Dear Santa,
today is your big day, and I am not sure if this reaches you in time. I hope Rudolph is ready for the trip around the world, and that you'll bring plenty of lightweight presents to a lot of good people, for example the awesome readers of Hiking in Finland and
Nordic Lightpacking.
Anyway, I was re-considering my wishes, and think I have decided on what I'd really would like to get this holiday season. A
Terra Rosa Gear Wandering Tarp would allow me to experience the beauty of tarping. A mere 220 gram and made of tyvek, it has plenty of tie-out points and allows for various pitching options. Made in beautiful Sydney, Australia, I'm sure it will bring sunshine to my trips!
The
OookWorks Multi-Shelter OookTub looks like the perfect solution to keep my sleeping place and gear dry in case the Australian sunshine doesn't succeed in coming through. A sweet 135 gram light including the limited edition festive OookWorks label, and a really smart strut system to have the sidewalls rise this is the perfect bathtub to go with the tarp. 220 cm long and 75 cm wide it even fits long folks.
To carry my tarp and OookTub and Wandering Tarp I believe the
Sea to Summit Ultra Sil Daypack from Watzmann-Laden would be just the right tool for my shiny new UL gear. At 68 gram and 20 liters volume it is the right pack to keep with the UL idea, and should offer plenty of space for an overnighter with my new gear!
The final piece to UL bliss would be a
LITEMOUNTAINGEAR Cuben Stuff Sack in Large. 7 gram for this 3 liter volume stuff sack would allow me to keep my down vest dry, or carry my UL kitchen.
All of it together weighs less than half a kilo (430 gram to be exact!) which gets me really excited! I'd love to find this sweet UL kit under my tree, and will make sure a hot cup of Minttu cacao is waiting for you, and a fresh supply of Reindeer Moss is waiting for Rudolph!
Best,
- An aspiring UL-Backpacker
Leave a comment with your most memorable outdoor experience and accompany it with a few photos. It would be great if it you slept at least one night outdoors (more are cool), though a memorable day trip will be fine as well. You got till midnight on the 27th of December, so you can spend time with your loved ones over the holidays.
UPDATE I
Comments are closed, chicos y chicas. I will go through the ones who qualify and hope to announce the winner shortly.
UPDATE II
Excuse the delay. So many good stories and cool photos, thank you all!
And the winner is... Korpijaakko! Please be in touch via
Email to get your set of awesome swag!
Disclaimer & Rules
Dear Santa,
today is your big day, and I am not sure if this reaches you in time. I hope Rudolph is ready for the trip around the world, and that you'll bring plenty of lightweight presents to a lot of good people, for example the awesome readers of Hiking in Finland and
Nordic Lightpacking.
Anyway, I was re-considering my wishes, and think I have decided on what I'd really would like to get this holiday season. A
Terra Rosa Gear Wandering Tarp would allow me to experience the beauty of tarping. A mere 220 gram and made of tyvek, it has plenty of tie-out points and allows for various pitching options. Made in beautiful Sydney, Australia, I'm sure it will bring sunshine to my trips!
The
OookWorks Multi-Shelter OookTub looks like the perfect solution to keep my sleeping place and gear dry in case the Australian sunshine doesn't succeed in coming through. A sweet 135 gram light including the limited edition festive OookWorks label, and a really smart strut system to have the sidewalls rise this is the perfect bathtub to go with the tarp. 220 cm long and 75 cm wide it even fits long folks.
To carry my tarp and OookTub and Wandering Tarp I believe the
Sea to Summit Ultra Sil Daypack from Watzmann-Laden would be just the right tool for my shiny new UL gear. At 68 gram and 20 liters volume it is the right pack to keep with the UL idea, and should offer plenty of space for an overnighter with my new gear!
The final piece to UL bliss would be a
LITEMOUNTAINGEAR Cuben Stuff Sack in Large. 7 gram for this 3 liter volume stuff sack would allow me to keep my down vest dry, or carry my UL kitchen.
All of it together weighs less than half a kilo (430 gram to be exact!) which gets me really excited! I'd love to find this sweet UL kit under my tree, and will make sure a hot cup of Minttu cacao is waiting for you, and a fresh supply of Reindeer Moss is waiting for Rudolph!
Best,
- An aspiring UL-Backpacker
Leave a comment with your most memorable outdoor experience and accompany it with a few photos. It would be great if it you slept at least one night outdoors (more are cool), though a memorable day trip will be fine as well. You got till midnight on the 27th of December, so you can spend time with your loved ones over the holidays.
UPDATE I
Comments are closed, chicos y chicas. I will go through the ones who qualify and hope to announce the winner shortly.
UPDATE II
Excuse the delay. So many good stories and cool photos, thank you all!
And the winner is... Korpijaakko! Please be in touch via
Email to get your set of awesome swag!
Disclaimer & Rules
Advent Calendar - Door 24
Probably one of the most memorable trips was one of my first trips as a backpacker and I was with my son. We headed out to a local state park for an overnight trip. It was on this trip that I wanted to test out a few of my new pieces of backpacking gear. Namely, my tent (a heavy but reliable Kelty Grand Mesa 2) and my new Camelbak bladder which I watched get run over by a truck with no harmful effects in a video.
ReplyDeleteThis trip had been a bit wet as it had been raining on and off all day and drizzling rain in between. I figured that this would be a great time to see if my tent would stay dry.
Once we set up camp, I quickly cooked so that we could eat and then clean up so that we could scurry inside our dry tent. In the midst of setting everything up I threw our packs (carelessly) inside the tents at the foot end of my son's sleeping bag.
Upon retreating into our tent I immediately found a very large puddle! My first thought was that the tent was definitely not waterproof, but the clues lead me to disbelief that this was a possibility. What I found out is that when I threw our packs inside the tent my pack landed on top of the bite valve on my new Camelbak bladder and over time emptied almost 2 liters of water onto the top of my son's sleeping bag and pad, and then in the floor...
I bundled the wet tent up and deflated the soaked sleeping pad. Then I dried out the inside of the tent. I then gave my son my sleeping bag and I laid atop my sleeping pad trying my best to cover myself with what extra clothing I had.
In the end I definitely learned some lessons. But that is not what made it so memorable for me. What got me is when my 8 year old son (at that time) told me that he would sleep on top of the sleeping bag rather than under it since I could not sleep under a cover too. He said it wasn't fair and that he wanted to make it fair. (Keep in mind that this was also his very first backpacking trip too.)
Come morning time, we were both under part of the sleeping bag and the rest of the trip went smooth.
I have some memorable trips from the past, but only my old non-digitized slides to accompany them. Last winter's ice trip from Åland on bike with Toni was however very memorable: We had some hard moments, success was not guaranteed due to the very hard weather and there are few opportunities to repeat the trip, since the ice is strong enough only maybe once per decade. The whole story is here:
ReplyDeletehttp://yetirides.blogspot.com/2011/02/ice-road-that-was-not.html
One of my most memorable backpacking trips was also a hunting trip. It was only a day trip, but it was by far the most memorable.
ReplyDeleteThe entire story is on my blog, but I will summarize it here. http://socalbowhunter.blogspot.com/2011/10/adventure-you-wont-believe-episode-two.html
My hunting partner and I backpacked in to our spot and sat for most of the day watching deer and waiting. Our packs were heavy and we sat in the shade to avoid the beating SoCal sun. Towards the end of the day I started snapping some photos of the beautiful LA landscape and noticed a black bear on the adjacent ridge. I was a bit startled and we decided to pick up and head home.
On the way out, we ran into a forest of poison oak, a rattlesnake, a tarantula and countless skeletons. It was quite an adventure! While we faced countless trials, we stuck together, kept our heads and now we have a tale to share with everyone.
This year's TGO challenge with some pretty memorable weather.
ReplyDeletehttps://picasaweb.google.com/frank.spychalski/110512_TGO?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCJv3noL5-ayzwwE
Again, my images were not uploaded... weird
ReplyDeleteThe most memorable trip of this year was my Grand Canyon R2R this may. Epic landscape, temperatures between 3°C on the North Rim and 44°C down by the Colorado River and a place i definitly will come back.
ReplyDelete... and now with pics...
ReplyDeleteAdventure bicycle ride in Finnish Lapland with my family was best trip of this year!
ReplyDeleteAgain fresh memories from army times. This year's march we did a four-day ski hike in Ivalo river area. It was my first ski hike, so that way it'll stay as one of the most memorable hikes I've ever done. At the beginning the weather was really sunny and the snow was literally sticking into our skis. A bit of candle to the bottoms and off we go.
ReplyDeleteOn the second day I had the most memorable encounter with wildlife to date. Me and my mate were skiing ahead of the others (as scouts), when suddenly a golden eagle jumps off the ground maybe 15-20m away of us! It slowly flies away and soon we discover the reindeer cub it was eating.
The rest of the hike was quite memorable too. The weather was ranging between sunny and literally rainy. Temps varied between plus five degrees and minus 20 degrees celsius!
Looks like I uploaded the pics in reverse order, but anyways.
I have two memorable trips from this year, but, the last one I dont actually remember much off, and there are not many pictures of it due to my stupefied state and the fact that it was an exam.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, the pictures are of a two day gentle trip around Kinder Scout and Snake Path in the Peak District, UK June this year. The first few hours were normal, trudging up hills, cursing my short legs as Ash literally ran up to the plateau. Lunch was consumed in vast quantities. We started to circumnavigate the plateau, but there we this very inviting looking trig point, that was 'just' over there.... across a bog. Probably would have been quicker to walk round. Anyway, the mud actually saved part of my leg. You see, while applying suncream that morning, I had forgotten that I was wearing shorts. And what I didn't realise because it was so windy was that I was being seriously burnt. It wasn't till later in the day that I started to realise something was wrong. Navigational errors, I fell over twice and at one point, I couldn't remember where we were. Ash thought it hilarious, and I was beyond caring just wanting to put my tent up and go to sleep. Second degree burns dont look that bad to begin with, but they are sure good at warming up a sleeping bag past the oven stage.
So, I awake next morning to find swollen legs that dont straighten or bend properly at the knees. The blisters hadn't started forming yet, but they did sometime during the day. The pain wasn't too bad to begin with. I just needed regular breaks (picture 11) It was only when we took a break for lunch (picture 12) that hell descended. The pain killers did not work. Sitting down was fine until I needed to stand up, and the extra pressure of the blood in my legs was agony. There were a couple of blissful moments when crossing streams, I took the wet option and stoop in the middle. Late afternoon, we stopped at a tumble down cottage next to a very large steam (when does a stream become a river?) mainly to find the last bag of skittles. We didn't find them, but we did go swimming, or in my case, floating because I couldn't kick my legs. That was THE highlight of the day for me. Then back to the car for the 5 hour drive home.
But the story does not end there. I went to work, every day for the following week, although it probably would have been better for me to take myself off to see a doctor. Maybe get an IV, replace some fluids, get some burn gel on my legs. I couldn't bend or straighten my legs properly. Some of the blisters actually bled. I had to sleep with my legs propped up, because if anything touched my legs I tended to scream, loudly.
The unfortunate thing was, the friday, sat and sun was my BEL assessment. Two days of hiking. Yeah, and I was stupid enough not to back out. We were 10 mins into the first day hike, and I fell over. At the time, I didn't know it, but my weight, combined with 12kg of a backpack had smashed my coccyx into three pieces. Of course it was painful, but I was more embarrassed that I had fallen over. So, I just sucked it up, and pushed on. The most memorable moment for me was the next morning, when I was commended on my superb navigation skills over a particularly rough section of moor. I just had to smile and nod, because I had no memory at all of walking across a moor the day before.
So, the learning curve starts with ALWAYS wear sunscreen. And ends with the personal revelation that I can pass a walking & group management assessment while dehydrated, recovering from shock, with second degree burns to 90% of both legs, and a broken bone.
The best views of mountains you wish to walk on are often found on the other side of the valley from them. This trip was so memorable as we had a sunset that was a joy to behold, and the hills in the far north of Scotland there are so good anytime to be honest.
ReplyDeleteI had an uncharacteristic sunny trip to
ReplyDeletenorth Wales in the summer. A shockingly early alarm call followed by
a painless wizz up the motorway to get there at a reasonable time of
the day made for a good start. The haze cleared as we started to
climb, though the 'path' we we're following (never trust a friend's
brother's friends advice...) involved a hugely steep start.
Part of my reasoning for lightening my
load is so I can carry more luxury items... I was packing the
ultimate in high calorie camp food – fondue with an organic French
stick to dip... and a small bottle of port.
A great camp, great weather, a great
walk, good banter and a sensible decision not to try to scrambling
with big packs.
Hopefully the picture will work... sorry for the interesting colour - phine camera is rubbish!
The most memorable outdoor experience I had was hiking in the Serra Tramuntana at March this year.
ReplyDeleteWe went hiking in a group of three guys and while preparing we made a deal: Everyone had to take one useless object on purpose.
When we discussed, who brought the most useless object, we added some things, which were useless by mistake and took a picture. This picture is attached.
As you will see, the hole puncher is really useless and heavy, so it won the contest.
The heaviest backpack of this trip had about 17 kg with food and water included; nevertheless, we met another group of hikers, which carried backpacks with 25 kg each, without food and water!
Happy Holidays!
Weirdest one this year was in september walking a usually crowded part of Sörmlandsleden in Sweden. I was quite happy only seeing three other hikers 30 km in and felt that I had the whole forest for myself. After pitching my tent by a small lake and settling in for the big chill with some ducks to keep me company I suddernly heard.. something. Someone talking. Russian. Goddamit, I'd already pitched the tent and gotten cozy. Switched to evening-gear and everything. The people chatting got louder. And louder. Must be getting drunk, I thought. Sounds like they're a couple. And now they are screaming at each other! The anger bouncing of the mirror like lake. Then all the sudden, BAM! BAM! I froze. Where those shots fired!? Complete silence followed. I couldnt move. Then, they started talking again. Puh, must have been something else. Eventually their discussion died down and I managed to fall asleep. I never saw them and they never saw me. Moral of the story? Never once been afraid of wild animals or creepy crawlers but other people - scary stuff! MERRY X-MAS!
ReplyDeletedefinitely my trip to Sarek in Sweden during the summer this year. Not ultralight yet, but every time I buy new gear, I try to go for the light options.
ReplyDeleteWe had very good weather for most of the trip, so that contributed to a wonderful time outdoor, away from civilization.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/55760207@N03/sets/72157627563824706/with/6100354503/
My two daughters and I were in Algonquin Park for five days this summer. The weather was great and we had a great time. During a hike to a acidic lake we found this little guy, the kids were quite impressed of the size. One morning I was making coffee when I heard sounds like foot step in the water, which was strange at 6:30 in the morning. What a surprise when a saw a bull and cow moose 10 feet away from the tent. I woke up the girls and never seen them moving so fast out of the tent. This was the coolest and closest encounter ever to such a large mammal.
ReplyDeleteMy trip to Finnmarksvidda in the far north of Norway with Jörgen last winter will always be my most memorable trip of 2011. New experiences, adversity, extremes of weather and companionship. It had everything that makes venturing out into the wilds so important to me.
ReplyDeletehere's a picture of my neighbours from the trip described http://t.co/hSxEVuZW
ReplyDeleteI remember last year my girlfriend and me, it was our first hikking with lightweight equipment, we only had a map and a route between two towns. We don't knew where we going to sleep. we hHad walked only a few km, when suddenly appeared an idyllic lake full of water lilies and two swans swimming. We found that there was a fire place, so it was the perfect place to spend the night. We employ all afternoon sitting and enjoying this place. We had our new Tarptent DD pithed. We spend a great memorable and romantic afternoon.
ReplyDeleteMy story is about my first backpack trip with my girlfriend and the moment I began to think Lightweight. We planned to do the Presidential range in the White mtns as a 3 day trip. Neither of us had backpacked in a while but are in decent shape. We did not have a system down, she didn't have a light backpack or light sleeping bag. I borrowed a rental pack from work and would have grabbed a sleeping bag if i had known all she had was a 5lb 0 degree synthetic. All I still had was my 5lb pack, 4lb sleeping bag, whisperlite stove, 4.5lb tent (not so bad split up).
ReplyDeleteTook the shuttle to the northern part and headed up the approach trail to Mount Madison all was ok. First few miles were not bad, gradually up hill, then we hit the rocky slope of Madison itself. We are both rock climber so steep approach trails are not new to us but with 30lb packs it was a lot harder. We eventually gain the summit and descend to the Hut area and find our way to the campsite. we are both tired and sore. We've only done 8-9 miles of 21, not good. She tells me she would like to turn back tomorrow and i reluctantly agree. Although by morning my legs tell me that is a good idea. We made the best of it and had a warm dinner and slept soundly with a great mountain view to wak up to. Packed up and hiked a fairly easy trail out to the shuttle stop to return us to our car. We spent the afternoon at a cool waterfall/flume that cuts through the granite in Crawford Notch.
I have now changed my philosophy and gear to be much lighter and to be able to hike hard terrain without my gear holding me back. We have bouth bought a new packs that fits better, lighter 3 season sleeping bags, lighter more comfortable sleeping pads, and a light canister stove. The items we could win would add in nicely to that change and be lighter still.
Merry christmas everybody
Jake
pics are in reverse chrono. order. 1. Basin @ crawford notch, 2. campsite view, 3. me at Madison Summit, 4. Me with heavy pack on the Madison rock slope, 5. Me at the Valley way trailhead.
ReplyDeleteDuring my trip in iceland I had constant rain and fog for three days. Arriving at camp soaked and cold every evening. Finally, I reached Landmannalaugar and all the strain fell from me. After a bath in the hot spring I walked up on the Bláhnúkur...as I reach the peak the clouds vanished and the sun illuminated the hills. A moment of inner peace, as time stood still and I knew I had to come back to this beautiful Island.
ReplyDeleteMost memorable is a rather difficult rubric. Here's a trip from long ago that isn't all over the net, unlike my more obvious candidates (wilderness classic).
ReplyDeleteYears ago when we both lived in Moab Phillip and I got a snif of a remote section of slot in a big canyon system off an even bigger river canyon, and went to explore. Overnight gear, food, a gallon of water, wetsuit, 130 meters of ropes, rap and anchor gear. Heavy packs. The first miles were classic dry sandstone canyon, then we dropped below the spring level and the canyon bottom became flooded swamp, with walls steep enough to prevent sidehilling. A few waterfalls got rapped or downclimbed via loose garbage on the sides. We hit a confluence, dropped the overnight gear, and decided to push on. It was May and we had lots of daylight, but lots of unknowns ahead.
We found the slot, which much to our surprise was in a layer of amazingly hard and compact basalt. Anchors were hard to come by, and several pools had to be swum. We needed bolts for the final 50m free hanging drop, but expecting normal desert conditions only had big 1/2" by 4" jobs. Hand drilling took a long time. Eventually we were down, the ropes pulled, and all that was left was to go a mile down canyon before climbing back and around to the head of the slot via an enormous, multi-gullied hanging talus field. Rocks kicked loose fell a long way.
We didn't make it back to camp until midnight, slept in, and had an uneventful walk out the next day.
[Photo is Phillip on an earlier adventure; no shots exist of this particular trip.]
http://t.co/hSxEVuZW
ReplyDeleteMy most memorable outdoor experience would easily be hiking the Appalachian Trail in '02, but a more recent outdoor night I had was last July, while hiking the GR20. My hiking partner and I did a double day coming out of Ascu Stagnu, all the way through the cirque de la Solitude and the following refuge de Tighjettu, and further on to refuge de Ciottulu a i Mori. We arrived rather late to our night camp, and one day early than expected (As we didn't plan in advance to pull this double day), but the caretakers agreed to give us free tent spots instead of the dormitory room we had for the following night. We did miss dinner though, and had to buy expensive sandwiches later. Never mind, the expensive beer made it all go down smoother.
ReplyDeleteTenting at 1991m was a first one for me, and the night did get rather cold, but it wasn't too bad in my GoLite quilt, and my TarpTent. I set an alarm clock to 3am, and my friend and I stepped outside our tents to look up and see the most amazing night skies ever. We even tried taking some photos of it, with a long exposure on our camera, but it's just a pocket, and we got mostly black photos. The memories are still intact.
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/MWN0AyW1rCzf62JOAi2IMdMTjNZETYmyPJy0liipFm0?feat=directlink
Probably my most memorable experience was this summer when I took my daughter (5) backpacking for a 3 day father-daughter trip. We went to a fairly isolated area of BC, Canada and enjoyed the noise of nature, caught a trout, and slept out in below freezing nights in warm sleeping bags. The time spent together was excellent, we have lots of memories and photos and most importantly she enjoyed "all of it".
ReplyDeleteIt was a bit nostalgic, because as a family we had taken her 4 years earlier (see included photo), just after she turned 1.
I have taken quite a few trips to incredibly beautiful places, but my most memorable trip this year was a simple overnight trip I took with my wife in late August. We hiked and camped along Siouxon Creek in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest of Washington in the US. This is an emerald green creek full of waterfalls, swimming holes, and fish. The weather was perfect as well—cloudless and 80ºF (27ºC) with just a slight breeze coming through the old growth, shadowy forest.
ReplyDeleteWe hiked only a handful of miles into a beautiful camp spot overlooking Siouxon Falls. We set up camp and my wife opted for a nap in the hammock we brought. I opted to take my tenkara rod down to the pool at the base of the falls where I sight-fished and caught around ten native rainbow trout on dry flies—two of which we kept for dinner. A couple hours later, we hiked a bit down the trail to an excellent swimming hole with a 10' high jumping rock. We swam for a couple hours and I caught a few more trout resting deep in the pool, and then we headed back to camp. We had a wonderful night around the fire and slept soundly under our MLD Trailstar (wife-approved with the addition of the BearPaw Wilderness Designs Pentanet, a trailstar-specific inner net tent that turns the tarp into a double wall tent).
In the morning, I went back down to the creek and caught twenty more fish before my better half was awake, and kept one for breakfast. We ate oats and sat around the fire until it was too warm to bear it any longer, after which we leisurely broke camp and hiked back to the car.
It was the ideal summer weekend.
You can see all the pictures here: http://wenthiking.com/users/1-kyle-meyer/hikes/865-siouxon-creek
My most memorable outdoor trip involved meeting up with hikers I had never met before, only talked to through the Interwebs. We decided to go hiking in the Desert outside San Diego on a path that none of us had taken. Here are some of the things that happened: (a) we got lost because none of us had hiked the trail before, (b) I got separated from them and almost had to start bushwacking toward the car, (c) they got the brunt of cacti to the shins on the way up, I got stuck multiple times on the way down, (d) once we finally found where we were going, it required going sideways on a 45 degree slope for 1.5 miles, (e) we got lost, AGAIN and (f) the post-hike pizza and beers never tasted so good. I have had plenty of memorable experiences outdoors but this one was one for the record books.
ReplyDeleteMy most memorable outdoor experience is probably my first trip to the Norwegian mountains 10 days at Hardangervidda opening my eyes for the outdoor life in the Scandinavian mountains. Circumstances made it 20 years before my next trip. This time I went to Norwegian and Swedish Lapland in the summer of 2011 walking from Katterat in Norway to Unna Allakas just across the Swedish border where we had to abandon our trip. But in spite of the premature end of the trip and the pretty bad weather the trip was great and I am right now planning the trip for summer 2012 which will go to the Abisko area.
ReplyDeleteMy girlfriend and I hiked the last 40 miles of the Ozark Highlands Trail over Spring Break this year. We got some great pitches, and an average of 11 miles a day. The area was gorgeous with the normal rolling mountains of Arkansas around us all the time, following the Buffalo River. It dipped into the 30s for the first two nights. There were constant water-crossings to be made, over logs or on foot, or etc., and it made it feel like quite the adventure (as the terrain wasn't terribly extreme). We seemed to be the only hikers in the area; it seemed the Arkansinians hadn't quite made it out of hibernation. At the very end, after enduring the hike there, we had to cross the Buffalo River which we had been following for nearly the entire hike. I ended up crossing the fast-flowing, snow melt-pregnant river six times (one to test the path I had chosen, one to carry my things, and one to carry hers ((she's not terribly tall))) using a heavy log. We somehow made it across, and after that we just lounged on the pebbled shore, watching the sunset and taking in the trip.
ReplyDeleteMy Wife and I Backpacked the Porcupine Mountains in Michigan for our Honeymoon (It was her first time out). I remember not bringing bug netting for our faces. I didn't think they would be that bad. When we went for our first trek it was unbearable, then we remembered they were selling them in the DNR station. After, we bought them I remember cooking with tons of bugs in our food and my wife saying. Mmmm Protein, I knew then that I married the right person. I also remember when she was setting up her camera equipment, I was laying on the ground reading covered in flys and mosquito's and none of them bothering us in the slightest with our netting on, in fact we were making jokes about it. What a good time, great views! https://plus.google.com/photos/117058340964799906376/albums/5690056962629856865
ReplyDeleteSelecting the most memobrable is too hard, but a memorable recent trip was an end season hike around the Mont Blanc massif. I guided a tour in Gran Paradiso national park and had 1 week left to do the TMB with 1 friend.
ReplyDeleteWe were one of the last around, did the tour in 5 days (instead of 10) and being end of summer, we had the first snow of the year. Not being prepared for snow, it was an adventure to find the trails, combined with 80km/h winds. After 3 days, sun broke through, melted the snow, and part 2 of our hike was real and hot summer. A nice 2 in 1! The third night we wanted to sleep in the winterraum of an alpine hut. it was far away, and we knew we would only get there just before it got dark and we had to pass the highest coll with deep snow. after doubting too long, we marched on and on our way up we met 2 canadians who said the conditions higher up were too severe so they returned they left us by saying the were experienced hikers ... We went on and with good luck, a bit of GPS, compas, map we arrived in the hut just before dark. We were welcomed by several groups who arrived there some hours ago, the stove was lit, 50 pieces of clothing were drying, they showed us a place to sleep and put our wet clothes. We exchanged food (for ex.: we got Tahine from an Israelian group, we gave choclat in return (being from belgium..) ) After dinner we discussed the route for the next day in the coasy hut next to the fire and exchanged hiking stories. 3 young french guys walked with us for some time the next 3 days.
Thomas
Lots of memorable trips, but a multi-day Monadnock-Sunapee Greenway backpack with my son in April is my most memorable overnighter of 2011. We packed pretty light with what gear we have, but having some of these UL goodies would certainly allow us to ramble farther afield on our journeys. Have a wonderful Christmas and thanks for doing this Advent Calendar - it was a great idea....
ReplyDeletehttp://farm6.staticflickr.com/5143/5639063656_77e971bc76_m.jpg
http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5181/5639060722_588d434bd5_m.jpg
http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5146/5638484765_431cd6db66_m.jpg
Went out for my first overnight ski trip two weekends ago, was a lot of fun learned a few things, brought too warm of a quilt and nearly froze my self in sweat haha. on the hike out , during the night a lynx had used my skin track to walk/chase a rabbit it was an interesting set of tracks to follow in the morning!
ReplyDeletei was in Waterton lakes national park, an amazing place in the winter, not a lot of people seem to use it, so its basically empty saw no one on my whole trek. compared to the summer when it has hundreds of thousands of tourists go through.
Here are a few shots, i just brought my go pro with me.
Merry Christmas!
........earlier this year with a team if friends we trekked for 6 days up the Makaroa Valley over to the Hunter River then over to Wills River Valley, Otago, New Zealand. It was special as it included a lot of Bush Bashing, as there was no trail for most of the walk. Also we had to spend hours in the rivers as it was the easiest route. A challenge but rewarding
ReplyDeletehi this is me in September of 2011 in the Carngorms of Scottand.
ReplyDeleteOne of my most memorable was the coastal bicycle travel in Gotland.
ReplyDeletemy most memorable trip was with my wife, up to Mueller Hut in the Mt Cook National Park in New Zealand. my hip is kaput, and she has a heart condition, so getting to the hut was a very good effort. we were well rewarded in the morning with an awesome sunrise, when the first rays of light hit the highest peak in our country... it was out of this world.
ReplyDeleteThose would make very, very cool Christmas presents! And thanks for the Advent Calender! A great idea that has generated great reader produced content to the blog.
ReplyDeleteI think my favourite outdoor experience is skiing on a rubbled and moving sea ice in Svalbard in the beginning of the Ultima Thule 2011 expedition. It's a mixture of excitement, a dream turning into reality, amazing surroundings, great sun set and exciting experience of sea ice moving under my skis. After the ski we camped at the shore and you could here the sounds the ice was making...
Pictures are from the first day of the expedition while skiing on the sea ice. And a shameless add: More pics in my gallery: http://korpijaakko.kuvat.fi/kuvat/Ultima-Thule-April-2011/
My first overnight trip with my son was definitely one of the more memorable ones. He really liked it so I guess it was a success. Need to do more trips with him next summer!
ReplyDeleteDifficult to mention the most memorable outdoor experience, so I mention this year's most memorable one.
ReplyDeleteThat was our ski overnight trip to Bakkanosi, a mountain top along the Nærøyfjord in Norway. Nice weather (although strong winds under the top, where we pitched our tents), good skiing and amazing views made this one the most memorable overnight trip of the year. Also memorable because my good friend Gunnar, moved to Oslo, right after the trip. We had a lot of nice overnight trips together in the last couple of years. We have not been able to have an overnighter together since then, but we'll try again next year !
I have several outdoor experiences that I'll never forget. Musquitos in Sweden, the fjords in Norway (the authentic reconstruction of a viking village we found in Gudvangen was a nice surprise), hot water springs in Iceland, all those experiences are memorable. Maybe the most special experience was standing on the Eyafjallajokull vulcano a few months after it had erupted and it had made air traffic over Europe impossible. The ground was so hot in some places that you couldn't stand still for too long. Looking down a hole in the ground to see the red glow of the lava was also pretty special.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, here are some photo's of Sweden, Norway and Iceland
Pics are apparently posted in reversed order, so the first 2 are from Iceland, the next 2 are from Norway and the last 2 are from Sweden.
ReplyDeleteOne of my friends also made some movies of our adventures in Sweden and Iceland.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIUjfIjh-OY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8HMfh63PMk&context=C33ae6bdADOEgsToPDskLi8MHoLO54GMO4bDW8cl2n
I really enjoyed reading everyone's stories below. Nice things you have experienced.
ReplyDeleteIn 2010 my girlfriend and me was hiking in Padjelanta national park in Sweden. One morning we woke up with this awesome view, great weather and clear blue sky. The nice weather stayed all day and we even took a short swim in the freezing water. Only downside this day was the mosquitoes.
The most memorable trip is the most recent one… :) This year, we had to travel to eastern Finland in search of the white christmas. Finallly, in Varkaus there was some snow. Not much but… oh joy!
ReplyDeleteMy best experience would have to be the first time that I went wild
ReplyDeletecamping. It was a 3 day trip in Snowdonia with very heavy bags, I was on a
leadership course and they had a very rigidly set kit list. :( But the first
night made up for it, we hiked to the summit of a mountain and camped there.
The views were amazing and I had never experienced such tranquillity.
Sadly, I didn't own a camera back then, and wouldn't have wanted the extra
weight!
Hendrik, I've really enjoyed reading your blog this year and it has been
the highlight of my weekly reading. So merry christmas to you and happy new
year!
My most memorable experience would have to be hiking the West Highland Way (my first long distance walk) with a group of friends. We set out with a group of 7, but after 2 days one of the couples had to stop because it was a tad too hard for them (we were carrying all of our (much too heavy) equipment ourselves - none of that fancy pack-carrying service for us!). Another pair decided to take the train for one day of the journey, because it was just pouring down non-stop (oh Scottish weather, how we adore thee).
ReplyDeleteWe actually hiked over 20 miles that rainy day in about 7 hours, which we couldn't believe ourselves when we arrived (before 17:00!) at our destination for the day. Especially because we had to divert from the route several times because of streams that had swollen to pretty nasty rapids overnight. But it made the experience that much better.
All in all, it was a great first experience with long-distance hiking and although we were a bit underprepared (and paid the price), we still made it through relatively unharmed and can't wait to do it again. In the first pic I've attached, you can see us just before setting off in Milngavie (I'm the one crouching) - packed like a pack mule and brimming with enthusiasm (even though we started out in some traditional Scottish weather). The second is our group (minus me) descending Conic Hill - our first encounter with something that was worthy of being called a hill (in Belgium we're used to some pretty level terrain). Third is what happens to small, tranquil rivers after hours and hours of Scottish rain - not that much fun if you have to cross one of those, trying to keep your feet and pack dry. And last but not least a picture of the (old) finish. The West Highland Way may not be the toughest or longest walk there is, but it was a challenge for us. A challenge we had fun tackling and learned a lot from.
If anybody's interested, you can see the entire album here (http://goo.gl/LSVuy), with some captions to help you along.
The most memorable trip of 2011 was our month long trip to Yosemite National Park in October. We climbed the El Capitan via the Lurking Fear route. We bivvied under the massive sequoia trees with our food in our sleeping bags to protect it from the bears (probably it was just bate for them to go for us!). We made it through the night without incidents and the next day we climbed our route in 20 hours before hiking down. We were back at the campsite exhausted after 25 hours on the move.
ReplyDeleteWell, it happened so, that 6-day hike this spring in Gorgany mountains in Ukraine was my the most memorable and also the very first outdoor experience.
ReplyDeleteIt began from the amazing photo that I saw on some hiking forum. Then I started to read about hiking. And I read a lot. Mostly it was forums and hiking blogs, like 'Hiking in Finland'. Two weeks in-a-row, every evening after work I studied hiking theory. I prefered lightweight hiking with all its benefits. And finally, i bought and borrowed all necessary equipment. I tried to make it as light as my funds allow. But, in spite of my efforts, my backpack had 10 kilos of weight.
The next day I bought a map and leave.
That day I saw mountains the first time in my life. It was so amazing! So beautiful! I can't say what exactly made me fall in love with mountains, but since then i dream about them every time i go sleep.
I spent 6 days there. And every day I saw and felt something new. I ate berries i read about. I saw a thunderstorm so close, that i felt the breath of lightnings. I climbed 2000 meters peak and it was like to win a challenge against myself.
Returning back to city life was the hardest thing in my life))
After my spring hike i made two more hikes this summer to improve my skills and gear. And those hikes were awesome too. Its like to be born again:)
The most memorable trip I have ever taken has to be my first time above the Arctic Circle visiting Abisko and Nikkaluokta in July 2010. It was also the first walking trip that my wife and I went on as newlyweds. I had tried to convince her to take the Honeymoon in the mountains but had to settle for a trip about 6 weeks after the wedding. Eva had never really been out long distance walking before and so, to ease her in gently, I chivalrously offered to carry everything bar her own sleeping bag and clothing. Add to that that I didn't really own so much lightweight kit (at least not enough for two) and the result was an 80 litre Beghaus Vulcan pack that weighed almost 30 kilos. I had originally planned that we walk the 20km between Nikkoluokta and Kebnekaise Fjällstation the first night to give us plenty of free time to spend around the station before continuing on to Abisko over the next 5 days. However I hadn't really accounted for how difficult the going would be with such a heavy pack and having spent almost a year away from mountain trails. The going got tough and the pain in my ankles and knees progressed from pain to agony. After another couple of hours I decided that I couldn't actually continue. We decided to pitch camp about 2 km from the station and the next day decided to take it easy around the station over the next week, walk and take the boat back to Nikkaluokta and use public transport to get to Abisko instead. Then we could simply enjoy the mountain walks without being weighed down. Looking back I think this was the right decision. Walking simply becomes an ordeal when you can't look up because you are too focused on putting one foot in front of the other! That said, looking back my most memorable trips actually seem to be the toughest; an epic 90 km and 9 munros scaled in a weekend, a 50 km day hike, or camping in 25 m/s gales in the Cairngorms. Those lacking in any adversity to triumph over have simply been forgotten and given over to obscurity; reading the other entries here idicates that this seems to ring true with others! Thanks for the blog this year Henrik, it really has been inspirational stuff, motivating me to write myself on a number of occasions! Keep up the good work.
ReplyDeletehttp://totarp.blogspot.com/
I recently stood on the summit of Owl’s Head which completed
ReplyDeletemy 11 year quest to hike New Hampshire’s 48 4000 foot peaks. Owl’s Head has a
bad reputation due to the long approach, challenging stream crossings and
bushwhack to the summit. However ideal weather conditions combined with the joy
of finishing the 48 4000 footers made this one of my favorite hikes. Few of my other hikes have had such an emotional significance to me.I will never forget what it felt like to stand on that summit!.
I have several memorable trips including long distance walks across Scotland to my son's first wildcamping adventure to simple lightweight overnighters, but I'll go with one from this year. Scotland has had some atrocious weather this year - nothing extraordinary in that really - but this year seems to have excelled itself in forcing upon me postponed trips. However for a couple of days back in August we had a nice high pressure system move over the country and I quickly made the decision to tackle 3 hills in one of the most spectacular areas of Scotland - Assynt/Coigach. The full post can be read over on Martin's Summit and Valley Blog - http://summitandvalley.blogspot.com/2011/08/guest-post-david-seoras.html
ReplyDeleteIt included the ascent of 4 fantastic hills, fabulous weather, great photographic opportunities, a sublime ridge-walk, a bivvy on the ridge, a stunning sunset and even more stunning sunrise, a cloud inversion and very tired legs.
Thanks for all your hard work on this Advent Calendar Hendrik. Very much appreciated. I hope you and your family had a great Christmas and best wishes for 2012.
The most memorable outdoor experience of the last couple months was introducing a couple of friends to the world of ultralight backpacking.
ReplyDeleteThey had never been on an overnight backpacking trip before much less an ultralight backpacking trip so we raised the bar high. We stuffed their 18L packs full of the finest ultralight gear that could be scrounged and set off for Shenandoah National Park. They talked themselves into a cross country bushwhack and after a close encounter with a rattlesnake, we arrived on the other side scratched and only lightly bleeding. With night falling, we cooked dinner over a fire, and slept rough under a tarp. The weather was fair but it was our one consolation for the new backpackers.
The next morning we walked out and told them that the trip we had just done was, "pretty typical" for backpackers, they were hooked.
with my husband on Stewart Island, New Zealand, it was our wedding anniversary, not that it was super romantic or anything, just a really great spot. ok, it was kinda romantic
ReplyDeleteOne week trip in Lemmenjoki in 2009, when we push trought the mist and ended up in the golddiggers backyard by accident. He gave us nice introduction to his life and goldmining. We have put our tents to his "garden of old alcohol bottles" where many dacades ago was previous golddigger's cabin and this garden of his.
ReplyDeleteI love wild camping, but my brother had never done it. So I invited him to come with me on my next trip to Haweswater where we camped on the ridge up above the lake. It was glorious and my brother loved it; he was instantly bitten by the wild camping bug. Us two being together doing something like that was really special. I haven't got many photos of that trip but here's one of him sitting zazen in front of a magnificent view...
ReplyDeleteThe best trip this year was when my wife came with me camping for the first time. Put simply - it's great to be outdoors but it's even better when you share the experience with someone you love.
ReplyDeleteIn the fall of 2010, I went to Gates of the Arctic National Park & Preserve in Alaska's Brooks Range and floated the Kobuk River, a National Wild River. One night, we saw 6 grizzly bears and 7 wolves from the campsite in the photo. I howled the wolves into viewing range, after we first heard the pups 'howling' in the distance. It was an incredibly memorable experience to be alone among so much wildlife. The next day, we saw two more wolves and thousands of sheefish while floating. I made the most memorable fire of my life that night in camp, possibly because I spent the entire night not only gazing into it, reflecting on the wildlife encounters and conversation with the wolves, but also gazing up at the dancing aurora overhead. We slept out under the stars and aurora that night, as it would have been disrespectful to the natural world to have slept in a shelter.
ReplyDeleteHendrik, could you please let the winner have 4 days or so to reply to you? This because I'll be on a 3 day trip from the 27th and I suppose their are others who are gone out camping at the moment.
ReplyDeleteSadly I only had one trip in 2011. I went hiking in Mallorca with two mates. We had a really frustrating experience when we wanted to hike through the Torrent de Parais, which is a great chine ending at the sea. We didn't find the right way to it and ended at the wall you can see on the first photo. Our ambitions to dodge this obstracle failed, so we came back the next day by bus :-(
ReplyDeleteAnyway the Torrent was amazing and we had a great time camping at the sea.
Kindest regards
Willem Hendrik
My most memorable hike was actually a short trip this fall. Marking my return to the outdoors after several years with a ruined back stopped me from enjoying anything with a backpack. It was only a one night trip, and it started out with miserable weather and serious doubt if the new lightweight stuff and low mesh shoes would cut it.
ReplyDeleteBoth man and dog were really tired when we finally found a spot to put up the tent, rain was pouring down and the tent with me and the dog inside seemed to cramped to to cook in, atleast with an untried canister stove, so after a cold real turmat meal we just fell asleep wondering if this was actually a good idea.
As seen in the pics next morning life was good again:)
This blog along with a few others have been instrumental for me getting to grasp lightweight backpackig and making it possible for me to go hiking again. Now my Shelter,Sleeping system and backpack weigh 3.8 kg and I actually don't mind wet feet:)
Happy holidays and keep up the good work.
F
That should be possible, yeah.
ReplyDeleteMy most memorable outdoor experience was hiking the southern Kungsleden in Sweden, solo for two weeks. Between the Sylarna and Helags mountains I wandered off-track through this incredibly open space of the swedish fjäll. No car, no road, no houses, no sign of civilisation whatsoever within the horizon: unthinkable in almost every other part of Europe, especially Germany. This positive emptiness was a thrilling experience in itself, but just as I was about to turn over in my sleeping bag I wondered: "What is this strange light on the horizon?" I was definetly lucky to enjoy the truly enchanting phenomenon of the Northern Lights! This topped my already fantastic trek.
ReplyDeleteJust a picture of "Santa" Hendrik.
ReplyDeleteA hiking trip with my father in austrian Karwendel alps. Most memorable because of the good company and the stunning nature and wilflife.
ReplyDeleteMost memorable outdoor experience ..... difficult after almost 30 years of camping / hiking etc. But a hiking trip to the Swiss Alps in 2008 (Cimalmotto, Tessin / Ticino) is still printed on my memory. After a 5 hour hike the route was blocked by a recent rock slide. Even with ropes and gear (still to dangerous with lots of falling stones) it was a dead end and with no way around we had to make camp for the night. The next day we had to go back and take another route ..... after a detour of 5 hours we where back on track and continued our 6 day hike (now 7 day). The only thing "missing" on this trip was fresh fallen snow but everything else was there ..... Ants (lots of them) rain, wind, sun, cold ( from -3 to +25 °C) swimming in a mountain lake (freezing), climbing, fishing, new gear testing and lots more.
ReplyDeleteA couple a years ago my wife and I took the kids on a youth group camping trip. It was to be three days and two nights the middle of November. All of the grade school age boys, about 6 of them, were to sleep in a tent together with two of the parents to help maintain some semblance of order. It was a large family camping tent, and one of the dads, Josh, put his sleeping bag at the door to the tent to make sure no one sneaks in or out during then night. Of that group, two of them were my oldest boys, Jake and Josh, who were 9 and 7, respectively.. My wife and I stayed in our own tent with the remainder of our kids. Jill, who was 4, Joey, who was 2, had their own sleeping bags, and the baby who was about 4mo old at the time shared my wife's sleeping bag with her.
ReplyDeleteNow, this is southern California, land of sunshine right? Well, during the days the sun was shining, but this year the nights were exceptionably cold. At that time I learned that my kids didn't know how to stay in a sleeping bag. I woke up to the sound of shivering kids who scooted out of the head holes of their bags. I shoved my daughter back in her bag, and ended up opening my bag up like a blanket and sharing it with Joey. I found out from the big Josh who was keeping an eye on the boys in thier tent that he woke to the same situation with my eldest two. But that's not the most memorable part...
See, Josh, my 2nd oldest, has had on a couple of occasions sleep walked and peed in strangest places during the night. On one particular night at home, my wife and I were up late watching a show, and saw he walk into the kitchen, open the cabinet where the trash can goes, and proceeded to urninate on it. Of course it spashed back all on himself, so I tossed him in the tub, cleaned him and his mess up, and through all of that had no recollection of that the next day. He's done that twice that we know of, and he can't remember either. The troubling part is not knowing how many other times that might have happened. Where else has he urinated?
So, back to that freezing cold night- one more time in the middle of the night big Josh woke up to my Josh standing over him at the door of his tent perparing to relieve himself! Thankfully, big Josh woke up soon enough to grab him, unzip the tent and stood him outside before something terrible happened.
Now the boys are older and are very much excited about tarp camping. They saw me make an 8x10 tarp and a smd meteor style bivy and all want one of their own. I tested the tarp out in the back yard and they all (Jake, Josh, and Jill) camped out under it with me. Four people under a tarp of that size is a bit of a squeeze! Thankfully, it wasn't raining, or we would have all gotten wet from being so close to the edges of the tarp, but they all loved the open air sleeping.
ONE, of my most memorable trips was this august and september. Me and my friend Viktor Hitchhiked for days up to Lofoten i North Norway. We spent almost 30 nights in his read not werry lightweight tent that had all its 3 superstrong tentpoles break like swedish knäckebröd. We had amazing climbing, stuff that we never thougt we could do, saw countless magic sunsets, hiked to a totaly magic beach with old peaces of whaleskelleton on it and sleept in a house made of driftwood, swam in the freezing whaters, skateboarded down steep hills with ultraheavy packs with climbinggear and food for 20 days without faling, met supercool people from al over the world and had the time of our life.
ReplyDeleteSo see you in Lofoten august-september next year!
One of my most memorable trips was walking out of the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness my first time in Montana. This was my instructor qualification training for Backpacking Light's Wilderness Trekking School and we were coming off 2+ days of non-stop blizzard conditions.
ReplyDeleteAfter a good trip I always (without fail) want to go back for more. In early May a few years ago I backpacked through Knoydart and out to Shiel Bridge over a period of 9 days. I really want to go back to Knoydart and will be passing through the area during the course of a two week trip in May next year. But the main reason this trip was so memorable was the extreme weather we encountered. Every watercourse was in flood and it barely stopped raining (other than to hail or snow) for more that a couple of minutes. The wind was incredible. Therefore, what was planned as a trip to climb to a number of the higher summits and backpack in between became a struggle to find a way passed swollen rivers and lochs... and of course GLORIOUS BOG. During the trip I only managed a single top (Ladhar Bheinn) and that took multiple attempts. My friend was cowed by the first try when we were nearly blown off the ridge. I thought a break was coming the next day (by which time it had snowed) so set off for a repeat attempt. In fact I only got to the trig point, which is frustratingly close to the true summit and near as dammit as high too. But the narrow, ice covered section of the ridge (no crampons or axe) was enough to turn me back in the high winds.
ReplyDeleteWe clambered through the passes, explored ravines, occasionally glimpsed the mountains as the cloud receded. Despite not making it to the summits we had planned, the trip felt like a real accomplishment because of the weather. And the exploring we did was very memorable.
Knoydart is a fantastic part of the country. Part is owned by the John Muir Trust (Corrie Dhorcail) and the rest by a partnership of the local community with the John Muir Trust. It is home to Wildcats among some of the remnants of Scotland's great forest of Caledonian Pine. It is a peninsula accessible only by foot or by boat, and the wildest of the west coast peninsulas (separated by sea Lochs that cut into the land).
I think the readers of this blog will have a sympathy with John Muir. The trust established in his name do a lot to protect this fantastic place and others like it around Scotland. At least those readers in Scotland might like to think about subbing up the affordable annual membership fee to help them out.
Going back through Knoydart next year is a thought that keeps me going when I'm at my desk 9 to 5. All but the luckiest or most unlucky among us know that feeling!!
Dave
Ok, lets talk about my most memorable outdoor experience this year.
ReplyDeleteIn fact I had to work a lot and my final exam comes close, so unfortunately this year no big trip was possible for me. So I decided to give myself every month one overnighter out in the forrest. It's Teutoburger Forrest, that's were the Germans once stopped Roman invaders.
Although the landscape is quite unspectactular every overnighter meant a lot to me.
After only half an hour busride from home I had the opportunity to discover the area I live in. Sometimes a friend joined in what was a lot of fun too. So every trip was different, not only because of the forrest changes his look through seasons.
The strongest experience was my September trip, which started in a drizzling afternoon, going to pouring rain and a tough night. Fog hung deep in those wet trees and mudholes made pathfinding a real adventure.
Of course I saw nobody out for a walk in these conditions. So this was wilderness in Germany, only a short jump from home. Especially the next morning, when I started to break up camp way before sunset was great. The first bits of daylight crawling trough those dripping trees.. felt like beeing in rain forrest!
But no photos from this trip, I regret.
Here two pictures from November.
From an unforgetable bikingtrip in Norway in the summer 2010. I think the norweians need to reconsider their imagination of a field-biking-track ("trillesti") ...... or maybe I do!!! A country with great up's and down's, at least physically.
ReplyDeleteBut Santa Hendrik .... I need some new gear.
Greetings from Danmark
/ Poul Nielsen
Happy New Year :-)
ReplyDelete