Posts by Martin F
There are four common types of stove alcohol: methanol, ethanol, denatured alcohol, and isopropanol. You can usually find them in hardware stores and (but not always) in camping stores. You can al...
I believe key parts of your question concern both the size of the toe hole and the length of the pivoting, clawed sole plate. I suspect that an ideal adult snowshoe would come in different sizes, l...
There are at least two companies that make cleaning and proofing products specially for outdoor gear of various materials: Nikwax and Grangers. They both recommend first pre-washing the item in the...
Here are some articles that claim that pedal beats paddle, for speed/endurance on a SoT kayak: paddlecraft.com.au: What-Everybody-should-know-about-Pedal-Powered-Kayaks yakgear.com/the-pros-a...
Sit-on-top kayaks are a popular alternative to traditional sit-inside kayaks. One advantage is that they sometimes come with a foot pedals for propulsion. The foot pedals are linked, via gears, eit...
There's a website called Run Repeat that bills itself as "#1 Sports Shoe Review Site". It does meta analyses of shoe reviews. In the search rankings-of-wide-hiking-boots is a list of high ranking...
Short of seeing a video of your technique, here is some general advice. A very common but poor technique in the forward stroke is where you keep your torso relatively still and repeatedly push and...
There are canoe and kayak versions of the indoor rowing machine. Essentially, instead of sliding back and forth, pulling an oar, to simulate rowing, you are sitting/kneeling in place, pulling/pushi...
Ethanol is usually sold as bio-ethanol in Canada, although, strictly speaking, it is really denatured alcohol (i.e., it has an additive to prevent people from drinking it). While you can get it fro...
Possibly the easiest camping stove to maintain – and very easy to make – is the alcohol stove (aka spirit burner). It's just some form of cup with ventilation – no pressure, no pipes, no nozzles. I...
As a reamer, it is for drilling small holes in wood. As an awl, it is for sewing thick material, such as leather, together. Here are YouTube videos on how to sew with the awl-with-thread-hole tool...
The bull hitch is just a cow hitch (aka girth hitch) with an extra round turn. Bring the working end over and around the bar then over itself. Make a turn around itself. Bring it behi...
What material – such as polyester, polypropylene or wool – or combination thereof, both works to keep you warm when wet and dries quickly, as an alternative to neoprene? I'm looking for something c...
A key part of your question -- "...in its stuff sack..." -- is not addressed here (or in the original, duplicate question). When I bought my first high-quality back-packing tent, I was advised not...
I'm planning to go downhill skiing next week and I notice the forecast for the day in question is for winds of 50 to 60 km/h. That seemed high to me. A few years ago, at the same hill, we were turn...
Regarding Q2, a sea kayak might be a little too big and expensive for your needs, as beginners. A recreational kayak -- a bit of a cross between a sea kayak and a whitewater kayak -- is more genera...
I have some damaged-beyond-repair self inflating sleeping pads. On one the hard gel housing the valve has completely disintegrated so it cannot be inflated at all. Two others have dozens of tiny ...
Most solutions require threading one or two long lockable cables through some sort of “holes” in the kayak and onto the fixed rack. The locking cables can be elongated versions of standard bicycle ...
In my garage, and when it is parked around town, I lock my bike to a rack via a U-lock or at least a cable lock. How should I similarly secure my kayak? I realize that a determined thief can break ...
A snow saw is useful for building snow shelters and for avalanche danger testing. Some models are said to be easily attached to ski/trek poles in order to increase the handle length. Under what cir...
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