Hiking, Scrambling, Mountaineering, and Climbing

raichle, la sportive, one sport, hawkins, mammut, zamberlan, asolo, hanwag, lowa, more here > http://www.buachaille.com/c0-1-0-0-0-1/2-3-Season-Hiking-Boots/

rad old Karrimor Alpiniste backpack on fleabay, ending in 3h

nice sacks, useful pied d'elephant feature, except when the zip split, as happened on the aiguille du chardonnet bitd.. ah

yeah, was wondering about the durability of that. a cool idea though, never seen it on a modern bag

Any suggestions for good value heavy winter socks to be worn in mountain boots?

Any suggestions for good summer hiking shoe's will be travelling around South east Asia for a few months?

Merrell Moab?

Looked at the before they look a little big for what I'm thinking, started looking at the trail type shoe which is a bit more what I'm after.

I prefer two thin pairs

inov8 roclite 280, non-goretex model. used it for 2wks rough hiking in the UAE, perfect.

british army coolmax

Slightly OT but does anyone on here have a slackline they want rid of? I had one before but never got into it and gave it away, but recently LadyLiz fancied a go.
Can't be arsed to buy a new one but if anyone has a basic kit for cheaps/free they're not using then I'm all ears...

any recommendations for decent leather walking boots ?

Not to be a pain but to use an analogy that a cyclist will understand, that's sort of like asking 'can anyone recommend a good steel bicycle'.
What do you want to do with them? Day walks in summer, on trails or cross-country, 3-4 day 3-season backpacking, winter backpacking in snow and ice?

Any suggestions for good summer hiking shoe's will be travelling around South east Asia for a few months?

Lightweight trail-runners are awesome but on technical/scrambly trails some models twist too easily, which is quite unnerving when edging along a ledge or balancing on sharp rocks. So for off-piste backpacking I'd pick something with a stiff sole - if you grab the toe in one hand and the heel in the other, twist it, and if you can get it more than maybe 60 degrees twist I'd leave it (unless you're walking on well-maintained trails only).

I'd recommend anyone the Mizuno Wave Kazan trail runners. Very light, extremely comfortable, good stability and grip. Breathe very well and dry fast when taken off, but are still surprisingly comfortable when wet. I've done about a week of walking, kayaking, running and just hanging out in them in warm weather. They got wet all the time and every day I was surprised at how gentle they were on my feet.

Lae makes the best point,

But as you mention Meindl, I love my Meindl Kansas GTX. Got them in the sale so they're most likely last seasons version. Cracking boots so far though.

Fucking swissair. Despite confirming with them twice that a small snowshoe bag will be transported for free as snowsports equipment on their flights they now want 60CHF each way for the privilege!

^ That really sucks. I've been so lucky with sports gear to date..

How have I never heard of knotted protection for climbing before?! Understand it's peculiar to sandstone climbing in Eastern Europe. It looks really really iffy but quite intriguing. Anyone tried it?

Might make up a few stoppers to take to Scotland next month and see how it goes(backed up with real gear of course).

Looking for a new 65L+ plus bag, as the only one I have is a beat up ol Karrimor I got free for DofE back in school. Real trooper though.

Saw this one on amazon, good price, looks like it's got all the bells and whistles I'd need. Although haven't seen any reviews on it and it could be a dud.

Mountaintop 80L "Waterproof" (seems like it has water resistant outer, and probs uses a rain cape"

And then I did my usual search for "waterproof hiking bags" as they don't seem to really exist past using a rain cape.
Found this which looks awesome, reviewed well, but no uk stockist afaik. And appears to be properly waterproof.

Mountain hardware Ozonic 65L outdry

Just my opinion but I'd imagine that a good set of dry bags would be far more effective than a waterproof pack. Obviously you have the disadvantage of the pack getting wet but would mean you don't have to get a waterproof one.
I'm sure you know all this though.

Just over my experience I have gained a sinical view on anything "waterproof" that isn't leather or a jacket. Especially for a large buckle-up bag.

Looking for ideas for places to go walking around London, mostly around north of North London. Around 15miles, preferably with hills. I know the South of London has lots of options (South downs etc) but I'm particularly interested in ideas that are easy to get to (<75min) from Finsbury Park/King's Cross/Euston way.

+1 on dry bags. Would be amazed if any rucksack could be waterproof given the number of seams and wear points. Can get a roll of rubble sacks from the pound shop that'll do the job just fine.
I've got a mid 1990's 65l Karrimor Apliniste(expandable to 80l ish) I could let go for £50 if you're interested. Pics upthread.

It's not particularly hard work but the Capital Ring walk passes through Finsbury Park and passes through some bits of London most people haven't noticed before https://tfl.gov.uk/modes/walking/capital-ring

Just watching 'Cold' documentary. -46degC at the moment at ~8000m
They're climbing Gasherbrum II, going down now 'where everyone dies' past a bunch of bodies.
Fuck that shit.

On February 2, 2011, Cory Richards, Denis Urubko, and Simone Moro became the first to ascend Gasherbrum II in winter. Despite being buried by a class-four avalanche, they reached the summit at 11:30 am, without supplemental oxygen or porters. Richards, who was the first American to climb an eight-thousander in winter, filmed the expedition, which he turned into the film Cold.[28][29]

http://www.climbing.com/news/first-winter-ascent-of-gasherbrum-ii/

http://adventure.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/adventurers-of-the-year/2012/cory-richards/

And this guy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinhold_Messner

Bun that shit. I'll stick to pissing around at the seaside.