Alpine Lakes around Grenoble

Since moving to Grenoble I’ve been doing some hiking in the Alps, and occasionally stumbling across some of the georgeous alpine lakes of the area. As I was looking for new potential locations to hike to, a friend from the photoclub at work started doing a lot of alpine lake photography - and I started making a note of some of the places he visited, along with lakes that I’d visited, and a few I’d spotted on Google Earth and Panoramio.

I’ve now captured a Google My Map of >50 of these… Click through to the full post to see the map or grab a copy in Google Earth

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Manaslu Circuit - Nepal

I had been thinking about trekking in Nepal for some years - and was originally planning to do the Annapurna Circuit. On hearing about the road and general development in the Annapurna region I decided to take the less travelled, and more remote Manaslu Circut - a 200km, 3 week camping trek just to the east of Annapurna.

Manasulu Circuit - Nepal

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The joy of a twitter search for Chartreuse

I just love the surreal mixture of messages you get on twitter in response to a search query. I have a search-column configured in hootsuite to give me the results of a search for “Grenoble OR Chartreuse OR Belledonne OR Vercors OR Alps -Bieber”.  

I get all the news about Grenoble, along with weather alerts, and notifications of when the peasants are revolting in Villeneuve; along with discussions on the best cocktails using Chartreuse; what people are buying in the color Chartreuse; something technical about ALPS which I still don’t understand; and occasionally people enjoying the mountains that surround my home in Grenoble.

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Boa hiking boots - Chiruca

I've long been a fan of Boa Technology hiking boots, since I first read about Dean Karnazes (the ultra marathon man) in Wired. I started with the original varient of the North Face Plasma GTX XCR Boa which worked fantastically for a couple of years. As these boots began to wear down last year I went on a search for a new set of hiking boots. I found that North Face had introduced a v2 of the GTX XCR Boa, and a new vendor to me Vasque had created a pair of more substantial boots - the Zephyr Tech (which they've since discontinued). I decided to try to get hold of both - one for summer light hiking, and the other for more serious trekking or winter use. Neither turned out to be great, but earlier this year I discovered another option from a small spanish manufacturer (fal), founded in 1965, with a brand called Chiruca.

They look make a series of boots designed specifically for hunters (although not exclusive to hunting) using the Boa system. Looking at the design of their Boxer Boa, I noticed that they had included a loop at the top of the boot that was set a little further down the boot than most other boots, which appeared to allowed the lace to close the top of the boot over the ankle, rather than simply tightening over the bottom of the leg. Click through to the blog post to read the full story.

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Deuter ACT Lite 40+10 Rucksack review

I started looking for a new 30-40 liter rucksack for my TMB hike a month ago, to give me more space than I could get in my 5 year old 28 liter Deuter Aircomfort system pack. The Aircomfort system consists of a frame and plastic mesh that’s suspended away from your back by a few cm. On the 28 liter pack, it has performed well as an all weather pack, keeping me cool hiking in the Alps for a few years. Deuter claim that this system reduces fluid loss (through sweating) by up to 25% over a traditional pack. The only trouble is that it is a little tight for fleece, shell, 2 litres of water, hat, gloves, and lunch. Adding a SLR would put it over the edge.

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New Garmin Oregon 550 and Dakota GPS

Updated on 26 Jun 2009 by Andy Bryant

Updated on 23 Jul 2009 by Andy Bryant

Updated on 16 Aug 2009 by Andy Bryant

The excellent GPSFix blog alerted me today to some recent device news from Garmin.

First of all - there’s the new high-end Oregon devices, the 550 and 550t with integrated 3.2M camera, 3-axis compass, and an ‘improved’ screen.  See the video below for a quick overview. 

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SatMap raster mapping GPS - more countries

I’d spotted the SatMap device before, but hadn’t taken a serious look at it, other than noting that it is a raster-based mapping GPS device. This means is shows you exactly the same sort of view that you would get from a real map (such as a Ordnance Survey or IGN map). These maps are a lot more expensive to buy than the usual vector maps you find on the smaller GPS devices - so you’ll probably only purchase maps for the specific region you’re interested in, rather than at Europe, or Country level.

Spec highlights include

• 18mm patch antenna
• 2-axis compass (so you don’t have to hold it flat
• 3.5” backlit colour LCD
• Built-in LiPolymer battery OR 3 AA batteries (so it looks like you can carry AAs as a backup)

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Hiking boots with Boa lacing system

Updated on 15 May 2009 by Andy Bryant

Updated on 14 Jun 2009 by Andy Bryant

Updated on 22 Jun 2009 by Andy Bryant

Vasque Zephyr Tech

North Face GTX XCR Boa II

I’ve been struggling with hiking boots for years due to not being able to tie laces. For a long time I’ve used a spring loaded cord-tie (as used on sleeping bag draw-strings) to pull laces tight, however this really isn’t the easiest solution, as it is hard to maintain a good tension. Normal shoes are not a problem - as there are many slip on designs that work well, and I just love Chelsea boots during the winter. (We won’t discuss the velcro solutions I was forced to ensure as a kid…)

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Best Outdoor GPS for Hiking in UK/France

On the subject of GPS for hiking, there’s been some development recently around devices that support topographical info, either as vector maps (just the information stored as lines) or raster (bitmaps - which look like real maps). For a great overview, start with this video from GPS Training

My favourite system for walking is still the Garmin range, and up until recently, none supported raster maps; however it seems Garmin are now beginning to introduce this for the Oregon and Colorado 300 with 1:25,000 maps from the O.S. in the UK - Garmin GB Discoverer such as the one for the Peak District. There’s no sign of the French IGN maps yet.

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