Gear for NPL

The full gear list and weights is at the bottom of the post

I am expecting to start with a base weight (weight of all gear less food, water and consumables) of 7.659 kg (16.89 lb)

I am basing a lot of my decisions about gear on my experiences on Te Araroa and research on the climate in Norway. Thankfully my gear was great on Te Araroa and I have continued to use this gear on several trips since then but some major pieces are starting to show signs of wear and I will not risk them on another thru hike.

Big Three (Tent, Sleeping Bag & Pack)

When talking about equipment the big three is the most important. The big three is your tent, sleeping bag and pack.

Luckily my tent is still in good condition so I will be using the same ZPacks Soloplex that I used on Te Araroa.

I have had it modified to be able to be used in a self supported method as well as the traditional trekking poles. I did this as there seems to be many rocky and swampy areas on the trail in Norway so pegs may not work very well. The self supporting option was adding some small rings where the poles fit, and the weight of the actual poles, though they are quite light. I also replaced the tent footprint with some new Polycro as the old piece got a rip in one place (not bad for 3500km use).

My sleeping bag from Te Araroa is still in good condition but I decided I wanted a warmer bag so I upgraded from my -7degrees bag to a -15 degree bag. While my old bag was warm down to 5 degrees it started to get cold below that and given I will be in the Arctic Circle for a couple of weeks the weight is worth it for getting good sleep. I stayed with ZPacks bag with no hood.

The ZPacks Arcblast pack I have used since Te Araroa has nearly 4000km use and on close inspection the only real damage is where the pack strap stitching is starting to cause a rip in the pack material. I really liked the pack but there were a few small things I wanted to change. After looking at the new ZPacks Arc Blast weight and features I decided I would make my own pack. The key things I wanted to change were to reinforce the bottom of the pack as this wore out and got holes that I had to patch several times. Also the height of the pack supports were too big and the whole pack was slightly too big for me. I also wanted to change the pack strap to reduce the size and spread the load over a broader area so it would not dig in to my shoulder. When I went home in November I played around with some designs and mocked up a pack with curtain material (similar texture to Dyeema). Once happy I placed an order for material from ZPack. In May I started construction of my pack and after a couple of days had a product I was happy with. After some test hikes at near base weight I adjusted some straps but was happy with how comfortable it was. Hopefully my construction technique and amateur sewing will hold for all of NPL. Pack construction phots will be posted soon.

Pack in action https://youtu.be/ucJT7B92O5I

Home Made Items
While I was in the groove of making my own things I also made waterproof pants, waterproof gloves, windproof jacket, rainskirt (retiring the faithful rubbish bag that saw me through Te Araroa and the very wet Ruenzori Ranges in Uganda). I was going to make thermal gloves but then decided it is only my fingers and thumbs that get really cold so I just made insulated pouches that will insert into my waterproof gloves. I also make a pouch for my camera to fit to my pack chest strap to allow easy access and free up space in one of my hip pouches. I made hip pouches for my pack and cases for my satellite phone, passport and umbrella.

Cooking

The key change I have made for my cooking is to remove my pot from the list. I will just heat water in my titanium cup. My style of cooking is just to heat water and pour into a plastic bag to hydrate the meal so there is no need for a pot. I made a lid for the cup out of tinfoil.

I have kept to the MSR Pocket Rocket stove, though have ditched the protective case as it will be carried inside the cup. As a backup I made a new soda can stove – from a L&P Can (L&P is an iconic New Zealand drink). I carry 30 ml of Methylated Spirits (denatured alcohol) as an emergency backup if something happens to my gas canister or stove.

Here is the stove in action. It warms up then around 50 seconds starts fully note the methylated spirits are old so stove has more yellow flame than normal. https://youtu.be/ig3Hdx0uJVE

I am keeping to my short titanium spoon as my eating utensil.

Clothing
I have upgraded my rain jacket to the ZPacks Vertice jacket but when it arrived I found the bottom was too tight for my current expanded hips so I cut slits up the side and sewed extension panels out of Dyneema 0.5oz/sq yd material. My homemade rain pants are made with Dyneema 0.75 oz/sq yd material and reinforced with an extra layer on the butt, thighs and calves. My rain skirt and gloves are made out of the same material. My thermal layer is the same Mountain Hardware Ghost Whisperer Down Jacket and Icebreaker 260 wt thermal top from TA. New items are Icebreaker 160 wt thermal pants and a wind jacket I made out of Pertex. The details of the other clothing see the full gear list.

Sleeping
On my last tramp (hike) on the Rees Dart Track I noticed my mattress was a little soft in the morning and discovered a leak around the air valve. This is a difficult area to repair and having got my moneys worth out of this mattress I invested in a new one, exactly the same – Thermarest Neo Air XLite womens. I had the same issue with my pillow so got a new Exped UL Pillow. While a pillow is a luxury item I am more than happy to carry the little weight to get good sleep.

Electronics
I have upgraded from a Personal Locator Beacon to a Satellite Phone. There was not a big weight difference and I will be a lot more remote on the Trail in Norway so would like the ability to be able to communicate at all times by voice and SMS. The two main providers for satellite phones are Thuraya and Iridium. They use different methods for satellites. Thuraya have more satellites but they stay in fixed positions while Iridium’s satellites move. This means even if there is no coverage where I am if I wait a little bit a satellite will come into range. Also the Iridium extreme phone was lighter than the equivalent Thuraya and it has a panic button function which is monitored by GEOS 24/7 and they will coordinate with rescue services of what ever country you are in. The other feature I liked is the phone will send a message with my location coordinates, and a link showing my location on a map, to whoever I want. I have this set up to do whenever I turn on the phone and can also manually initiate with a single press of a button. I have this being sent to my Mum and hope to do this each night. Mum will then post this on my webpage.
As I will be doing long legs between resupply I need good power storage and I have gone for an Anker 10,000mAh and 6,000mAh powerbanks. These use a USB cable and I have a micro adapter to change between mini USB and USB C plugs. These powerbanks will charge my phone, camera and the satellite phone.
I have changed my phone to a Sony Cybershot DCS HX90V. While this is not a waterproof, tough phone like I have used in the past it takes great pictures and has a 30x optical zoom so I can get close-ups of the reindeer. I had purchased an Olympus Tough Camera but did not like the photos it took and found it too fiddly to use.
My phone is a Samsung S8 (with cracked screen fixed by Dyneema repair tape) which I will use for maintaining my blog, backup maps both pdf version of my printed maps and ViewRannger application with topo maps for Norway, Sweden and Finland downloaded.
My real luxury item is a portable keyboard. I find it really frustrating and time consuming trying to type on my phone so I found a folding bluetooth keyboard which I am loving. It folds down to just larger than my phone and is a similar weight.

I will do a review of my gear around the one month mark and at the end of the trail.

Below is my full gear list

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