Winter Expedition

A few notes on the winter expedition:

The ten day forecast predicts temps in the upper 30s (too hot!) and snow on two of the days. Hopefully the snow will not turn to rain in those warmer temps.

Chad and I will be planning our route tomorrow.

Since we'll have colder temps and don't have to carry the food, we can splurge a bit on our meals. Here's what I'm thinking for my dinners:

• Cheese stuffed Ravioli
• Chicken Alfredo
• Steak and Potatoes
• Rice & Shrimp

I'll do my usual oatmeal for breakfast and snacks for lunch. What about the rest of the TEAM?

JMT Permits

Last call...

I will be filing for permits Friday Feb. 26th. Right now there is myself and 2 of my UND buddies. If you want or think you might want to go on the hike I need to get permits now. The permits are $5 a piece. It's eaisier to get a permit and not use it rather than the other way around. If you can't commit but still have interest I can put you on a list of alternates.

Farewell Tribute to Dave's Poles

A 42 second farewell tribute to Dave's Poles.

The Evolution of a Cook Set

I've spent the last few days perfecting my alcohol stove (or rather building through trial and error a version of Chad's stove) and rethinking my approach for pots and water bottles. Now that I've got a good stove, pot and water bottle solution I thought I'd take a moment to walk through the evolution of my cook set.

All weights include actual fuel brought on a 4-5 day trip and empty water bottles.

"Traditional" Approach

Way back before I started my ultralight quest my cook set consisted of:

• MSR Whisper Lite Stove (with bag)
• 22 oz MSR Fuel Bottle
• 1,000 mL Nalgene bottle
• Measuring Cup
• Mug
• Spork
• Bowl
• MSR Pot (with bag)

All of this weighed in at 66.7 ounces or 4.17lbs.

Ultralight

As documented in this blog, over the last couple years I have been transitioning to an ultralight style of backpacking. My original goal was to get my base weight down to 12 pounds.

I traded out my stove, mug, spork, and pot for lighter options. I quit carrying a Nalgene bottle and started carrying a Gatorade bottle. With the new "tea kettle" style pot, I was able to leave out the measuring cup altogether. My new cook set consisted of:

• MSR Pocket Rocket
• MSR Fuel Canister
• Titanium Mug
• Titanium Spork
• Gatorade Bottle
• Tea Kettle

The new cook set weighed in at 21.6 oz or 1.35 pounds. A reduction in weight of 45.1 ounces or 2.82 pounds.

The Super-Ultralight Quest

I was able to surpass my 12 pound goal and spent most of 2009 with a ten pound base weight for warm weather trips. My new goal, for '010, is to join the "Super-Ultralight Club" with a base pack weight of seven pounds.

My MSR Pocket Rocket has been replaced with a homemade alcohol stove and I combined the pot and water bottle. The new cook set consists of:

• Homemade alcohol stove
• Titanium Spork
• Pot/Water Bottle (Snake Eyes Can)
• 3 oz Listerine Bottle filled with fuel

The new kit weighs in at 5.4 ounces; 61.3 ounces less than my original cook set and 16.2 ounces less than my ultralight cook set.

Here's the kicker, the Super Ultralight Cook Set cost me less than $15, about half of which was for the spork.

Busy Month

Jan '010 has had more blog posts than any other one month in T42 history. Let's keep it going!

JMT Dates Set

Dates and itinerary set for the JMT. It may be tweaked in the future but not much. The trip will take place Wed Aug 11th to Sun Aug 29th.

Tentative Trip Itinerary
Day: 1 Leave Cheyenne

2 Mammoth Lakes

3 Yosemite National Park

4-17 Hike the JMT

18-19 Travel Back to Cheyenne
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Hiking Itinerary

Website Updates

I'm still working on the blog. I don't like the way that it integrates with the website. I've tried all sorts of things and the problem I'm having right now is that Google Sites does not support FTP. I'm working on a workaround to that, because I really do not want to use a different program for the site, since I have already put a bunch of time into the google sites version. Basically I want to set it up so people don't have to go back and forth between the blog and the site; that the blog just becomes part of the site.

I'm going to add some kind of recognitions page to the site. The highlight will be the TEAM42 Member of the Year, and I would also like to set up some other recognitions. My ideas include:

42 in 2 Club (for people that hike 42 miles in two days)

100 Club (for expeditions over 100 miles)

200 Club

500 Club

1,000 Club

42 Half Below Club (for sleeping outside when the temps get to half of 42 degrees below zero or less)

42 Below Club

Thoughts?