A Windy Hike on Arthurs Seat, Edinburgh. Source: Flickr by joe.lipson
Standing in our shop last week I had an epiphany whilst examining two different windshirts, a thought came into my mind which stunned me that wind proof clothing is even more versatile than I thought! Now in my defence I know Waterproof Jackets are 100% windproof, but what I was thinking about was the other windproof and wind resistant products that are on the market. The kind of clothing designed especially for summer or active use, as you don’t really want to wear your waterproof on a lovely bright BREEZY day do you? Or a fleece that as soon as the wind gusts is as much protection as a chocolate fireguard?
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Let’s start this review of the Force 10 Helium 100 with a bit of background information, Vango have this year changed round their range and have dropped the old Helium Superlite 100 and redesigned the Helium 100. Its probably not a surprising move as the Helium Superlite 100 at 0.97kg was extremely close in weight to the old Helium 100, which weighed 1.15kg, not to mention that they were only separated in RRPs by only £30.
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We are delighted to announce that our shopping site CheapTents, will supply Jack Wolfskin the leading European outdoor brand from April 2012. This will see us initially offering Jack Wolfskin tents, building to stock a complete range of Jack Wolfskin clothing products in time for our winter collection this year.
Jack Wolfskin, is a leading brand in the outdoors market which over the past few years has begun to increase its presence in the U.K. Anyone watching Premier League Football will have no doubt seen prominent Jack Wolfskin advertisements as the company sponsors both Liverpool F.C. and Fulham F.C., which shows their intent to become a major player in the U.K. market. However, they are much more than a well oiled marketing machine! Their products are high quality, well designed and competitively priced.
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Here at CheapTents we love looking at maps! Whilst Ordnance Survey undoubtedly produce the best quality mapping in the UK, Google have provided us with their maps online for free. Combined with Street View and Google Earth, Google Maps is arguably one of the best things on the internet. Not only do Google do great maps, they also like a bit of a laugh and this year for April Fool’s day they have produced 8-bit mapping. For those of us who can remember computer graphics from the 1980s these maps are a bit of a flashback! Below are screenshots of most of England and Wales and East Warrington with Google’s 8-bit mapping. Below that is The Adventure Centre on 8 bit Street View. Awesome!
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Have you ever been out hiking and found that when you came down from the fells, you felt that your experience of your walk was not quite as it should have been? Your body feels like you’ve been walking but your memory of the walk is a bit sketchy? We have received an increasing number of accounts like this, to the point that they were causing concern. So we decided to exchange our Lowe Alpine mountain caps for Sherlock Holmes Deer Stalkers and do some amateur sleuthing. We found a shocking truth that we are only now able to reveal…
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The family fun begins this weekend with many schools starting their Easter break, though some start their holiday next week. With this in mind we’ve done some digging around and found some great events across the UK in the coming weeks, fun for all the family.
We’ve done our best to segment our list by location (eg Manchester, London, Devon etc) but unfortunately we can’t cover everywhere. So if you can’t see a location near you then scroll to the bottom of this article and we’ve listed some great resources for finding events just like the ones we are listing today.
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With the advent of Smart Phones, hiking and travelling are taking on a new dimension. Through websites such as Social Hiking you can Share Your Adventure on the internet in real time. Using your smart phone and a Social Hiking account you can chart your route on a map as you go, and if you tweet or upload a photo or video, this is also recorded on the map too. You are not restricted to hiking, you could also be cycling, motorbiking, driving or travelling over any time scale.
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MSR Needle Stakes for good all round performance.
There’s nothing quite like the feeling of arriving back at the
camping site after full day of hiking up big mountains, only to find that your tent has been blow across the campsite by strong winds and that it has landed in a patch of brambles that have torn it to shreds. Or so I’m told. Fortunately its never happened to me!
Securing your tent with suitable pegs, stakes and guy ropes is essential if you don’t want your tent to get blown away. There are different types of tent peg that are available for use with different types of ground, different types of tent and with differing weights.
Often dedicated campsites, which may also be farmers fields, have a layer of grass covered mud and, provided that there has not been too much sun or too much rain, normal steel or aluminium tent pegs will be fine. The Vango steel hook and pin pegs fall into this category. They are often also useful for pegging down football nets, groundsheets or windbreaks.
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We are proud to announce that we will soon be stocking camping tents from Nordisk. Based in Denmark and Germany, they have been making high quality camping equipment for many years, their roots can be traced back to 1901 when they were founded as Nordisk Fjer (Northern Feather) in Denmark. Due to their Scandinavian history, all Nordisk’s outdoor gear incorporates an innovative Nordic-style design gained through their long-standing experience in dealing with Scandinavia’s harsh climate.
Since the rise of the earliest northern kingdoms, the virtues of courage, inventiveness and pride have been core values in the nordic heritage. Great kings haves lead their men through victorious battles and bold expeditions, while at the same time farming the land…
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Two Harbours on Catalina Island. Source: Flickr by Chrissy Olson
If you ever happen to be in Los Angeles and need to get away from the hustle and bustle of the city, an outdoor sanctuary is close at hand: only 22 miles off the coast is Catalina Island. This small island is 22 miles in length and 8 miles across at its widest point. Mostly undeveloped and with a year round mild climate, it offers excellent opportunities for camping, hiking, cycling and sailing.
Up until 1975 Catalina Island was largely owned by the Wrigley chewing gum family, before they deeded their ownership to the Catalina Island Conservancy, which has stewardship of 88 percent of the island. Most areas of the island are protected from development.
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