Hasta La Ideas

17 days and 201 miles of walking later, the Big Walk I described last month has come to a close. For the backcountry inclined, I can highly recommend the John Muir Trail as a true scenic masterpiece; for those more interested in product design, there’s plenty to tell also.

For starters, my stance on electronics in the backcountry is mostly unchanged — they are to be avoided whenever possible. The two electrically-powered objects in my pack, a headlamp and a camera, both performed well, but batteries are dense little things, and add noticeably to the weight of anything requiring them. The charge remaining in the camera, moreover, became a subject of constant concern: things just get more and more scenic as you head south down the JMT, and the worry that a photo snapped on day 14 would prevent us from shooting one on day 17 superseded concerns about hypothermia and twisted ankles, and that just ain’t right.

Many of the other technological wonders that I carried turned out to be well worth their designers’ efforts, though — here’s a reveiw of five of them:

Trekking Poles. Komperdell C2

These constitute the only major addition to my backpacking equipment list in the past decade, and while I had my reservations at first, they turned out to be worth every gram and dollar. We’re not talking about that many grams to begin with of course: the carbon fiber construction makes them exceedingly light, while providing more rigidity than my partner’s aluminum ones. The only damage to either pair, in fact, were suffered by hers, a pair of Black Diamond poles, which bent slightly after a fall while traversing a patch of late season snow.

For such a recent entry to the backpacking canon, trekking poles show remarkable utility. They deliver on their main selling point of reducing knee impact on heavily loaded descents, but I came to value them in other ways too: powering up endless switchbacks, preventing slips in treacherous snow fields, and especially in maintaining stability during the hundreds of stream crossings encountered in any Sierra hike. The ability to gain solid purchase on a stream bed while balancing myself plus 35 pounds of pack on a slippery stone frequently made the difference between a quick traverse and a debacle of skinned knees and soaked clothes. They also make a convenient way of keeping packs upright during mid-day rest stops.

The design, like much backcountry tech, is stripped down and highly evolved. A two-part carbon shaft quickly adjusts in length with the flick of a cam lock (short for uphill, long for downhill and stream-crossing), and a tungsten carbide tip gives solid purchase on both stone and earth.

I have three complaints. The first, perhaps unavoidable, is the hollow, tapping, scraping sound they make while in use, though this may be a sign of unfamiliarity, and will eventually seem as “natural” to me as the tromp of boot soles on soil. The second is in comparison to my partner’s Black Diamonds, which collapse into three sections rather than two. Even when fully collapsed, the Komperdells are still nearly a meter long, requiring they be strapped to the pack externally when not in use, rather than tucked conveniently in a side pocket; a 3-section version, though, would certainly offer less strength and greater weight.

The really unforgivable flaw is in the grip design, which features a series of grooves along the back surface. Ostensibly to improve traction or airflow (they do neither), their main effect is to generate hand blisters with great efficiency. My partner’s grips use a more sensible design, smooth as a pebble, allowing prolonged grasping rather than the constant shifting demanded by the Komperdells to prevent injury.

Headlamp. Princeton Tec Quad

Outstanding. The arrival of cheap, high-power LEDs was a godsend for backpackers, and this unit from Princeton Tec makes excellent use of them. Lightweight and waterproof, bright enough for all reading and camp chores, simply adjusted for proper angle, and efficient enough to go all 17 days of the walk without a hint of dimming, all on three AAA batteries.

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