I did a brief pre-review of the Exped SynMat Ultralight 7 back in 2011 and have been using it solidly since then for bivvying and tent camping (but not hammocking) and it has proven to be an excellent piece of kit. It packs nice and small, is a great weight for the gram conscious and most […]

(Updated 03/02/2013) As my gear loving friends know I’ve been vehemently opposed to Multifuel stoves since I heard first their helicopter-landing din and realised they were little more than an unpredictable Molotov Cocktail waiting to remove a few fingers. However, I’ve always been nervous around anything flammable under pressure, gas included so it seemed only fair that I […]

I’ve been looking for a solution to replace my Berghaus Down Vest for quite some time. While the vest is an excellent piece of kit, I thought its warmth to weight ratio could be bettered and since it’s lacking arms and hood I still tended to feel cold when I was wearing it. My original […]

The NI-Wild Christmas Dinner is an annual affair well worth looking forward to. A full turkey dinner with all the trimmings prepared over an open fire with lots of mulled wine and followed by an evening filled with war stories of peaks conquered, rivers run and weather suffered. Dwarfs would sing songs of the weight […]

So I have had the Jetboil Flash for a few weeks now and although I’ve not had it out as much as I’d like, a proper review seems overdue. I’ll not rehash the basics which you can read in the pre-review here, I’ll just talk about my actual experiences. It’s fair to say that as […]

I’ve talked for a while about investing in a new Jetboil and sleeping mat. I did buy a second-hand Jetboil a few years ago but it had developed a tendency to make strange noises when lit and being already nervous of gas stoves, I’d long stopped using it. I have also been through many sleep […]