Ron, it is an Acapulka 120. It has a large red cordura cover with bungee cord and straps attached to the pulka itself. A real bombproof setup.
My two eurocents
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Ron, it is an Acapulka 120. It has a large red cordura cover with bungee cord and straps attached to the pulka itself. A real bombproof setup.
Response from Exped on the valve issue:
"Hi Lennart,
Thanks alot for your feedback.
You are certainly right that in such low temperatures the valve gets hard and is difficult to operate without applying some warmth. The problem is that there is to our knowledge so far no plastic that would not get hard with such coldness and still provide nonbrakability and leakproofness. So we suggest people to put the hand onto the valve or sit on it for while until the cap gets warm and pliable again. We certainly are constantly checking if we could find a suitable PU or similar plastic.
Before the flat valves we had traditional stick-out valves which however would rather be prone to breakake in the cold which certainly is the least desirable. All in all as of now we have to best of the non optimal solutions. But I think it is just about ok to have to warm it up a bit. Having spent month is -40 conditions in Canada I certainly know that anything including toothpaste, foam, fabric etc. is getting stiff and hard. But again just warming it up a bit is enough to get going again.
Thanks again for your excellent feedback,
mit bestem Gruss / with best regards,
Andreas Brun"
Brilliant stuff Lennart! Lord knows how I missed that lake.
Say hello to Remko and let him know he was a pleasure to share his company. Hope the cheeeeeeese was good mate
I'm a little shocked by Expeds response. A "Little difficult"? What on earth is wrong with a screw cap??? The mind boggles. The mats are great but that valve sucks bad. I may DIY a screw cap if they say that or go back to CCF.
Say hello to Remko and let him know he was a pleasure to share his company. Hope the cheeeeeeese was good mate
I'm a little shocked by Expeds response. A "Little difficult"? What on earth is wrong with a screw cap??? The mind boggles. The mats are great but that valve sucks bad. I may DIY a screw cap if they say that or go back to CCF.
I see that you used birch wood for the fire. Birch is a fantastic fire wood. And used in almost every Norwegian wood stove for heating houses and cabins. But then it has been cut, split and stored to dry for months first. Because while birch bark is a fantastic tinder, the birch, even dead standing that you find out in the woods will be full of moisture. This is beacuse the bark is very air and water tight. So thet the wood inside never dries out. Instead it it just rots, until it fall over. Punk wood from birch is almost always full of water, like a spunge. you can actually squezze water out sometimes.
If it stays in the fire long enough it will eventuealy catch fire, but it's not really worth the effort. So if you can try to find spruce or better, pine. Or any other wood than birch. But if there is no alternative, try and find a dead birch that has been de-barked by a moose or the weather. It's likely that it will be dried out, instead of spungy rotten, and then frozen.
else , nice trip report and I envy you the trip
If it stays in the fire long enough it will eventuealy catch fire, but it's not really worth the effort. So if you can try to find spruce or better, pine. Or any other wood than birch. But if there is no alternative, try and find a dead birch that has been de-barked by a moose or the weather. It's likely that it will be dried out, instead of spungy rotten, and then frozen.
else , nice trip report and I envy you the trip
I see that you used birch wood for the fire. Birch is a fantastic fire wood. And used in almost every Norwegian wood stove for heating houses and cabins. But then it has been cut, split and stored to dry for months first. Because while birch bark is a fantastic tinder, the birch, even dead standing that you find out in the woods will be full of moisture. This is beacuse the bark is very air and water tight. So thet the wood inside never dries out. Instead it it just rots, until it fall over. Punk wood from birch is almost always full of water, like a spunge. you can actually squezze water out sometimes.
If it stays in the fire long enough it will eventuealy catch fire, but it's not really worth the effort. So if you can try to find spruce or better, pine. Or any other wood than birch. But if there is no alternative, try and find a dead birch that has been de-barked by a moose or the weather. It's likely that it will be dried out, instead of spungy rotten, and then frozen.
else , nice trip report and I envy you the trip
We started out using the birch just for a firebase. However, finding dry firewood took quite a bit of work, going around in the deep snow, so just to get maximum effect for minimum effort, we used the leftover green birch once the fire was going. Hard to start a fire with green birch, but once you have got a fire going it will burn nicely.
I have to dissagree with my countryman on this one.
Green winter birch burns just fine, but it has to be frosen, meaning do not put the wood close to the fire to thaw it up. Store the freshly cut and split birch wood as far away from the fire as practicaly possible, and put the wood in the fire while still bottom frosen.
Winter birch is pretty dry as the tree retracts as much of the sap back to the roots before winter in order to prevent the sap to freeze and crack the tree.
Green summer birch also burns quite well, but it needs a good warm base. And the wood should be de-barked before you put it in the fire.
Green winter birch burns just fine, but it has to be frosen, meaning do not put the wood close to the fire to thaw it up. Store the freshly cut and split birch wood as far away from the fire as practicaly possible, and put the wood in the fire while still bottom frosen.
Winter birch is pretty dry as the tree retracts as much of the sap back to the roots before winter in order to prevent the sap to freeze and crack the tree.
Green summer birch also burns quite well, but it needs a good warm base. And the wood should be de-barked before you put it in the fire.
The screw valve on my Thermarest froze solid in Finland, this is not an easy problem to crack...
I keep thinking back to the HDPE Nalgene bottles and how they work well at all temps. HDPE would be very difficult to bond to fabric, but possible with a screw clamp valve.
Was it ice in the threads of the valve too, or just the low temps contracting the plastic?
