To those of you who used to tent camp and/or backpack...

[dave macrae]

I have not used in the snow, going out a week from tommorow and suspect it will be cold enough to get good idea , The first time I used it was in june and it was around freezing @ night and was way too warm in a down -9 C bag that i would have been pleasantly cozy in with my old mat so I think the claims on the R value are reasonably clsoe to reality. the packed size and weight is really nice and is much more comfortable as well .

 

[Jim Bennett]

I am obviously not in the market for a mat, but definitely would look at that one. Lighter and smaller is always good, just so long as the comfort is there.

I have used my DownMat on snow lots of times, and it works great. In weather near freezing or above, my sleeping bag is usually wide open, and laid on top of me like a blanket, otherwise I am too warm. I think my light down bag is good to about -12°C.

The forecast for Jasper this weekend is better than one could ever hope for. A sprinkle of rain is forecast for tomorrow, but the highs are Sat 22°, Sun 25°, Mon 25°. Then it is supposed to rain again Tuesday, but we will be back home then. Maligne Lake is a bit higher than Jasper, so it might be a bit cooler. Really stoked, leaving home in a couple hours.

 

[dave macrae]

I spoke with a couple last time out who recently swapped from the exped mats to the xtherms . They liked the r value and comfort of the exped but found the xtherm just as comfortable at a much reduced weight and better packabilty. I am happy with mine. As I said before, not having the rolled up mat strapped to the out side of my pack is really nice . My only real complaint is my inflatable pillow always slides off of it as its a bit slippery. I have a sea to summit pillow that is comfortable untill it slides off of the mat in the middle of the night

 

[dave macrae]

Have fun Jim, Maligne Lake is definatly a gem.

 

[yardsale]

I found an Exped 9 for Exped Down Mat 9 |Sleeping Pads | BackcountryGear.com | Ships Free

for $183. I have used mine (R 8.0) to about -10F and was plenty warm, at least while I was in the bag!. However I think the R 5.8 for the Xtherms should be more than adequate for three season use, probably down to 25c or so.

 

[Buddy-ESC]

The forecast for Jasper this weekend is better than one could ever hope for. A sprinkle of rain is forecast for tomorrow, but the highs are Sat 22°, Sun 25°, Mon 25°. Then it is supposed to rain again Tuesday, but we will be back home then. Maligne Lake is a bit higher than Jasper, so it might be a bit cooler. Really stoked, leaving home in a couple hours.

Perfect weather for early fall hiking in the Rockies! Enjoy, we only get a few days like this so make the most of them. We are heading down the Crowsnest this weekend ourselves.

 

[Jim Bennett]

Well, the trip was absolutely fantastic! We could not have asked for better weather. It got to around freezing at night, but the daytime temps got up to, and above, 25°C (77°F)

The only crappy side of things, my brand new CF card I bought for my camera ended up being corrupt. It displays the thumbnails in the camera fine, but the RAW files were all a bunch of garbage. Good thing my remembry is still working good enough to store this wonderful trip in me wee head.

 

[dave macrae]

Sorry to hear about the camera issue, I imagine it was beautiful with all the fall colours. The weather has been fantastic. Hope it holds on for this weekend, I am leaving early Friday morning to do the Berg lake trail @ Mount Robson, so far the forecast looks ok.

 

[rbryan4]

You could try a cf card recovery program. I've had mixed results, but if the images display in the camera there is a chance the full format files can be recovered. They offer a trial version so you can see if at least one image can be recovered before you purchase.

Memory Card Recovery Software to Recover Lost Photos - CardRecovery (PC) or Memory Card Photo Recovery Software for Mac - Card Rescue (Mac)

 

[DeadEyeDan]

I still tent camp off the back of my motorcycle. Went to Death Valley in Jan this year.

But I have to admit, I like the bed in our trailer much much better. ;D

 

[gbaglo]

If you have a Lexar card reader you would have got the code to download Image Rescue.
I used it once. It recovered about 1/3 of the images that I shot and needed for the assignment and thousands of images that I couldn't remember shooting. It went back several years and dug them out of the drive.

 

[Jim Bennett]

My issue is not recovering the files, I can find them all. I would need something that would uncorrupt them.

 

[rbryan4]

If you have a Lexar card reader you would have got the code to download Image Rescue.
I used it once. It recovered about 1/3 of the images that I shot and needed for the assignment and thousands of images that I couldn't remember shooting. It went back several years and dug them out of the drive.

Yeah, all these recovery programs work similarly to the ones used to recover data from broken/damaged hard drives. They take advantage of the fact that the data is not actually erased when a file is deleted -- it just doesn't have a file system reference that points to it. Data is only 'erased' when something replaces/overwrites it. So, some of your older pictures were still there because that spot on the drive had not yet been overwritten.

 

[Jim Bennett]

No trailer will ever make it here to camp, a tent is the only way.

 

[DeadEyeDan]

WOW! Incredibly beautiful.

 

[bouterse]

Nice pics Jim. Would that be Maligne Lake? It's been quite a few years since we've been there.

Jack

 

[Dave Walter]

No trailer will ever make it here to camp, a tent is the only way.

Jim. Looks like you had a pretty miserable time on Maligne Lake, what with all of the bad weather and poor visibility. Great pictures though.

 

[Jim Bennett]

It certainly was tough, Dave. That high of 27°C on Sunday was a killer. Lows were near freezing, and below a bit one night. Still, can't be beat for this time of year.

 

[Slickheadhunter]

I still camp out of a tent!
I have a sbeautiful pyramid canvas tent made by David Ellis out of Colorado, I use it while canoe hunting in remote areas of NH.

 

[Slickheadhunter]

Here's a picture of my tent.