ultralight

Dehydrating hummus is a good lightweight tasty lunch treat for me. I use it with ryveta crackers and sometimes add a little piece of dried tomato and cheese.

Carrie describes how you make dried hummus.

The Integral Design thru-hiker jacket is my new shell of choice. I purchased it to save about 600 grams over my winter alpine shell, a MacPac Prophet.

After researching into the latest fabric advances and never being completely happy with the 'breathability' of Gore-tex XCR I decided to try out eVENT. The goals for the new jacket were:

1. Lighter weight
2. Greater breathability
3. Less pack spack

So the thru-hiker was chosen as one of the most likely candidates. I still had some questions that only using the rain jacket in the field would answer.

1. Would it be tough enough for off trail use (bush bashing)?
2. Would I miss the features of an alpine jacket (pit zips, better hood etc)?
3. Would the front zip without storm enclosure keep rain out?
4. Would it perform well enough for long extended rain on long remote trips where getting wet is a serious risk?

Use on track

Recently I've been looking for the perfect hiking shoe to add to my hiking boots. As with all outdoor adventure gear no one piece of kit is perfect for all situations.

It seemed a pair of trail running shoes that I could use on day walks through to light and fast week long walking explorations fit my needs. Thanks to a post from Martin Rye I bought a pair of Innov-8 Flyroc 310's.

So far I've only used them on a short day hike. So far I'm very pleased with my choice. A full review will come later when I know the shoes more. Here's what I've initially been thinking and asking.

Would I have enough ankle support?

The full traverse the Western Arthurs' are regarded as one of Australia's hardest and best walks. It usually takes from 9 to 12 days to traverse this remote part of south western Tasmania. I've always wanted to walk the full traverse since a quick visit to lake Oberon on a failed hike to Federation peak.

I knew the only chance I had of completing this walk with a back injury was to go light weight. I was on a mission to get rid of every gram that would weigh me down. On a few occasions we met people on the trail who said 'you guys must be carrying 26-28kg' and they showed disbelief (and perhaps worry) when we responded with Peter's pack weight of 20kg. Imagine their faces when I said I had 14.3kg, which was in most cases less than they were carrying for a 4 day walk.

I knew snow was possible and high winds and driving rain were likely so we didn't skimp on any 'essentials'. My philosophy was:

1. Take less - only the necessities
2. Take smarter - good light weight gear only

Here's what I took: