Glo-toob FX in the field

I got to try out my Glo-toob FX in the field two weekends ago when went for a nice long walk and overnight camp in the Brecon Beacons.

The Glo-Toob is a cylinder measuring 70mm x 19mm and weighing in at only 34g. It takes a small, high-capacity battery. Light is provided via a set of LEDs that bounce of a clever polished metal cone at one end of the cylinder. The light spread is surprisingly uniform given the directionality of LEDs.

It's a fun little piece of kit. I'd had a hope that it would provide enough light to read by; it doesn't. Even in my fairly small one-man Scarp 1 tent you get the sort of ambient light that your mother would tell you off for trying to read by.

The Scarp has a nice hook in the centre of the roof which is perfect for hanging a small lantern like the Glo-toob.

Far be it from me to suggest the Glo-toob isn't worth having; it's definitely part of my standard kit now. It's so light you'll never notice the added weight, and it really is tiny. It's nice having an omni-directional light source on in the tent without having to faff about with a head-torch to find things. And you can leave the light on when you need to step outside for an, er, well you know.

Hopefully, the next time I get out to the hills it won't be raining and blowing a ferocious gale all night and I'll be able to take a night-time shot to show the comforting glow of this little lantern.

A night on Waun Lefrith

I visited the Brecon Beacons for my first time the weekend before last. I'd driven through there before, on my way to the north of Wales usually, but never stopped to take in a walk. I'd been itching to try out my new Scarp 1 and a few magazine articles and blog posts had planted the idea that it might be worth taking in some of the Carmarthen Fans before the weather turned too cold for the current state of my outdoor gear.

I'd meant to do a full write-up of the outing but I left it too long between walking and writing, so every time I sat down to put pen to paper (keyboard to screen?) the story came out sounding contrived.

So I'm just going to post to pictures, instead.

New Stuff

I've made a few acquisitions in the last month.

Tomorrow morning I'm off to the post office to pick up a pack of assorted Fuizion freeze dried food sachets, which everyone seems to have been raving about.

I've ordered a Glo-Toob FX for small, lightweight in-tent lighting. I've heard good things about them and as it's always a pain to create ambient light with a head torch, which are usually very directional by design, I'm looking forward to seeing how it performs. Whether it's bright enough to read by remains to be seen, but I live in hope.

On a similar note, I've added a Petzl Tikka² XP to my collection as well. I actually quite like my dirt cheap Energizer LED torch that I got for £5 at a Millets in Oban and have never seen sold anywhere since. But I've started cycling in to work now and the throw wouldn't be long enough to see where I was going on a dark winter's evening. I'm delighted with the effectiveness of the Petzl's diffuser, but slightly irritated by the noticeable flickering of the LEDs in economy mode.

I wish I could afford a decent insulated jacket so I can get out in the dead of winter. I'm looking at you, PHD Minimus jacket. And by decent I of course mean top of the line. Ahem.

A lighter load, and the rest

I managed to get out on dartmoor twice the weekend before last; once on the Friday night for a quick getaway, and more seriously on the Sunday night where Jackie and I managed a 12 mile round-trip hike.

I'm excited because a few recent purchases (ThermaRest Prolite, Montane Featherlite) and a slightly more ruthless approach to packing has reduced the weight of my pack by a couple of kilograms, but the best part is that with a cheap compression sack my Eureka Spitfire tent takes up a lot less room and I can now fit back in to my much lighter 45L Osprey pack for one or two-day trips instead of the massive and heavy 65+10L Berghaus beast.

A one-man tent with a decent vestibule is still high on my wishlist so I can drop the tarp I'm currently using to make a verandah, and as Jackie's more enthusiastic about nights away than I thought she might be, I'd really like to find a larger, lighter alternative to the depressingly pokey, cheap, and disproportionately heavy Millets special two-man tent we have to lug around at the moment.

I originally had my sights set on the venerable Terra-Nova Laser Comp, but I've been put off recently by questions about its stability in high-wind, what with nothing to support the tunnel structure and only a single end-guy. But it's still one of the best weight-to-room ratio tents that (my kind of) money can buy.

For a two-man, I'm tempted by a tarptent design. But again, the poor hydrostatic-head of silicon impregnated nylon is a worry - not so much for the fly, but the floor. So you start having to lug about a footprint just to keep the floor dry.

Anyway, I need to move on the one-man tent soon. The Eureka's all-mesh inner won't cut it as the temperature drops.