Cape Wrath Trail Gear Changes

Heading for Rhiconich

When I returned in early October to continue my Cape Wrath Trail walk (see this post) I made some changes to the gear I used for various reasons which I’ll describe below.

Much of the gear was the same though – the Atom Packs The Prospector EP60 pack, Atom Packs The Roo bum bag, Pacerpoles, Therm-A-Rest NeoAir XLite mat, Multimat Camper 8 closed cell foam mat, Altra Lone Peak 8 trail shoes, Montane Minimus overtrousers, Berghaus MTN Arete Synthetic Hoody, BAM T-Shirt, Rab MeCo merino wool/polyester  long sleeve base layer, Patagonia Houdini windshirt, and all the smaller items. I wrote about this gear here.  It all performed just the same.

Here's what I changed.

Shelter: Mountain Laurel Designs Trailstar

Camp at Lone by Loch Stack

On the earlier trip I took the MLD SoloMid XL because it has a zipped door, useful in midge season and for privacy on campsites. I wasn’t expecting midges or campsites on this trip so I took my old Trailstar plus a groundsheet. This is a roomier, more versatile, and more wind resistant shelter. After hundreds of nights use it feels reliable and familiar – even though I needed Tony Hobbs to remind me how best to fit the shaped groundsheet as I hadn’t used it for so long! It was as excellent as ever.

Sleeping Bag: Sierra Designs Cloud 20

Expecting colder temperatures on this trip I brought a warmer sleeping bag, the Sierra Designs Cloud 20. As it was, early October turned out to be warmer than early June and the Rab Mythic Ultra bag would have been fine. The temperature on the coldest night in October was the same as the warmest in June, 8.5°C. I’d hoped for frosts and clear starry skies. Neither occurred.

The zipless Cloud 20 with its foldover comforter is one of the most of the comfortable sleeping bags I’ve ever used but it weighs over 2.5 times as much as the Rab. Even so I was glad to have it in case the weather turned frosty.

Stove & Pot: Soto Windmaster Triflex & Fire Maple Petrel

Kitchen setup in Glendhu Bothy

This change was so I compare this combination with the Windmaster 4Flex and Jetboil Stash pot I’d used on the earlier trip. The stove was the same in fact, just the legs changed for the shorter Triflex ones that fit into the slots in the heat exchanger on the base of the Petrel. The weight of the two setups is almost the same. The Windmaster Triflex is 20g lighter than the 4Flex but the Petrel pot is 25g heavier than the Stash, so just a 5g difference.

In use the Triflex/Petrel seems just as fast boiling and fuel efficient (I haven’t done a direct comparison test) and simmers well. I did find I needed to turn the stove down a little to stop flames emerging from the side of the heat exchanger, which wastes fuel, as the Petrel is narrower than the Stash. The shape made the Petrel a little harder to eat out of it and stirring to stop food sticking was needed a little more often. Overall there’s little difference though.

Waterproof Jacket: Montane Cetus Lite

Montane Cetus Lite in the rain

Shortly before the trip a new waterproof arrived for test made from Montane’s new Petrichor fabric, which I was keen to try. The DWR on the Ascentshell jacket I’d used before is in needs restoring, which I hadn’t done, so I’d already decided to take a different one. The Cetus Lite weighs exactly the same at 330g and worked just as well, which was good as it got far more use than I’d hoped.

Other Clothing:

Reckoning I’d be wearing a jacket most days I didn’t take a trekking shirt. I didn’t miss it. I did take an ultralight down jacket, the PHD Wafer K, in case of frosty nights. I never wore it but it took up little room and actually weighed less than the trekking shirt at 222g.