New Domain!

Cheers we got our own domain, Emily set it up for us, and brought all the old content over and its much better setup than this blogspot.

Wedoitoutside.com

Cya over there!

-Don

Hunting boots: Kenetrek Northern Pacboots

The high peaks of Colorado in mid October till mid November, will be cold, snowy and wet. As I write this, it has been thundering up in the Sawatch, switching for rain, to hail, to fat snow flakes then back to rain. By the second and third season of elk, from mid October till mid November hiking the high scountry will be harder and there will be snow on the ground that won't melt away till June.

The pac boot design has been around for over a century, LLBean mentions their founder invented the half rain boot half leather boot in Maine. In WWII and Korea, GI's used pacboots, or "shoepacs" in winter conditions to mixed success.

A double boot increases your comfort with its insulation you can be warm when you are resting and stopping for long periods, and at night when you sleep the liners can be removed and worn or placed inside the sleeping bag to dry them. There is no joy like putting on warm dry boots when it is gross outside.

I've had mixed success with Kenetrek pac boots. In the past I have had durability issues with this brand, but since this year they repaired my boot for free, I will give them another chance.

You can see the rubber patches on the boot in this pic.

The major design feature of pac boots is that they are waterproof on the bottom to muck through mud and slush. Yet the upper laces up and forms to your body like a leather boot. 

The coolest thing about these boots over Sorel's and LLBean boots is they have a half inch steel shank in them like the Bean boot, but aggressive tread and thick liner like the Sorel. The best of both worlds. The shank keeps the boot sole rigid to the ball of the foot. While this shank does not allow for enough stiffness for mountaineering, they work for general purpose packing on rough terrain. The flexibility would not stop me from putting on a strap crampon on them if the snow was packed hard or icy and I needed traction and french technique.

Waterproofing

I love treating leather boots. Its a meditative process, and by winter it will be a weekly ritual. I feel connected to the item in a way that a aerosol spray can and goretex boot cant provide. It also smells like honey. If the boot is well constructed, coat of beeswax will keep out water for up to a week of hard use.

If it was sunnier I would just set them by a window.

I put extra treatment on the wrinkles and stitching.

The treatment darkens the leather slightly.

I gotta get these things into the woods and put some scuffs on that nice polish.

-Don.

Andrew Skurka's Ultralight Hunting Gear

Andrew Skurka is a long distance hiker who hiked, the Appalachian Trail Continental Divide Trail, and Pacific Crest Trail in one fast year of hiking. He is also known for his 4700 mile, ski, raft and hike across Alaska and the Yukon. He's an all around badass athlete and traveler.


Recently I discovered he also does backpack hunts, along the lines of what I want to get into in these next few weeks.

Here is his gear list and blog.

Some notable points that I don't necessary agree with are only 2 pairs of dry socks, a flashlight instead of a headlamp and his use of a 2 season summer sleeping bag in combination with down top and pants in Fall here in Colorado. Check it out and tell me what you think.

-Don

Hunting Rifle

Elk Hunting: Merkel K3 Stutzen Jagd .308

Over the last few years, it has been on the back burner to get myself into a backcountry hunt in my backpacking style, which involves light and fast foot travel over great distances each day, a long distance from roads or other people and hunters, an ultralight equipment footprint mixing new and old style equipment, and lots of enjoyment of the woods.

I started looking into rifles that were light weight, first and foremost, secondly the rifle had to be beautiful and a masterpiece of form and function.

The first few rifles I looked at were big production mountain rifles by Remington and Winchester.  Those weighed over 6lbs. There were also custom and small batch rifle makers that used carbon fiber and kevlar, these were well under 5lbs. To contrast these American innovations in mountain rifles, the European hunting tradition featured Jager rifles by Blaser and CZ.

What I choose was a rifle that combined the form of a handcrafted wood stocked rifle, with the light minimalistic form of the newest ultralight arms. Merkel is a gun maker out of Suhl Germany, a city known for its arms production since the renaissance.  "Stutzen Jagd" roughly means "clipped hunter", or maybe "minimalist hunter", according to what my college friends who took German are suggesting.

The rifle weighs 2.4kg (5 1/3 lbs), the barrel is 50cm (19.68 inches) and over all length is 91cm (35.82 inches)

Trigger weight can be adjusted with the switch behind trigger.

The mannlicher stock is a departure from the usual monte carlo.

Remington Core Lokt 180gr soft point ammo was chosen as it was affordable and fit the bill as having enough mass and expansion to take down big game such as elk.

A Nikon M-223 1-4x20mm scope was chosen for its slim profile and low weight, it adds ~14oz to the total weight of the rifle. It is low magnification, but my plan is to shoot at closer ranges under 300 yards, and this model of optic features a bullet drop calculator reticle that once calibrated with a chronograph and ballistics calculator will allow for ranging without turning the scope dials.

Nikon BDC 600 reticle

Suggested ranges for military 5.56mm ammo

Actual ranges for my rifle and ammo.

The range markings are not as neat and tidy as if I were shooting military 223, however they still give a general idea of bullet drop and allow for good estimations in the field with a range finder.

Shooting from 100 yards, prone in the center, and kneeling and standing on the corners.

The Chrony averaged the muzzle velocity to be at 2470fps, and Remington states the ballistics coefficient to be .248. Once the muzzle velocity and the ballistics coefficient was input into the calculator I discovered that the Core Lokt ammo shoots in a rainbow arch compared to other types of ammo. The problem is that the Core Lokt bullets itself is round nosed and not a very aerodynamic shape compared to some other modern bullets, which lowers its ballistics coefficient.

Here is a round nose bullet compared to a pointed, boat tailed bullet with a much higher ballistics coefficient. As a result the bullet to the right shoots straighter and a bit further. 

It's to late for me to complain now I have already zeroed in the rifle for this ammo and have a good amount of full boxes I need to go through to dial in my marksmanship. 

Even with this older type ammo the shooting will be easy, finding the elk will be hard.

-Don

Svea alpinism

5 summits, 1 stove. 

Or how I came to love my Svea. Part 1.

Primus 71 and Svea123r

Well the biggest question from critics along the way, and what you are probably asking right now, is what is a SVEA 123r and why the hell would you use it, especially for alpine climbing and winter camping?

The Svea 123 is a legendary stove that your granddaddy AND your daddy probably used to bag FA's in the golden age of climbing on just about any sort of climb or hike from the Himalayas to the Appalachian Trail. Its been in production in its current form for over 60 years and has a lineage of design dating back over 100. Its still in production today however, the current models are no longer made in Sweden, but Taiwan(bummer).

Why did I take this dated design alpine climbing?

1. I like its style, I'm nostalgic, and I hear the spirit of alpinism every time this stove roars to life and melts my tea.

A Svea(Primus71) variant at 6900m on Nanga Parabat in 1954. Note the Trangia spirit burner to the right.

2. It's simple, stupid. If you recall in my Snow-Orientation post MSR Whisperlites issued form Colorado Mountain College are about as dependable in the backcountry as an Iphone battery. Thats not to say that well kept modern stoves can do much better, it's just reassuring to know the Svea has no need for gaskets at the fuel line, no need for meltable plastic pumps and bolts on the stove itself. The Svea only has the on off regulator, and the self cleaning pricker. All other parts of the stove can be tightened and inspected with the on/off key. The only other part that I can see wearing out in the near future due to wear is the fuel tank cap gasket, which I carry a spare at all times.

3. It's enough for the job. In non-field conditions, at my laboratory/patio at 10,124 feet It performs well enough with fast 5 min boils of a liter in the summer to 9 min slogs in sub zero temperature in the dead of winter.

4. It's solid brass and it still manages to weight 16.8oz with spare parts and without its cup, about the same as a modern stove. It isn't an ultralight beer can stove, but it works in the winter and at altitude.

Basic Operation

The Svea is powered by whitegas aka coleman fuel, unleaded, and naptha, which is a gasoline like paint thinner available at the hardware store. I have heard stories of old time AT hikers fueling their Svea's for months on leaded auto gas with no issue.

Field test no 1

March 2014, Mt Massive Ski mountaineering

Camp at 12,400ft, the Svea worked in conjuction with an MSR Pocket Rocket stove, cooked and melted snow for 3. Lows at -10*F winds at over 30mph. The PocketRocket was very weak at that temperature, some improvement noticed when warm hands placed on the cold canister. Svea function as normal, but requiring two prime fires.

Me and Gomez at the Summit.

More brass stove talk later. See you all in the mountains.

-Don

Learning to mountaineer on Mt Baker

Alpine Skills Course,  Mt Baker.

June 2014

Mt Baker, visible from the sea. It is 10,780 feet tall and 30 miles inland form my boat.

I came into the 6 day course with a good background of climbing on my own and with the school. I hoped to learn some basic mountaineering and that is what the course offered, glacier travel, rope teams, ice ax and crampon work, and snow camping. I had a good amount of snow camping, climbing and rope work down, but I felt it would be good to go up an easy glaciated peak with a guide on my first time round.

I met the members of the course, many of them had never climbed on a rope on their own before, but that is what this course is about.

Laura is a doctor, but she hates her job and wanted a career change, she had been guided by RMI up Ranier.
Evan is an excellent skiier from MT but he is deathly afraid of heights.
Douval is a father in his 50's he too had been with RMI on Ranier.
Brett the nomadic mountain guide started out as a ski guide but eventually moved into climbing and also guides rock and other alpine peaks.

My tentmate Dr. Laura from Golden CO

Evan a college kid from Montana

Douval a medical equipment monger from SC

Our strong and quiet guide Brett

We get on some easy top rope routes and practice our knots, belay, climbing, and rappelling skills. I know the knots and techniques already, but Its good to review and help the rest of the class remember the methods.

Day 2. We woke up at around 8 and got a leisurely start up the mountain, its about 5 miles march with my 65 pound pack. This is one of the largest loads I've carried. Yeah I'm a wus ultralighter.

We establish a comfortable Low Camp(see above map).

I learn a new skill.  Brett calls it a boot box. Its where you dig a hole under your tents vestibule storage space for your feet so you can cook and sit in your tent at the same time.

Day 3 . Brett the instructor tells us that since bad weather is moving in we are going to cover basic crampon ax and rope team procedures and make for high camp than summit the day after.  THEN we learn more skills. This sounds completely backwards to me, but I can't turn down the chance to make a big summit on this trip.

Next we learned how to tie into part of a rope team, and mainly how not to trip on the ropes tied between each member of the party. Brett said it was to help protect against falling into a crevasses in the glacier and we would learn more about that later.

The group is taught several ways to use our crampons, I was already familiar with the basic flat foot and front point techniques from ice climbing, but we learn a bit more about it.

Flat foot technique requires all points to contact the ground for more security.

 We then established a cramped little high camp. The skies were clear and the air was hot. Winds blew in from the sea incredibly strongly. A storm was coming.

A calm evening before the alpine start.

Day 4. Alpine start. I have a love hate relationship with getting up at 3am. I zipped open the sleeping bag and got the stove going and put a pot of coffee on before rolling back into bed for about 10 minutes. The sound of the Svea rumbling is music to my tired ears.

As we approach the Roman wall which is the steepest part of our climb the only way we can walk up is sideways using the flat foot or french technique.

Other than the slog and the difficulty of breathing our team made it up to the summit in beautiful weather.

I had been saving pieces of Kendal's Mint Cake, which had been snacked upon the summit of Everest by Hillary. Baker is no Everest, but you have to start somewhere. Cheer's to my Oklahomie Chris Stoval for introducing me to this snack.

Day 5. I woke to the wonderful sound of rain pattering on our tent. At around 8am Brett came and told us through our tent fly, that lessons were to be postponed today due to the rain.

The entire morning and afternoon was spent lounging in the tent, cooking, making tea and coca and Laura and I exchanged stories from our college days about pre-med. We really got a chance to bond and I thought our backgrounds of attempting to get into the medical track were very similar. She wanted to get into politics instead of doctoring. Laura remembered she had brought her Kindle and read aloud the first few chapters for Game of Thrones. She had never watched the show but got the book to know what everyone was talking about.

I love the sound of rain on a silnylon fly. So listen with me.

A good tentie dosen't smell too bad, a GREAT tentie reads you Game of Thrones with accents.

Sometime around 6pm with a few hours of light left the sky completely cleared. I was excited to get out of that tent and learn what I had paid for. Evan matched my enthusiasm but Laura and Douvall just wanted to go back into the tent and go to bed.

We learned about how to haul a person out of the crevasse using our rope team and how to use snow picket anchors.

6: On our final day we broke camp and on the way out stopped by some glacier ice and had a little fun.

All in a weeks work.

While I won't see the rest of the crew again for a while, Evan the acrophobic mountaineer and I would set our sights on Ranier that next week.