My mississ Nicky has gone back to England now :( As a keep sake and also because I knew I’d wreck it, I gave her my beautiful old Breitling Navitimer to hold on too (my most treasured possession).

It’s quite handy to know the time though, so today I got this Suunto Core watch. Not only does it tell the time, but also what altitude you are, predicts weather trends and has a storm alarm (will be handy in the heart of the Rockies) and a bloody compass! Surprised it’s taken me so long to get such a Swiss Army knife of the watch world, looking forward to putting it through the paces of the Continental Divide Trail.

I kind of wanted the obscenely chunky orange and black version, but they didn’t have it at the shop…

Each year before I go off on a big walk I generally buy some new gear, this year because I’m going away for such a long time (see sidebar) and my girlfriend Nicky is coming out too (who doesn’t have any kit) I’ve bought loads..! So here’s a roundup of the stuff that I thought was good enough to part cash with. Most of the stuff is in dollars, because the exchange rate as it is, everything is just about half price from the states. So I did all my shopping over there (via the interweb) and got it sent to a mate who I’m visiting when we get there.

Van Hoy Snap Lock Knife

This is totally unnecessary, I hear that the proper ultralight hiker would just take a razor blade to use as a knife. But I have certain manly urges to be armed with a proper knife in the wilderness and this I thought was a fair compromise as it only weights 77g and looks reasonably mean :) Costs: $36 from Backcountry.

Sony HDR-SR12E HD Hard Disc Drive Handycam

After much deliberating about which camcorder to get, finally Sony made my mind up by bring out the HDR-SR12E. Over 6 months I’m going to have plenty to time to record lots of video. Recording on my old camera was going to be quite expensive, buying tapes and posting them back home, not to mention the weight and bulk of them all. I initially wanted a camera that recorded onto memory cards, Sony’s new HDR-TG3 is a sexy new contender for that role. But in the end I would of either had to spend a smaller fortune on memory cards or carried around an external hard disk to back it up onto. In the end having everything together in the one unit seemed like the sensible option, no duplication.

The HDR-SR12E has a 120GB internal hard disk, recording at full quality, 1920×1080 pixels it can save 15 hours of footage. I worked out that over the length of trip that equates to about 5 minutes a day, which isn’t a huge amount. But because it’s breeze to review, delete and even split clips on the go (unlike the tape) I thought with a bit of careful pruning each day that’s probably achievable. But actually I don’t even have a HD tv, or a Blu-ray disc burner, or a computer with enough disk space to take it when it’s uncompressed… so video at that resolution is a bit of a waste on me! So I think I’ll set it to 1440 x 1080 pixels, which doubles my recording time to 30 hours and 10 minutes a day. Cost: £859 from Amazon.

Mountain Laurel Designs Pro Bear Bag System

Not used one of these before, but we don’t want those pesky bears eating our food! So this is a kit to hang all our tasty treats in between two trees and out of their reach. Cost: $65 from Mountain Laurel Designs.

Patagonia Capilene 1 Crew - Long Sleeve Top

To be honest I couldn’t be bothered researching what was the best top out there, there’s so many… I’m sure this one will do the job and the bottom line - I just like the retro styling. Costs: $38 from Backcountry.

MSR Hydromedary Hydration Bag

I got the lighter weight Cloudliner bag last year, but managed to hole it in about 3 places before the end of the trip… So I decided to upgrade to this one, as it a bit more durable. I went for the 2.5 litre size because the 3 litre was a bit of a squeeze into the front pocket of my rucksack. I got Nicky the 2 litre ‘cus she’s only little. Cost: $35 from Backcountry.

Mountain Laurel Designs XP Quilt

This is the sleeping bag I got for Nicky. I’m quite excited about seeing it in action, seems quite versatile. You can use it as a quilt or wrap it round you to almost be a full sleeping bag (strap in your mattress where the gap is). Apparently the insulation on the bottom is wasted when compressed, so you don’t need it. My Rab Top Bag is same and that generally holds true. I got Nicky the maximum amount of insulation 240g per square metre, thinking that when winter draws in I might swap my sleeping bag for hers. Cost: $200 from Mountain Laurel Designs.

Montbell Stretch Gaiter

These I got for Nicky (keep the sand & snow out). Only 46g a pair, pretty impressively lightweight. Cost: $30 from ProLite Gear.

Rab Generator Jacket

I have in the past just worn a fleece, but everyone says these new synthetic jackets are much warmer and lighter. I went for this one mainly because it’s made by Rab, a Yorkshire firm, just down the road from back home, but it also packs into your pocket & only weights 380g. Looking forward to trying it out on a cold night. Cost: $150 from ProLite Gear.

MontBell, Ultralight Down Jacket - Women’s

This is the jacket I got for Nicky. Nicky’s is in a nice orange colour, they don’t seem to do it any more? Well anyhow it only weighs an unbelievable 180g, they reckon that’s less than 2 carabiners! Costs: $125 from Backcountry.

Life-Link Guide Ultra Light Trekking Poles

These are the poles I got for Nicky. Don’t know much about poles, but Nicky likes red and apparently “it’s one of the lightest and most dependable trekking poles on Earth” - that’ll do for me. They weigh in at 454g. Cost: $100 from backcountry.

Inov-8 Roclite 320 Trail running shoe

I was a bit naughty getting these - I did the classic faux par of buying a pair of shoes that I’d never tried on, just to save a little bit of cash… I did try a similar Inov 8 trainer in the UK to check sizes, lets just hope they’re comfortable when I pick them up from John’s in a couple of weeks. They’d better be, because I’m relying on them taking right across New Mexico shortly after! I picked these ones once again because they’re a british company, this time hailing from the Lake District. But also because I’d heard good things about them. I’ve never been hiking in trainers before, but all the ultralight folk reckon it’s the way forward. New Mexico isn’t too mountainous and there’s much dirt track walking, so it seem the perfect time to try them out. Certainly going the lighten the load at only 320g. Cost: $100 from ProLite Gear.

Brasher Supalite GTX Walking Boots

I’ve bought these boots to post out to myself at the end of New Mexico, ready for a bit of snow stomping when we get into Colorado (they’ve had twice as much as usual this year…) Made by Brasher, another British company, I’ve been wearing them round London for a week or so and they feel pretty good. They felt in the shop lighter than many of the fabric boots, come in at just over 1kg. Cost: £125 from Brasher.

Bozeman Mountain Works TorsoLite Inflatable Sleeping Pad

I got two of these! One for me and one for Nicky. I’ve always just used a foam pad, but have been impressed by the extra comfort of Paul’s Therm-a-Rest, so decided to upgrade. This one is significantly lighter (only 300g) than the Therma-a-Rest’s, mainly due to the fact that it only covers your shoulders down to your arse (81cm)… they reckon you don’t need it for your legs anyhow! Costs: $60 from Backpacking Light.

DriDucks Micropore Rainsuit

This really is a piece of shit, but waterproofs cost a shit load and this baby’s only $15! So what do you get for about £8? Not a great deal, but hopefully it won’t fall apart instantly and last Nicky for the 2 weeks she’s out walking with me. Only weighs 340g (troussers & jacket) so at least she’ll be able to run for cover quickly when it does start raining :) Cost: $15 from Backpacking Light.

Gore-Tex Scottish Tweed Rain Hat

Check this bad boy out, couldn’t resist taking a good old bit of British tweed along with me. This has the added bonus of being lined in Gore-Tex to keep my head dry. Although I’ll probably regret that when the sun’s beating down, but hey, I’ll look pretty damn fine ;) Think I must of bought the last one, doesn’t seem for sale anymore, can get it from Japan here though.

Mountain Laurel Designs Zip Rucksack

This is a pretty bare bones pack, no internal frame, just a bag with some shoulder straps! But because I’ve tried to kit Nicky in the lightest possible stuff, she shouldn’t have much more than 2kg to go in there, so support shouldn’t be an issue. I’ve read that you can actually use your inflated and folded mattress as an internal support. It’s got a 47L capacity and weights an incredible 310g! Costs: $165 from Mountain Laurel Designs.

Nokia N82 Mobile Phone

Finally there’s our phone, the Nokia N82. We landed on our feet a bit with this one, when my friend Nathan heard about our big walk, he was working on promoting this new sports tracker model. He suggested to Nokia that it would be in the best interests of both of us if they gave us one with a paid SIM so that we could use it to blog our way across America! Haven’t actually got it yet, but hopefully it’ll be tracking our GPS position, taking our pictures and keeping this blog updated shortly :)

Well there was a few other bits and pieces I bought like stuff sacks and zip lock bags etc.. but I think this post is quite long enough as it is.

Hint: Anyone manucfacturers want to send me any free kit to test out, I’ll be happy to oblige :P

Just finished editing the video of our walk along the John Muir Trail (JMT) last summer, click play on the quicktime above to see the quick intro. Edited to the classic Rawhide theme :)

The JMT is a long-distance trail in the Sierra Nevada mountain range of California, running 211 miles from Yosemite to the summit of Mt. Whitney, highest point in the contiguous United States at 4,421 m.

If you’re interested you can see what the whole trip was like by watching the full video here »

I‘ve just recieved all the maps we need for our imminent hike along the Continental Divide, created by Jonathan Ley, they are better than I expected. Each map (and there’s hundreds of them) has the route and variations drawn on, and is full of notes about the route, places to get water, hot springs and all sorts. This one above just caught my eye though:

Quicksand somewhere on this map, I won’t say where exactly, because that kind of thing is a lot more exciting to dicover by accident. Ahhhh! Quicksand!!!

Can’t wait, I always wondered what it would be like to be stuck in quicksand :) Cheers for the maps Jonathan, they’re amazing!

My mate Paul has been busy finally uploading his photos of our previous walking holidays to his Flickr. Above is us climbing Mt. Whitney at god-knows-o’clock in the morning, to get to the summit for sunrise. Whitney is the highest point in the contiguous United States at 4,421 meters. It’s taken from a trip we did to California last year to walk the John Muir Trail.

You can see all photos here: Day 1, 2, 3&4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 & Vegas.

Couldn’t resist posting the image of me below, winding down in Vegas at the Hooters casino in vegas and the end of the hols ;)

Here’s some pics from Paul of our trip to Corsica in 2006. Set one, two, three & four. You can see by the before and after image above we had an unusual amount of snow in June for somewhere in the middle of the mediterranean!

Looks like he’s started uploading the Norway 2005 trip as well, but hasn’t organised them into sets yet. Blighmy that one was cold… and as you can see from the image above, the visibility wasn’t always that great!

Watch this amazing top tip! Super simple solution using string, a bolt and a washer to virtually eliminate vertical camera shake and reduce horizontal by a lot too. Obviously not going to be as good as a tripod, but weights nothing and fits in your pocket. I’m definitely going to make one of these for my big walk.

Right this is the last of my previous holiday videos I’ll bore you with (until I finish editing the last 2 that is). But this is probably my favourite so far, it’s the highlights of our trek across the Alps in 2004.

We had a week in Chamonix getting fit and teaching the others glacier crossing skills and crevasse rescues etc. It was suppose to culminate in the summit of Mt. Blanc, but there was crap loads of snow in early June and our progress was slower than expected. We had to turn back before we got to the top in order the see a crucial England European Championship football game - I think it’s was that one that France beat us in extra time… should of kept on going for the top! Anyhow’s the fun really started when we got on The Haute Route which is a week and a half high level route from Chamonix to Zermatt almost entirely on glaciers. It was early in the season so all the huts were shut and we had them to ourselves (found some weed in one which was nice). Never saw anyone else in the high mountains the whole time, had them all to ourselves. There was no foot prints in the snow to follow, which led to numerous hairy unexpected detours, once down completely the wrong valley!

I love the song I’ve edited it too, it’s Catch As Catch Can by Burt Bacharach. You might remember it from the end chase sequence in Woody Allen’s What’s New Pussycat?

Blighmy this is a blast from the past! Just dragged out my old holiday video from summer 2003, hardly recognise myself with no facial hair, or even any on the top of my head for that matter…

This was a 3 week walk across part of the Pyrenean High Level Route. It was the first long distance walk I’d done with mates rather than the parents, hence the amount of booze we can be seen to be consuming! It was a great trip and the first of it’s kind for Paul, who has joined me every year since on my summer ramblings.

Of course The Who’s fantastic Baba O’Riley is the soundtrack.

I posted a few days ago my thoughts on what camcorder I should get to video my big walk. Most people didn’t think I’d be able to store the video on an iPod, but I’ve had a number of good alternative suggestions. Most promising of which is the Wolverine ESP 5250, it’s basically a 250GB portable hard disk with a memory card slot already built it. If think this would be plenty of storage and a reasonably minimum effort solution. The camera I like is about 460g with battery, the Wolverine is 290g with battery, so that makes the basic setup 750g. Which is dissapointingly exactly the same as my old camera… I was hoping to reduce weight, but at least only half of will be round my waist which should make walking with it more comfortable.

But I also like the idea of spending the £350 that the Wolverine would cost on eight or so 8GB memory sticks (can get them £45 on amazon), they hold 1 hour of full quality video and don’t weigh anything or take up much space. Not much total storage, but I think I might be able to juggle them about sending full ones to someone who can then copy them to a computer and post them back to a post office pick up point we know we’ll be going through. It sounds a bit more risky, lost or delayed/missed in the post etc, but would be incredibly light weight!

Also of note is the HDR-SR12E, which Sony have just announced. Looks nice, love the big metal knob on the front, plus it records full 1920×1080 video. Only problem is the 120GB hard drive isn’t quite big enough, would still need to juggle video around a bit on memory sticks, which I’m not sure is worth the 100g weight saving (comes in at 650g with battery).

So after all that, the solution I think I might go for is just the Sony HDR-CX6 and a bunch of memory sticks which I’ll have to send back and forth. It might end up being a bit of a headache… but I really don’t want the extra weight, sure it’ll all work out fine in the end. Going to sit on it for a while though before I buy anything, might still change my mind. Thanks everyone for your suggestions and advice :)

No I haven’t just got back from Kenya sadly… This is an old video intro from February 2005, just working my way through past videos and getting them up.

This was quite a varied 3 week trip, my friend Daisy organised it, her parents live out there so we had use of their huge ex-safari Landrover to get about in which was amazing. First we climbed Mt. Kenya, then we spent a few day at daisy’s parents country pile, then we went on safari, then finally we had a week on the coast taking it easy. One of the best holiday’s I’ve ever been on, would thoroughly recommend it!

Incidentely does anyone know what the song I’ve used is? It was just a untitled track xx on my iTunes that seemed perfect, but don’t know who it’s by…

This is a bit of a long shot, but I was wondering whether someone knew what was illustrated above was possible?

Basically I’m looking for the lightest and most minimal effort way of filming my 6 month trek across America. I’ve got a mini DV tape camcorder that’s done me proud on previous treks, but it’s about 10 years old now and could do with an upgrade. HD seems to be the future proof way forward, but the availability & cost of HD tapes in the towns I’ll be passing through is a worry, so I’ve been having a look at the other solutions on the market.

My uncle at Christmas had Sony HDR-SR8E with a 100GB hard disk. Although 100GB is a lot, it’s only 12.5 hours of full quality HD footage, not really enough for a 6 months trek. I came across a discussion about camcorders for backpacking that suggested if you had a camcorder that recorded to SD cards you could then back them up on a big portable hard drive. On the forum they were taking about the Sanyo HD1, but reckoned it’s image quality wasn’t up to scratch, so I was thinking about the Sony HDR-CX6EK instead. It isn’t as light as the Sanyo, but 340g isn’t bad and apparently the image quality is top notch.

Ok so here’s the set up I have in mind: Film on the Sony HDR-CX6 and a couple of 8GB memory sticks. Then transfer the video to a portable hard disk, I’m thinking Me and Paul could both get a 160GB iPod (which would also be quite useful when our conversation dries up). This’ll give us 320GB of storage (8GB is an hour of full quality video) so that’s 40 hours of footage, which I reckon is probably enough (certainly wouldn’t want to edit any more…)

The problem is, would it work? I don’t really see why it shouldn’t, but I’ve been searching the web and haven’t been able to find any confirmation. The thing that worries me is getting the video from the memory stick onto a iPod without a computer. If I had a Memory Stick USB adaptor and iPod photo Camera Connector would it transfer the video to the iPod? Then I suppose is it possible to get everything back on a mac and in iMovie or Final Cut from an iPod?

Well if anyone has any experience of the above please let us know how it went, or if anyone has any better suggestions I’m all ears.

First post of the year! 2008 is quite a special year for me because back in 2000 when I left university, me and my mate Paul made a pact to do something this year… that something was to walk the Continental Divide Trail together. So for 8 years I’ve been looking forward to this time, but now I’m thinking that it’s come a bit soon and that I should of done a tad more preparation!

The Continental Divide Trail is 3000 odd mile walk from Mexico to Canada following the Rocky mountain ridge which forms the east to west watershed of the United States, it’ll take about 6 months to complete. The reason we choose it was purely because it was the longest walk we could find any information on, the reason we picked 2008 was because we had no money and thought by now we’d have all our student debt paid off and money in the bank!

We’re due to set off in about 4 months, got loads of planning to do first… should be an exciting year though :)

I finally got round to finishing my holiday video of our visit to the Jotunheimen in Norway September 2005. A bit late I know… but better late than never!

We spent 2 weeks wandering around, climbing mountains (including Norway’s highest, Galdhøpiggen) and trying to keep warm. Above is the intro, if you’re really interested to see what walking in Jotunheimen is like you can download the whole movie here (130MB!).

The soundtrack is War of Confusion by The Kleptones.