I double shrinkwrapped my toaks handles and it works great as well

How do you pop the wire handles off?

I have this tiny towel he's talking about and it's a synthetic material. Unfortunately, it might melt if you grab something that's too hot with it

He says the pot he uses doesn't have handles

With the boyscouts we have the rule to always pack light and efficient, but everybody is allowed one comfort item.

@@jimihenrik11 the same boyscouts that overpack and carry insanely heavy loads?

Not my scout. I have a kitchen scale and we weighed everything and were under weight. I think it was supposed to be 20 lbs so they could split the food and cooking equipment amongst them so no one carried over 40 lbs but he ended up carrying 50 like the adults. Because he was as tall as the Dads he ended up carrying more weight because the kids in his group were slight and short. He had 2 pair merino wool socks, a warm fleece, rain poncho, hiking boots well broken in, jeans, shorts, 3 shirts, old army mess kit, sleeping bag, inflatable pad, small pillow. I believe if you sleep well you can handle things better. He said he had the most comfortable sleeping system and was the envy of everyone in his group. And nothing was ultra light, it really wasn’t a thing 20 years ago. He also had a first aid kit and clothing was stored in 2 gallon ziplock bags to stay dry. This was for the Philmont trip. They also left clothes in a locker at base camp so they had clean clothes after the hike.

@@lisaphares2286 40-50lbs is heavy.

@@eric55406Yes, that’s heavy, but as stated in the comment, it was 20 years ago. 🤷🏻‍♂️

@tomsitzman3952 I'm curious where you find your European felt hats. Thrift stores? Are there certain common brands you look for?

@@catblue6393 I second this question

I use a woolnylon baseball cap ultralight ' dries super fast and keeps me warm when wet .

Cylinders are very strong, by virtue of their shape, and the fewer corners on the canister the fewer edges there are for a bear to sink claws or teeth into.

@@jeffreycarman2185 I was under the impression it was an airtight box to stop the smell attracting bears, not a container to keep them out of your food. If a bear is rummaging through my backpack I’m not going to deprive it of the food lol

@@Mawyman2316 That's incorrect. They are designed so that a bear can't get into the contents and a cylinder is a much stronger shape than a cube. If a bear is able to easily access human food, they'll continue to do so and unfortunately they'll end up euthanized to protect humans.

@@Mawyman2316yeah. You know how it’s very hard to hide drugs from dogs? Putting your food inside a plastic box isn’t going to do anything about the scent. It’s to keep the bear out. They’ll lose interest quickly.

Phones on airplane mode last a stupid-long time. You could even turn off your phone when you're not using it and it would last a week on it's own

what do you do with your phone? very puzzling. my 4500 mAh phone lasts about 4 days on airplane mode. so my 10000 mAh powerbank can recharge it at least 2x if I wanted to.

@@BigDawgCAM My Samsung S20 when I hike and sleep in 0C will drop almost 15-20% even when turned off overnight. I've gone 3 days not using my phone (apart from an 30m on the calculator to do maths for a friend since it was a group challenge) and even with it on flight mode and turning it off for one of the two nights, it ended up with 11% afterwards. When it isn't cold, flight mode is a godsend.

@@bananarama3624Have you tried keeping your phone in your quilt/sleeping bag with you? Might see how that affects battery life. Also, nitecore has a newer version of their battery bank that will thermoregulate in cold temps. It supposedly uses a smaller amount of power to keep itself warm that what would otherwise cause the battery to drain when cold.

@@bananarama3624lithium ion batteries are sensitive to the cold, so you should keep any item that contains a rechargeable lithium battery (such as your phone) in your sleeping bag overnight when the temperatures get below freezing.

The backpacking community puts the prepper community to absolute shame when it comes to gear and survival. Those prepper dudes are so goofy lmao

I’ll see what I can do

It was part of this video: EXTREME Wind Testing Popular Backpacking Tents kzfaq.info/get/bejne/b6mTipl-3Lm7oY0.html

Look into dewpoint - overnight as it gets colder, the air can't hold as much moisture, and it condenses out. Thus the higher the moisture, and/or the bigger the drop in temperature overnight, the more likely you'll end up wet. A reliable weather app / website should be able to help you with that.

I’m doing a whole video on PFAS. In my research I’m finding that it’s just about everywhere. It is more than likely in Smart Water but less likely to be in the plastic itself. It’s mostly used as a coating to make other things waterproof. Plastic is waterproof on its own. All that said plastic has its own toxins that are probably not great. But getting away from it in todays world is looking impossible.

Awesome, I can’t wait to watch it! Thanks for the great info as always.

@@MyLifeOutdoors from the reading I've done over the years, re-using disposable plastic bottles has two issues. The first one being they are designed for single-use, and meant to break down more readily since they are supposed to hit the dump or better yet recycling depot. That means leaching out of chemicals over time (and I guess microplastics, too), which is accelerated with exposure to more heat (ambient) and/or sunlight (UV does damage in so many ways, to so many things). You can really tell it's not a great idea by just tasting the water from a disposable bottle that has been left in a hot car for a few days - or in some cases, mere hours. The heat issue means it's also not a good idea to be putting boiling water into a Nalgene either, even if it can take the heat and not appeared to be damaged structurally. Yeti, which makes a very similar type of bottle nowadays (albeit with a taller, narrower design more akin to the SmartWater), specifies that their bottles aren't to be used with near- or boiling water for that reason. Secondly, the issue is with the porosity of the disposable bottles, that can provide a haven for bacteria (and perhaps other microorganisms? I can't recall) over time. Hopefully anyone using any kind of water bottle is doing a thorough job of cleaning it on a regular basis, especially in the threads/grooves around lids or caps, but apparently the bottle walls themselves can be an issue with any plastic bottle, most especially the disposable kind. I _really_ look forward to your in-depth analysis, always enjoy your application of scientific method to gear testing, fun while educational. Side-note, everyone always worrying about BPA in their supposed to be food-safe plastics, but it's used in almost any tin can lining, and every heat-printed store receipt you've ever come across. We just can't win.

Even with the durston poles you still save weight

@@MyLifeOutdoors I didn't doubt it, I just found it kind of a funny situation. ;⁠-⁠) But you do what works for you, of course!

Many times you will hike into a place and use it as a base camp for a day hike or two. To do those day hikes you would like to use your trekking poles. So, if you have a trekking pole tent it makes sense to use Durston poles because you will want your trekking poles for your day hikes. It's not rocket science. The other point is that sometimes you can damage your trekking poles (accidently standing on them, falling, etc. I've done it) so they can't be extended properly. You then have a problem when it comes time to pitch your trekking pole tent.

@@kevinmcgennan8110 well, I wouldn't have that problem as I am carrying a big knife and a saw for processing wood and other tasks, but I'm not really an ultralight hiker as well. I'd simply craft some poles from wood and probably do that from the beginning in the case you described. Me and my buddy do this every time we go winter camping with his Teepee. Or I wouldn't take a trekking pole tent in the first place in that case, as I'm not carrying it the whole time. I was just amused by the fact that Steven choses to take an item which biggest selling point is dual use of another piece of gear without using said gear and replacing it with something without that dual use. But he, you and everyone can do as you please, I don't judge and I'm happy when you are! :⁠-⁠)

Honestly, I feel like it's one of the dumbest gimmicks in UL. People shit on the flexair pump all day but this is just STUPID. The sort of person that thinks the handles are too heavy is gonna just skip cooking all together and cold soak. Who the hell is this for? People who bring chairs but think this is "saving weight"? Just another thing to keep track of and lose, if it doesn't just fail on ya before then.

@@higler. very true 100% agree

@@higler.he didn’t say the handles were too heavy, he said they got too hot. I was about to scoff at him for that too, but when I heard his reasoning I changed my mind.

@@nils-and-kat-devine You're right. I would think gloves or a piece of spare clothing would work just as well, or just use the handles and cover them with some tape or shrink tubing. Also, not bringing your water to a full boil(170 degrees is enough to re-hydrate meals and still have them warm while eating) would help. To each their own, many ways to go about things. I still thinks it's a dumb little gimmick lol

@@higler. some people just love tiny do-dads. But I agree, my backpacking strategy is to keep it simple and take fewer items. If I’m worried about burning my hands I almost always take a cotton triangle bandage to use as a kerchief around my neck (I use it as sun protection as well as soak it in streams to help cool me off, and it doubles as its original purpose, a bandage or sling, in an emergency). My triangle bandage could easily be used as a pot-grabber, if I felt like the pot was too hot to grab.

Yes they are. Especially if you hike bigger mile days. Nothing sucks worse when you're tired after hiking all day like blowing up your pad.

I have a Flextail to inflate my frameless pontoon and the flextail Zero pump to inflate my mattresses. However, it only works for my sea to summit and not for my Zenbivy - because they do not have a supplied adapter for that mattress with their pumps. Much quicker inflation especially at the end of a very long and hot day... If it works for the mattress that you own!!

i prefer a big pump sack (schnozzle, big agnes, zenbivy etc) over the flextail inflators unless i'm group camping. Too much noise for me. If you carry a power bank anyway you should check out the pad pal over the flextail.

I’ve had nitcore batteries last years…with constant use I might add.

I’m currently using the Canon R6 with 15-35 f2.8 lens.

It's the pot grabber

Synthetics can melt, and that matador towel is synthetic. Also the pot doesn’t have handles.

@@lisaphares2286I have a handless pot and use a synthetic cloth to pick it up off the stove all the time. As long as you turn the gas off first there’s no burning or melting of the cloth! One of the beauties of titanium pots is that they don’t retain heat well so using a cloth is possible. I wouldn’t recommend this with an aluminum pot!

life straw, ... I like that pot grabber. I might pick one up. Does it come with a tiny spoon? Too many knives stolen by airport security, I've given up carrying a little knife (big or nothing).

I carry a 30.000 mAh brick with me so i can watch movies on my ipad on rainy nights!😂

I get 3 charges out of my 10000 and I get at least 2 days of use out of each charge, so that’s always over a week of phone use before I need to recharge my phone and battery bank.

Why don't you just turn your phone into airplane mode so it lasts longer?

@@BigDawgCAM maybe they figure it's because they're camping and not on an airplane. that's why they don't use airplane mode 🤣

Some nights I don't think I'd hear a wild animal attack over the sound of my husband's "loud breathing"! I often use those same bell-shaped earplugs; when we met I couldn't fit my pinky in my ear, twenty five years later I can stick in my thumb & maybe wiggle it a bit ;)

Mines been fine although I've heard these complaints before. Have you tried their new 2.0 version? If so just go with an anker

Made on Monday. I’ve heard the same, Nitecore has quality control issues.

Mine is terrible as well 😔

@ultima8250 they were the new version with usbpd. I replaced them with anker and they've been strong for a year. The nitecore polymer battery chemistry and profile were idea on paperl, shame they were garbage.

I’ve never had a problem. I have several battery packs and the nitecore is my favorite by far

Snorers!

@@mikehenry5961 guilty!! my friends want me to set my tent as far away from them as possible lol

Most likely for the windy nights in the woods or open areas.

I keep it on airplane mode. Only use it for GPS and ZOLEO

the question is, how do you not??? lol

For 18 dollars, that branded rag should serve dual purpose as a pot grip. I'm not huge on gimmicks either.

i believe he said he uses it for tent stakes in a diff vid 2:46

O

Personally I have never lost a cap. But he must be a chronic fumbler since he brought not just one, but two spares

Smart water bottles are how I carry all my water. I also use a bladder tube on my bottle for easy drinking while hiking.

Not 1 but 2!!

What the hell are you trying to say? And why are you yelling like a boomer?

99.99999999% chance that anything you hear isn't interested in you and definitely not looking to kill you, especially if you're in black bear country with no grizzlies. You can stay awake and get bad sleep worrying about nothing, or just put in ear plugs, get good sleep, and wake up ready to hit the trail with vigor. Seems crazy/scary at first but many seasoned backpackers do it because without good sleep, you're SOL, and that adds up fast.

Did you have no choice in posting this?

Sir, this is a Wendy’s

Ehhh

huh?

@@higler. wow that comment was meant for another KZfaq video regarding presidential elections😂. Must have gotten mixed up.

You make high quality videos for free on KZfaq?

then dont watch his vids. you should start your own yt channel.

do it

Have you done it yet? I need updates on whether you are or are not still subbed! The mystery is killing me.