This was my TGO Challenge (The Great Outdoor) starting on the 11th of May in Shiel Bridge and finishing at Dunnottar Castle, Stonehaven, on the 21st of May.
Special thanks to Stefan, Rory, Paul and Scott that help me film and pushed me to do things I otherwise wouldn’t have done.
This video will be followed up by a trip report and more video from a day-to-day basis.
Hiking Holavedsleden (59km) from Tranås to Gränna in the last days of April. The numbers and letters showing up through out the video are map reference markers.
Pleasant walk but a lot of roads and not enough trails through the forests. Water was an issue at times but not so much that it was holding me back.
Number of ticks attached, four. A few crawlers too.
For maps and more info about Holavedsleden click here.
Trip report of my solo hike in the remote area of Hornstrandir, north western most part of Iceland in August 2017.
This video shows the fourth and fifth days of eight days.
A while ago I apparently lost/misplaced my Patagonia Torrentshell rain jacket somewhere, I can’t find it. If you know where it is please let me know 🙂
Fortunately for me when I realized this the Patagonia Alpine Houdini jacket was on sale, 50% off so I instantly grabbed it. As you might know I already own the Patagonia Houdini jacket and it’s a jacket that I like a lot. The difference between the two is that the Houdini is a windbreaker and the Alpine Houdini is a “lightweight emergency rain shell”. Emergency rain shell really translates into that the jacket will (probably – not yet tested) withstand a heavy downpour but not prolonged sessions of rain unlike the Torrentshell that will take everything you throw at it (10,000mm- vs 20,000mm water column – waterproof rating).
As with every rain jacket out there you’ll eventually get wet anyway so for me this is not really an issue. Compared to the Torrentshell the Alpine Houdini is also much lighter which is nice, saving me about 160g of weight (345g vs 184g).
Size Medium
The only thing that I’m a little disappointed about is that they went “stupid light” with the front zipper. This is only a normal YKK-zipper with no extra taped seams or anything just a storm flap on the inside. When I read reviews of the jacket this is where most people complain that it’ll leak through for the most part, no big surprise there. But since I haven’t tested it myself I can’t comment on this.
Zipper storm flap and membrane. On the right you can see the only pocket on the jacket that doubles as a stuff sack.
Size medium, Classic Navy. I’m 176cm, 65kg.
Specifications
The Japanese post service sure knows how to haul stuff! Received my Imo Pack today, Friday after a five day transport from Japan to Sweden.
I’ll try to sum up my first impressions of the KS Ultralight gear Imo Pack here. Later on I will have to follow up with some reflections after taking the pack to the trail.
This is my first guest post here on Andrés blog. André and I have been hiking together for years now and it’s about time that i contribute with some material here. /Jon
One of the things about UL-hiking I really like is all the Cottage Manufacturers making excellent equipment for us hikers. I like the oportunity to support a small scale industry with design and manufacturing in house. But a large bonus is also the possibility to customize the equipment you want to purchase. As a Design Engineer this is kind of a kids dream coming true, I can get equipment exactly the way i want it!
Last week I found the small (Even by these standards) Japanese/French manufacturer KS Ultralight Gear. They make various versions of ultralight backpacks in interesting material choises as X-pac, Silnylon and in some cases Cuben.
Imo Pack in red X-pac fabric. Front pocket in 70D Nylon, note the mesh bottom for water drainage – Photo by Laurent Barikosky
This is our trip to Jotunheimen in 7 minutes of your time. Well worth it I think 😉
Make sure to watch in fullscreen, 1080p/720p, and have good audio available!
Pictures and trip report will come. I’ll also do a short “review” of each item that I brought along with me. Not really a review but rather a few words about the individual items…
Russvatnet
Stay tuned!
He’s thru hiking the Appalachian trail, AT, and posting videos as he goes. This one was quite odd…. 🙂
Check out the rest of his videos. He has some nice gear-vids too.
CleveHiker has over the past few months built an entirely new website, completely changed their approach and radically shifted the vision for all future CleverHiker content.
This includes that they stopped selling their Lightweight Backpacking Foundations and Gear Guide and instead posting these for free on YouTube!
They’re hoping to release 2-3 episodes per week over the next few weeks, so stay tuned.
Having two kids of my own I find Mikael quite nuts or to be a true adventurer. 🙂
I have just spent one of the coldest winters in my life. I was fully dressed both on the inside of the Victorian house and outside. This is Moss Side 2014, Manchester, England. It is one of Europes poorest areas, but one of the most diverse and vibrant. Not at all the England I expected. To find out more about contemporary England, I am walking 600 km to London with my daughter in a stroller. And a local girl from Bolton, Georgia.
If you haven’t heard about Mikael before you should check out a few of his other trailers on YouTube and see if you could watch one of his documentaries. I think I saw one of his adventures, the one when he walks across Yemen. It was shown on Swedish television about a year or so ago I think.
“You´ll die. Or get kidnapped by Al Qaeda. What you want to do is impossible!”
That is what all experts, analysts and the Yemenis themselves told me. But I have done the impossible. I have made my way into what many say is one of the most difficult countries in the world to enter, and one of the most dangerous. Together with the Swedish journalist, Tanya Holm, Kensington the Camel and a few of the oldest inhabitants of Arabia, the Bedus, I have traveled through one of the hottest deserts on earth. We didn´t meet any terrorists, religious extremists and nobody got killed. I didn´t even feel any serious fear.
What we found during this adventurous walk, in our search of the real Arabia, was a Middle Eastern country very different from the one portrayed in the global media.Read more at yourmiddleeast.com/features/making-a-positive-documentary-about-yemen-video_16956
Lighter Packs 