The Week In Review

I hate November in Finland. It is by far the most miserable and grey month, and I decided that this will be the last November I will have spent in Finland. Next year I will swap this grey misery of fog and no sunshine to a month at the beach or mountains or rainforest or all of the aforementioned, somewhere in the south where the sun shines and the sky is blue. There shall be possibilities for hiking, climbing and biking as well, besides lounging at the beach. After some time googling for ecological holiday homes and only finding rubbish a friend recommended me Airbnb. I had a look at the site, checked available accommodations at our preferred destinations, and it definitely looks like the way to go. So if you're equally fed up with grey, foggy, depressive, snowless Novembers in you neck of the world, check out Airbnb.



Darren lives in Australia. Australia is totally a country where I could picture myself living. Their Novembers are not grey & depressive. Not at all, as Darren shows on his packrafting the shoalhaven river trip.

John is walking the GR7 at the moment, and it took him to Murcia last week. The sun shines also in Spain.

Nick welcomes back Greenwich Mean Time on Scolty Hill.

The 2012 Ultralight Backpackers Summit will be held in Slovenia, as decided by the majority of people who voted - Awesome =) Now lets find a date which suits most of us. Please go and choose your preferred date in the Doodle calendar before the hobbits, dwarfs and elves behind this continue planning!

David's mate took some fine photo on the HRP.

Dave discusses In Or Out?

Jack shows us a free, UL wood stove.

Alan had a wet walk on Greendale Tarn. Quite nice photos of a soggy hike.

John had a bit more luck with the weather on his hike around Troutbeck and Gowbarrow.

Cole continues to produce fine photos of his trips, and his latest Lassen National Park trip report is no exception.



You see, I would like November in Finland slightly better if there would not be the retarded day light saving BS-thing, and instead of greyness I could do with snow. Snow like Ryan had it on his Snowy Stratton daytrip.

James shares some thoughts on soloing.

Kinpu continues to post superb MYOG articles. His latest article shows how he made a backpack prototype out of tyvek - which has the advantage of being easy to work with and cheap. Inspiring!

Linda spent a weekend in Bend.

I interview Sean of OookWorks, the UK's only cottage manufacturer, and a great guy.

Karl shares some history of Iron Mountain.

Beth shares the gorgeous view of autumn forests in Appalachia.

Thinking about walking John O'Groats to Land's End? Read Christine's Conclusion of her JOGLE and you might reconsider it. Or possibly she should have read Mike's Successful Long Distance Path Walking article beforehand.



Ken is currently in Turkey. Turkey is the beautiful country between the Mediterranean and Black Sea. It also has beautiful Novembers. Ken's account of his hikes around the country are well worth your time, and his Ephesus account will delight the history and archeology fans among you.

If you like grey and soggy weather, I reckon you will love Scotland. James seems to like Scotland, and Bothys. I wonder if he was disappointed by the sun and blue sky, which occasionally seemed to come through.

If you like racing, backpacking, and a combination of both, check out the inaugural Bob Marshall Wilderness Open which Dave is putting together.

A MTB park video. From this Mike guy, which takes awesome photos and makes sweet 29" wheels.

Markus not only makes gorgeous knifes - you should see my new UL blade - but also likes to go high and far. His Trettachspitze and Höfatsüberschreitung photos and report are well worth seeing and reading.

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16 Questions, comments, observations:

  1. "...I would like November in Finland slightly better if there would not be the retarded day light saving BS-thing..."Well, daylight saving ended on the 30th October in Finland, so that at least should make you a bit happier.
    Apart from that: I agree - November sucks...
    / Karl

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  2. Yeah, which means it now gets dark before five already since a week, and has ruined my normal sleeping rhythm just as long :/

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  3. I was born in Poland and hated Novembers too. Now, in CA I cannot wait for rains to start. :)
    I used Airbnb and loved it. 

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  4. "If you like grey and soggy weather, I reckon you will love Scotland."  outrageous! kind of true...

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  5. Hendrik - Thanks for including me in your WIR!

    Thanks,
    Karl

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  6. Linda Williams7 November 2011 06:12

    Thank you for your kind comment on my blog.  Yes, November here in Portland, OR can be quite dreary also.  I just keep thinking, the ski season is coming......the ski season is coming......

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  7. That's what you get for living ooop north.
    Been there, done that...  B-/

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  8. Have enjoyed your blog immensely...definitely better quality than most! You may be interested in this blog by a fellow German hiker in Australia:-

    http://mattdownunder.com/

    Another one I liked (also based in Oz) :-

    http://remoteriverman.com

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  9. ScottishMountaineer7 November 2011 11:32

    Good review this week. You're mostly right about the Scottish weather, but this weekend was great. Maybe November is better here than Finland....

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  10. Like Karl, thanks for the inclusion in your WIR. Your compilation is always well worth reading. 

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  11. Hey punk, dont you realise already that a mandatory piece of kit like new knife, is worth far more than one small note and link to picture :).  far more interesting than a 45 rows of text any new migraine coloured but light rag or battery run gadget :).

    Seriously, please do share us some pics and details of it, other than weight too. It looks pretty damn nice already, but hows it working and such ? Whittle up a "trystick" with it, or open a few sausage packings,  carve some "kiehiset" or something.

    Peace.

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  12. Well, thank you for the mention! I do love autumn in the Appalachians. 

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  13. Love that knife. A real beauty.

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  14. For vocations - try stay for free with couchsurfing, its quite popular

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  15. Thanks for the WIR Hendrik. Another fine selection of reports, gear stuff and so on. I hope the weather improves for you - we've had two decent weekends in a row in Scotland!

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