No-Gear Gear: My Favorite Ultralight Pieces Which I Didn’t Buy At The Outdoor Store

This “gear” wasn’t designed to be gear. Some of it is really ugly. Some of it is surprisingly cheap. But everything is ultralight. And really handy. Hope there is something in it for you 🙂

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Tiny jars from the pharmacy (2g)
Use them for sunscreen, deodorant (if ever you get in contact with civilization), ointments, toothpaste, etc. Label it with washi-tape and waterproof marker. If you use only the marker, the label comes of after short usage and you’ll take toothpaste as foot cream (or vice versa).

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GDR ultralight coffee filter (8g)
It is light, it is reusable and I prefer to use it for coffee only 🙂

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Rubber bands  (1g)
Use them instead of gear bags to save weight. For tent stakes, rain jackets, cooking gear …

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Scarf with a visor (39g)
Use it instead of a cap: it looks great and it is very packable.
Buy it at my best friends shop  (No, she didn’t pay me to write that, I just love her caps  :-))

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Duct tape (5g)
Wrap a small amount around your poles or anything else. You’ll need it.

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Latex gloves (12g)
Use them as emergency rain gloves over your fleece gloves. Certainly no good idea for winter hikes or cold weather mountaineering excursions.

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Tiny clips (2g)
Use them for drying laundry, clipping together papers, money or cards.

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Hotel mending kit (1g)
Use it within its original purpose 🙂

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Ladys tights, black & opaque (35g)
Use them as emergency trousers (underneath your shorts) if yours are wet. Even suitable for boys. In some cases of emergency you can even use them instead of a rope. But this one is cowgirls only style.

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Half sponge (5g)
Use it to mute your cooking stuff in your pot while walking, to clean dishes with little water and to dry your tent from condensation.

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Gaiters and Sleeves in one (38g)
Use them in combination to your merino shortsleeve shirt if you didn’t want to carry an additional long sleeve top or wear them on your legs together with the emergency tights.

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What are yours? I’d really like to get to know more of this stuff!

 

Gear Review: Dachstein Spürsinn MC

Those boots! I saw them online and I thought: this is the MY pair of hiking boots. They are…

• … mid height
• … light
• … made in Austria by people who know their artisanry
• The Design is – in my opinion – outstanding, compared to all those insect-like colored trail and hiking boots
• Their USP says that they have an outstanding underfoot feeling (and I just hate if my soles are so stiff that I can’t feel the ground anymore)

Unfortunately I can’t give a full evaluation of the boots because I only wore them for about 1 km and I quickly recognized, that they are to small for me. So here are my 5 cents:

• They look great
• The sole is stable and has an excellent grip (I didn’t walk on wet ground though)
• My size is 39,5 and I chose the 41. This is still not enough. I have to say that I put my orthopedic insoles inside and they are slightly thicker than the original ortholite insoles. My toes touched the top even without walking.
• They are not comfortable. This means: the sole is comfortable, but the top isn’t. Even in wearing them so shortly I already discovered some slight bruises. And this was the most disappointing thing for me because they looked so much like the perfect shoes! So maybe they need a long break-in, I just didn’t try it long enough.

Finally I sent them back – teary-eyed.

Data Dachstein Spürsinn MC:

kind of shoe	Mid-height Hiking Boot
top	mesh & leather
sole	Vibram
price	179 €
drop	9 mm
break-in	can’t tell
weight/pair (size 41)	751 g
waterproof	No
marketing promises	Perfect mix between approach shoes and trail runners. Very good underfoot feeling.

Evaluation Dachstein Spürsinn MC:

tested for	1 km
foot climate	***** (did not test it long enough)
grip	*****
stability (sole)	*****
stability (top)	*****
protection	*****
comfort	*****
durability	***** (did not test it long enough)
toebox	normal width & rather round

Gear Review: La Sportiva Ultra Raptor

I bought this pair of shoes to thruhike the GR 221 mountain trail in Majorca /Spain. I put a lot of thoughts into my choice prior to my journey because it has been the first time that I chose trailrunners over hiking boots for a longer hike. I already had the Brooks Cascadias 10 at home but the cushioning seamed to weak for my sensible feet which easily get tender after long hikes.

I read a lot about Hokas and I ordered a pair together with the La Sportivas to compare them at home. They have been utterly comfortable when I tried them on and I especially loved the forefoot cushioning which I have never seen in other trailrunners before.

Finally I’m more than content to have chosen the La Sportivas because the footing of the Hokas (Challenger ATR) is god when it comes to the soles but very weak on the top of the shoes. And this has been my principal problem with the La Sportivas although they are much more stable than the Hokas.

My feet disguised as clowns: The Hokas compared to the La Sportivas

The La Sportivas after 300 kms and about 17.000 meters difference in altitude

 

Foot climate:
I wore them together with Falke RU4 and RU5 socks and I never had any feeling of excessive sweating even when temperature climbed. The mesh is wide and you have to wear gaiters on sandy ground if you don’t want your shoes filled with dirt at the end of the day.

Comfort and grip: 
I had no break-in phase. They were immediately comfortable from the beginning. I had one small blister as a result of a very long hiking day. In my opinion the soles are just perfect. Absorption is great but you can still feel the ground very well. The grip is perfect, too. Even on wet ground.

Stability:
And here comes the problem: The stability of the sole is perfect. But I hiked a mountain trail mainly consisting of sharp rocks and debris and  steep ascents are mostly connected with steep descents.
While I observed my co-hikers in their leather boots nearly running down those hills I had to be very slow and cautious because the top of the shoes does not provide enough stability to hold the feet in place over a long period of time. Some descents were longer than 10 kms and I had to tie the laces so tight that I didn’t feel my feet anymore. At the end of my journey I had bruises on both feet and one of them even bled.
Well, there was on good thing about all that: As I was forced to walk very carefully on the descents, I didn’t have any problems with my knees as I had on previous hikes.

Conclusion:
I love this shoes and I hate them. They are superb on ascents, but a real pain in the ass on descents. On my next mountain only trip I’m going to wear boots again. I will use them with delight to hike my really flat home region.

Data

kind of shoe	Trailrunner
top	Mesh
sole	Vibram
price	130 €
drop	10 mm
break-in	none
weight/pair (size 41,5 without insoles)	658 g 23,2 oz
waterproof	No
marketing promises	optimum shock absorption

 

Evaluation

tested for	300+ kms
foot climate	*****
grip	*****
stability (sole)	*****
stability (top)	*****
protection	*****
comfort	*****
durability	*****
toebox	wide & rather round

 

And sometimes it’s just great to get rid of all your shoes and clothes and jump into the sea.