In response to my search for a wide lightweight mat it seems to fit the bill. Very pleased. Pillows nice, light (!) comfortable and versatile.
Now if only the weather would dry up a tad I could use them.

Have you actually tried sleeping on the pillow? The best way I found of using it, puts the ear pockets underneath

It evaded customs all the way from Colorado, my custom designed Bear Paws WD Lair, discussed the idea's with John, and I now have a midge free sanctuary, that should take on a alpine storm.

didnothingfatal wrote:It evaded customs all the way from Colorado, my custom designed Bear Paws WD Lair, discussed the idea's with John, and I now have a midge free sanctuary, that should take on a alpine storm.

What did you do diffierent to the standered model?

Brothersmith wrote:What did you do diffierent to the standered model?

We came up with a hanging floor design, so it has total bug protection and no seperate inner, the option is now available on the website. Means it is very much a tent with a specific length pole. Also had the beak extended do it pretty much comes to the floor. Should happily work all year I'm now thinking.

Interesting. Be good to see some pics if this weather ever allows you to pitch it!

I thought about a full net option in mine but decided against as wanted versitilaty of an inner. Have you had chance to sling on scales yet? Just wondering what weight saving is over my cuben lair with beak and pyranet is

I've got another Lair here with extended beak and full netting inc' floor. Initial thoughts are that in summer the netting would be worth it's weight, although the netting/extended beak do make set-up trickier than a standard lair ... pegging points and guy angles become much more critical.

@Dusza ... come on then, show us your Moonlander (I assume that's what it is)

Well the sun came out and I nipped out, no problems pitching it, more spacious than my Laser Comp, and with one more guy, the whole front will open up. Will get some pictures up later, as my laptop just died!

Finally bought a full length mat: POE Elite, half price courtesy of Sports Pursuit.
369g on my scales, and only fractionally bigger when packed than my short neoair.

Ian wrote:Finally bought a full length mat: POE Elite, half price courtesy of Sports Pursuit.
369g on my scales, and only fractionally bigger when packed than my short neoair.

Still waiting for my one to arrive...

i had one of the 2/3rd length ones and they're brilliant!

i got rid as it was a little narrow for my fat-bloke shoulder girth but i can't fault 'em for that.

enjoy.....

My full length POE Peak Elite mat finally turned up yesterday. Can't get over how light it is.

Half price at Sport Pursuit and an absolute steal!

Also got a smartwool base layer. Should have gone for a size smaller than I got as it's a bit baggy but I always struggle with guessing the sizing on base layers :(

Also got a smartwool base layer. Should have gone for a size smaller than I got as it's a bit baggy but I always struggle with guessing the sizing on base layers

Don't worry, it's wool, you'll shrink it

Niner EMD arrived today. Just need a seatpost to start building up. Should be ready by BB200 knowing me.

The postie came this morning with a Thomson seatclamp to replace the Hope one which sheared [shooting the bolt off into a field, after ricocheting off my car]. Hope are sending out a replacement bolt FOC, so not bad service, but I want reliability on my bikepacking bike!

The bike in question is also a recent acquisition, built mostly from bits off the STW classifieds. I'll be using this exclusively for bikepacking, leaving my Soul as the 'fun' bike.

I had to pick it up myself but it's new kit so:

Custom Ukhammocks full length quilt with c.350gms down fill and some featherlite pertex fabric (quite a nice green). Complete with drawcords at both "ends" and quilt clips on the suspension lines. About 750g on the scales including storage bag.

Was going to go for the 2/3rds summer UQ at first but after chatting with Mat his advice was to go for this configuration to get something that'd do 2 to 3 season conditions. Given I sleep hot and have a Superfly tarp I reckon it might do me in colder conditions, but without being over-geared all the rest of the time (or at least not too much ).

Chucked me in a few bits and pieces as well whilst we were chatting so looking forward to trying some Tato gear UQ suspension thingamjiggies, linelocks and a free Warbonnet T.

Top gear, top fella 8-)

*Disclaimer - if you're easily bored, don't bother carrying on!

A beep of the horn from the little red van and there it was. A cardboard box all the way from the US ... there to here in 3 days

I've been looking at Trailstars on and off for about 12 months but never did anything about buying one. A couple of weeks ago I started to look again properly. Everything that MLD makes is popular, resulting in a wait of somewhere between 8 and 12 weeks, some stuff isn't what I'd describe as cheap either. If a Trailstar turns up secondhand either in the UK or the US, then it tends to be snapped up within minutes. I decided to stick a wanted ad on backpackinglight.com and see if anything turned up ... I really didn't hold out much hope.

Two days later I got an email offering a cuben Trailstar for $350 which was way more than I had any intention of spending. Nothing happened for another few days, so I pretty much gave up on finding a SH one ... then I got another email offering me a new sil one. I was straight on the confuser, typing 'yes please' as quickly as my one finger would allow. Then ... nothing happened for a couple of days. When a reply to my 'yes please' email did arrive it informed me that the seller had now decided not to :(

That was it, I gave up, or at least I thought I had. My seller suddenly decided to sell again, a deal was struck and paypal fired into action. Three days later it's here, new, as described and because it's secondhand there's no vat or duty ... result. It shall be making it's debut in the mountains this coming weekend.




Here it is in low mode. Pole set at 100cm, still enough room to sit up for you and another. I'm told they'll survive anything in this guise.



Now with the pole at 125cm. More head room and ventilation but the steeper sides won't handle quite as much weather.

That tarp looks great, what are the poles made of, what's the pack size, weight like into mode

That tarp looks great, what are the poles made of, what's the pack size, weight like into mode

Main centre pole is an MSR alloy one that I've shortened/made adjustable, pack size is roughly 8" x 6" and although I've not weighed it, MLD quote 481g. Bike, stick or wheel should work fine for a 'door prop'.

Nice I wish you many happy nights beneath her

Well the postman brought me a rather 'natty' customised cycling top :)

s8tannorm wrote:

That tarp looks great, what are the poles made of, what's the pack size, weight like into mode

Main centre pole is an MSR alloy one that I've shortened/made adjustable, pack size is roughly 8" x 6" and although I've not weighed it, MLD quote 481g. Bike, stick or wheel should work fine for a 'door prop'.

Trailstars are huge! Fit nicely into a Salsa anything cage too.



Where did you end up sourcing the pole from and how much does it weigh? I take the pole is two or three sections.

Where did you end up sourcing the pole from and how much does it weigh? I take the pole is two or three sections.

It's one of these - http://www.ultralightoutdoorgear.co.uk/ ... _5_ft.html with 15cm removed from the bottom and middle section, that gives me a height range of 100cm - 123cm. I'd guess that the poles about 280g now I've been using an Ultralightoutdoorgear 8mm diameter fixed length pole with my Lair for the last 12 months without any problems. The 120cm version weighs roughly 120g but I'm not sure I'd trust it under the TS in heavy winds ... the MSR pole's going nowhere in a hurry

Fantasticmrmatt wrote:Well the postman brought me a rather 'natty' customised cycling top :)

And me. Tomorrow's jersey, I think.

Got loads of nice toys to play with last week too. New drivetrain for the Inbred: cranks, BB, chainring, chain and sprocket; Exposure Strada to use at Sleepless in a couple of weeks; a Siltarp 1, Karrimor X Lite inflatable mat and 15m of 2mm Dyneema for bikepacking and a Luxe Mega Horn. :D