SINGAPORE (Team Geared Up) - This has to be the best, strongest, toughest bag on the market. It’s absolutely super for travel converting between a massive chasm of space down to a compressed pack suitable for hand luggage on a flight.

Pictured above is my grey 140L duffel strapped to the back on a mule/horse in Peru. It really did get treated tough in rain & snow/hail on that trip to over 4000m on horseback and didn’t leak or show signs of wear.

The classic bomber expedition duffel. Whether you’re going to Tahoe or headed to Ama Dablam, the Base Camp Duffel gets your gear there with you.

That bag has been with me everywhere since I bought it in 2002, 6 years ago and it’s still going very strong. It has been in more plane holds than I can imagine and it just brilliant. Want something suitable for travel, suitable for in your car boot, suitable for stacking in your tent porch… this is your buy. Between a few of us we now have the red, yellow, grey & black models and when we all have them when travelling together it looks a sight.

-Robin.

P.S. You may have noticed something new up at the top of this post (you’ll need to be signed-in for full effect, create an account if you don’t have one). Yes - it tells you own owns the gear we’re talking about and lets you add it to your own gear or wish list. The plan in the next few days is to match up the people who own items to sell them to people who wish for the same thing. We’ll see if it works! Feedback gladly accepted.

CORCAIGH, IRELAND (Geared Up Blog) - I’ve been quite busy this summer. I admit I have been a terrible team member here at Team Geared Up. I really didn’t have time to sit down and give any post a good think through. Plus I’m a very lazy man when it comes to some things! That is why I’m telling you about TripIt.

The Good: Just forward your confirmation email to plans@tripit.com and they will set you up with an account. Your hotel reservations (if your luck enough to be staying in a hotel), car rentals and flight details are all added to a master itinerary. It will then add information to your itinerary from Google maps and directions, Weather, Wikipedia - city information, Eventful - current events, Flickr - city photos and SeatGuru - airplane seat advice. You can then add travelers and tell everyone about your trip.

The Bad: The only bad thing I can say about this website is that it doesn’t accept bookings made with rail. When you are traveling in Europe, rail is the only way to go, so it is a shame that isn’t catered for. You have to add it in as a note yourself.

My Experiences: I used this a lot this summer and thought it was excellent to have all your travel information, confirmation details and times all in one place. It is especially good for when you are taking more than one flight a day, like I have to do from down here in Cork and fly to either to Dublin or London in order to be able to get to a proper destination in Europe!

During the summer I was checking in with Ryanair in Dublin. The check-in woman was a little bit grumpy and asked me for my correct confirmation number where I pointed to the number on the TripIt itinerary that I handed to her. She then told me she was not looking for the number from the travel agent but from Ryanair. She was quite surprised to see it not hidden in an ugly email print off and when she looked again apologised!

• TripIt Website

LONDON, UK (Team Geared Up) - BBC Presenter Kate Humble has launched StuffYourRucksack.com.

“How many times have you been travelling and visited a school or community or local charity that you would love to help? The school needs books, or a map or pencils; an orphanage needs children’s clothes or toys. All things that, if only you’d known, you could’ve stuffed in your rucksack. But once you get home you forget, or you’ve lost the address, or worry that whatever you send will be stolen before it even gets there…”

That’s why we’ve set up StuffYourRucksack.com - Kate Humble

The idea of the site is simple, exchanging information between organisations & travellers to what is helpful to be brought into a region by a backpacker rather than giving out sweets & pens. This is a great idea… I remember from travelling in Peru we were requested not to hand out any food as ‘western’ artificial sugars would rot their teeth with not dental care available, and cash encouraged begging.

-Robin-

WANAKA, NEW ZEALAND (Team Geared Up) - Bouldering.com have released a video of Lisa Rands on last year’s trip to Rocklands. Bouldering something very high, and then something hard for some variation.
Sorry but can’t publish video in the post, link here.

The article, as adapted from Rock&Ice (Fall 2006), can be found here also with photos
Image Credit: Lisa Rands proving just how much she likes Rocklands! Photo by Wills Young.

- Neal :) -

WANAKA, NEW ZEALAND (Team Geared Up) - As some of you will become aware of, I’m a bit eco-minded. O.k., maybe a bit more :)

Since I was heading off on a long-term trip, I had a couple of criterias that were required, namely power. I’ve always been conscious that electricity can be somewhat questionable. My first experiences of Thailand stood up to that: diesel generators run from 6pm to 2am to supply the whole village on Ton Sai beach. From the visible pollution stains all over the cliffs, you can guess I wasn’t too thrilled! I didn’t want to think where the rest of the exhaust fumes were going…
So, I came across Solio’s device. It’s essentially three small solar panels strapped onto the front of a battery, which supplies power to anything of 5v (walkmans) and 6v (phones), the only thing I had that didn’t fit this bill was my camera. I could live with that.
And so to update: Mixed results, but what potential! If it’s USB-based or a phone it does exactly what it says on the tin, within reason. The battery on the Solio doesn’t have as much capacity as a lot of devices (the newest model iPod’s and my archos 604 wifi take almost two full charges of the Solio). However once you’re aware of the limitations, it means you get used to it.
Limitations? A quicker charge would help (it takes over a day for a full charge even in the sunshine of Thailand). And a larger capacity battery is absolutely critical, but I’m sure that’ll appear in the next model. Other than that, you have to adapt your attitude towards power a bit - every once in a while, you need to remember to re-point the unit into the sun for best charging, etc. - but you do adjust pretty easily.

Conclusions: if you’re looking for power while away on the road and really lacking in power supplies, this could definitely help you out. I will point out that we did end up buying a power invertor for the car while in Australia (due to it being Australian winter and a lack of sun).

Note: For anyone interested, Quiksilver, the surf clothing company, have co-sponsored a whole batch of these and are being sold world-wide in their stores at a discounted price (about 10Euro cheaper).
Also, original write-up in my own blog can be found here.

Image Credit: Author’s Solio out making the most of the sunshine on Ton Sai beach, Thailand. Photo by author.

- Neal :) -

ÖREBRO, SWEDEN  (Team Geared Up) - I just came back from my season in Whistler, British Columbia in Canada and thought i’d share some of the tips and tricks I learn’t during my season! So it is about time I got around to writing one of these posts. Procrastination is a terrible, terrible thing!

To do a season means different things to different people. It mainly involves living and working in the snow, up the mountain, where you will ski or snowboard as much as you can! I chose Whistler to do mine for a few reasons:

• I can speak the language
• Two mountains to play on
• Far enough away from home
• One of the top 5 ski resorts in the world
• Record breaking snowfall
• Spring and summer skiing
• Amazing après ski, nightlife, shopping and dining

So once you decided on a location, getting there is the next step! In Ireland there is only one option for a 1 year work/travel visa. You must go through USITwho has the monopoly on the whole system. If you are under 35 you can apply for the visa through them. They will look after your flights, insurance and everything else you need to know, but it is pricey. The UK equivalent is BUNACwho run the same programme across the water. But if you are a UK citizen there may be other ways of getting a work visa (Canada being part of the Commonwealth). Once you get to Canada SWAP take over and give you an orientation and support if needed. If you are interested in going to Canada from another Country their website has a list of their partners in different countries.

You will hopefully land in Vancouver Airport in Canada. From there you will need to make your way to Whistler. It is about a 2.5 hour drive north. You can get there many different ways from the airport to the resort.

• Greyhound Canada - The Basic Bus service
• Perimeter Bus - Door to Door/Airport to Accommodation option
• Snow Bus
• Whistler Limo 
• Or splash out and arrive by Helicopter!

You may want to spend a few days in the city and explore. There is loads of ski and snowboard shops in whistler, so there isn’t many deals or bargains to be found in Vancouver.  The ideal time to arrive in Whistler would be the start to mid-October. It is still really quiet so there should be no problem picking up accommodation. You can also start looking for a job and get settled. The big sale is around Canadian Thanksgiving. Everyone wants to clear all their old stock from last year making room for the new stuff. You will have a new set of gear by the time you leave so why not get it at the start when it is cheap!

I will hopefully have more to write about and tell you soon. If you have any questions about doing a season please leave a comment!

-Darran-

It’s Monday morning and I’m back resting in Horsham. We survived the 20-hour drive up from Nowra on Friday night, to arrive into Buandik campground in the Grampians National Park at 3am (yawwwnnnn :). To describe it is as chilly here is an understatement - temperatures have plummeted!

Saturday was spent just re-acquainting myself with the style of climbing here, loosening the arms up, waking up, and reminding myself of all the moves on my route - I’d forgotten just how steep it is! The weather was beaming and it was looking like Sunday would be a great day so we all took it pretty easy.
Sunday dawned, myself and Chris had a brief hour and a half walk up some of the nearby creeks for some fun and to loosen up, only to arrive back at the campsite in a downpour…….I couldn’t believe it!

Firstly, the video below is of the final attempt, I’ll explain some of it below.
The rain did clear up after an hour or so, but with heavy cloud cover, nothing was really drying. I arrived at the crag to drips of rain running down my route - previous experience told me this was not good. Still though, I wasn’t leaving without a go (or two :)…..
Two aborted attempts later (I’m always nervous when going for this grade for some reason), lots of energy wasted, and I went for the final push. I got through the easy-ish 25/7b/5.12, but (very steep), first half, and was feeling good. Maybe this was meant to be the day? Got through the next few meters (which is the crux), and then almost fell out of a hold (about 2 minutes into the video) which I should have realised was a bad sign. Three holds more later, I’m feeling really good (but tired), go for a move and….watch my right hand in the last 10 seconds of the video. It slips out. Yep, damp holds.
I’m gutted and with the rain pouring down today, and only one day left, the route is in the hands of the Weather Gods now! Still though, there’s more important things in life to be stressed about so I’ll give it my best shot tomorrow and see what happens….

Image Credit: Chris relaxing on an early morning walk in The Grampians National Park. Photo by author.
Video Credit: Neal on ‘Koalas…’ (29). Bouncy-cam by (and motivational comments!) by Chris, using a Panasonic DMC-LX2 digital camera on maximum video resolution. Note: route overhangs about 40-ish degrees, excluding the roof, even if it’s hard to make out in the video!

- Neal :) -

NOWRA, NSW, AUSTRALIA (Team Geared Up) - O.k., so apologies with the delay on my own update as we moved locations in the past week and I lost my easy internet access. Wish list for the forthcoming years? Internet access everywhere and free/cheap :) I’m not asking for much, am I?

So, we’re now south of Sydney at Nowra, one of Australia’s other big sports climbing destinations. The Blue Mountains had a bit of an unsuccessful end for me personally. I had set my sights on climbing my second grade-8 route (French 8a, Australian 29, American 5.13b) here. The route was to be ‘Don’t Believe The Tripe’, a grade 29 (8a/5.13b) and supposedly one of the best in the Blue Mountains. O.k., so I’m picky :)
Unfortunately it wasn’t to be as due to severely abused skin (i.e. none left), a lack of time, some illness, and some bad preparation on the last day for my one and only attempt (not warmed up properly – lesson learned), meant that I’ll have to leave it for another time. The joys of projecting routes! Still though, as one of the great climbing movies says: “it’s hard to complain when the climbing is so good”!!
From a progress point of view, I was able to complete the route with one rest after only trying all the moves once, and felt that I wasn’t near my limit from a finger strength point of view. Hopeful for future ascents!

We’re in Nowra now and I’m on a forced lay-off, partly due to the destroyed skin, partly as I needed a break (I’ve been travelling for 5 months solid now), and partly as I fell off a route and picked up some ropeburn. There’s the link to the photo if anyone wants of the aftermath….. Oops! Still though, with only two weeks left in Australia, I’m happy to prepare myself for my final challenge.
It’s a route I tried a few weeks ago in The Gallery at The Grampians National Park, 3 hours west of Melbourne, going by the wonderful name of ‘Baby Koalas in the Eucalyptus’ (29/8a/5.13b). Don’t ask me, I didn’t name it!
Overhanging as much as I climb in vertical height (15 meters), this is not my style (I’m a much more of an endurance climber, this involves bag-loads of power) but I fell off with only one rest on my previous attempts (I’ve tried it about 7 or 8 times now) so I’m ready to try put it all together. Fingers and toes crossed for me people!

As a concidence, Carole McGloughlin (another Irish climber on a world tour) took this photo on a previous attempt. A fantastic action photo (from an earlier attempt, but ironically of where my highest point has been on the route).

Back with more news next week!

Image Credit:
PHOTO 1: Seán Marnane on one of his project routes in Nowra, grade 26 (7b+/5.12b). Photo modified to highlight colors. Photo by author
PHOTO 2: the author mid flight on his current project (29/8a/5.13b). Photo courtesy of Carole McGloughlin.

-Neal :) -

LONDON, UK (Team Geared Up) - We’ve come into possession of almost 20 DOPPLR.com invites (courtesy of Eirepreneur).

Dopplr is an online service for frequent travellers. It was created by an international team of world travellers as a tool for our own use. We liked it so much that we decided to open it up to our global friends.

If you travel more than five times a year and have friends who do as well, then Dopplr is for you.

How does Dopplr work? It lets you share your future travel plans with a group of trusted fellow travellers whom you have chosen. It also reminds you of friends and colleagues who live in the cities you’re planning to visit. You can use the service with your personal computer and mobile phone.

The Dopplr “beta” service is open by invitation only. Once invited by an existing member you will be able to invite others to join Dopplr and share your travels.

If you would like an invite, please leave a 2 line bio like the others on the post “Trying to find ourselves“, and mention you’d love an invite! First come, first served.