Posts Tagged ‘ultralight’

Have you ever paid $15 dollars for a spoon? Well then you just haven’t lived yet! Today I found a fantastic spoon, the Cadillac of the spoon world! The Sea to Summit™ AlphaLight Long Spoon weighs in at a mere .4 oz!!! The beauty of this spoon is that it is made of 7075-T6 aircraft aluminumalloy, which gives it the uncanny ability to cool down and dissipate heat in record time. Also, this metal beauty is 8.5 inches long! It’s perfect for your trail gourmet recipes from Freezer Bag Cooking, and getting that last delicious bite out of the bottom of your quart sized freezer bag! Pick yours up today and shed those pesky extra ounces!

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Recently I received a small PDF handbook from the Backpacker magazine called “The Ultralight Handbook”. It’s a very good little book. I would say it’s one of the very few books that are 90% information and 10% fluff. The book reads quickly, with only 20 pages or so, but the tips and hints it gives are worth their weight in digital gold.

One interesting snippet was a breakdown on alcohol stoves. I have a friend who makes his own out of 2 aluminum pop cans and standard rubbing alcohol. I suppose everyone has their own views… and I would rather keep my Pocket Rocket and boil water in 1 minute, than simmer water in 8.

Another interesting snippet I will pass along is Fozzil bowls. The concepts behind these are neat as hell. I can not exactly wrap my brain around how they don’t leak, but every review I’ve read has been positive. Hikers use them for bowls, plates, cups, and sitting pads to keep your butt dry. The problem that I found with these, is trying to find a place to buy the darn things! I searched the internet for hours upon hours trying to find a “set” without having to buy them each individually. Every vendor that I found that sold sets, wanted anywhere from $8 to $12 in shipping! I paid less to ship my sleeping mat, and it weighed more! So I was just have to give these a virtual thumbs up, as unless I come across them in a store, I’m not going to pay that much to ship them to me.

The last interesting factoid that I will post has to do with a website called Freezer Bag Cooking. This concept of this is that you will have assembled your meal before hand in a freezer bag. Once mealtime on the trail, you would bring the required amount of water to a near boil, then dump it right into the bag! From there, put it in a cozy (which she sells as well, and are BEAUTIFUL) to let it set and soak up water. After it’s ready (roughly 10 minutes) grab a spork or foon, roll down the bag, and eat away! I’ll explain more in another post later on, and you can check out her website with the above link, or from my “Links” section on the right.

So all in all the Ultralight Handbook was worth getting, if even just for information on those few things. If anyone has any questions about this book, I “may be able to help you find a copy” by emailing me at freak_critique@hotmail.com .

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