Acorns, Part 1: Coho Park and the Smoke Bluffs
“Mighty Oaks from little Acorns grow” I’ve been thinking for a while now about doing a series chronicling our first humble forays into learning to explore the wild. I’ve never really documented them in any way and I think I’ve learned some important lessons from reflecting on them. I’ll get into what I feel those lessons are in the later parts of this series. Something that I feel is unique about myself and Spring is that we have learned almost everything about the activities that we engage in, in the Outdoors, since we moved to Canada a few years ago. Before arriving in Canada I had no idea what Gore-tex was, or Vibram. If you’d uttered the words Gaiter, Crampon or Adze to me while I was living in Ireland I’d have imagined you were speaking a foreign language, don’t get me started on randkluft, krummholz and bergschrund. I’d never owned a tent, sleeping bag or even a pair of hiking boots before coming to Canada in 2010. This may seem odd to many people in Canada, at least in the West, where a connection with nature seems to be a part of the cultural tradition but in the Capital of Ireland, Dublin, where I am from, I was happy to spend all of my time in cities and suburbs, watching movies at the cinemas and meeting friends to chat in coffee shops. Cities do a great job of providing ample amounts of distraction to keep you from leaving their walls and streets behind for the untouched wilds. So what changed? Well when we moved to the town of Squamish, British Columbia, in the Spring of 2010 myself and my wife knew absolutely no one here. We also knew absolutely nothing about the town. Really, our decision to come here was based on the fact that it was north of a large city, Vancouver, and south of a resort town, Whistler. Hiking or climbing near Squamish was not even a consideration. Thinking back I remember imagining that I might just replicate my life from Ireland in Canada. I would meet friends in the city for coffee and take in a film at the cinema. In Ireland I had been meeting up with friends to play a video game called “Street Fighter IV”. I had been taking it quite seriously and actually wanted to start playing in competitions. I imagined starting a “Street Fighter IV” community in Squamish. Amongst my sparse belongings that I brought with me from Ireland was a large, arcade style, gaming joystick along with other gaming controllers and a host of other gaming equipment. I can’t...
Therm-a-Rest NeoAir XTherm Review
Bottom Line: Super light, super packable, very comfortable, air mattress. Might need to be babied on uneven or sharp ground to avoid puncturing it and it does make a crinkling noise when you move around on it but overall it’s an amazing piece of gear. Highly recommended. We use ours 12 months a year. How I chose it: Before buying this pad I had been using a Big Agnes Insulated Air Core, the largest one they sold. It weighs ~0.9kg and took the better part of 10 minutes to blow up, usually leaving my lips feeling like rubber but it was really comfortable. I slept like a log. I still use it now for car camping. But, there came a time when I wanted to climb higher in the mountains and do it faster and to make that endeavour easier I started to research ways to reduce my pack weight. The Big Agnes was also too large to fit in the tent I wished to buy, The Sierra Designs Convert II. I needed a pad with a mummy shaped design that took up as little space when inflated as possible. After some research I decided upon the Neo Air XTherm. Some friends I knew were already using it and it came highly recommended online. Relaxing and warm on top of snow. Inflated and in use in an MSR 3P Tent Directly on snow in a snow pit Observations since using it: I’ve used this pad exclusively since purchasing it for every backpacking trip that I’ve been on. It’s incredibly light and packs down really small. In regards to comfort, which is subjective, I’ve found it to be reasonably comfortable. It inflates quickly. It is recommended in Winter to not inflate these pads by breathing into them as the water vapor from your breath will condense back to a liquid when it cools and remain in the pad. Therm-a-Rest supplies a stuff sack with this pad that has a valve attached to it so that you can inflate the pad by opening and closing the stuff sack and rolling the air from it into the pad this way. I’ve never used this method of inflation. I find it slow and laborious compared to just blowing into it. I’ve been using the pad through all 4 seasons for the last 2 years and, so far, I’ve noticed no water staying inside it. Pros: Light: The regular size, which I bought, weighs 430g’s/15oz’s. For a pad that inflates to 6cm/2.5” thick which can be used through the depths of Winter on top of snow and ice this weight is simply amazing. Packable:...
