Summer days of dreaming, cuben and proof reading

After great week in a mountain hut with my family I have now been waiting for inspiration in a lot of areas. It seems to have arrived. I am beginning to discern where my next solo hike will take place. I am also beginning to see how a cuben fiber tent could fit into that trip. And I am trying to rouse myself enough from the holiday doldrums to put the final touches to the translation of one of my books into English.
By Jörgen Johansson

The cuben fiber tarptent will combine the best parts of my old homemade silnylon tents. The largest, seen above, can house two at a pinch. At least it housed me and my 13-year old son a couple of years ago on a hike in the Kebnekaise area.

But this new tent will be smaller, in fact it will be a more or less exact replica of the tent I made for my first serious hike as a lightpacker, when I hiked 500 kilometers through some of the most beautiful parts of the Swedish mountain range in 2004. A hike where I shaved 8 kilos from my old base weight and realised that I was just as warm, dry and well fed with the light gear as I had been with the heavy loads. I also determined that more people should know what I had just discovered; that you do not need a heavy burden to be able to enjoy the mountains of the world. A thought that resulted in my first book and still is the driving force behind my writing in magazines and blogs as well as in my lectures.

You can see that tarptent above, in nice weather mode, with the accompanying inner-/bugtent. The latter is only a bivy around the lower part of the sleeping bag (or as I was using then, quilt) but flaring out from mid thigh or so to become an enclosed tent of ripstop nylon and noseum mesh. I really like to have a space where I can sit and eat and make notes, so I do not really go for the minimalist approach with only a headnet. The weight of the fly/tarptent is 360 grams without lines and the weight of the innertent is 200 grams.

The neat thing about the whole construction is based on using telescopic hiking poles in the tent. So when the weather is nice the poles are raised, giving plenty of ventilation all around. A penetrating wind from one side can be handled by slanting and lowering the poles and fastening the fabric close to the ground on the wind side, while letting the lee side ventilate by still letting the pegs attach to the lines instead.
In storm mode, it is battened down all around and is in fact a real tent that is very storm worthy.

So I'll see what can be done with Cuben fiber along those lines...

I was recently contacted by a reporter from Swedish National Radio, who had read my latest book "Lighter pack from A to Z(Ö)". That is the book that will be published in English this fall, although most likely not with that title. At the moment the title is likely to be "Smarter Backpacking", but that might change. Anyway, the reporter interviewed me on the subject of lightpacking and hiking and the thing will be aired on July 31 at 1800 hours on Program 3, in a show called Planet. Please tune in if you understand Swedish.

Yeah, where am I taking my hopefully ultralight cuben fiber tent? Well, I have not completely made up my mind yet, but it will probably be in the westermost and most inaccessible parts of the Swedish mountains. An area rarely visited because it is surrounded by unfordable rivers and great lakes. So it seems a perfect place to bring a packraft. Some readers will probably guess what area I am looking at from these hints. But I have not made up my mind 100% yet.
I'll be back...