Our first tent: The MSR Mutha Hubba
Back in mid 2010 myself and my wife knew we needed to bite the bullet and start buying all our camping and hiking gear. We’d recently moved to BC, Canada from Ireland and knew that we wanted to start exploring the mountains as soon as possible. The problem was we knew nobody and didn’t know anything about how to properly hike or camp in the backcountry. All our shirts were cotton, all our pants were denim, our shoes were bought for how they looked rather than how they functioned. We had never had reason to ever utter the words “Ice Axe”, “Crampon” or “Gaiter”. Walking into the popular Outdoor Recreation store, Mountain Equipment Coop, in Vancouver we were overwhelmed with how much stuff there was to choose from. We wandered around for close to 4 hours just reading labels, trying stuff on, trying to understand why we’d need one feature over another. Eventually we asked for help from an Employee. He was experienced in hiking and backpacking and guided us for over 2 hours around the store picking out everything from boots, to medkits, to finally a tent. He recommended the MSR Mutha Hubba. We took his advice, and with that we owned our very first tent. It came with us on every overnight trip we took for the longest time. As we grew in our understanding of how to be better hikers and campers our level of appreciation for this tent grew also. It’s simple and quick to set up, has a lot of space inside (you could fit 4 people in a pinch head to toe) and loads of storage in the side pockets. The dual vestibules are nice, especially on snow as you can dig one out and use it as your porch and then use the other one as your kitchen. It’s rated as 3-season only but we’ve comfortably used it through all 4-seasons. Eventually, as we got more comfortable with camping we started to move more towards sleeping in snow pits, under a tarp in a bivy sack, or a much lighter, but cramped winter tent. The Mutha Hubba still gets used occasionally, when we are car camping or when we want to sleep 3 people, but it sees a lot less use now. Every time we take it out though and have reason to use it, we look forward to it. So many memories are stored within those nylon walls, so many amazing views woken up to and perilous nights survived. It was and is an awesome tent. Buy (Canada): MSR MUTHA HUBBA HP 3 PERSON TENT Buy (USA): MSR Mutha Hubba Tent ...
MSR Reactor Hanging Kit: Thoughts on stoves in tents
I recently bought the MSR Reactor Hanging Kit for my MSR Reactor Stove System and had an opportunity to test it out. At this point I guess I need to state that MSR recommends that you do not use their Reactor stove or the hanging kit inside the confines of a tent. For legal reasons I understand why they need to do this, it’s the same reason Q-tips needs to warn on their packaging “Do not insert in ear canal” which I’m pretty sure is the actual use of 90% of Q-tips. It is inherently dangerous and hazardous to operate a canister stove inside a tent. Not only could you melt the tent down around you, the stove is also pumping out carbon monoxide which could kill you. You are also making boiling water in an extremely cramped space, which, if knocked over, could severely scald bare skin. In saying all that, if you are smart, and can effectively mitigate those risks there are benefits to hanging a stove inside your tent. For myself I’d be interested in keeping my stove inside my tent when the weather is extremely bad outside, it’s the dead of winter and extremely cold, outside space is limited (camped on a ledge or ridge crest) or all of the above. The benefits of using the stove in this manner, in my opinion, are: Stove runs more efficiently due to less or no wind and by keeping the canister warmer. Less fuel is needed due to the previous benefit. Heat output by the stove is radiating into the tent raising the ambient temperature. Less body heat is being lost by having to operate the stove outside of the tent and outside of your sleeping bag. More appealing to hydrate. We tend to forget the human factor sometimes. I’ve made the bare minimum amount of water before because I wanted to spend more time in my sleeping bag and less time out in the cold. Making water, especially at higher elevations, can be a pain. Usually by the time you have to make water you are already exhausted and just want to lie down and rest. Being able to rest and have your water boiling makes it more appealing to hydrate more. The better hydrated you are the warmer you’ll be, the better you’ll sleep, the more energy you’ll have the next day… etc. If these benefits seem desirable then here is how I recommend mitigating the risks. Light the stove outside of the tent. Canister stoves can flare up when first ignited. You also don’t want to have a few misfires and fill your tent with gas which will combust when...
