Walkhighlands

this is my original rucksack from 1986. its a skypack. Don't know the volume but it was the bees knees in the day. Has a handy shelf for a heavy tent (light in the day). I used to carry a eurohike adventure 110 on it with an old coleman piezo screw on stove used my dads 2.5 kg ex army sleeping bag, foam mat. I walked part of the WHW with this back in '86 and used it at glastonbury.

I still have (somewhere in the loft: no photos I'm afraid) my first day rucksack (1970s) and first big rucksack (1980s). Both were by Karrimor. The small one was green and the big one khaki.

All my early walks were done with the small sack and I have happy memories of it on my first walks to Cnicht, the Glyders, Ben Cruachan and Ben Nevis. I then got a mid-sized Karrimor in the late 1980s which also did well for many years.

The big sack was a loyal companion travelling round Ecuador and on Cotopaxi and other volcanoes in the 80s, and it was still going strong in 2004 for Illimani and Huayna Potosi in Bolivia. A few years ago I finally replaced the Karrimors with Aiguille (small) and Pod (big) and I have to admit that the new sacks are brilliant compared to the old ones...

I still have my first compass (Silva of course) and emergency whistle (never used) and still take them on all my walks. The compass has been a great companion over the years, e.g. it was very handy last month on the featureless terrain between Sgairneach Mhor and Beinn Udlamain. There was probably a path there somewhere but if so I managed to miss it!

I will probably never get into GPS as it is a bit techy for me.

Tim

No, I got rid of it as soon as something lighter became available. It was a horrible canvas monster with a metal frame, with which we went hut-to-hutting in Austria in 1963. I have no idea what brand it was, and as I wouldn't have recommended it to ANYONE it didn't matter. Somebody a bit fitter and more robust might have liked it. Husband liked his and carried it for years, and now I take a second look, it doesn't look as if it will force him to topple over as mine did.. 1/2 Mqn 1/2 Titanium looked after his compasses much better than me, I must be on my 5th or 6th and I do now have a GPS which has been very handy for extricating ourselves from clag, or when we don't know if we have angled too much climbing up to a ridge which is now in cloud, finding if we need to go left or right to the summit. I also have maverick in my phone, so if I want, I can be a purple arrow moving across the map. Husband HATES it. I think he thinks I am chatting on face book, but I am NOT.

Sgurr wrote:I also have maverick in my phone, so if I want, I can be a purple arrow moving across the map. Husband HATES it.

I'll respond to this topic properly later when I can get photos, but for years I was using a Garmin Sat-Nav suction-stuck to the windscreen. It displays "you" as a car and there are some options. But I played around with the unit on my computer and you can upload your own car in Flash Shockwave format so I made a flying saucer UFO which the g/f of the time detested.

Didn't have much choice with kit in the late fifties. Some ex military stuff from Millets and Dolomite boots from Lillywhites.
The windproof outers were I think the left overs from the USA's military visit to Korea.
The rucksacks were strange with the crude metal frames and oddly the widest parts of the sack at the waist end.
The first sack that I had with the 'wide end' at the shoulders was from Norway but the metal frame on this one was less crude. Thereafter a succession of Karrimor canvas sacks with an extra extension for Bivvies...these ended their usefulness as the means to carry home kindling from the forest floors. Later a Karrimor alpinist was the favoured sack that I still use but the big Osprey is the one now for the longer trips. I still use my old Murray Hamilton canvas daysack on almost a daily basis.
The only sack that I had with a frame, well I had to try out on a Tiso trip, it did not last the trip and I ended using it without the frame which was abandoned ….I am fairly sure that this sack was a Karrimor. probably an early attempt to produce for this market of backpackers and Festival visitors.

Marty_JG wrote:

Sgurr wrote:I also have maverick in my phone, so if I want, I can be a purple arrow moving across the map. Husband HATES it.

I'll respond to this topic properly later when I can get photos, but for years I was using a Garmin Sat-Nav suction-stuck to the windscreen. It displays "you" as a car and there are some options. But I played around with the unit on my computer and you can upload your own car in Flash Shockwave format so I made a flying saucer UFO which the g/f of the time detested.

I can't think which is worse, having a boyfriend who thinks of himself as an UFO or a wife who is a purple arrow. He would hate it more if it was a delightful canine companion.....I think

gaffr wrote:The rucksacks were strange with the crude metal frames and oddly the widest parts of the sack at the waist end.

My first "sac" was one of those, thirty bob second hand. Ex army possibly, capacious but uncomfortable. Pictured here when I was about sixteen off to the Lakes- note the old hemp rope. The joyous folly of youth.

My 30l Karrimor Hot something (ice? rock? the writing has now worn off) was bought in 1993 and is still in pretty much weekly use. It does have a couple of holes in the bottom, but I use a drybag liner. I will be sad when it eventually falls to bits - the embroidery I had done when in Kathmandu in 2000 is still looking good. It is very comfy.

I also have a Karrimor Jaguar, bought in 1981, for backpacking, but have not used it for a while.