Hang onto your wallets folks!

I'm starting this thread to post up some short but opinionated gear reviews that I think are relevant to backcountry pilots. I've run through a lot of gear in my life, and by in large I'm extremely particular about quality, design, and value for money. Some products have come along that are, in my personal and narcissistically warped opinion, better than most others.

With rare exception I'm going to concentrate on promoting products that work well, not lambasting products that I feel are poor choices.

Whether any of these products are a good fit for you is something only you can decide. Many backcountry pilots simply have no legitimate use for a $700 sleeping bag, while for others it's an essential part of staying alive, and for yet others just an essential part of being happy camping in the bush.

Some products I like because they do the job with a minimum of weight...something that's not real important if you're solo camping out of a Cessna 206. Other times a product catches my fancy because it just works better than anything else on the market...for me.

It's also worth noting that I have a very wide variety of gear that's excellent for some seasons and conditions, and of little value in others. I have seven camp stoves, for example, and they all fit a particular niche. If I review one of them, it's because I think it does something particularly well, not because I think it's a blanket replacement for the other six.

I welcome comments and questions, but I'd rather it not turn into a Husky-vs-Cub pissing contest. If what I review is of little value or overpriced or just flat out wrong for your mission, that's fine...in fact that's probably the response of the majority of readers. Anyone who goes out and buys everything I review on here needs a class on critical thinking and medication to control impulsive behavior.

THESE ARE NOT PAID REVIEWS. No free samples, no going to the manufactures later on and asking for handouts because I gave their product a glowing review. Everything here, unless specifically stated otherwise, is something I purchased retail with no contact or expectation from the manufacture. There are a few manufactures I have good relationships with, but not because I promote their products. Hell, near as I can tell only a half dozen people even read my posts, so I can confidently say I'm uncorrupted by corporate influence.

So with that said, look forward to the first Hammer-tested gear review!

THE GLOCK E-TOOL: by making both guns and spades, Glock corners the DriveBy-to-Grave market!

Every backcountry pilot needs a spade (shovel). Or perhaps a better way to put it is that every backcountry pilot needs every other backcountry pilot to have a spade…nobody should be allowed to brew their morning coffee without having dominion over a good spade and the determination to use it. (12” deep, 100 yards from the camping area and any water source, please. And burn the TP.)

Aside from that most-important function, a spade can be a valuable tool. You can…well…dig holes. What exactly you do with them afterwards is your business…much like the first example. Properly sharpened they also make good vegetation cutters, limbers of small trees, vines and brush. But for the most part they move soil.

Some folks will have use for a proper, full-sized spade. Those operating extensively on gravel, sand, and mud bars may routinely find the need to move a lot more material than the average backcountry pilot, and for them there is no substitute for a full-sized spade or shovel of good manufacture. But most pilots just need something to dig a cat hole, plus maybe a bit more depending on circumstances and needs.

So the tool of choice for most pilots is the e-tool, or entrenching-tool. It’s a military tool that combines the ineffectiveness of a short-handled spade with the futility of a underweight pick. Despite its drawbacks, the e-tool is a reasonable compromise for people who need the ability to move some dirt, but have no intention of moving more dirt than they absolutely have to, and above all need to cary their earth moving tool in addition to everything else of more importance.

Despite, or possibly because the e-tool is universally recognized as a valuable implement by every army on earth, most of them are just absolute shit. Heavy. Crappy handle. Poor quality recycled steel which is mostly old bicycle fenders, some lead. Pathetic, unadjustable pivot mechanism ripped off from a Chinese beach umbrella that won't tighten, but if it does then won't loosen…

Why a tool of such value to all fighting forces is bastardized to the extent which it is, I cannot say. But I can almost guarantee that if you go to a hardware, sporting goods, or military surplus store and buy an e-tool, it will be of poor quality, heavy, and not worth the gas required to make it airborne. You’re buying what North Korea sold to Nigeria, and Nigeria rejected them, so Big-5 and Bass Pro Shop and Walmart and Cabbalas bought them up and blister-packed them in shiny plastic and raised the price 59,000%.

Well take heart, because there is an oasis of morning cat-hole implementation out there! Like the solution to most of life’s problems, it’s made by Glock. Yes…THAT Glock.



The Glock e-tool is a quality implement that combines very good steel, Glock’s almost indestructible polymer plastic, and a reasonable design that’s lightweight, but still capable. It’s not the sort of thing you’d choose to dig a grave with, but if you really needed a grave and it’s all you had, you could pull it off. I wouldn’t tell anyone.

I’ve been using the Glock e-tool for about ten years and I don’t have anything but good to say about it. Tough, light, durable…and as a person that enjoys quality tools regardless of the job, it makes my morning trek to the bushes all that much more satisfying.

The blade steel is exceptionally good…really top notch for any hand tool, but especially appreciated in a spade. The handle is light, ergonomic, and STRONG. Inside the handle is a saw, which while made of good steel and sharp, is course and designed to cut on the ineffective push-stroke. It’s not a woodworking saw. I assume it’s intended to cut through roots and possibly the bones of corpses which intersect your trench line, and I recon it’d rip through aircraft skin with alacrity if the need arouse.

Like any other cutting tool, a spade should be sharpened. A sharp blade is a benefit in any soil, but it’s especially rewarding if you have to cut thorough sod or heavy grass or small tree roots to get your hole going. It doesn’t have to be shaving-sharp of course, but it should be sharp enough to cut your finger if you’re not careful. Now if you find yourself involved in trench warfare, shaving sharp is worth the extra effort…the spade marches on after the ammunition is gone and the bayonet is broken. Sorry, I’ve been reading about WWI again…

Yes...I did shave hair off my arm with my latrine digger. Probably should have washed it first...


A file puts a fine edge on the Glock e-tool, and if you want to polish it up with a whetstone that’s up to you. I did just to show what the steel is capable of. The blade locks into four positions: straight up spade; a modified slant that makes for a good grass and weed cutter if your edge is sharp enough; 90 degrees for using it like a pick, and closed. The lock-up looks cheesy but it’s very effective and easy to adjust. I’ve never had it slip or get stuck.

It comes with a cordura cary case that works fairly well, though if you really keep a keen edge on it, the case tends to wear out around the edges. With the case it weighs in at 1 pound, 10 ounces, or 737 grams. One oddity is that to loosen the handle segment to telescope it you turn it clockwise. To tighten it you turn counterclockwise. The locking nut on the blade is opposite, or in other words, exactly what you'd expect.

Availability is a little scarce. You won’t find them in most retail outlets, but they’re available online if you dig around. $50 is the normal price, though I’ve seen them as low as $40 and as high as $68. Considering it’ll last a lifetime of aircraft camping if you don’t loose it, those are all reasonable prices. Engrave your name on it if you camp with others or you might find it accidentally gets swapped with a lesser tool the next time you pack up the airplane.

Glock Spade.
Best uses: People who fly and camp backcountry...Johnson Creekers will find little use.

Good review and I just ordered one $39.95

Every time I read one of your articles it costs me money. But, it is for a good cause and I thank you. 41.99 at opticsplanet.com
Charles

Good review Hammer. Now, about burning your TP. I expect everyone reading on BCP has good sense on when and where to not burn that TP, but just in case, here's what can happen if you burn it in the wrong place at the wrong time.
http://wildfiretoday.com/tag/toilet-paper/

tcj wrote:Good review Hammer. Now, about burning your TP. I expect everyone reading on BCP has good sense on when and where to not burn that TP, but just in case, here's what can happen if you burn it in the wrong place at the wrong time.
http://wildfiretoday.com/tag/toilet-paper/

That's more incidents than I expected for toilet paper.

Well, it's got to be the single best way to earn the nickname "Dumbshit".

Good review, thanks!

I own a Chinese army shovel which is very similar in many respects but heavier and more cheaply constructed.

It does have a nice hole in the end of the handle so you can tie a rope through and use the tool as a grapple. When my e-tool arrives I will probably make that one small mod.

Amazon prime for $39 today.

FEATHERED FRIENDS DOWN SLEEPING BAGS. No finer fart sack has ever been made.

Sleeping bags are not what they used to be.

In 1991 I bought a North Face Blue Kazoo down sleeping bag at the Seattle REI. Paying full retail for anything was a huge extravagance for me, which is part of why I remember it so well. The other reason I recall the event with such clarity is because that sleeping bag was one of the single best purchases I ever made. Over the next decade it went with me to Burma, Thailand, India, Nepal, China, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Tibet. I lived in it while working as a river guide, tree faller and wild land firefighter. Many years I slept in that bag over 300 nights. I still have it…it’s the emergency bag that lives in my airplane, and I often pull it out for extra insulation on cold trips.

Eventually the nylon got so abraded around the hood draw string that the string pulled completely free and I decided to replace it. As you might suspect, I went out and bought another North Face Blue Kazoo. It was NOT the same…

Sleeping cold is just flat-out hell on earth, and there's no need for it.


The nylon was inferior, the stitching sub-standard, the down coarser. After one year my new Blue Kazoo looked about as bad as my old one looked after ten years of hard travel. I sent it back to North Face with a letter saying I simply was not satisfied with my new bag, and to their credit they refunded me the purchase price with a North Face gift card, so I can’t fault the company. But I didn’t buy another NF bag, either. I gave the gift card to my brother for Christmas…

And it’s not just North Face…I’ve had similar less than stellar sleeping bags from Marmot and Sierra Designs…two companies that have always been synonymous with quality. The manufacturing standard just doesn’t seem to be what it was 25 years ago. On the plus side, through discount outlets you can find a North Face or Marmot or Sierra Designs or several other brands of sleeping bag for very substantial discounts. I’d be inclined to say that if you wait for a good bargain, the value-for-money to a casual user can be very, very high, even if the manufacturing isn’t what it used to be.

I don’t spend 300 nights a year in my sleeping bag anymore, but I do average around 50 to 75 nights a year in my bag, and I wanted something better than the mass-produced offerings from the big companies. I wanted a bag as good as my 27 year old Blue Kazoo. Enter Feathered Friends.



Feathered Friends have been hand sewing down garment in Seattle, WA since 1972. They make a super-premium product, combining the best materials available with innovative designs, a plethora of size options, and tiptop-quality sewing. In the 90’s when I was playing on the roof of the world, Feathered Friends was THE bag for people who were sleeping above 20,000 feet. Their top line materials makes a bag that weighs less and packs smaller than other bags in the same warmth category, and while all down products loose feathers now and again, FF bags are the tightest I’ve ever seen.

Feathered Friends offers bags rated from just below freezing to negative 60 degrees fahrenheit, and they have women-specific bags as well. I don’t want to go into too many details in case there are children or fundamentalists reading this, but men and women are built differently, and they have different thermal requirements as well. The Feathered Friends website has the best resource for choosing a sleeping bag I’ve ever seen, covering about every factor you can imagine.



The down side (haha…punny) to Feathered Friends should be pretty obvious: They cost more. My Feathered Friends Swift Nano was a full 50% more than my North Face Blue Kazoo, with a similar temperature rating (though the FF is definitely warmer). And you won’t find Feathered Friends at the discount warehouses like Sierra Trading Post or Campmore. In fact, you probably won’t find Feathered Friends products discounted anywhere, ever. I got real excited when I saw that one of the few retail stores that sell Feathered Friends was having a store-wide sale. The sale included every single item in the store…except Feathered Friends products. They just don’t discount them.

I’ll say flat out that Feathered Friends products are worth the money, just like Snap-On tools are worth the money. Whether they’re worth the money to YOU is something only you can decide. If you’re curious, here’s the link:

http://featheredfriends.com/



A few words on sleeping bags in general:

Sleeping bags come with a temperature rating, which is handy for comparing different bags from the same manufacture, but that’s about it. If you buy a bag rated to 20 degrees and then get cold when it’s only 30 degrees, it’s not because the bag is defective. There are so many variables affecting how warm or cold a person sleeps that it’s just impossible for a company to accurately forecast how much insulation it’s going to take to keep YOU warm enough. The same person will sleep fifteen degrees differently one night to the next depending on hydration, food consumption, previous energy exertion, and general health.

I tend to sleep pretty warm, while my wife with her 3% body fat and glacial metabolism needs an arctic weight bag if it drops below freezing. I find temperature ratings pretty generous, and she finds them laughable.

The quality and quantity of padding underneath you also makes a phenomenal difference in how warm you sleep…you simply cannot put enough insulation on top of you to compensate for laying on cold ground. The air mattress you sleep so well on during the summer might not work at all once the temperatures drop below zero.

DOWN VS SYNTHETIC:
Lots of people are scared of down bags because “they won’t work if they get wet”. Well, sort of. Like saying that sushi is just raw fish, the facts are technically correct, but they are vastly oversimplified. I’ve been using down bags almost exclusively for going on three decades, and I’ve never slept cold because my bag was wet, or felt like I needed a synthetic bag.

You have to get a down bag REALLY wet for it to quit insulating…something that’s damn near impossible to do if the bag is compressed in a stuff sack. Keep in mind that a huge amount of my backcountry travel is in a whitewater kayak, in the spring, without a tent…you just don’t get any more exposure to water than that.

After days and days of rain, bags do get damp, especially if there’s no opportunity to dry them out. But a damp down bag still offers a lot of insulation…more than enough in my experience. About the only situation I’ve read about where a down bag simply wouldn’t have worked is Steven Callahan’s 76 days adrift in a life raft. He had a synthetic sleeping bag that was continually soaked in sea water but which still offered insulation at night. Down would have been worthless in that situation.

Synthetic bags are less expensive, and they ARE better insulations when really soaked, but the problem is that they are much bulkier and heavier than down bags for the same amount of insulation. Synthetic insulation also breaks down and compresses faster than down, so the bags get cooler faster as the years progress.

TAKE CARE OF IT:

Regardless of what bag you have or what insulation it uses, there are some things that will help make them work better.

First off, keep them clean. All insulation is negatively affected by dirt and oils from your filthy, filthy skin. One of the best investments you can make is a bag liner. These are made from silk, cotton, or merino wool, and in addition to adding insulation, they keep the majority of your filth from getting into the insulation of your bag. I wash my merino wool liner after every trip, which is a lot easier than washing the sleeping bag.

At some point all bags need to be washed. Down bags require a specific down soap and either hand washing or a large front-loading washing machine that’s been meticulously cleaned of any residual detergent. If you’re using a laundry service machine, plan on running two or three machine-cleaning loads through it without detergent before washing your bag.

Second, dry your bag out whenever you can. If you’re up and at it early in the morning, you have no choice but to pack up a damp bag. How damp depends on the conditions, but just your natural perspiration fills your bag with moist air while you sleep. Especially if it’s below freezing, the first thing I do when I get out of my bag is to squeeze all the warm, damp air out of it.

I put my sleeping bag where I can get to it easily during the day, and at lunch or just whenever the sun comes out I’ll pull my bag out and let it dry as much as I can. This is super-effective in keeping your bag functioning at its best during long bouts of inclement weather.

No matter how cold it is, DO NOT tuck your head inside your sleeping bag. During the night you will exhale approximately 200ml of water in your breath, and if all that water is being captured by your sleeping bag, it’s going to become noticeably less effective. Keep your mouth out of your bag.

Finally, when you get back home dry and air your bag out for a couple days…Make sure it’s completely dry. Then store it in a large breathable cotton or mesh sack in a well-ventilated and dry area. Never store a sleeping bag in the stuff sack…it’s flat out not good for the insulation.

Feathered Friends premium sleeping bags:
Best for: frequent users; quality fanatics; weight weenies; year-round campers.

A couple of thoughts:

I have a superb Marmot down sleeping bag, which has never let me down in the coldest weather I've camped in--which was about 20F. I got it at an REI garage sale, members only, because it was "damaged goods"--well, the damage was a slight pull in the nylon shell which wouldn't be noticeable except that some yahoo marked it with an "X" with a permanent marker. So I bought a $350 99.99% flawless sleeping bag for $190. At first I used it frequently; my camping has slowed down some, but it's now 18 years old and shows minimal wear--only disappointing because I'd like to get a new bag one of these days but can't justify it at all.

However, when I camp in a damp climate, which is OSH and when I've camped on my little boat, I go with my synthetic REI. Likewise, it has never let me "down", without down, but OSH and boat camping are always in more moderate temps, where it is completely adequate. That bag is some 16 years old, and is likewise showing almost no wear at all.

Both bags are routinely stored in their loose storage sacks, not the compression sacks that I use when camping. I agree that that is an essential element of maintaining a sleeping bag. I usually wash both of mine once a year, at the end of the season, and otherwise just air them out after using them. I don't use a special soap, but I do use extra rinses, and then dry them over and over, with tennis balls banging them around in the dryer.

Keep up the reviews, Hammer--good stuff!

Cary

If you want a cold wx sleep bag, do check out wiggys in alaska. www.wiggys.com
Lots of choices & info there.

Really great information. I am fundamentally too lazy to do any good research so its awesome that you share it - Thanks.

I too feel that the mass popularity of outdoor sports has drastically increased the market, but caused big name brands (who built their name by making quality products) to lower their standards so much that with continuous use their gear fails. I swapped a weeks ski rental for a Patagonia fleece in 1982 or so. It was in great shape when I drove off with it on the roof of a car in about 2005. The one I replaced it with lasted a couple of years before it literally fell apart. The problem is that 99% of customers use the gear for days or weeks a year. If you are a dirtbag who uses it all year around it is just not up to it.

So I feel that I have two choices: buy cheap brand name stuff and throw it away, or buy the best product that I can from small niche producers; pay more but keep the product for a long time. The second feels way better to me.

My dad always told me to buy the most expensive shoes, pliers and screwdrivers that I could find - they would be the cheapest in the long run, and be fun to use.