Trekking LAB

The Windstopper is a microporous thin light membrane on the market since 1991, its main feature is the ability to protect from the wind keeping you warm although it’s breathable.

Like Gore-Tex, the Windstopper is coupled with other fabrics, usually Windstopper apparel are made of three layers: the Windstopper membrane is inside two woven layers, in this way we can have light windproof clothing suitable for outdoor activities.

Be careful when you buy a Windstopper apparel: it’s made to protect you from the wind and not from the rain!

Windstopper

I’d like to give you some advice about how to set up your tent, these advice are useful both for hikes with the tent and for camping:

• be sure that the ground is not too much sloped, otherwise you risk to spend the night with the sleeping bag slipping on the mat
• before set up your tent you have to remove stones, branches or other things can damages the tent
• don’t put your tent under a tree, the tree can bring lightning, it’s lived by insects and a branch can fall on your tent
• put a sheet (cellophane is OK) under the tent, it’s a good insulator against moisture and it avoids tent to get a bad smell
• the sheet under the tent don’t have to come out from the tent border, if start to rain a water layer will be formed between the sheet and the tent ground
• before pack your tent, spread out it on the grass
• once at home, unpack the tent and let it get some air.

If you need some advice about how to choose your tent take a look at the previously post: How to choose your tent.

Trekking in tenda

In Tom Mangan’s Blog there is a post on which he comments the post 10 Reasons to Buy a DSLR Camera.

The real trick is matching your camera to your needs. I take pictures to post at 500 pixels wide on my Web site and I almost never switch out of full-automatic mode, so there’s not much point in me getting anything much bigger than the cheap 3 megapixel Canon I own now. A great photographer can take excellent pictures with the lousiest camera on earth, and 12,000 dollars worth of Nikon’s finest will not make a photographer out of you.

I’m taking all my pictures with a Nikon Coolpix 4300, sometimes I put it on my lightweight cullmann tripod, I switch the camera on manual mode and I take pretty good pictures.
In the post 10 Reasons to Buy a DSLR Camera the author says:

DSLR cameras are practically affordable nowadays. The big two (Canon and Nikon) currently offer DSLRs for as low as $500-$600 (Canon Digital Rebel XT and Nikon D50) and they’ve been encroaching on point-n-shoot price territory more and more each year. Believe it or not, this is actually already cheaper than some digicams out there.

Yes, it’s true, the price are affordable but you have to buy also at least three lenses if you want a good equipment!

What camera do you use in your hikes?

John Brennan shares with us some tips on preparing for an high altitude trip. It’s not a new post but I’ve just discovered it and I think it can be useful.

4.      Drink plenty of water. In the week before you heading to altitude make a point of topping up your system by drinking plenty of water. The air travel, warm weather, altitude and exercise all dehydrate your body. In the evening have a bottle of water in your hand that you can be sipping from.

I suggest you to drink a lot of water in your hike, even if you are not thirsty.