Am I packing up my fears?

Introduction

This is my first post about the hike and I’m afraid it may be a small window into my mind and thought process (or lack thereof) when planning a hike. My tendency to overthink most decisions and then regret them. It’s usually a pretty small thing, but I think that’s the way a lot of people, usually those of us who are less experienced, tend to think. If you’ve read my little bio, you’ll know that I, with my girlfriend Miranda, will be hiking the Icelandic backcountry in July, and if you haven’t read it, you know now! Planning is in full swing and is proving to be a curveball with some decisions to make and logistical issues to overcome, but that’s for another post. The reason for all this rigmarole is: which store do we take?

Two of our stores full

my research

Iceland is an almost arctic island with little vegetation and little protection from our main concern, the wind! The Iceland Traverse is a fairly lightly traveled trail compared to many long distance hikes, so there is very little information about it. Those few posts are useful to a point, but they don’t go into great detail about climate or topography. They also gave such wild variations in gear recommendations. So what I gathered was that the wind in Iceland is brutal. Not always, but we saw very few cases of long trips without winds over 40 mph, with gusts far exceeding that figure. Those trapped in the sandy deserts of the northeast had to retreat due to the destruction of light tents. We finally managed to get in touch with someone who had done this hike with ultralight experience and one sentence trumped all: «we recommend a 4-season tent.»

Our Durston X-mid 2 at the GDT

That wasn’t really the answer I was expecting as we are normally Durston tent people. We love the equipment and have relied on it on many long and short hikes. We are somewhat used to the wind and started our hiking «career» by camping on the tops of Snowdonia National Park all year round, which has some pretty awful weather. Our X-mid simply survived that. But Iceland seems to be on another level. Fewer gusts and more consistent winds.

Tents, Tents and more Tents!

We started looking at tents and searching for advice on forums hoping to find out that the X-mid would be suitable. But along with the wind, it turns out that deep deserts of loose sand are equally problematic for tents that don’t stand up on their own. Most recommendations are for semi-freestanding or fully freestanding tents. Big Agnes, Fjallraven, MSR, Hilliberg and Terra-Nova were all names considered. But I still wanted the Durston. We love it and clearly so do many other hikers. It ticks all the boxes as far as I’m concerned and above all it’s super light. However, after further research we decided to speak with caution. We would look for 4 season tents with more resistance to high winds but unfortunately much heavier.

So we reduced it. Hilliberg Nallo, too heavy and quite expensive, despite my love for these stores. Probably the best made tents on the market. Terra-Nova Voyager, too heavy and blown away on first launch. MSR Access 2, well, reports of poles bending under high winds. I have no doubt that they are fantastic tents, but one or two of these reviews were enough to make me uneasy. Big Agnes Copper Spur, not really a 4 season tent, but it worked well for our friends visiting Iceland. But at this point we wanted to go to 4 seasons. Fjallraven Abisko lite 2. BINGO!

Our choice

So we chose the Fjallraven Abisko Lite 2 because it was probably the lightest 4 season tent. We got it at a reasonable price and it was the best fit for us. It weighs just under 2kg without the bags and is a semi-freestanding tunnel-shaped tent. It’s rated for 4-season use, but is much lighter than most of its competitors. Plus, we’ll split the weight between us, which again lessens the load!Our Fjallraven Abisko Lite 2

Conclusion

I’m sure I’m not the only person who overthinks things like this, but it’s okay if you do! Maybe I’ve thought about this too much and our choice will be excessive, but you know what? I like new gear, and if you’re reading this, I’m pretty sure you do too. It will be interesting to see how this protects from the winds from the north and inland of Iceland and we will continue with our reflections later. But so far we are satisfied.

So what was really the point of all this mumbo-jumbo? Well, it gives you an idea of ​​my way of thinking and also that it’s okay to not always be sure of what to do. Whether that’s what you need for a hike or what exact route to take, or even if you want to do the hike at all. As long as you’re safe, you can always change your mind. Get out, shift gears and change route. Do what suits you best and I think that’s the choice we’ve made here.

Not packing your fears is one of the main considerations when trying to achieve an ultralight base weight and maybe we are packing our fears on this journey. A 4 season tent for a possible storm, the tent we already have would probably hold up. Only time will tell but I feel safer with the choice we have made and that will always be priority number 1. Safety!

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