New year, old images
My New Years pledge involve more hiking and more posts this year.
So I’ll just give some new/old images from the last year:
Oberstdorf, Alps
I just did a short trip to Oberstdorf in the Alps. It was short because my inflatable mattress got a hole I could not find in the cold mountain lake and my rain trousers are done 
Another point was that the route I planned was still covered in snow. That was sad as it is a great area to hike in:
Please note that my camera has problems with the white balance, so not all images will have a perfect sky.
Sauerländer Waldroute
During Easter I hiked a part of the Sauerland Waldroute(forest route).
Previously I hiked only parts of it during weekend hikes, these great stretches convinced me to spend the easter holidays on the Waldroute.
However that part of the Waldroute was very ugly mostly traveling on streets and through villages. Only 30% of the route was “Forest”, due to heavy storms like Kyrill this part was more a meadow route.
However I could take some nice photos:
Scotland trip report
On Friday I stuffed all the gear into my backpack. My first thought was: “Wow, that’s really few stuff. Ok it’s just a 5 day trip.” While packing I ripped the stuff-sack of my sleeping bag.
That was not so bad as the stuff sack was always a bit too small for my quilt. So I spend the rest of the evening with bonding a new cuben stuff sack.
On Saturday I did another myog product at my parents home: Rain mitts. I took the pattern from Andersj.se. However it was too small for my hands. Therefore I made it 2,5cm more wide.
On Sunday I drove to Weeze airport by car. There I parked my car, checked in and flew to Edinburgh. At Edinburgh airport I changed Euro into British Pound and took the bus to Waverly Station. I was lucky as the ticket office was open on Sunday. So I could buy my tickets to Achnasheen including the return. I finished the day with an excellent meal in the hostel consisting of mushrooms, onions, lamb-liver and cream. While sitting in my bed I realized that I will arrive in Achnasheen at 19:00 and cursed: “Now I have to walk the road to Kinlochewe in the dark.”
On Monday I took a walk in the parks of Edinburgh, as my train departed at 13:15 to Inverness and Achnasheen.
When I arrived in Achnasheen it was dark and I was greeted with the worst Scottish weather… The storm and rain were so hard, that my backpack was soaking wet from the inside. Fortunately my gear was packed in cuben bags and stayed dry. The funny thing was that my rain trousers leak at a very delicate position. I should have put my shoes off every time I put them on.
At the railway station I fetched some drinking water from the public toilet and began walking. Half ways a friendly family picked me up to the Beinn Eighe visitor center. They came from skiing in the French Alps and drove home to Gairloch.
For hours I searched the public campsite at Taagan but didn’t find it. Finally my headlamp failed and I stood in the dark without a spare battery. So I went back to the Kinlochewe Bunkhose, the family told me of it, and dried me and my clothes.
I met another hiker, who made a trip to Cape Wrath. It was his second week on trail and he said that this was the worst weather he had during his hike
On Tuesday I bought spare batteries for my headlamp. Usually the batteries hold up very long, but I didn’t want to be in the dark again. In future I’ll switch to lithium batteries and take a spare one… At first my next target was the bothy Shenavall, but half ways my cold destroyed that route. I could hardly breath deeply and coughed every minute. Therefore I changed my plan: At the next campsite available(it was a nice river) I’ll pitch up my tent and slow down for the next days. At 16:30 I found a beautiful campsite between two arms of a river, pitched my tent and washed my socks. I spend the rest of the day with listening to music(Vibrasphere, Carbon based Lifeforms) and eating Spekulatius(winter cookies).
On Wednesday I didn’t get up before 10:00. While the morning brought some rain and wind, it cleared up when I started hiking. I walked towards Lochan Fada crossing a bad swamp. I had to concentrate so much, that I didn’t find occasion to brush my teeth, which I usually do while walking, until the ascend of a 600m hill right in front of Lochan Fada.
After a river crossing I walked downhill, which was not that easy as the ground was so muddy that it slipped away. I was happy to have my poles and cursed my spikes as they didn’t provide any grip. On the other side of Lochan Fada I had to cross the river Abhainn an Fhasaigh(no, it’s not a terrorist), which was almost waist-deep and damn cold! After the crossing I could continue beneath the Slioch to my campsite at Loch Maree. At Loch Maree there was luckily a bridge and I didn’t have to cross the river again. A t the shore of Loch Maree I pitched my tarptent in an open style, so I could look at the Beinn Eighe mountain while falling asleep, wonderful!
On Thursday I didn’t get up before 10:00 again. This day I walked up to Cairn in the Beinn Eighe mountain. But first I had to buy 2 apples and 1l of milk. In the grocery I found a flyer for a so called “Dial-A-Bus” which could take me back to Achnasheen on Saturday. That was great news as I would not have to walk the road for 16km.
At the descend from Cairn I met my first hiker for the day: “Oh only 200m left? That’s easy.”. I spend the night at the campsite Taagan.
On Friday my usual late sleep was interrupted by two dogs. The disadvantage of a tarptent is that it’s open. On a campsite everyone can get into your tent. So I had to service my duty with hurling trunks. The owner of the two dogs told me that this night was “very cold”, around 2 °C. But I slept warm in my down quilt. I didn’t even need the insulated clothing.
After packing up I headed to the Beinn Eighe visitor center and ordered the bus for the next day. Then I got up the Beinn Eighe again in order to climb up a Munro. After crossing some boulders and knee deep snow fields I head to climb using my hands. But at about 780m I stopped. I could see that the final ascend to the summit lead over those damn snow fields again and was very steep. Therefore I descended to the Kinlochewe Hotel again to wash myself and my clothes. I finished the day with drinking all the different ales they had in the bar. But I have to admit that the Scottish beer is not tasty(stale and without any taste, brown water). I’ll have to drink Whisky the next time!
On Saturday another hiker arrived, brought in by the mountain rescue. He didn’t find his way back in the snow and was only 1km away from me, at the other side of the Munro I tried. At 11:55 the Dial-A-Bus picked my up to Achnasheen and I finished my hike.
Scotland trip panoramas
Some first impressions from the Scotland trip. Due to the design the images are not showed properly. Just click on them to see them properly scaled.
The Kinlochewe Heights
View to Loch An Nid
Campsite with Laufbursche Tanzpalast
On the way to Lochan Fada
Lochan Fada
View from Cairn
A lower view from Cairn
Trip planning, Scotland(Fisherfield Forest) in March 2011
I’m currently planning another trip to Scotland. Following the rule “Never change a hiking system”, I again go to Fisherfield Forest.
2 years ago I made my last heavy weight trip to this area and now this trip will be a lightweight one.
However the last time I was there in the first April weeks. Now I’m very early from 20.03 to 27.03.
The weather is at its extremes, currently the temperature is 1 – 3°C day-times and 0 – -1°C night-times, the wind speed ranges from 5 – 37km/h with snow- and rainfall.
I still hope that the temperature gets above 5°C and that snow accumulations will vanish when I get there.
But I have to prepare for this cold weather.
Therefore some adjustments must be taken:
- Full KS Primaloft clothing as sleeping backup.
- Fleeze Jacket for hiking.
- Warmer socks.
- Skin micro light as sleeping mat.
- Mattheusz (Laufbursche) was so kind to lend me a “Tanzpalast” to try out. I’m very curious how it performs in these conditions. The last time I hiked there I had such strong wind that it blew my poles away.
This trip is relatively short in time. I only hike about 4 days. This gives me the opportunity to take some more risks and leaving the kitchen at home.
Yes, this trip will consist of dry food only, despite the bad weather. I’m very excited about this. as I will be completely bushed at the end of the day, I usually don’t want to cook, but to sleep.
But this removes the possibility to dry out my sleeping bag with a bottle of hot water…
However, I might change my mind about this 
Here’s the current gear-list: gearlist_schottland_11
Sauerland January 2011
I took the last cold days in the Sauerland during a weekend trip.
I made a lot of winter errors. The first was leaving my bottle insulation at home.
At the -8 °C the bottles were frozen after very short time and I needed to carry a 0,5l bottle at the body.
Luckily I had enough streams to refill the bottle.
The second was not carrying a fleeze jacket and cooling out a lot even while hiking
The third was an inflatable mat which I didn’t check at home. For some reason it lost air and I had to refill it every hour.
Later in the morning after the -10°C night the valve was completely frozen and I was unable to open it at first.
The fourth was to not take camera and mobile batteries into my sleeping bag, leading to dead devices. However warming the batteries brought them back to life.
The fifth was not planning enough food, especially not enough high sugar food which brinks energy.
The sixth was leaving the spikes at home as most of the time the ground was covered in ice.
Besides all these errors I truly enjoyed the trip. Hiking in the winter is something special.
The dusk, night and dawn with a no-cloud-sky was wonderful, as you might see in the images.
Some information: It takes 10-10:30 minutes melting 1l of snow with a caldera cone.
Tarping
This post shall show some information about tarping. It is all from my personal point of view as solo tarp user. I try to use the tarp everywhere and push it out of its intended usage boundaries. It is meant for tarp beginners to get some information about tarp usage. I missed this information when I began and had to collect it from many sources.
The material:
Tarps are typically made of silnylon or cuben.
Silnylon stretches, when wet more than when it is dry. This can lead to the failure of a tarp due to sagging, if it stretches too much during heavy rain. But the stretch also offers some advantages. In wind it can move a bit, and it is easier to pitch. However these properties depend heavily on the material used, and there are a lot of bad silnylon fabrics out there. It will also soak the water and be, depending on the material, 1.5(in my case) times heavier when wet.
Cuben fiber doesn’t stretch. Therefore you need a perfectly manufactured tarp and you have to pitch it correctly. Otherwise you will get a less then ideal pitch. Although there is a common fear that Cuben doesn’t hold up, it usually does. Failure usually comes from bad reinforcements at the tie-outs. It also doesn’t soak water, so you will carry the same weight after rain.
The Tie-outs:
There are two types of tie-outs. Many American manufacturers use a simple type of tie-out. They just fold over the edge and sew the tie-out on it. These tie-outs are not reinforced and don’t hold up. Here are some examples, the first one failed with the first use, the second one is still in use.
The second type of tie-out is usually longer and sewn onto a reinforcement patch. These hold up pretty good and are not known to fail.
The current image is not that good, would be great if someone could provide me a better image.
The amount of tie-outs on your tarp depend on your intended use. Usually tarps ship with 3 tie-outs on each side. This is not enough for proper wind handling. On a 2,7m side you should have 4-5 tie-outs. The force of the wind is distributed on the tie-outs. The more tie-outs you have the lower the force on each tie-out and stake. Another advantage is that there the panels of fabric get smaller and therefore the wind can’t catch that much fabric. I have given 4-5 because 4 are enough but with 5 you can choose to just stake out 3 of the 5 tie-outs.
The shape:
The simplest shape is the rectangle. There are many, many, many different forms to pitch a rectangular tarp. Experimenting with this is a lot of fun. However if you have a lot of wind you need a really good pitch. The wind catches every fold and therefore there is much more stress on the fabric. And with a rectangular tarp you usually have some folds.
The best shape to save weight is a trapezoid shape. The foot part is smaller than the head part which saves a lot of material. However with this shape the pitching options get greatly reduced.
To get rid of spin-drift from the front and end there exist tarps which have beaks. Beaks are simple triangular pieces which add protection to the front and foot area. It is common to only have a beak to the front/head side because usually almost no rain finds it way through the foot side. A beak at the front side is very useful. Especially when you need to change your closes on a rainy morning this is a lot of space you will appreciate. But they are not necessary. The following image shows the big front beak of a hexamid clone:
Catenary cuts(catlines) reduce folds in the tarp and therefore increase wind stability. They resemble the shape of a hanging chain which is the same shape the material will have. Therefore the amount of material is reduced(lighter!) and the amount of folds is increased. But you have almost none pitching options with a catline tarp. You can pitch it higher or lower but always in the same style. But for serious wind usage you should go for a catline tarp. The following image shows the catline of a golite shangrila 2 which would fail without this catline.
Knots:
There are 2-3 knots you need for pitching a tarp.
The first is the taut-line-hitch(Topsegelschotsteg in German).
This knot is adjustable and therefore used for guy-lines. However some guy-lines are very stiff and the knot will not hold with them. In that case you have to go back to line tensioners again.
You start with a loop:
Make a simple knot by wrapping the end around the loop.
Wrap it a second time.
Pull it over the loop.
Make a simple knot before the loop.
Finished!
I also use this knot to secure the guy-lines while packing the tarp:
The second knot is the clove-hitch(Webleinsteg in German) which is used to secure the stakes.
You make a loop, while the line going to the right is below the line going to the left.
You make the same loop again, right of the last one.
Then you put the right loop above the left loop.
And pull on both ends to finish it.
The third knot is the simple knot you know, but in the quick-release version.
Make a simple knot.
Make a second knot, but pull a loop instead of the working end through the opening.
You can release it by pulling on the working end of the loop.
Stakes:
I usually use a combination of stakes. For shorter trips in forest areas I carry only titanium shepherd stakes at 6g per piece. For longer trips where I need a bigger security margin I also take 6 Y/V stakes for the front ant back tie-outs. But I have to admit that I didn’t yet need these 6 y/v stakes. Stones and bushes always helped me out. If you use these tiny shepherd stakes above treeline, you should place rocks on them so they don’t turn or get pulled out. If there are plants around you, use them! They are great stakes. I currently faced 3 different types of soil. Above treeline in Lapland I had very stony soil with small bushes. This was ideal as the stakes had great hold and I could secure them with stones or directly pitch to bushes. In Scotland I had no stony soil and the small stakes didn’t hold that well. There bushes and stones were my friends again. In mild climate forests I often have very soft soil in which the small stakes don’t hold. There I usually dig a bit until I come to the real ground(usually about 10cm). Then the stakes hold. If I have bigger issues I use some branches to get bigger stakes(but this is really rare).
Pitching:
There are many pitching options of a tarp, but I will only mention 3 here.
The Lean-To is a basic shape where one side is down and faces to the wind while the other is high to offer a lot of space. This pitch is possible with almost all kind of tarps, it is not restricted to rectangular tarps.
The pyramid is restricted to rectangular tarps. It is similar to the lean to, but the two outer sides are pulled down and only one pole is used in the center tie-out. With this shape you have got great protection from 3 sides and poor protection from one side. If the rain goes straight down you will have spin drift and need a bivy. But it is a side sleeper pitch which is very comfortable.
The A frame is my favorite shape. It is well fit for bad weather and offers good protection. You pull the long sides of your tarp to the ground, or above for more ventilation. You put your poles in the center tie-out of the foot and head side. The foot side should always be low and point towards the wind. This ensures well ventilation and almost reduces any condensation(if there is wind of course). I pitch the head as high as 1.1m in good weather. If the rain and wind gets stronger I adjust down to 0.9m or even lower. Adjustable trekking poles really play there strengths out here . With a silnylon tarp you can reduce the sagging by increasing the height with the trekking pole without the need to get out of the tarp and re-pitch it.
Guy-lines:
Guy-lines should be light and strong, but not stiff as you want to make knots. I use dyneema core surrounded by a polyester outer, with a strength of 2.5mm. The choice of guy-lines is very dependent on you personal style. They add up a lot to the weight of your tarp. You should always go for a good core material(spectra, dyneema) and a knot-able outer coating(polyester).
As for the length I use 1.2-1.5m(depending on tarp width/pitch height) for the side-guy-outs and 3m for the ridge guy outs.
Groundsheet:
As a tarp doesn’t have a floor you need a groundsheet to protect your stuff from the dirty and wet ground. Avoid using coated fabrics like common tent floor(90-120g PU Nylon) or even silnylon. They tent to get wet and store the water and on pressure points the water will get through, slowly.
Use a complete plastic material. Good choices are polycro and hard-tyvek(50g/m²). My current favorite is the tube you use for roasting meat(oven bag). This material is very resistant to abrasion, cheap, puncture resistant, light and fully waterproof. It weighs 21g/m². However it only comes at widths of 60cm, so you have to combine two tubes.
Bad choices are painters cover and trash bags as they don’t hold up.
Bivy:
It is quite common to use a bivy bag with a tarp. The bivy bag will protected you from mosquitoes, wind and spindrift. It is the “inner tent” of a tarp. It should not be water-proof-breathable but only water resistant, otherwise you will ruin your down sleeping bag. I still have to take a photo of my bivy bag
Some people still take a water-proof-breathable bivy bag for usage without a tarp. For me this is an emergency situation. For this case I prefer the usage of a VBL and the tarp. I put on the VBL and use the Tarp is waterproof bivy bag. With this method my sleeping bag stays dry and I’m perfectly secure.
Good bivy bags have a pertex or momentum outer and a waterproof bottom. Some people even leave the groundsheet at home if they use a bivy bag. I still like my groundsheet, as it protects the bivy, too.
Prejudices to clarify:
A tarp is lighter then a tent:
This is only partly true as that summary shows:
300g silnylon solo tarp(with sealed seams), cuben is lighter, but I compare to silnylon tents and not cuben tents.
72g(12*6) titanium stakes
55g ground sheet
200g bivy bag
74g (21m) guylines
This is a total of 701g for a solo setup. A light tent comes at ~820g, so you’ll save about 100g and have to adjust your comfort zone.
A tarp has less condensation:
This is totally true if you pitch correctly, but if you pitch your tarp wrong and it sags you will get condensation.
A tarp is not fitted for usage above treeline:
This depends on the amount and type of stakes, guying points, soil, the place where you pitch, how you pitch, the wind directions and the construction of your tarp. If you have some y stakes, stones on your stakes, soil, with stones, 5 guying points on each side of your tarp, a sheltered place, a lower/upper A frame as pitch, a catenary ridge line, a wind that comes mostly from one side, perfect reinforced construction of guying points, then just say: “Welcome hell, I’m prepared”.
Why I use tarps:
I use tarps, because I like them. Their open style put you directly in the elements you face. On my trips I don’t have condensation so my gear stays dry. I can adjust, when it rains I use the tarp, when it doesn’t rain, I use the bivy. When I’m in a shelter, I use the bivy. I can put the wet tarp and groundsheet away from the dry bivy, preferable in the outer pockets of my pack. And it is simply great to see the rain coming down in front of an awesome landscape just 30cm in front of your head and be perfectly sheltered
I think I have mentioned all the important stuff, however this article may get updated in the future. After the coming winter I will add another post about winter usage of a tarp.
For further information I strongly recommend reading Collin Ibbotsons article about tarps: http://www.andyhowell.info/Colin-Ibbotson/Colin-Talks-Tarps.pdf
Scotland the last heavy weight trip
For every lightweight hiker there comes an inflection point when they make the decision to turn from heavy weight “comfort” to lightweight skills.
For me this was my trip to Scotland, where I had a really heavy pack(21kg). I made only slow progress, fording took a horrible time, my tent had condensation issues, my more than expensive Rab sleeping bag failed poorly and my stove rusted away(because I picked tin foil instead of aluminum foil). To give it the crowning touch, while descending a straight stone wall during a hail storm at 900m my hiking boots lost traction which caused me to fall down. I broke my hiking sticks(790g pair) and injured my knee, because I couldn’t do much with that heavy pack. This forced my to take a 2 days break and continue with an easier, less interesting route.
So my conclusion for this trip was: Go light, go safe.
But besides these issues the trip was awesome, Scotland is a really great hiking country. And being there in April, right before the midge season was great.
