CheapTents.com Outdoor Gear Blog

Entries Open for LAMM 2010

Entries are now open for the 2010 annual, two day mountain orienteering event, known as the LAMM: Lowe Alpine Mountain Marathon.

Held every year in Scotland since 1994, LAMM is a trail running and orienteering event for pairs, with overnight camping at a remote location. To ensure fair competition and add an air of mystery the location is always kept secret until the last minute!

LAMM 2010 is to be held on Saturday 12th to Sunday 13th June 2010. The cost is £80 per team. In addition you must have a Sports Ident card. To enter the 2010 LAMM event and buy a Sports Ident card, click here.

• Lowe Alpine Mountain Marathon LAMM 2009
• Lowe Alpine Mountain Marathon Entries Open
• iRoc 2010 Now Open for Entry

A red kite By Sue Trantor, courtesy of rspbimages.com

Being out in the countryside hiking, camping and climbing often gives us the opportunity to see wildlife. A most impressive sight is that of a bird of prey circling high above, in the clear blue sky, sightings such as this have at times been rare, but thanks to the hard work of individuals and societies such as the RSPB something is being done to conserve an important factor in our ecology.

• Birdfair: Birdwatching and Conservation
• BirdFair 2009 – Lost and Found
• Climbing Restrictions to Protect Birds

We always encourage our readers to get in touch and share their views when they feel strongly about something. Freddy Phillips did just that and got in touch to respond to our article on wild camping. You can read Freddy’s response below.

Wild Camping

On the matter of wild camping, I do this routinely on multi-day walks and now that I have disengaged myself from the restrictions of a working life I have time to tackle the many long distance walks that excite the imagination and itch the footfall.

Freddy Phillips High Street summit - Freddy Phillips ©

• Wild Camping – the law, and the pro’s and con’s…
• Scottish Natural Heritage Provides Eco-Camping Tips
• Isle of Wight Walking Festival

Today marks the first birthday of the CheapTents.com blog! During this time we have published lots of gear reviews and interviews with outdoor professionals plus news and advice about camping, hiking, equipment and outdoor activities.

Best Ever Outdoor, Hiking, Climbing and Gear Posts!

In order to celebrate this achievement we have compiled a list of our favourite blog posts from the year. Some our posts are informative, providing useful information about gear, outdoor pursuits and travel. Some posts provide ideas about where to go hiking, climbing, cycling and mountain biking. The interviews with outdoors professionals provide an exciting incite into the adventures of people who take outdoors sports to the extreme and/or travel to the remotest parts of the world. And some posts are about things that are just plain daft! This brings me nicely onto…

• Dixie Dansercoer: Polar Explorer and Expeditionist – Exclusive Interview!
• Liverpool Triathlon Update
• 50,000 visitors each month – thank you!

Since the bike was invented, people have been using them to tour the world. You may ask what has bicycle touring got to do with CheapTents.com, well, touring and camping are very similar especially the equipment used.

Bicycle Touring

This short post is an introduction to a pass time enjoyed by millions around the world, but if you thought that it was just a case of stapping your tent to your bike and cycling into the sunset then think again, cycle touring requires planning and preparation. This can be done independently, by groups of cyclists or commercial holiday companies, there are many questions to consider such as;

• Cycle Touring, A Guide To Essential Sleeping Gear
• Clothing For Your Bike Tour
• Cycle Ride for Charity in Chile

MSR are well known for their range of lightweight high quality stoves, so here at Cheap Tents we’ve picked out our 3 favourites to help try and explain the difference between each MSR Stove.

MSR Windpro

MSR Windpro Stove

The MSR WindPro stove is one of the most efficient and versatile stoves available, as the name suggests this MSR Stove preforms brilliantly in the wind. Due to the fact this stove has a remote burner, you can safely use a windscreen around it without dangerously enclosing the fuel canister. This massively boosts stove efficiency and the remote burner also offers better stability with large pots than other canister-mounted stoves which makes finding a place to set it up easy and allows you to swap out an empty canister without moving a hot pot.

• Therm-a-Rest NeoAir Mattress
• Vaude Taurus Ultralight Tent Review
• Snowdon Summit Cafe

Now that summer is fast approaching so are the dreaded midges, which have to be one of the most annoying creatures on this planet.  While they’re hardly dangerous, they can be annoying and leave you with a few nasty bite marks.

Midge close up: source imarsman - flickr

The term Midge doesn’t refer to a specific insect it is a general term for very small (about 3mm) flies. There are about 40 midge species in the UK but very few which bite humans. The most common of these biting midges is the Culicoides Impunctatus or the infamous highland midge.

• 2008 Outdoor Industry Consumer Survey Results
• Bamboo an Eco-Friendly Fabric or Not?
• Smelly Boots – Causes and Cures

Here at CheapTents.com we all love the MSR Hubba tents, but do find the naming system slightly confusing at times.  So we got in touch with Mountain Safety Research to find out where the name comes from.

What is a Hubba?

The Hubba name is something we (MSR) came up with, based on the tent’s unique hub and pole frame. The “hub” is the circle that connects various tent poles sections together, thus cutting down on the total number of poles needed. In the photo below, you’ll see how the pole branches out into two legs–the sections join together at the hub.

• Lightwave Tents Coming Soon!
• Review of Terra Nova Voyager Superlite Tent
• Vaude Taurus Ultralight Tent Review

The Thermarest Neo Air has been one of the most talked about products recently, but what makes it so special and why all the hype? The main features the NeoAir are the reflective aluminised barrier which reflects body heat and reduces heat loss along with the Triangular Core Matrix technology which is a welded-nylon grid of chambers that increases the number of individual air cells. This minimizes air movement within the pad and the resulting convective cooling.

Thermarest neo air mattress

• Therm-a-Rest First: NeoAir Mattress for Summer 2009
• Cumulus test results and reviews…Ultralight 200
• Cycle Touring, A Guide To Essential Sleeping Gear

There are many stunning and beautiful places to go hiking and camping in the UK, such as the Highlands of Scotland, the Lake District or Snowdonia to name but a few. However, you may fancy going on a walking holiday abroad, especially if you are fed up with the bad weather that is always a possibility on a holiday in the UK. Even with breathable waterproof jackets and trousers the rain can get you down. So where can you get away from the bad weather and still go hiking? One suggestion is the Atlas Mountains in Morocco.

• Hiking in Afghanistan!
• British South Pole Expedition Update 4
• Scafell Pike Ascent via Mickledore