RE: [Philmont]: "Gearing up"

While the Alps tents aren't the lighted backpacking tents, they certainly deserve to be ranked in the near vicinity. The key is the aluminum poles. If you look at some of the single wall tents and tents that cost 2-4 times what these tents cost, and considering the boys are supposed to share tents (and therefore the load), I can't justify any other tent in comparison. For the adults tenting alone, the 1.5 Mystique AL is the way to go, especially if you are using a goosedown or microX sleeping bag and a closed cell foam pad. On mine, I think that comes to 14-15 pounds, bag, pack, pad, and tent (whole tent). It's not a bad weight for that amount of gear.

jwt

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Joe Tavares
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attached mail follows:

From: Randal Miller
> We were fortunate enough to discover Alps Mountaineering's Scout Direct
> discount program ( www.alpsmountaineering.com & www.scoutdirect.com)
> prior to outfitting the crew. We saved a tremendous amount of money on
> backpacks, sleeping bags, tents and compression bags.

On our trek (808-K, 2005), my son and I used Alps backpacks (mine had two
zippers
break, my son had my older one that has been working great for three years),
Alps sleeping bags (been using those for years), Alps compression stuff
sacks (work great),
an Alps compressible pillow for me, and an Alps self-inflating pad. We
didn't use our Alps
tent because all their tents are too heavy for backpacking (but our Alpine
Design tent had
a pole break, that was a pain).

I've been using (and touting) Alps for years. I've been somewhat
disappointed in my
backpack with the zippers breaking, but other than that I've never had a
problem with
their gear. With the deep scout discount, you get reasonably good gear at
the same
price as the heavily discounted cheap junk. One caution on Alps sleeping
bags, their
temp ratings are way off. Using their 20 degree bags (I have four) in 35
degree nights
results in a very cold night. Their zero degree polarguard bag will keep me
warm at
30 degrees, but I'm cold at 20 degrees. Fortunately, we don't get any
colder than that
around here, so it is a non-problem.

Other gear we used that was a bit different than our usual:
I got some aluminum water bottles engraved with our trek number and other id
stuff as
souvenirs. All the boys used those and really liked getting them. Other
than the
fact the tops take extra long to screw in and out, they worked great. We
also got
carabiners engraved with our trek id, unit and city also as souvenirs, and
all the boys
used those and really liked them. I brought a knock off crazy creek chair,
first time I've
used one, and I can't believe I'd denied myself that until now. Worth its
weight in gold.

We really never use rain gear here since it virtually never rains on our
outings, so most
of us used Frogg Toggs (inexpensive, works great) or Red Ledge (what the
Tooth of
Time Traders sells, doesn't work at all, like wearing ordinary clothing).
We rarely used
the rain pants, however, only on the two days straight of rain.

Almost all the boys had gore-tex boots (absolutely necessary at Philmont,
lots of
stream crossings). The only boy who got a blister was the one who insisted
on
using crew socks to hike in (even though he had hiking socks and liners).
When
he started using the moleskin, I reminded him of this :-).

We brought some Butt Paste, two of us needed it. I tried going commando in
swimming trunks, but that didn't work for me and I switched to shorts with
underwear.

I had to buy new boots one week before Philmont because I blew out my old
boots
on Yosemite's Half Dome. That is a good thing, that meant they didn't blow
out
at Philmont. Even though not well broken in, they gave me no problems (I
rarely
have foot problems anyway). Vasque boots, very comfortable, dried out
quickly.
Regards
Don Roberts
05 808-K

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Received on Tue Aug 30 18:43:32 2005