Jet boil once again, fails to disappoint. Just great performance , easy to use, light, durable, frozen hands can manage it.
New Hydrapaks-full force 2L rule. Never been a hydra pack person, but these are engineered with superhero strength, superior material and design-lots of thought went into these. They are clunky if you are not hooking them into your pack, which we unfortunately did not have room to do at points, but their construction is superb. Highly recommend for conditions that require reliability.
I am NOT a glove girl. Never have gloves kept my sausages warm or even just at a status quo where the blood flows healthily. I’ve woolen handmade fingerless gloves with mitten covers, made by someone in Cambridge, and though they test my Renauds, paired with deep pockets, they work ok. So I forgot to borrow Marian’s heated, magical mittens in the rush of our departure, and very very very quietly worried about this. The LAST thing I wanted was an “I told you so” from Maxwell. Even though he loves them so. In the Anchorage airport Max suggested indoor gloves “me and Dad had these on our trip.” Simple fleecy/ northfacey gloves with a bit more umph. I’ve been wearing them under my fingerless mits, and am so wonderfully protected. I am the water girl and collect the water from the mountain top creek for meals, and coffee, and our washing bucket. Max thinks I’m a beast, but it’s really just the fortitude of these glove/ mits that give me an edge. The water was similar on our last trip, when I had no protection, and I remember my fingers being sore and numb until around 10a each morning. Max was 9 then :) so I imagine he wouldn’t know about any of that. Aw, little Max. Top rating for my Alaska Artic Gloves in Anchorage’s Ted Something Airport!
Goal Zero Solar guy is okay. I wished I’d bought our old solar charger (Suntastic I think, or some silly name like that) which was very light, very reliable, and a friend until lost on the last mountain pass. The Goal Zero is standard so I went for the Nomad 14 model. It’s weight, a hefty 3-4lbs, but it lays flat against my back, and is pretty effective. Maybe 2 hours to charge Max’s iPod fully from not a ton of sun. My phone needs full, direct sun for an hour or so. I give it a meh, but it did work.
Mountain Hardware >0 degree sleeping bag delivers. I hATe swaddling, and am a crazy sprawled sleeper (especially since I’ve had a big girl bed), so the first ten minutes I had a little claustrophobic mini fit. I was pretty sure I was done, but did my meditative mantra “chill out Danielle, you need to grow up and make this work,” and I sorted a reasonable position out for sleeping. I still do not like straight jacket sleeping bags, but am grateful for this one. It’s cold, and I wasn’t, and somehow I wasn’t hot either. THAT is the reason why I am particularly impressed. Somehow Mountain Hardware figured out how to balance that horrifically challenging temperature/ ventilation conundrum.
My Durafold leggings and Terramor turtleneck shirts are amazing. Can’t remember if those names are correct, but both are keeping me warm, not sweaty, dry, awesome. Socks too are super warm. I have actually been wearing running socks to keep my feet cool when walking, and and hiking socks when cold at night, but if you need a solid pair of socks for below freezing, these socks are for you. (Full disclosure: our days have been warm—30-40 degrees, which is really not bad. It’s the night time and early morning that temps sink, so we are not terribly roughing it).
Sorrel boots. So fashionable. Well fair: these suckers are totally waterproof and impress with impermeablility. Very, very weak soles and I could feel every individual rock as if wearing barefoot sneaks. So they’re squishy, and are definitely not hikers like my old shoes. Warm. Dry. Super dry really. Just mire than I really needed in a spring time Alaska.
BREAKING NEWS! There is snow in Alaska! Max and I were just dumped on by a heavy 32 hr snowfall. These boots? Dry, flexible, warm, perfect!
Alps Mountaineering 4 Season Tent is roomy. A piece of cake to put up, and has some great vestibule space. Do pick up some extra stakes with an L head or a hooked top, because these stakes sort of blow. Tent City (who knew?!) in Central Square had a bunch of stuff for our trip, including super cheap bundles of extra stakes.
Seal Line waterproof, rip proof, kill proof bags. Another Tent City find, this held our food for an extra protection beyond bear canisters. They absolutely hold up and mask any smells. The design is superior to anything I’ve seen like this, and despite cursing it’s big, heavy existence, the food bag came through for us.
