New gear Last sunday we visited Swesport - the Swedish sports industry fair. It's mostly an exhibit of winter products, but we managed to find a few interesting news for lightweight backpacking too.
Martin Nordesjö
Marmot, represented by Granitbiten, brought two new jackets that caught our attention. First of all, the Trail Wind Hoody will replace the Ion windshirt.
Trail jacket is M, Martin is XL.
The greatest improvement is that the Trail feels less like maternity wear, mainly thanks to a drawstring. It will be a bit lighter than the Ion and a bit more expensive. But Marmot will keep their aggressive pricing, so we can still count on it being less expensive than many competitors.
The other interesting jacket is the new Essence rain jacket. It's a 2,5 layer jacket with Marmot's own Membrain Strata laminate. It weights 195 grammes in size M, and the price will be 1500 kronor. There will also be a pair of Essence pants, at around 140 grammes.
There were quite a few newcomers at the fair.
Carsten at Akzo helps
Jörgen fit an Aarn bodypack
Aarn packs may not be the most ultralight backpacks around, but they are definitely an alternative for those who have to carry heavy gear but want to do it comfortably without the heaviest pack. It is Akzo, former importer of Gregory and Bask, who will bring Aarn packs to Sweden. The thing that separates Aarn packs from the rest is the way they put weight on your chest, not only on your back, thus creating a better balance.
Another newcomer is British shoemaker Inov-8.
A third newcomer is Canadian apparel brand Westcomb. It looks mostly like a skiers' brand, but we did see an interesting lightweight padded jacket with unknown weight. There seemed to be an abundancy on the fair of lightweight jackets with down or synthetic filling, so it will probably be easier and easier to find good, warm jackets.
In the same stand as Westcomb we found a new Esbit stove.
Is it possible to
burn firewood in this?
A lightweight meta tablet stove that might just work with small firewood too. Anyway, the pot had a nice small size for the solo hiker who only wants to heat a cup or two of water.
Martin Nordesjö
Marmot, represented by Granitbiten, brought two new jackets that caught our attention. First of all, the Trail Wind Hoody will replace the Ion windshirt.Trail jacket is M, Martin is XL.
The greatest improvement is that the Trail feels less like maternity wear, mainly thanks to a drawstring. It will be a bit lighter than the Ion and a bit more expensive. But Marmot will keep their aggressive pricing, so we can still count on it being less expensive than many competitors.
The other interesting jacket is the new Essence rain jacket. It's a 2,5 layer jacket with Marmot's own Membrain Strata laminate. It weights 195 grammes in size M, and the price will be 1500 kronor. There will also be a pair of Essence pants, at around 140 grammes.
There were quite a few newcomers at the fair.Carsten at Akzo helps
Jörgen fit an Aarn bodypack
Aarn packs may not be the most ultralight backpacks around, but they are definitely an alternative for those who have to carry heavy gear but want to do it comfortably without the heaviest pack. It is Akzo, former importer of Gregory and Bask, who will bring Aarn packs to Sweden. The thing that separates Aarn packs from the rest is the way they put weight on your chest, not only on your back, thus creating a better balance.
Another newcomer is British shoemaker Inov-8.Recolite 190 and Roclite 288
made Jörgen a happy camper.
They actually appeared on the Swedish orienteering and trailrunning market last year, but I don't think Jörgen and I are the only ones to have imported other models more suited for walking. So we really hope the Nordic distributor will realize that there is a market here for those. Jörgen actually started beaming when he laid eyes on the new Recolite shoe/sandal hybrid. 190 grammes per shoe is not bad at all, even though they are intended for "recovery" use. We hope to lay our hands on a pair to see if they are good for "real" use too.made Jörgen a happy camper.
A third newcomer is Canadian apparel brand Westcomb. It looks mostly like a skiers' brand, but we did see an interesting lightweight padded jacket with unknown weight. There seemed to be an abundancy on the fair of lightweight jackets with down or synthetic filling, so it will probably be easier and easier to find good, warm jackets.
In the same stand as Westcomb we found a new Esbit stove.Is it possible to
burn firewood in this?
A lightweight meta tablet stove that might just work with small firewood too. Anyway, the pot had a nice small size for the solo hiker who only wants to heat a cup or two of water.
Is the wee stove designed for burning wood? It looks similar to the one Ryan Jordan can be seen using in one of his 24 videos.
ReplyDeleteThe Essence pants sound interesting, a worthy replacement for the GoLite Reeds?
Nice to see Aarn moving in! Great products, although not ultralight at brilliant (if ugly) solution for when you have to carry a heavier load.
ReplyDelete//johan
I'm pretty sure the Esbit thingy can be used with firewood, although we didn't find any representative that could say if it actually was designed for it.
ReplyDeleteThe way I would use it is to supplement my esbit tablets with firewood. Depending on the cooking to be done of course, but calculating with one Esbit tablet per meal and the adding fine twigs etc to the burning tablet.
I don't know if this is the one Ryan is using, he's used a lot of stoves. Do you have a link to a particular film?
Jorgen,
ReplyDeleteHere is the link to the 24hr article Ryan did (there is a photo of the stove halfway down the article):
http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/24_hyalite.html
Någon aning om Essence har kvar sina ventilationsöppningar under armarna?
ReplyDeleteNice stuff, Jörgen & Martin. I think the Esbit stove certainly could burn wood, but the chamber looks tiny.
ReplyDeleteCombining Esbit & wood or Alcohol & wood or all three is actually possible, made a video on this just yesterday with the Bushcooker: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4bxyPNiarQ
Hendrik, that was my thought too: small chamber. And compared to a Bushbuddy the airflow is probably inferior.
ReplyDeleteMatte,
Yes, the Essence has ventilation under the arms. No heavy zips though, just mesh with a flap.
Thunder in the night,
ReplyDeleteLooked at the photo and my guess is that it's not the same thing. Ryan also describes it as an alcohol stove, which woulnd't fit the Esbit stove. Although you might be able to fit a small alcohol burner into it. The holder for the Esbit table in the bottom would probably make it a bit wobbly though.