Saturday, February 27, 2016

Borah Gear Bivies Double Reviews: Long Term of Cuben and First Impressions of Dimma


This will be two reflections on two different bivies that I own, both made by Borah Gear.  One will be a long term review of their Cuben bivy, which I (and at times friends that I loaned it out to) have been using pretty regularly for about three years now.  Hard to give an estimate on how many nights.  But I would say at least 40, maybe over 50 nights out of use, plus a handful of times friends have borrowed it to use.  In the above picture, it is the one on top.  

I have written/spoken about this bivy quite a bit in the past, and if you are interested in checking that out for more context/history, here is the first time I showed off the key central vent modification, and here is a video I did showing off the bivy paired with a poncho/tarp.  Here's a picture of the Cuben bivy and tarp combo in question all set up:



Monday, February 15, 2016

Zpacks Arc Haul First Impressions Review





Back in August of 2014 I wrote up a big review of all 5 of my Ultralight Backpacks, and in this text I said the following:
I currently have no interest in buying any other backpacks until I run one of these five into the ground, or if one somehow gets very damaged, etc.  And I'd probably just buy an identical or very similar replacement.  Of course things and minds can change, but I doubt that I am going to want/need another pack for a long, long time.
And at the time that is how I felt.  I really was completely happy with my packs and felt no need to buy another one.  But one can never foresee just how things will change as time goes on, and all of a sudden I found myself in a situation where I could kill several birds with one stone by replacing my Arc Blast with the newest/current version of the Arc Haul.  So first allow me to explain the thought behind buying the Arc Haul.