Monday 7 December 2009

For the record

Since I've written a whole lot about hiking gear (with a South African hiking audience in mind), it seems fair enough to supply a list of my personal equipment:

  • Backpacker Boulder 75l rucksack (the best bag ever)
  • First Ascent Ice Breaker down sleeping bag, in Microtex fabric (what a beauty!) with an outer by Cape Storm
  • Karrimor Epic 35l pack for day trips
  • Petzl Tikka headlamp
  • Lumogaz gas light by Camping Gaz- used a lot less since Petzl came out with LED lights
  • First Ascent rainjacket
  • North Face down jacket
  • Heavy fleece top from First Ascent
  • A couple of wick-dry T-shirts from Cape Storm and First Ascent, and a long-sleeve Nike ACG top perfect for kloofing. And a few cotton/polyester T-shirts that make good vests for winter hiking but get too hot in summer.
  • Closed-cell foam rollmat for sleeping - a much cheaper option than those inflatable things, but not as nice
  • Miscellaneous Hi-Tech boots, originally waterproof but now less so
  • Big wide-brimmed safari hat and several cotton long-sleeve collar shirts from Cape Union Mart
Other gear that I've used:
  • Coleman Apex II stove (benzene fueled, broken, whatever you do don't buy Coleman)
  • Camping Gaz Bleuet stove (replacing the Coleman, until I decide to splash out and buy a better one)
  • Dachstein boots (bought in 1995 and lasted about 10 years on their second soles)
  • Ventex/Hollowfibre jacket by Drimac, warm and once waterproof.
  • Karrimor Jaguar 2 65l rucksack (bought in 1985 and still in occasional use when I need a smaller pack or one to lend out)
  • Two Backpacker Benedorm 3 Seasons sleeping bags (each of which lasted about 3 years of heavy use before needing to be replaced. One is now a very nice duvet.)
  • Backpacker Kranz 40l pack for day trips (damn! it got stolen.)
  • Backpacker Fellman 20l which was too small for most day trips but was a great varsity bag
  • Two pairs of Trailbuster T3 boots (they died after 3 years heavy use.)

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