Gear Lists

I’ll preface this page by stating what works for me will not necessarily work for you. All my gear choices are well considered and thought through; have been field tested by me and work for my needs. Have a look through and see what you think – feel free to ask questions or offer ideas. I love talking gear and would be more than happy to fill you in on my ideas and reasoning behind gear choices. Primary considerations for all my gear is functionality and weight. I like to go as light as I can and try to find multiple uses for items where possible. I would not consider myself as an ultralight hiker by any means – I like the idea of being a clever hiker (ie. Dave Collins) or an ultimate hiker (ie. Andrew Skurka).

I am a self confessed gear junkie and have more than I probably need for you and I combined. My gear choices do change up quite a bit depending on the type of trip I’m undertaking; with the experience level of people I’m going with; size of a group; and the conditions I expect to encounter. Safety is always a key consideration.

Within the gear lists you will see 1st Aid and Repair Kits with total weights. These don’t change much and I always carries these so itemised them below to show you what they include. I carry both together in the same bag as both kits have items that complement the other ie. fire starting, razor blade; needle and thread (dental floss).

First Aid Kit:

• 2 x heavy crepe bandages
• tweezers
• mole skin
• medications (panadene forte, disprin, voltaren, anti-histimine & Imodium)
• emergency water treatment tabs
• small medical tape
• 2nd skin (for blisters)
• tampon (great fire starter)
• various band-aids
• 2 x wound dressings & latex gloves.

Photo to be included shortly

Repair Kit & Emergency:

• Thermarest field repair kit
• razor blade protected by piece of closed cell foam
• spare button batteries for head torch
• super glue for repair and first-aid
• 10m plumb line cord
• Light My Fire flint
• Tear Aid repair kit for Gortex, Ripstop and Silnylon fabrics
• Spare bottle caps for gatorade & platypus water carriers
• Needles & thread; dental floss
• Duct tape – carried on walking poles.
  Photo to be included shortly.

My cook kits vary widely and vary heaps between trips – I have included a separate page on these under the gear tab.
TRIP LISTS

Western Arthurs Gear List Dec 2014

I used this trip as testing ground for gear I’m likley to take on my planned Te Araroa thru hike in New Zealand next year that will take 4 months, hence some of the stranger items carried like an ipad mini. The Western Arthurs sort of mimics the number of days and difficulties of the longest stretch on Te Araroa, the Richmond Range. On previous trips to the South West of Tas I have slogged it out starting with packed weights close to 25 or 30kg for a similar length walk – this is still the case for many people these days – I have vowed never to carry this much again. While I’m confident and comfortable with my choices of the light weight gear I took down there, I would not recommend these choices to all people. The following is my full list of gear carried on the Western Arthurs Range – I ended up cutting this trip short due to weather but did carry a full 8 days supply of food.

* Cook kit included: kovea stove head, 1 Lt Stoic Ti pot and pan, Ti mug, Ti long handle spoon, home made pot cozy, chux, small bic lighter
* Repair Kit – as described above.
* First Aid – as described above.