This is merely an addendum to Ploss’ post BPL STIX Mod: Aftermarket Tips from July 2009, which details how to properly add Leki aftermarket tips to these UL trekking poles. I’ve been resisting implementing this mod despite my fear of wrecking these apparent collector’s items (no longer offered from BPL as of February ‘10) because, frankly, they were perfect – at 120cm they offered the sweet spot of length both uphill and down (McLovin is a hair over 6′ tall). Tough to mess with what’s not broken – yet!?
Reality was that the mod was much less punitive than I feared, both in added length and the completely negligible weight, and the process itself was as simple as Ploss suggested.
Length added: 3.8 cm exactly to 123.8 cm
Weight added: 0.2 oz. (5.7g) to 4.7 oz (per pole)
Before and After - er, After and Before (L to R)
This length will actually be closer to what I have used previously with my collapsible Black Diamond poles for use with the Gatewood Cape (shelter pole), and I’m looking forward to testing them on trail later this week. – MCL
Can this titanium solid fuel stove compete with the blogger’s favorite, the White Box Stove? Can it boil enough h2O for two? A (non-field) full test and comparison.
Goal: boil 16 oz. (2 cups) of water using one .5 oz. Esbit cube AND/OR .5 oz. denatured alcohol Conditions: 54 degrees, light wind at 860 feet
The kit. Not pictured: GSI Hae Tea Kettle (used w/White Box)
The plan: see how the 0.40 oz. Backpacking Light Firelite Titanium Esbit Wing stove + a single .5 oz. Esbit fuel cube fared against the 2.5 oz. White Box Stove + .5 oz. denatured alcohol for boiling 16 oz. of water.
Unwrapped Esbit smells like low tide. Pelican alert!
Observations: the Firelite Esbit Wing Stove is crazy light, and is perfectly designed to do one thing: deliver burning Esbit solid fuel. Esbit comes in foil packages reminiscent of that 70’s era liquid center gum your Mom used to rock, and immediately you’ll notice two shortcomings vs. an alcohol stove: first, these things stink. Not in the package so much, but in bear country I’d definitely bag & hang ‘em – think pickled herring. Second, you’ll need matches or a lighter to get it burning – not a deal breaker certainly, but a far cry from the ease of lighting an alcohol stove with a firesteel tool like the Spark-Lite Firestarter, as I did with the white box for this test.
Firelite SUL-900 Titanium pot fit on the stove like a glove
It was a little breezy so I added a windscreen – specifically the one that ships with the White Box stove. I felt like I was cheating on my White Box stove – you know I love you White Box baby! – but as my experience has been that the White Box rarely if ever needs a windscreen, chalk this up as another “knock” against the Esbit Wing Stove.
Get on with it. How long did it take? Virtually everything I’ve read about Esbit fuel cubes is based upon boiling 8 oz. of water, making it essentially a solo stove, but as the burn time was listed as “up to 15 minutes” I was hopeful that it would be capable of bringing 16 oz. to boil. Which it did, in 9 minutes 10 seconds. Success! It furthermore had a total burn time of 15 minutes 45 seconds, leading me to conclude that, at least under today’s conditions and altitude, one Esbit cube with this particular kit could boil at least 18 ounces or more. By comparison, the White Box stove + the GSI Hae Tea Kettle, sans wind screen, brought 16 oz. of water to a boil in 6:45 (m:s) and consumed ~.5 oz. of denatured alcohol in 9:42 of total burn time – again, more than enough time to boil at least 18 oz. of water under similar conditions.
Conclusions: While I still have to give the overall nod to the White Box Stove for performance and reliability – it hasn’t FAILed me yet – I was quite impressed with the ability of the solid fuel stove to deliver 2 cups of boiled water with a single cube. Given its reputation for superior cold weather performance vs. alcohol stoves, the Firelite Esbit Wing Stove will undoubtedly find its way into my winter kit as a backup stove at a minimum, and with a total weight savings of ~3 oz. (including fuel bottle) it will likely find its way into my regular kit mix as well. Grade: recommended.
Kicking off the 2010 gear season with the annual list of my current favorite gear, along with some special awards:
1. Gear of the Year: SMD Gatewood Cape
Winner: best overall; best mulitpurpose; best shelter
As was the case last year, Six Moon Design’s Gatewood Cape earns my distinction as the best single kit addition to any gear collection. Ultralight, versatile, feature-rich and simply my favorite shelter, ever. Combine with chaps and a bivy sack and be prepared for 3 seasons of weather both on and off trail. Other shelters/raingear in the collection replaced/superceded by the Gatewood Cape:
2. Therm-a-Rest NeoAir sleeping pad. Fantastically light, stowable and consistently comfortable; one of the few things in life that live up to the hype.
3. Tech4o TraiLeader 2 watch: I love this thing probably more than I should. Accelerometer provides mostly accurate distances. Mostly. Needs semiregular calibration to known distances and altitudes for best performance. Delivers everything else you could possibly want in a non-GPS wrist device including an excellent digital compass, altimeter, speed, calories, etc.
4. White Box Stove. Expertly designed to deliver the best (alcohol) fuel efficiency this stove collector has yet to find.
5. BPL Stix. Simply awesome ultralight trekking poles; you’ll forget that you thought yours needed to be telescoping. If you can find them.
6. SteriPEN Adventurer. For me it’s the only way to hydrate; safe, effective, reliable, light, easy, QUICK. Ace that pump/gravity/chemical thing you’re using today – this thing really works. You can count on it. Bring a few iodine/Aquamira anyway.
7. TiGoat Ptarmigan Bivy. Favorite of the 5 bivy sacks McLovin has owned. Incomparable size to weight ratio; couple with tarp or Gatewood Cape for maximum 3 season versatility.
8. BPL Pro 90 Quilt. When combined with outerwear such as Mont Bell down jacket and pants provides an incredibly light and versatile sleeping blanket/bag with a good sized footbox and foot-to-shoulder covering.
9. Petzl e+LITE headlamp. 1 ounce. Red and white bulbs. Comfortable, simple and efficient.
10. GoLite Jam2 Pack. Moving down the list as I’ve needed to add 3 belt and shoulder strap bags to increase the 2008 model’s usefulness; 2010 model includes these features but at a more punitive weight expense than those I’ve incorporated. Carries up to 30 lbs. framelessly; durable, simple, roomy and affordable. Ploss will see this list plummeting as a sure sign I’m going Cuben fiber this year.
Honorable Mention:
GoLite Virga jacket. Discontinued but awesome light weather shell. Comfortable and breathable, excellent rain wear. Runner up: Dutch Key. Perfect tightening tool. Miss Congeniality: Simblissity Unslack Pack. Keep your Dutch Key, camera etc. close at hand. (I wear mine on the left hand side).
FAIL of the Year:
Repeat FAIL champion Aquamira Frontier Pro filter. This thing still sucks. Need backup? Carry up to 72 Aquamira Tablets instead! Runner up: nylon/spandex knee brace. Nearly constricted the quad right off McLovin near Panhandle Gap. Miss Fortune: a last place tie between dry oatmeal and Pro Bars. Because I can find enough ways to fill my grill with dust on the trail for free. Will be employing the Ploss Fruit Pie method.
Top of the Wish List:
BushBuddy Stove. What can I say, I have a serious stove jones. Runner up: BPL Stealth NANO UL Backpacking Tarp. Why, you might rightly ask, would I need this if my favorite gear ever is the Gatewood Cape? Gear harlotry is a sick, sick disease. And, it’s only 5 ounces. Kali Ma! Miss Take: the as yet to be released 2010 MLD Revelation pack. Like I wasn’t going to get a Cuben fiber pack. Der?!
Bagged my January training hike in the Gorge today. Mola Ram sula ram!
Easiest 'trailhead' ever. Except you're not quite there yet...
HERMAN CREEK TRAIL #406 to CASEY CREEK CAMP (OUT and BACK)
DISTANCE: 8.5 MILES (AS DESCRIBED FROM LOWER LOT) | SCENERY: 7 | DIFFICULTY: 6
The weather has been absolutely killer – unless you’re a skier, snowboarder, snowshoe’r, run a ski resort, work for a ski resort, are a snowman, yeti, meteorologist, dam administrator, farmer, fisherman, fish, tree or user of electricity – so I took advantage to head up Herman Creek for a training hike. I was tempted to abuse myself on the RickelyRickrollerly Ruckel Creek trail but Ploss helped steer me towards something that wouldn’t be so… demoralizing. The Heeunk Ruckel trail is gorn freaking steep!
Getting to Herman Creek Campground is easy, westbound on I-84; the road up to the campground remains closed this time of year however, so I had to walk an additional .3 miles to the trailhead. My (turnaround) destination was Casey Creek camp, about 4.2 miles from the road and 3.8 miles from the trailhead.
From here 8 switchbacks await you over the first mile, gaining about 700′, which includes crossing a jeep track/fire road about 1/2 mile up, then generally levels off to begin a long, steady ascent. Note: the jeep track sports an extraneous Trail 406 junction sign. Continue forward to the second/upper Trail 406 sign and trail. You’ll have 4 opportunities from the campground onwards to head NE to the Nick Eaton ridge on spurs I’m looking forward to exploring on future hikes.
Take this upper Trail 406 route at the .5 mile fire road
Along this next mile you’ll flatten out and encounter several of the aforementioned opportunities to explore the Nick Eaton ridge to the east; feel free, or stick to the main trail to continue towards Casey Creek camp. Water is plentiful in this section, specifically via 4 good sources. You’ll reach the first source, a narrow but beautiful cascading falls, approximately 1.8 miles from the trailhead. The second source is spectacular – a 100+’ falls that’s just about the most beautiful the blogger has ever seen, roughly .2 miles ahead from the first source – 2.0 miles from the trailhead
The sound itself compares to the remarkable beauty
The third source is Camp Creek, .5 miles from the falls and 2.5 miles from the trailhead, and today it was really swollen – so much so it required a minor ford. Not Rich Ford. Nor Rich Guy. But I digress. My boots worked it and my feet stayed relatively dry.
Last call for worthwhile-a-haul. Not a more peaceful location in the entire vicinity
The fourth & last source is about .5 miles from Camp Creek – picking up the pattern here? – and is another beautiful water cascade and a great place to fill up. A really great place. You are almost exactly .9 miles from Casey Creek camp here, and if your destination is said camp, your best options for water are, well, here; a mile past Casey Creek camp at Hazel Creek; or down Trail 407, aka The Fail Trail. Do yourself a favor and fill up at this last source to your heart’s desire; the blogger will consider throwing an extra platy in his pack next time for this purpose only vs. a trip down Trail 407. I reached my destination almost exactly at my hard turnaround time, and my spirits were high. Spirits only. Elevation per my Tech4o: 1545′.
Overlooking the East Fork Herman Creek across to Benson Plateau
Observations:
Total time: 3 hrs. 5 minutes
The trail was in fantastic condition – only 1 blowdown and it was really simple to cross. No snow, nor any visible snow even across the Herman Creek gorge to the hilltops on the PCT, Tomlike Mountain etc.
This would likely be a good snowshoe trail with limited wayfinding challenges despite the lack of tree trail markings/diamonds a la the PCT. Navigating I-84 when conditions permit snowshoeing up here can be tricky, but given the right sweet spot of snow and ease of travel this would fit the bill
The first half- to full mile of any hike remains a real mental struggle for me; physically it takes about that long for me to get warmed up typically, during which I really battle to stay mentally tough and embrace what I’m doing. After that I’m usually golden, but it’s something I continue to be aware of, and work to defeat.
GoLite Virga jacket worked it – was not overly sweaty, was protected from the several downpours I experienced, and was generally warm and comfortable in 40° January weather.
BPL Stix are awesome. This was a perfect terrain test for their versatility, and the best endorsement I can give them is that I was almost unaware of them: they simply behaved as an extension of my movement. Will be employing the Ploss Mod.
Spaced filing my toenails down to the skin, leading to Boot Toenail Fail. Will be a pretty good backpacker for a guy with 9 toenails in about a week.
Ran into a single dude, training for the PCT – Mexico to Canada baby He’s looking to see us @ Rainier in September. Big props.
Said dude gave me an excellent idea for my next training hike: Herman Creek to PCT. Ploss will remember this as the 4000′ descent from Benson Plateau over about 6.5 miles. Who needs the Gorn Ruckel Creek?
I made excellent time. Excellent photography? Not so much.
Ploss has been busy figuring out how to spend more money on more, lighter gear – and previously (earlier) whining about how homey don’t play sewing machines. HFY! A real man in need of a cuben fiber backpack should make his own! The only way to get the pack that’s exactly right for YOU is to rock it yourself:
This dude made a 2.54 oz. pack complete with a snowshoe pouch!?
These peeps will sell you everthing from cuben fiber and noseeum remnants to silnylon, zips and patterns!
BPL MYOG’ers are often using tape instead of sewing!
Are you telling me you couldn’t make this yourself? And better? An den?
Footnote: we smack, but seriously if you aren’t looking to MYO cuben fiber pack check out zpacks.com: Joe has designed a truly remarkable 4-5 oz. (+/- config) backpack capable of rocking a weeks’ worth of food and UL gear – think about that! As such – and after reading the Backpacking Light review (subscription required; PS: get one!) – I must admit I’m thinking about one myself. Odds are you’ll be seeing a Ploss review of a Zpack very soon. A green Zpack. An incredibly light, expertly made, fully functional, hideous neon Hulk-green Zpack. Which will lead me to…get my own or lead the next hike!
A new Columbia River Gorge Scenic Area hike was on the agenda – one that would take us up Nick Eaton Ridge to the last area we’ve yet to explore in the vicinity. Historical note: Nick Eaton was a farmer who lived near Wyeth in the early 1900’s, as far as you know. Though this is a four day hike – requiring a few days off to pull off – I think I’ve come up with a good itinerary:
Day
Camp
Miles
1
Benson Camp via Wy’East
10.6
2
Ridge Camp
14.3
3
Casey Creek Camp
11.9
4
Eagle Creek/Out
11.8
Totals
-
48.6
This “loop” starts and ends at familiar Eagle Creek, and includes new waypoints including the Wy’East trail 434, the Nick Eaton Ridge trails 437 and 437, a reverse traverse of the Herman Creek trail, and a descent back down the PCT to the junction of Ruckel Creek and ultimately the Eagle Creek campground.
Indian Point on the Nick Eaton Trail
Day One: Eagle Creek to Benson Camp, 10.6 miles
We get started with the 6 mile section up Eagle Creek to the first bridge and the Wy’East spur: a 3 mile ascent that bypasses the greater Wahtum Lake area, terminating at Camp Smokey – just under 2 miles from old reliable, Benson Camp.
Day Two: Benson Camp to Ridge Camp, 14.3 miles
This section begins along the PCT, making that long descent to Herman Camp where we join up with Trail 437: the upper Nick Eaton Ridge Trail. Along the way we’ll pass Indian Point, Deadwood Camp, gain a shiteload of elevation (nearly 5000′ this day) concluding at Ridge Camp that sports a nearby water source.
Day Three: Ridge Camp to Casey Creek Camp, 11.9 miles
From here we’ll ascend Green Point Mountain, joining up with the Herman Creek Trail at the intersection of the Nick Eaton, Herman Creek and Pacific Crest Trails – not far from old favorite Magellan waypoint, the Tomlike Mountain trail. From here we’ll descend to Cedar Swamp, pass a half dozen large and small falls, fill up with plenty of water at Hazel Creek and rack at spacious Casey Creek camp. No death-defying trip down trail 407 required!
Day Four: Casey Creek Camp to Eagle Creek, 11.8 miles
We’ll finish out the Herman Creek Trail for about 2.5 miles, and just past Herman Camp we’ll hit the PCT – Trail 2000. It’s just a bunch of switchbacks from here, a long 9 mile descent to the junction of Ruckel Creek trail and the half mile road to Eagle Creek campground.
Footnote: it was tough to find a 3 day version of this hike with logical camps; I will however update this to include a truly gruesome 2 day version that would be a true fastpack battle test!
And…here we go.
Day
Camp
Miles
1
Deadwood Camp
22.3
2
Eagle Creek/Out
26.3
Totals
-
48.6
Alternately (again) you could go 24.9 on Day 1 to Ridge Camp and have a mere 23.7 miles out…I suppose that would be the proverbial game-time decision. It’s possible…not unlike the Timberline to Eagle Creek 2 day feel we discussed last year…but would be grim. Tempting? But grim!
High on my gear wish list was a light rain jacket: I had good waterproof/breathable pants, a nice windshirt, the ultimate poncho – even chaps! – but when the weather required something less than my freaking heavy full Gore-Tex North Face parka, I was hosed. After doing a little homework and discovering a jacket good enough for my man Skurka I settled on the GoLite Virga.
Spanking new with tags from ebay: 40 clams!
Turns out the Virga is a discontinued model, although as of today you can still find some sizes and colors available on sale directly from GoLite. Having recently rediscovered ebay, I thought I’d see what I could find and was pleasantly surprised to find what I was looking for, new, at such a great price. It’s definitely worth a look when shopping for a retail item such as this.
Get to the point. What’s it weigh?! Immediately, of course, I threw the thing on my Feedback Sports scale and it weighed in at 8.5 oz – not bad for an XL! I definitely could have rocked a large; it’s a bit roomy, but leaving space for insulating layers was part of my strategy. As luck would have it, it started pouring moments after I opened my item so I of course ran outside to see how wet I would get. I didn’t! Success!
Full zip with hood, zip pockets; no pit vents unfortunately.
Details: the Virga is made with “2.5 Layer Waterproof-Breathable Nylon Ripstop Fabric with DWR” which is to say GoLite’s proprietary Alchemy™ fabric. I must have read a few dozen reviews of this jacket, along with a dozen more each from a dozen other similar jackets, and they all read pretty much like every tent review I’ve ever read as well: waaa! Not breathable!! Waaa!! Too much condensation!! Eventually I suppose everyone figures out that if it’s raining, and you’re exerting yourself, and you’re sweating…there’s moisture on the outside, and moisture on the inside…and the thing works about as well as is possible. It ain’t going to be perfect. That said I may regret not having pit zip vents, but my guess is that I can micromanage sweat issues with a climate-appropriate base layer.
Review: I’m hoping to venture up Ruckel Creek Trail either tomorrow or Thursday afternoon, and The Last American Virga will be in full effect. As Ruckel provides a…challenging workout, and the forecast is for rain/snow and a freezing level near 2000′ a few hours up and down the thing should provide a baseline standard for the breathability of the GoLite Virga jacket in worst-case conditions.
Update: my Ruckel hike is rescheduled for Tuesday 1/26 on what looks to be a dry day; given the deluge that greeted me this morning, I headed out for a quick 3 miler on the Wildwood/Markham trails in a total downpour. I was pleased with the breathability I have to say – on this morning’s hike as well as on a dry 6 mile hike two days ago, where I wore the Virga as more of a windshirt in 45° AM temps – and it certainly kept me dry. That said I was keeping a breakneck pace and sweat quite a lot, and was thus wet in and out. The difference was my body temperature, which was very comfortable.
I also took advantage of today’s conditions to field test my MLD chaps at the same time, and was VERY pleased with how they worked over my usual REI Sahara Convertible pants. The chaps were very comfortable – I forgot I was wearing them, frankly – and kept my pants dry despite the soaker. I did wear a GoLite visor under the Virga hood which did a superior job of keeping rain off my grill. Good kit
My gear wish list was pretty short heading into the end of 2009, and was made up primarily of mountaineering and winter items - while I’m very happy with my UL kit I was ill prepared to extend my backpacking into the Fourth Season for much of anything other than a day hike. Courtesy of a serious Kali Ma! massive REI gift card Christmas tightener from my Pop-In-Law, I was able to acquire (among many other items) an REI Arete ASL 2 “all season” tent. Here’s what REI has to say about it:
There are two very good things to say about this tent right off the bat: it’s relatively light for a “4 season” tent at 5.2 – 5.8 lbs. depending upon configuration, and it’s dirt cheap in comparison to the competition. You can spend, well, all of your money on a hard core mountaineering tent and this bad boy set me back exactly $170 – a price point that just about anyone can live with, especially given the options available to use this year-round if one were so inclined. Given that I’m a die-hard Gatewood Cape/bivy sack user for 99% of my backpacking needs, the kind of January weather currently available is really where, er when, this tent will be useful for me.
Note: the Arete 2 Footprint, sold separately for about $15 at a weight of about 10.2 oz. (my scale, sans carrying bag) does push the maximum weight to about 6 lbs. and was included in this review.
Testing: take this review with a grain of salt from a conditions perspective – this was NOT a true field test, and the intent (heh) of this review is to demonstrate the features and provide a general overview of usage.
Conditions: 35° with strong wind gusts (30-40 mph) and periodic heavy overnight rain in the ol’ smackyard – that is to say, NOT in the field; not in/on snow/ice.
Setup: Another feather in the Arete’s cap is the ease of setup; I set this up solo, first time, pretty cold, gusty wind while taking photos in about 12 minutes – guessing I could reduce that to well under 10 and 2 motivated people could get it up in about 5 minutes I would bet.
The Arete 2 Footprint clips very easily to the tent's corners
Laid out and ready for the 3 poles
Two shockcorded orange poles go into the corner sleeves; the third aluminum pole has a horizontal sleeve near the door
Free standing, ready to clip footprint and attach fly
Rainfly clips attach directly to tent corners at six connections
Fly and Footprint corner attachments as simple as any I've seen; ready for stakes
Extra guylines included; in heavy wind staked out sides (required 2 extra stakes, only 8 included)
Staked, with open vestibule. Wind gusts to 35 mph during this shot
Interior sufficiently sized for two, especially with UL gear. Narrow, but with generous headroom
Small vestibule; sufficient for boots, cooking but little else. Nice flexible wire door brim/overhang
Top vents work extremely well; optional pole provides fantastic breeze-through stability
Clear 'window' a great vestibule feature. Total setup time 12 minutes!
Overnight Testing: overnight temps dropped to 34° with a heavy .25″ of rain, winds up to 40 mph (per my Oregon Scientific Weather Station inside the house). Sleep system: Marmot Arroyo 30° sleeping bag; Therm-a-Rest NeoAir pad (L). Slept like a baby I vented the top vents only slightly, about halfway, and experienced zero condensation. Zero. In fact the entire interior of the tent was completely dry when I brought it inside after taking down. The wind noise was pretty severe in the trees surrounding me but the tent never so much as shuddered – very, very stable.
Conclusions: given the cost and weight, my first impression was outstanding and I’m highly optimistic that the Arete ASL 2 will become a regular fourth season shelter for me in serious weather. Clearly, I need to test this in snow but having snow camped in other 3 season domes and legitimate 4-season tents, I am confident the Arete will hold its own. Will it hold a foot of snow? I’ll get back to you on that one! Until then, this tent is recommended.
Pros:
Low cost
~6 lbs: f’n heavy by normal UL backpacking standards, but perfectly acceptable for weekend snowshoeing/mountaineering, especially if the carry weight can be divided between two peeps (tent + fly and poles)
Good stability!
Good ventilation! (My experience in this instance only; others have had complaints, be sure to read the REI reviews)
Quick, easy setup
Nice features including vestibule window, easy pole sleeves and clips, nice light aluminum stakes (will be replacing with titanium stakes, natch), several interior mesh pockets, ceiling loops, and plenty of guyline loops for added stability in wind/snow
Cons:
Could be a bit cramped for two if forced to wait out a storm etc.
Limited/no internal or vestibule space for gear
Heavier than a bivy sack/tarp rig – but you were expecting that!
May or may not meet mountaineering (bombproof) requirements
He’s looking to see us @ Rainier in September. Big props.
McLovin
ploss
Franken
