Monday 4 February 2013

Preparing for future walks.

Getting Prepared

You may have noticed that things have been pretty quiet on the bushwalking front lately. Despite having a couple of trips planned over the summer holidays we were unable to get away at all. This was mostly due to Australia's habit of catching alight over summer. 

The two areas we had planned to visit, Mt Baw Baw plateau and Mt Feathertop, have both been the scene of significant bushfires and this put paid to any thoughts of walking. We haven't written off these trips completely but may just have to consider them in a few months time.

Of course, the problem for firefighters in the Mt Feathertop region is the difficulty of the terrain. If you look back at previous posts, particularly taking not of Diamantina spur, you'll get an appreciation of the work in store for the firefighters.

There has been one upshot of this inability to go walking. It inspires me to start considering future walks and what may be required to complete these. My thoughts over recent weeks have been turning back to the Overland track in Tasmania (which our daughter has yet to complete), extended walks in locations such as Europe, the UK and Ireland, and most significantly the Australian Alps Walking Track. 

The AAWT is a track approximately 650 kms long travelling from Walhalla in Victoria to Canberra in the ACT. A walk of this length obviously requires a significant amount of preparation and a significant investment of time (usuaklly in the region of 6 weeks to complete).

While discussing the possibility of completing the AAWT from end to end my thoughts, and the thoughts of the family, turned to the current state of our equipment and what upgrades may be required. The most important upgrade is going to be new packs for all of the kids. Our twin boys are currently approaching 6 feet tall and filling out. Our daughter, too, is growing in strength and capability so she will also require a bigger pack. The thought e're having is to go with a couple of One Planet packs for the boys and pass one of their smaller packs to our daughter.

While looking into the art and science of pack selection I found the following very useful info graphic (click on the image to see more detail).

This is a beautifully designed infographic that clearly explains what pack will be best for the walks you plan on doing and how to measure and fit that pack.

This is the type of information that can be very hard to find for beginners, such as some of the group that walked the Strzelecki Track last year. If I find anymore info like this I'll be sure to post it.

Credit for image goes to REI (www.rei.com)

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