Posts by Olin Lathrop
CO and CO2 dangers are real, and most tents aren't ventillated well enough without outside wind to make it safe. CO2 dissolves well in water, especially cold water, and your body has mechanisms to...
What you want is called "skin". However, that's not something you just add on one day and go hiking for days. Keep in mind that our species evolved to get around by walking and running with our f...
I use a film canister for salt when backpacking. I have had people tell me that same story about poisons leaching from the plastic into the food, but nobody is able to substantiate that. The cani...
This doesn't directly answer your question and might not be to your liking, but it's what I do. Basically, I don't bother trying to keep it cold. However, I do add flavoring. I find that flavori...
I occasionally have to label smooth plastic surfaces around the office that get handled regularly. As you say, even a sharpie mark wears off after a while. What I do is to write the label with a ...
As with any relatively unscientific field, there is a lot of lore out there that may have originally had a good scientific foundation, but the restrictions or specific conditions have long been for...
Yes, "Nor'easter" is derived from "north-easter" meaning the winds come from the northeast. That is exactly what happens in a nor'easter. You are confusing the wind direction with the travel dire...
In addition to what Russell said, consider that the bag by itself does not need to cover the lowest temperature extremes you will encounter. You can get one good for most of the conditions, then a...
If you just want to solve the problem, go buy a LED headlamp. There are now quite a variety available on the market. A bunch of years ago this wasn't the case, and I built my own. It drives 4 wh...
I think you mean "light" the fuel. "Lighten" means to reduce it's weight. It seems you want to ignite it. The basic problem is that the vapor pressure of ethanol goes down significantly with col...
As others have said, wool is the best of the easily available natural materials. It's main advantages are: Somewhat hydrophobic, in other words is a little bit water repellent. This is due to wo...
As others have said, the main advantage of a free standing tent is that it doesn't require stakes or rope tied to external fixed objects to stand up. Of course there are downsides too. This gener...
I think there are two primary distinctions between "4 season" (winter-capable) and "3 season" tents: Air flow and room. In a 3 season tent, you generally want good ventilation and you pretty much ...
I think the most likely is actually hypothermia. All it takes is being a little unprepared and getting caught in wet and windy conditions a little above freezing. If you don't deal with that righ...
Before I saw this question, I had no idea the term stealth camping existed, but I have definitely done it a number of times, just backpacking, with a bike, and with a car. Yes, it's possible to do...
