Not another Review of the Osprey Stratos36

Since November 2010 when I posted a review of a rucksack I had recently brought, the Osprey Stratos I have walked over three hundred miles most of it carrying the Stratos. This included four days on the Cumbria Way, when I also carrying much of Mrs G’s kit as well as my own, and five days across Lakeland from Maryport to Ravenglass.  So it’s about time I brought things up to date

As I wrote in 2010 the things that I liked on the sack was the airspeed back that does so much to keep my back cool and dry, the hip belt which, makes carrying the sack so stable and comfortable and the very usable pockets on the hip belt. All of which made this a great rucksack to carry on day, weekend and week walks (providing you don’t need to carry tent, bag, food etc.).

However, there were a number of points I was unsure about some were minor and stayed that way. Others I never really managed to sort out, prime amongst these was, ‘how to pack the sack’ and the way the compression straps got in the way of accessing the main compartment.

To take the compression straps first, these worked really well in compacting the bag and shaping it when lightly loaded, but whenever I needed to get anything out of the bag it was necessary to undo the lid buckles, loosen or undo the compression straps, then have to do both sets up again. The straps also reduced the usability of the zip access to the main compartment.

As far as packing the sack goes I never seemed to pack it the same way twice, despite this it carried everything I needed it to and was always comfortable.

I never did trim off the excess lengths of webbing all over the sack, but I did eventually use the walking pole loops for their designed purpose. As I said in 2010 there seem to be a lot of straps, zips and associated covers and extra bits even the rain cover, which worked well, had a large pocket of its own. As a result the Stratos weighs in at about 1400grammes which is dam near the same as my Atmos 50.

In summary the Stratos is a very good 36 litre rucksack, it is hard wearing, functional and comfortable, you can pack a lot into it and carry it all day with ease. However, I am not convinced it is a backpacking, hiking rucksack, it might be better used as a light travelling sack. I have recently been looking at the Osprey Exos 34 as I feel this is closer to my needs of a lightweight, top loading bag for winter and summer day walks, weekend walks or summer hostel, B and B walks. (it weighs, according to Osprey 990grammes).  I think the Stratos may be soon going on Ebay and in early 2012 there may well be a post here on the Exos.

Not a Review on the Suunto Vector Watch

Earlier this summer (2011) while bouncing around the interweb I landed on the Cotswold’s Outdoors site on an advert for an Axio watch, on seeing words like barometric altimeter and thermometer I became interested. Eventually I went along to their Nottingham store to have a look. For no good reason I was not impressed with the Axio, just felt, it was not for me. However I tried on the Suunto Vector, it was just the thing and a couple of weeks later I bought one.

When walking I want to know far I’d climbed or descended now was my chance to find out with a wizzy watch with a built in barometric altimeter. Just the db’s.

The Suunto, as you can see in the picture, has a black, hard plastic body and a soft plastic strap. It looks and feels tough and should be hard wearing, although the screen does seem a little vulnerable. The face is grey and split into three main areas, top, middle and bottom (officially Fields 1, 2 or 3). The middle area shows the watch functions, abbreviated as TIME ALTI BARO COMP, when selected each of these places data in the top and bottom areas, and enables access to the various associated displays, data and inputs. Around the side of the body are four buttons, top right scrolls across the menu, top left cycles through the displays and inputs for the selected menu item. Bottom right and left are basically plus and minus buttons.

Suunto provide a multi-language instruction book, unfortunately its written in that peculiar version of English normally only found in flat pack leaflets and white goods handbooks, the printing is so small, reading it made my eyes water. Fortunately I found a pdf version on the interweb, with better English and large print.

After carefully reading the instructions for TIME and consulting three watches, two clocks, two computers, three phones, a clock radio and two televisions (only the televisions showed the same time) I eventually managed to set the Suunto to the correct time.

From there it was all downhill, nothing I read about ALTI, BARO or COMP made any sense, the buttons I pressed, apparently had a will of their own. I even checked that I had the correct watch for the handbook, but all I got was a headache.

I left it to stew for a few days, slowly resolving that as an engineer, I should try and solve this logically. I clearly needed to determine the relationships between pressing button A and what subsequently appeared in Fields 1, 2 or 3 then noted how this changed depending on how many times I pressed button B or C.

I started a spreadsheet and plodded through the instructions line by line establishing the effect that each button press or hold had on which part of the screen. I carefully tabulated the button presses required to set the time, date and alarms. To ensure I had it down right, using the spread sheet I went through the TIME steps on the watch several times, before proceeding to repeat the process with ALTI, BARO and COMP. I admit to skipping most of the stopwatch bit plus the entire COMP (compass) bit as by this point I felt life was far too short.

Did this help, Yes big time, I now had some simple logical instructions giving the steps for each process.

The next move was to set the Suunto up so that I would be able to record the changes of height on a walk. Nothing in the instructions actually helped with this. As far as I could work out, all it explained was the processes, it did not give the story, the algorithm, to connect the processes together to produce a result.

However, on the Suunto website I found an article that more or less explained how it all works. It took half a dozen walks before I fully sorted it out. The big improvement came by changing the recording interval from the recommended 10 minutes to 1 minute. Getting accuracy apparently depends on setting the Sea Level Barometric pressure, and several times a day re-setting the Relative Height at a point of known height.

With the display in BARO mode the watch also displays the temperature, I found that quite useful. The compass works ok, but my Silva is far more flexible.

In short the Suunto Vector looks and feels good and has a clear display. Using the buttons is easy enough on a warm day. On a cold day it will be more difficult.

I do have several beefs though, the Vector is described by Suunto as a wrist top computer, which is blatant nonsense. As the barometer and thermometer are affected by temperature you cannot wear it in contact with the body as the body temperature affects the workings, I strap mine on to a carbineer on my rucksack shoulder strap.

Secondly, I know my hearing is not first class, but the alarm is so weedy I would not hear it if I wore the Vector as an ear ring, let alone under winter clothing or in a noisy environment.

Finally I have worn the Suunto mainly when out walking and the altimeter results are extremely variable out of 18 walks there are only two where the altimeter data is anything close to the ascent and descent calculated from the GPS track by my mapping software. I know maps are by definition inaccurate but the results are different by a large margin. Although checking against spot heights or even contours or the GPS the results don’t seem to be too far out.

10m height dif.

I feel I should persist with the Altimeter but am getting disheartened. To date the only functions I have found useful and accurate is the time and the temperature. As it appears impossible to know which ascent descent data set is most accurate it seems pointless proceeding with the altimeter.

So the question to be answered is, is it useful or will it become just another piece of expensive gear in the back of the cupboard or on Ebay, time will tell (no pun intended ‘honest’). I think it may well be the latter.

RAB Aeon Tee

In this month’s TGO magazine there is a review on Baselayers.

All the usual suspects are there Smartwool, Sprayway, Trekmates, Paramo, Berghaus, Craghoppers, Montane,  Ice Breaker, Marmmut, Marmot, Reggatta, Snugpak, Vaude, Outdoor Research and Odlo a very wide section of the outdoors clothing market, most price ranges and materials. I read with interest only to find my personal favourite was not there, I know TGO can only review those garments that the supplier/manufactures supply and 16 different baselayers must take a lot of time to test. But there was no RAB Aeon tee shirt, to use a phrase “I could not believe it”

So the RAB Aeon Tee is light, the men’s large weighs in at 89 grams (matching the lightest in test) it has flatlock seams and the polyester material has a UPF rating of 30+. The material is the closest thing to silk I have ever worn; it is smooth, comfortable and hard wearing. The fit on me is just loose enough and the raglan sleeves come down to just above the elbow.

I bought my first one last summer and I have worn it or my Aeon long sleeved tee on nearly every walk since and to work during the last winter’s cold weather under a shirt and tie . When working hard walking the Aeon  wicks sweat away from the skin extremely well so that I rarely feel damp. In the cold conditions it creates a warm layer next to the skin and eliminates cold spots. Most importantly it dries very quickly.

On last year’s multi day walk around the lakes I wore mine every day in mixed weather conditions, never washing it and after six days of walking and travel I had no qualms about wearing it to the pub or on the train. I carried a Aeon Long Sleeve Tee in my rucksack in my dry clothes bag.

As well as mens short and long sleeve versions of the RAB Aeon there is a women’s version, the Aeon Tech Tee in the same material but a slimmer cut. The size 14 weighs 64 grams. Mrs G wore hers on our Cumbria Way in June.

I rate these tees way above any of my other baselayer’s and have had a similar response from other walkers and a couple of mountain marathon guys I have spoken to.

The Tees are for sale at a number of outlets at £20-22 while the Longs are about £27 which makes them among the cheapest in TGO’s bunch and a good bit less than the recommended.

Good. Weight, wicking, feel, price.

Bad. Nothing

Final word, I’m off to Go Outdoors to buy some more in case RAB discontinue them, heaven forbid.

Outdoors Show NEC

I’ve been trying to write this and get it posted all week but things just keep getting in the way, so this has been written after three four attempts.


On Saturday 26 March,  the Missus, Andy, his mate Steve and I went down to the NEC to visit the Outdoor Leisure Show with Caravans, Campervans, and Boats. Having made numerous visits to the old Outdoors show at the NEC, now at Excel in London, this one was a pleasant change it was spread over 5 halls and as a result it was far less of a scrum, the good wide walkways between the stands provided the space and the freedom to move around, to see things, to talk to guys and girls on the stands and to other punters.

We spent a fair chunk of time looking at the caravans, mainly two berth as I am getting close to retirement and we want to get a touring caravan at some time before then. We were mainly looking at layouts and standard equipment, all of which were far better than I remember from our last four berth one over twenty years ago.

We also looked at the camper vans (Motor Homes) which although very impressive our plan remains to go with a caravan. It will probably be a 13 or 15 foot van with an end toilet/shower, a hob,cooker, fridge, microwave and heating.

We both bought some kit Mrs G got herself a Paramo Velez Adventure Light for £60 below list, while I got a Paramo Explorer shirt about £20 below list which was pretty good. Keela also had a stand and I  got a pair of Keela Peru trousers for £30. I have worn their Peru and Paraguay trousers for about eight years now, they are very hard wearing and comfortable being quite stretchy, these new ones are a different material but look and feel just as good. Also saw their new Scuffer HW trousers which looked like good winter trousers, well for here in the Midlands anyway, up north you’ll have to make you own minds up. However, I will continue to use my Montane terra pants through the warmer months, those side zips are super for cooling.

I also bought some fancy British wool (merino?) socks, but I lost the wrapper I haven't a bloody clue what they were made from or how to get some more. They are nice and warm and cushioning, a bit like my Smartwool ones but a little coarser.!


Although we did a little local walk today, 6 miles, we are hoping to get out for a proper walk next weekend but as Forest is at home again that does seem a bit unlikely, we’ll see.


In the meantime heres some pictures Andy and I took on the Westmoreland Way in 2009.

Snow and Old Boots

Over the past month good walks have been few and far between. In early November I took two of my granddaughters on a walk around the local footpaths, on the way we did a bit of geo caching or gee-up catching as the youngest called it. It was great fun, we pretended it as a treasure hunt (with plenty of pirate growls and pieces of eight from granddad) they found 2 out of the 3 caches we were after. This wasn’t too bad as we’re in a rural area and the iphone’s gps accuracy out here is not the best. The biggest problem of the day was persuading them that once they had found the treasure, they couldn’t take the treasure home. No tears though.

Having had a good dose of snow on 27 November, Mrs O-n-G decided that we’d go on a nice walk on the Sunday. An hour or so on the internet and memory map and we had a 9 mile walk starting from home to which I added 4 geo caches.

Sunday morning was lovely, cold, not much wind and sky was bright blue and sunny with 3 to 4 inches of snow over everything. It never ceases to amaze me how the snow changes the way everything looks, a rough old grass field becomes wonderfully smooth and the trees appear to be covered in new white blossom and the branches turn in to silver.

We tramped along footpaths across the field behind us and along the lane to the next village where we failed find our first cache, possibly because it was at ground level and on one side of the hedge the snow had drifted well into the hedge line. Moving on we walked through a series of small fields, making sure at each stile or gate that there were no cows in the field, as since a man out walking was killed by a bull and heifers over Stanford on Soar way, Mrs O-n-G is even more scared of them I can see some difficult diversions ahead. Later we watched a man fly a model jet plane, steering it through a whole range of tricks and stunts, very skilled.

I used my gps to find the next cache, it was tucked away off the main path along a track I didn’t know existed, despite a few years ago having used that area for training runs. The gps took us right up to within 3 metres of the third cache which was extremely well hidden in a tree. I’m a bit stumped here as I want to describe the situation but don’t want to give anything away, so I’ll say now’t. By now the sun was fading and it was getting decidedly colder so we headed back home by the shorter route, missing out on the fourth cache, rushing home to hot chocolate with cream and marshmallows.

Last Friday I had a day off and after finishing a few jobs took my camera off around the area taking 82 pictures of white covered scenery, some of which will appear on the Mrs’s craft Christmas Cards. Guess who gets all the printing, trimming and sticking to do.

On these last two walks I wore my Salomon 3D Fastpacker GTX mid boots (or some such name). I bought them just over two years ago, I’ve only worn over winters as I much prefer approach shoes most of the year. Wearing them on Sunday I had forgotten how comfortable, supportive and light (990g a pair) they are. I was also pleased with how well they worked in the conditions, they also felt 

Intrestingly these are the only boots or approach shoes I have worn in the last six years that I have not had to put either Superfeet of the Montrail insoles into. Last spring I thought they had started to leak through the tongue area but in the snow there has not been any leaking. I guess snow may not be a good test of waterproofness so I’ll have to wait and see. But with the Smartwool socks I was warm and dry. I might give the 3D shoes  (without GTX) a try in the spring.

Not a review of the Osprey Stratos 36

Three weeks ago when I walked around the top of Langstone Harbour I carried my old Vaude Tour 45 rucksack and I hated it, which is sad ‘cos I’ve have carried it most winters and some summers for at least five years. This year I wore my Osprey Atmos 50 a lot more, mainly so that I could sort out what I was going to carry on our Lakeland Circle Walk and then over a few walks work out how to pack  the sack.  During our Lakes walk the Atmos, the kit and the packing worked a treat no faffs and things to hand as needed. Now carrying the Vaude for the first time in months it felt, and looked, as if I was carrying a bag of spanners.

So we paid a visited Snow and Rock at Porchester to try on a few rucksacks.  Then a couple of days later, to make sure, I called into Cotswolds in Nottingham a to try a Deuter I’d read about, but also to see if they had a Stratos 36 in, they didn’t but after chatting to the guys in store, I wanted the Stratos.

A quick scoot around the interweb and I placed an order with Taunton Leisure.

At this point I was going to write“a review” but having read a couple of anti gear review reviews I think we’d all be happier if I just tell you what I like and dislike about the Stratos and the bits I’m still thinking about. I should also say that I have only worn it lightly loaded on two short walks, which probably makes the whole thing invalid, to serious gear reviewers.

Anyway, the utmost likes are the hip belt and airspeed back, these are the reason I bought this sack. The Atmos which has a similar belt and back has been wonderful, stable, comfortable, it stays cool on warm days, a joy to carry and I can feel that the Stratos will be much the same.

Then there are the things I have discovered, the pouches on the hip belt are a good size taking my camera and several bars of chocolate for the grandkids, Also for the first time with any of my rucksacks I can actually get my hand into the wand pockets while wearing the sack. And just to prove that I am only interested in the gimmicks I really like the MP3/phone pouch on the right shoulder strap, just right for the iphone.

As far as carrying goes it, with the limited use I’ve had, it give that ‘right’ feeling, the hip belt sits well and is easy to adjust as are the shoulder straps, as you’d expect. The water pouch can be hung outside the bag between it and the airspeed trampoline. This frees up room in the bag and moves weight closer to the back. The compression straps, despite the top ones looking a bit odd pull the sack, when lightly loaded, into a quite narrow and not to deep shape.

Dislike, so far, I don’t like that there are no loops or D rings on shoulder straps which is where I prefer to hang my GPS from. The Stratos has the stow on the go wizzywig that allow walking poles to be stowed on a bungy cord under the left arm pit. Now being a gimmicks person I was quite excited about this and took my walking pole out for a walk and a carry, and I hated the stow and go. If this was a proper review I would explain how it works and why it didn’t for me, but I’m not. It was a pain. But on the bright side the bungy bit does give me a loop to hang my GPS from.

There seem to be a lot of straps on the sack all with very long flapping around tails or waste I think they’re called. All will have to be tested for length, cut, sealed and sewn up again.

The things I’m still thinking about are the colour, black and slate, the materials and the loading, what goes where and in what order, that will take a couple of walks to sort out. I also don’t understand why there are two top pockets in the lid instead of one big one, save a zip and the material that divides them, then there’s the big zip that opens up the main compartment, why. I’ve already mentioned the top compression straps, they probably do a good job but they look odd, and foul the big zip to the main compartment and seem awkward with the straps pulling the lid down.

So it looks and feels good, a bit of practice and learning to do yet and I am looking forward to a good long walk with it. Finally, as I have been known to say about other people’s reviews, if he’s paid that much for it, he’s bound to say it’s the best thing since sliced bread, aren’t I