More text and pics about my five weeks hike. Especially pondering about on trail vs off trail, and about hiking solo, and what about my lightweight equipment...
Long distance hiking: solo, off trail
Tag: gear
Best headlamps for a hiker
Last week I told about the principles of my headlamp test. Now I reveal the top lamps, and tell how they have performed during six years of heavy use.
Outdoor gear reviews
How is it decided what equipment to test in an outdoor magazine? And more interestingly, how is it decided how to test? What are the important factors?
Winter handwear
When it's really cold, what do you wear on your hands? When you are hiking, that is spending all the day outside, it's crucially important to have proper kind of handwear. Here's my choices.
Millennium hike, part 4: Muotkatunturit
The two month expedition continues across Muotkatuturit Wilderness Area. Today's topics: weather, feelings, dreams, reindeer...
Millennium hike: Town day
We are now spending a rest day in town after having finished first of three three week legs across wilderness. Guess what was perhaps the nicest thing (after a shower)?
600 km hike
Story of a 600 km long hike. Outside marked trails, using ultralight approach.
Competition on wilderness skills
When I first time heard there is an annual Finnish Championships competition on wilderness skills (Erävaelluksen SM-kilpailut), I was not interested. In my opinion hiking was, and still is, a hobby where you can walk leisurely in the woods or fells, without hurry or stress. And competition is quite the opposite to that!
However, after all I ended up participating in the competition in 1998. And... well, since then I've participated 18 times. There is something weirdly addicting in this form of competition!
Durable gear
We live in a world of disposable things. That is extremely sad! On the other hand, there are outdoor products that last from father to son. Let's see some examples from my own hiking gear with a lifetime of 20 years or so.
Finnish Way of Hiking 