鈥淭here is no waterproof breathable fabric on the market that can dissipate enough moisturize to keep you dry while hiking hard with a backpack on,鈥� said Sierra Designs' Vice President Michael Glavin in . Glavin had filmed the video to help sell the company鈥檚 new Ultralight Trench and talk about how, in his mind, waterproof-breathable fabrics (the hard-shell material that Gore-Tex and others make) don鈥檛 live up to the marketing hype. 鈥淲hat sets these jackets apart,鈥� he said, gesturing toward the Trench, 鈥渋s active venting.鈥�

In real-people terms, that means designing the jacket in such a way that it鈥檚 easy to allow fresh air in and hot, sweat-laden air out. Sierra Designs achieved this with its Ultralight Trench by cutting a massive flap into the bottom half of the jacket, so the user could flip it up and over a hipbelt if she got too hot. It paired that design with permanently open underarm vents and two chest pockets that cross-ventilated the torso.

It was a great idea that I found to work exceptionally well. I鈥檇 put my pack on over the jacket and run the waist belt under the dangling front panel. Because the waist belt wouldn't cinch material against my stomach, air would circulate upward through the jacket and out the pit vents as I walked. Brilliant.

Alas, earlier this year, Sierra Designs discontinued both the Ultralight Trench and its heavier Pack Trench relative, with no replacement in mind. So now we鈥檙e back to ponchos and pit zips on otherwise-sealed hard-shell jackets. And that鈥檚 a real pity.

You see, as great as hard shells are, none of the designs currently on the market actually breathes all that well. They鈥檙e made out of fabric with a porous membrane, with each pore 20,000 times smaller than a water droplet. The idea is that it keeps rain out, but also vents sweat-vapor, thus preventing you from feeling like you鈥檙e wearing a plastic garbage bag. It performs well in laboratory tests and certain cool weather conditions, but anyone who鈥檚 ever actually exercised with a hard shell on鈥攅specially in humid places鈥攌nows that it鈥檚 easy to overwhelm the material.

I acknowledge that hard shells are useful in wet and ultra-windy conditions, and I have perfected a careful ritual of zipping and unzipping it so I won't sweat out a monsoon while wearing one. But as soon as the shell鈥檚 not needed, I ditch it for a soft shell or a wind shirt.

Air needs both an entrance and an exit to circulate. Open one window in your apartment or car, and you get a bit of a breeze. Open a second window farther away, and air circulates into and out of the space much more freely, allowing a more significant breeze. Jackets are similar. Normal hard shells鈥攚ith simple pit zips鈥攄on鈥檛 breathe all that well, as a backpack's hip belt chokes off circulation at the waist and leaves only a limited upper portion of the jacket to vent.

The Pack Trench and Ultralight Trench fixed this problem with their clever design. Now, they weren鈥檛 the best for alpine climbing, where the always-open pit zips would let in the strong winds that run unimpeded at high altitudes. But for day hiking, overnight backpacking, biking, and cragging, the always-venting hard shell worked really well. Even for winter hiking, where trees and terrain break up the wind, hikers spend a lot of time trudging with jackets unzipped and hoping for more ventilation in wet snow, when temperatures fluctuate around 30 or so degrees.

Sierra Designs decided to discontinue the jackets largely because of slow sales, says Adrian Person, Sierra Designs' former manager for the Rockies Territory who聽now works for Kelty. 鈥淭he mechanical venting did actually work very well, but unfortunately they had no other distinguishing features or looks to make them stand out against larger brands. A couple more-technical dealers actually had really good success with this product, but it simply wasn't enough.鈥�

Hikers on and liked it, as did hiking blogger Andrew Skurka, who joined Sierra Designs as a consultant in early 2015. But they represent fringe communities, made up of people who count ounces and choose to spend free time discussing gear on internet forums. The average person shops the rack at REI and might consult a mainstream review site, and there the Trenches were a rare sight. Outdoorgearlab.com never included one in its annual gear tests for men鈥檚 or women鈥檚 hard shells, and both models were absent from magazine coverage and yearly round-ups.

Yet the always-venting hard shell remains a worthy idea, even as the last Trench jackets sit in . This is your last chance to get one of these jackets鈥攗nless Sierra Designs' new team decides to bring the idea back. (Hint, hint.)

Buy Now While You Still Can:

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You don鈥檛 need a five-figure video recorder balanced on your shoulder to shoot quality adventure footage. It鈥檚 cheaper and more convenient to take advantage of that device sitting in your pocket or hand鈥攜our phone. But out of the box, even the best phones have crappy lighting, miserable audio, and footage that bounces around like the operator鈥檚 being kidnapped. It鈥檚 worth dropping some cash on accessories that鈥檒l turn your phone into a stable, crisp, 4K-shooting machine that makes big-production-looking video. You already own the most expensive part. The rest is gravy.

Stabilization Rig

Sensors in this device detect the inevitable shakiness from using a lightweight camera, and a motorized gimbal attached to the phone applies opposite force to accidental movements, smoothing out the unsteadiness. As you turn and aim the collapsible ($170), the electric motors resist your hand a bit, giving it an artificial sense of weight so your movements on the lightweight, one-pound rig aren鈥檛 jerky. The rechargeable battery is good for eight hours, but it鈥檒l shift to a slightly less-smooth manual stabilization if the juice runs out.

You can tell the one-pound ($129) to track a person or object automatically using its software and motorized gimbal, so if you turn the Mobile 2 sharply, the gimbal will smoothly track the subject instead of jarring the picture. The battery lasts 15 hours, but it won鈥檛 run in manual mode once the juice is gone and can鈥檛 be swapped out for a fresh battery. Both the Steadicam Volt鈥檚 high haptic feedback and the Osmo Mobile 2鈥檚 auto-tracking will work fine for whatever you鈥檙e filming; it鈥檚 just personal preference on how you like the rig to feel.

Anamorphic Lens

Basically, these lenses stretch footage to the 2:40:1 widescreen format commonly used in films, meaning your video will look more Hollywood than YouTube. The ($120) is my favorite, capturing it all in a sleek, affordable package, though it requires a proprietary ($30) that works with iPhones, Google Pixels, and Samsung Galaxies.

Telephoto Lens

If your footage puts you far away from your subject, you need to close the distance with a zoom lens. The , produced by 172-year-old German lens maker Zeiss, has a crisp 2x zoom and clocks in at $199. (It also comes with a mount.) Zeiss proved its chops making lenses for submarine periscopes and NASA鈥檚 Apollo program for moon photos.

Macro Lens

A lot of nature videography splices in detail-laden close-ups. Filmmakers use high-magnification macro lenses, which focus on objects extremely close to the camera, rather than telephoto lenses, which focus on objects far away. ($60) packages a 15x macro with a swappable fisheye lens鈥攔arely used but cool for the occasional distorted special effects鈥攁nd they work with front- and rear-facing cameras. Edges of shots can be slightly fuzzy, but image quality across most of the frame is sharp and satisfying.

Filters

As with lenses, many filters are available that screw on over the lens and specialize in cutting out certain undesirable effects. The ($35) lets you mount any standard 52mm lens filter to a phone. You鈥檒l need three: a ($32), which quashes glare and brings out detail under cloudy skies; a ($7), which prevents intense sunlight from giving footage an unnatural bluish tint; and a ($36), which reduces light entering the lens, preventing overexposure common in harsh light.

Light

A phone鈥檚 single flash isn鈥檛 potent enough to bathe even a close-up subject in decent lighting, much less an entire scene from far away. The LED ($80) mounts directly to the phone, connects to it through Bluetooth, and puts out 1,500 lumens鈥攖hree times as bright as a full-size D-cell Maglite. The ($80) is not as bright, at 800 lumens of continuous light, but offers more filters to fine-tune the light鈥檚 color.

Microphone

The ($200) is what you鈥檇 use in a face-to-face interview up close, clipped to the interviewee鈥檚 shirt under the chin, but it鈥檚 only good for short distances and minimal movement. The ($53) is a shotgun microphone鈥攁 long, cylindrical mic that you attach to the camera. You have to aim it at who or what you want to record, but it鈥檚 better for subjects you can鈥檛 tether to a clip-on mic, such as wildlife, the breezes, and breaking waves of landscape shots, or activities with multiple people in the shot.

Power Bank

You鈥檒l quickly drain the life out of your phone if you鈥檙e shooting video, so bring along a power bank that can offer a fast recharge and get you back to filming. The ($100) uses a new, faster USB PD and can recharge a typical smartphone six times before it needs to be recharged itself, which takes four hours. The ($50) 15K uses a slower, non-quick-charging USB 3.0 standard, but it鈥檚 half the cost and, unlike USB PD, won鈥檛 require an adapter if you鈥檙e using an Android phone.

Software

All that hardware is pointless if you can鈥檛 edit footage in postproduction. Software like ($15) and ($150) lets you edit exposure, color, focus, frame rate, tint, grain, and more. You can nitpick with all the settings yourself or choose from profiles that emulate classic brands of film from the heyday of celluloid. You鈥檒l also need it to desquish your image if you shot footage using an anamorphic lens.

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鈥淩yan and I had been dreaming of this moment for months,鈥� Rebecca Means wrote in a 2010 journal entry as her husband landed their aluminum boat on a beach in Everglades National Park. 鈥淚t鈥檚 the beginning of a grand adventure, the culmination of so much work!鈥� She was about to step onto the most remote spot in their home state of Florida. It was the first stop on what they were calling Project Remote, a quest to visit the most remote spot in each of the 50 states.

Then the couple went ashore. The sand was crisscrossed with tracks from someone dragging a cooler. Motorboats whizzed past on the Gulf of Mexico. People fished. A ship from Princess Cruises went by. It was the first in a string of disappointments in what has become an 11-year project.

鈥淵ou cannot get more than five miles from a road within the vast majority of America鈥檚 wilderness,鈥� says Ryan, an ecologist with the Tallahassee, Florida鈥揵ased nonprofit Coastal Plains Institute. Less if you count trails and cabins. He and Rebecca, a wildlife biologist also with the institute, are the only people to have stood at the remotest coordinates in almost all of America鈥檚 backcountry. The two banter back and forth as they frame their shared disappointment differently. Her bubbly enthusiasm tries to put a positive spin on Ryan鈥檚 inclination to call things 鈥渂ullshit,鈥� and his easygoing surfer-dude accent carries an edge of not-easygoing cynicism. But his voice loses the edge for a moment when he reminisces about the day in 2009 that sparked .

鈥淚 was walking down a very crowded Florida beach on a training hike,鈥� Ryan says, 鈥渁nd I was in my late thirties. Something was welling up inside me. I knew I wanted to do something grandiose that鈥檇 never been done, and then I thought, 鈥楬ow can I get as far away from this circus as possible? Remote.鈥� And the word keep reverberating in my head over and over.鈥� He and Rebecca, as wildlife scientists and serial backpackers, decided they would stand at the most remote point in every state and document the wildest parts of our national wildernesses.

The first hurdle was to define remoteness. The Means decided fuel-burning vehicles and industry affect the environment and the subjective feeling of isolation more than hiking trails, so roads and towns would count against a point鈥檚 measure of remoteness, while footpaths wouldn鈥檛. 鈥淲e鈥檝e defined remoteness quantitatively so that we can make comparisons state by state,鈥� says Ryan, acknowledging that they might have missed out on a more remote-feeling spot in one state or another because they focused on roads and towns. 鈥淭here are so many ways remoteness can be defined,鈥� he says, 鈥渂ut they all have pitfalls and difficulties associated with them.鈥�

Rebecca, a pro with the graphical information system (GIS) satellite cartography tool, calculated the coordinates in each state farthest from roads and settlements. The Means began hiking to them and recording data, like whether the spot had cell service and visible human impacts. 鈥淲e鈥檝e been in lightning storms, snowstorms, hailstorms,鈥� Rebecca says. 鈥淓xtreme cold, extreme heat. We haven鈥檛 had a real vacation since 2009.鈥�

The Means began the project in Florida with high hopes. But things quickly went downhill.

Four miles from a road and just a few feet off a hiking trail, Ryan found Tennessee鈥檚 remote spot. In the couple鈥檚 journal, he wrote, 鈥淚 couldn't help but wonder if this place was truly remote, and whether the presence of an Appalachian Trail shelter should skew the remote spot calculation. As if that weren鈥檛 enough, two hikers emerged from the shelter to greet us. This made me feel queasy.鈥� Next was South Carolina. On a sandy barrier island in Cape Romain National Wildlife Refuge, a lighthouse blinked nearby. A lost flip-flop and abandoned oil containers rotted slowly in the sun. Ryan pulled out a phone and, to prove a point, made a call. Like most remote spots, South Carolina鈥檚 had cellphone coverage. 鈥淎fter those three states, we realized you can鈥檛 get very far away from people, their effects, their influences, their footprints,鈥� Ryan says.

Now, after 35 states, the Means' data seems to聽show聽that the wilderness is too built up to consider wilderness anymore. The remotest spot in America鈥檚 lower 48 is in Wyoming鈥檚 Yellowstone National Park, 21.5 miles from a road, a half-mile from a privately owned cabin, and a half-mile from a foot trail. 鈥淚t wasn鈥檛 a single event that solidified our disappointment,鈥� Ryan says. 鈥淚t was the gradual realization that nowhere in the United States, apart from Alaska, stood up to what most outdoor-loving people would accept as being truly remote. Of the 35 remote spots we鈥檝e stood at, we鈥檝e found signs of human presence at every single one. We calculate these remote locations and go to them, and then hear a motor in the distance or see a cabin a mile away.鈥� He says something that begins as a laugh and ends as a sigh, 鈥淔eeling remote isn鈥檛 actually being remote.鈥�

Funding Project Remote themselves, the Means expect to wrap up the last 15 states within two to three years. Early on, they hoped Project Remote would convince legislators to push through a law saying there鈥檇 be no net gain of roads in public lands鈥攂ut that prospect is increasingly looking like a pipe dream.

Those who head into the backcountry鈥攈unters, hikers, climbers, bikers, paddlers, and fishers鈥攄o so to feel remote, and a spreadsheet that says we鈥檙e not getting away as far as we think is sobering. 鈥淕o hiking in the wintertime if you want to feel remote,鈥� Rebecca says. 鈥淭here are still places, for sure, where you can go out and feel isolated, and seasonality has a huge impact on that.鈥� Alaska and Canada, Ryan adds, are two of the last places that qualify as truly remote without the need for any subjective justifying. But the two are disappointed at what their project has proved.

鈥淏eing an American is as much about the tenets of freedom as it is about wilderness,鈥� Ryan says. 鈥淚t feels like we鈥檙e not America anymore.鈥�

The post The 11-Year Quest to Find the Middle of Nowhere appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

This season, we found five ways to enjoy winter that are far more original鈥攁nd cheaper鈥攖han the traditional ski trip.

Ride the Rails in Alaska

In December, February, and March, the pushes through a column of snow-walled track for 350 miles on a 12-hour steam from Anchorage to Fairbanks, stopping in several small towns along the way. Open-air viewing platforms between cars give you a glimpse of frozen rivers, herds of wild caribou, and Denali鈥檚 20,310-foot peak. Catch the aurora borealis once you disembark in Fairbanks, and then fly home or take the return service back to Anchorage. Adult tickets from $58.

Descend the Snowy Grand Canyon

Crowds all but disappear in the winter in this national park, yet temperatures are still plenty moderate, usually rising to the 40s during the day. Roads and railroads for day-trippers and campground dwellers around the South Rim鈥檚 Bright Angel and South Kaibab trails. If you鈥檙e up for a multinight hike and feel confident in the backcountry, head for the trails on the canyon鈥檚 North Rim. Park entry fees from $15 per person.

Kayak Through Ice Caves

The only way to reach Alaska鈥檚 breathtaking Mendenhall ice caves is in a tandem kayak. On a day trip with , you鈥檒l paddle from the mainland to the shore of a 12-mile block of ice that slowly feeds the lake, and then swap your kayak for crampons to make the 45-minute ice climb to the entrance of the subterranean caves. Inside, frozen domed ceilings glow sky blue from sunlight refracting through the glacier roof, and gentle rapids flow over boulders on the floor. From $300 per person.

Dogsled Through New England

Passengers with 聽ride along for a one-, two-, or three-hour tour via snowmobile trails in the mountains of western Maine along a branch of the Appalachian Mountains. If you鈥檙e worried about the cold but still up for the adventure, you can tuck into a minus-40-degree-rated sleeping bag in a windproof shell atop the sled or ride behind聽with the guide. From $200 per two-person sled.

Tour Yellowstone on Snowmobile

On a day trip with , you鈥檒l join a guide down 45 miles of groomed trails on the way to Old Faithful. The geyser lives up to its name: You鈥檙e sure to see 100-foot plumes of boiling water every 44 to 125 minutes before you break for lunch. Along the way, you stand a good chance of coming upon herds of elk or bison or a solitary bear. From $325 per person.

The post The New Winter Bucket List appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

You probably don鈥檛 camp under a tarp. Modern tents have gotten so light, affordable, and easy to set up that they really are聽the best option for most of us. But there鈥檚 a contingent of聽experienced backpackers who prefer the old-school, military-style structures for their portability聽and versatility.

鈥淲e use them frequently in temperatures ranging from freezing to 100 degrees Fahrenheit,鈥� says Erika Halm, Washington program director for . 鈥淭hey are awesome for really hot nights because they provide excellent airflow compared to a tent or bivy sack. They can be used very successfully in snow, and if set up correctly, a tarp can keep you dry in even heavy rain.鈥� Plus, they’re ultra-light, with no poles, flies, zippers, or pouches.

Here鈥檚 the cool thing about these shelters:聽you probably have most of the necessary materials in your garage. You鈥檒l want a聽tarp, cords, stakes, a ground sheet, and netting. The whole setup costs about聽$35聽at Home Depot and pitches in four easy steps.

Select a Campsite

First: stay out of depressions. Finding ground that won鈥檛 collect rainwater is especially important in a shelter without an integrated floor. If you鈥檙e on a slope, pitch camp at the top. Nearby trees are useful to guy-out the tarp. If you can set up on flat land with trees three to six feet away from the edges of your tarp, you鈥檙e in good shape.

Blue polyethylene tarps, the kind you use as drop cloths when painting, are cheap and durable, but they are heavy and take up a fair bit of room in your pack. Halm uses silnylon, a lightweight but delicate material that packs down tightly. Northwest Outward Bound School uses urethane-coated nylon tarps, a middle聽ground between the two. They鈥檙e all fine choices.

One last thing that goes for every shelter in a wooded area:聽look for widow makers鈥揹ead branches that could fall without warning鈥攁nd pitch camp elsewhere if you see one.

Buy:聽An 8×10-foot tarp聽for a solo shelter;聽12×14 feet聽for four to five people. Blue poly tarp ($7)聽or 聽($85), depending on how much weight matters聽to you.

Set Up a Ridgeline

Trees are great for tying off a ridgeline to form the peak of your tarp. They鈥檙e free, and you don鈥檛 have to pack them. If you can鈥檛 count on finding trees every night, use a pair of trekking poles, boat paddles, or whatever else will reliably hold the weight of the tarp. Tie a trucker鈥檚 hitch or tautline hitch if tying to a tree聽or a clove hitch if tying to a pole or paddle. The hitch should be adjustable so you can tighten it after rain causes the shelter to sag.

鈥淲e鈥檝e found that using two [poles or paddles]聽on each end, to come together like a stretched-out X, provides more stability than just one,鈥� says Halm, but that isn鈥檛 very ultralight if you鈥檙e into minimalism. 鈥淎 higher tarp gets better airflow and is easier to get in and out of, but it does expose you to more weather. In high winds, set it a little lower. It鈥檚 nice to go about five feet off the ground聽if you can.鈥� Parting words of wisdom: 鈥淢ake the ridgeline a little higher than you want it to be, because when you tighten down the corners, it will pull down a little in the middle. And make it as tight as you can.鈥�

Buy: About 25 feet聽of 听($5)

Tie Down the Corners

Tie off a length of paracord聽at the grommet on each corner of the tarp. Working corner by corner, pull the paracord until that聽quarter of the tarp is taut, and then tie it to a tree, tent peg, or even a heavy rock using an adjustable hitch. You want the tarp to be taut when you鈥檙e finished. If it sags or wrinkles, tighten the ridgeline and corners.

Raise聽the corners to allow for better airflow, keep聽you cooler, and cut聽down on the bugs.聽Lowering the corners reduces聽your sleeping room but keeps you drier in a downpour. Condensation plagues any tarp, tent, or hammock in cold weather. Tarps, being open shelters, are less prone to condensation buildup, but it can still be a problem. Aligning the shelter鈥檚 ends to the wind and opening up the corners cuts down on condensation. You鈥檒l be colder, but it鈥檚 better to bring extra warm sleeping clothes and bedding than to suffer condensation and the resulting wet gear and body.

Buy: 听($6)

Make a Floor

鈥淔or ground sheets, we use simple black plastic that we buy in rolls,鈥� Halm says. You can also buy a sheet of , coated nylon, or another small tarp. Whatever you use, lay your sleeping pad perpendicular to the ridgeline if you鈥檙e sharing the shelter, or parallel and directly under the ridgeline if you鈥檙e sleeping solo.聽Make sure the ground sheet isn鈥檛 extending beyond the tarp above, or聽it鈥檒l funnel rain into the shelter.

鈥淚n really buggy periods, a tarp by itself can be pretty miserable,鈥� says Halm. If you鈥檙e buying a commercial tarp, choose one that has a corresponding bug net that fits to the tarp as a floor. If that鈥檚 not an option, Halm suggests sewing bug netting to the bottom of your tarp so it drapes onto the ground.

Buy:聽A 6×8-foot聽floor聽if your camping solo. 聽ground cloth听($17); 听($17)

The post Build an Ultralight Camping Shelter for $35 appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

Old-fashioned straight razor shaving is in a bind: business is too good. Straight razor sales are on the upswing globally, and the industry can barely keep up with demand.

鈥淸About ten years ago,] we were producing less than 8,000 straight razors per year,鈥� says Jens Zeitvogel of Dovo Solingen, which has been making straight razors for 110 years. 鈥淭he tradition of straight razor manufacturing had almost come to an end.鈥� Now, the brand has orders for 110,000 products. Lead time for production is three years long.

Dovo says the straight razor scene in the 2012 James Bond film Skyfall formed a crest of popularity that built into the wave of sustained overdemand that we鈥檙e still riding today. That increased demand led to a cottage industry of new bladesmiths, leather crafters, and potters. And why not? Straight razor shaving offers more control and a smoother shave than electrics, cartridge shavers, and safety razors, and it鈥檚 better for your skin. Plus, after a couple years of not having to buy cartridges and replace burnt-out electrics, you鈥檒l start saving money.

Here鈥檚 some of our favorite gear for new acolytes of straight razor shaving. This stuff is so good that you鈥檒l probably be able to pass it on to your grandkids.

The Razor

Spending upwards of $150 gets you a fancier design, maybe an exotic wood handle and gold-plated lettering, but it won鈥檛 shave any better than its cheaper competitors. Just buy from a bladesmith with a good reputation, such as Dovo or Thiers-Issard, and you鈥檙e golden. A razor that costs between $80 and $100 will be more than adequate.

The blade material does matter. Carbon-steel razors are cheaper and easier to resharpen than stainless. As long as you dry the blade and oil it like you should, you won鈥檛 need the rust resistance of stainless.

You鈥檒l want to sharpen the razor on your strop (more on this below) before or after every shave. Every two or three months, you should send it to a pro to be honed (hardcore resharpening) on a stone. Buy a spare razor before then to use while the first is out getting honed.

Good Buys

Dovo Best Quality

Thiers-Issard 1937 Special Coiffeur

Boker King Cutter

Strop

If you鈥檙e just getting started, go with an inexpensive $50 strop. Chances are you鈥檒l mangle it a few times as you learn how to use it, so start cheap and buy a better one once you stop knicking it. Strop your razor every time you shave.

Clip one end of the strop to a towel bar (or something equally sturdy) and hold the other end so the strop is taut. Lay the razor on its side so that it鈥檚 almost flat against the strop, tilting it slightly so the sharp edge is just barely kissing it. Don鈥檛 push the razor into the leather; let its weight hold it down as you drag the blade along the strop. The razor鈥檚 blunt side should be moving forward, with the sharp edge dragging behind. If you do it the other way, you鈥檒l skin your strop. When you get to the end of the strop, flip the razor over and drag it in the other direction. Do this 30 times, for a total of 60 passes.

Good Buys

Tony Miller Fast Bridle Leather Strop

Straight Razor Designs Red Latigo

Bowl

Demote your non-shaving-specific bowl to holding soup. You鈥檒l want a bowl with ridges on the inside walls to build lather. Better yet, buy a scuttle鈥攁 fancy shaving bowl within a bowl. Through a hole, you fill the space between the two bowls with near-boiling water, which warms the soap lather in the smaller vessel. The warmth makes for a closer, smoother shave.

Good Buy

Georgetown Pottery G12

Brush

There are four grades of badger-fur brushes: Pure, Best, Super, and Silvertip, ranked in ascending order. The better the grade, the more bristles and stiffness. The best brushes build and hold more lather in your bowl and feel damn nice against your skin. But they鈥檙e also expensive, coming in at $100 and up. We recommend spending around $50 for a Best, in the middle of this range, because it鈥檚 a significant step up from Pure without a significant cost.

If you鈥檙e not into fur, consider a synthetic brush. They鈥檝e gotten a lot better in the past five years, and a few now offer Super performance at Best prices. There are also boar-bristle brushes, but they don鈥檛 hold water as well. They鈥檙e an acquired taste that some people never acquire, so ease into wet shaving with badger fur or synthetic.

Good Buys

M眉hle Synthetic Silvertip

Edwin Jagger Best Badger

Stand

Use a brush stand. Water won鈥檛 drain out of the brush properly unless it hangs after each shave. If your brush is聽resting on its side all day, the bristles will deform at the handle, which means it won鈥檛 last as long and will start to stink. These things cost from $5 to $15, so no excuses.

Good Buy

Omega Chrome Shaving Brush聽Stand (Make sure the opening fits your brush.)

Suds

Canned shaving creams like Barbasol use all kinds of weird science-fiction ingredients with 40-syllable names. Avoid them. You can buy bowl聽or tube聽shaving cream at a shaving-specific shop, or you can go with shave soap.

Soap takes more effort to work into a lather, but it smells subtler than the potent creams and moisturizes better. Old-school straight razor shavers tend toward soap. Glycerine-based soap is okay, but tallow-based is better.

Good Buys

Mitchell鈥檚 Wool Fat Shaving Soap

D.R. Harris Almond Shave Soap

Taylor of Old Bond Street Shaving Cream

Trimmer

If you keep a beard, you鈥檒l need a trimmer. Straight razors are much easier than safety razors for trimming up those edges so they鈥檙e baby-butt smooth, but you鈥檒l need an electric to maintain the length. And if you have to go electric, you might as well get a high-quality model like the one below; it鈥檒l last two decades.

Good Buy

Andis Master Hair Clipper

Oh, and a Few More Things鈥�

When you鈥檙e done shaving, spread a few drops of oil along your razor blade to prevent rust. You can also store the razor in a silicone-impregnated cloth sleeve for rust resistance.

Diamond paste and diamond spray are exactly what they sound like鈥攕tuff with diamond grit in them. Once you work up to a nicer strop, take your old one and work some paste or spray into it. It鈥檚 permanent, so this will no longer be your daily strop, but a backup that you break out when you feel the razor catching on your scruff and regular stropping doesn鈥檛 help. You鈥檒l be able to go a little longer between honings.

Before shaving, soak a face towel with hot water and hold it to your face. Remember, warmth stands up whiskers.

Required Buy

Straight razor oil

Good Buys

Silicone anti-rust sleeves

Diamond spray

Instructional DVD

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Backpackers know it as the kitty can stove, and Appalachian thru-hikers swear by it. Jim Wood posted the original design (he called it the Super Cat) online in 2005, and, at $10, it's still the best-value, best-designed alcohol stove around. It weighs just four ounces (including the stove, windscreen, and pot), everything stores inside the cooking vessel, and it doesn't need a separate pot stand. It burns denatured alcohol, a cheap, common backcountry fuel well suited to three-season hikes of less than two weeks. Here鈥檚 how to build Wood's original design at home.聽

Build It聽

Buy a three-ounce can of cat food (think Fancy Feast or Friskies). Give the food to a cat you like or a person you don't. Remove the lid and round off the sharp lip by folding it over with a pair of pliers.

Use a handheld hole puncher to cut a row of holes around the top of the can. The holes should be about an eighth of an inch apart.

Punch a second row of equally spaced holes under the first, but offset them so that the centers of these holes sit under the first row's gaps. (SuperCatStove.com that you can tape to your can if you're uncomfortable eye-balling it.)聽

Next, build the windscreen. Because we're going light and cheap, your screen will be made from aluminum foil. Serial solo trekker Andrew Skurka recommends cutting a sheet three inches longer than your pot's circumference. Fold it in half, then fold down the edges, making sure to smooth out the air between layers.

After the stove is built, buy an aluminum pot with a lid, such as the ($8). Toss the strainer.

Use It

Place the windscreen around the pot. Leave a half-inch gap between the two, and let the ends of the screen overlap. Pour two tablespoons (one fluid ounce) of denatured alcohol fuel into the stove, and light it with a match or lighter.聽

You can't stop or adjust the stove once it's lit: you can only let it burn out, so don't add too much fuel. Wait 30 seconds to allow it to warm up before placing the pot on the stove. Now, start cooking.聽

One Note of Caution

Make sure you're using denatured alcohol and not rubbing alcohol or any other kind of fuel. Catching on fire and dying in the woods doesn鈥檛 mesh with Leave No Trace rules.

The post The World鈥檚 Best Backpacking Stove Costs $10 appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

The United Arab Emirates is one of the world鈥檚 biggest per-capita water consumers, guzzling almost 150 gallons per person per day. It鈥檚 also聽one of the聽driest countries: it聽hardly rains聽from March to December, and yearly rainfall averages around聽four inches. Natural mountains along the sparsely settled northwestern border attract some of that precipitation, but the big cities, including聽Abu Dhabi, Dubai, and Sharjah,聽are far away in the flat desert plains.

One possible solution to arid urban centers: bring the mountains to the cities.聽In cooperation with the UAE鈥檚 National Center of Meteorology and聽Seismology (NCMS), the U.S.-based National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) is working on聽a plan to build聽an artificial mountain near the main urban areas.聽The idea is that the peak would聽trap moisture and cause rain to聽fall聽over the desert.

It鈥檚 true that mountains cause rain to fall.聽Air blown聽onto a mountain鈥檚聽windward side must聽either rise over it or go around. Rising cools the air, which suddenly can鈥檛 hold as much moisture as聽it could when it was warm. If the forced ascent over the mountain is strong enough, the now-saturated air releases cloud droplets聽and potentially rain. Whether it rains at all and how much depends on several variables, including the amount of moisture in the cloud and聽the presence of pollutants. That鈥檚 the tricky聽formula NCAR and NCMS have to figure out. The organizations聽say it will take until at least the聽summer to determine the mountain鈥檚 size and location.聽

鈥淭he question of scale is crucial,鈥� says Bob Henson, a meteorologist at聽. Before joining WU, he worked at NCAR for 25 years. 鈥淚t鈥檚 hard to [discuss whether it鈥檚 feasible]聽without knowing the size of what they are considering. We don鈥檛 know how much rain they鈥檙e trying to produce, where they want the rain to fall, etc. [But]聽decades of research has shown that large cities can enhance rainfall in their vicinity聽and sometimes downwind. In the latter case, the air forced to flow around downtown skyscrapers converges downstream and enhances upward motion there.鈥� The UAE wants to create聽the same effect, only by piling earth, not metal.聽

聽says it'll be a man-made mountain鈥攕ingular鈥攂ut Henson says they鈥檇聽have better luck coaxing rain by building a few mountains together. 鈥淥ne important variable is whether the UAE and NCAR are envisioning a single peak or more of a ridge聽or row of mountains. All else being equal, the latter should be more effective at forcing rain, because it would be harder for the air to flow around a ridge versus a single peak,鈥� he says.

鈥淲eather modification is chock-full of concerns about liability,鈥� Henson adds. 鈥淚t can be extremely difficult to sort out what part of a given weather event was caused by each of the many factors involved. Also, real-life mountains tend to induce turbulence, so depending on the proposed height of the artificial mountain, you would want to consider possible effects on aviation.鈥�

Of course, it鈥檒l also be damn expensive, although the exact amount is still unknown. According to聽Arabian Business,聽the NCAR and NCMS will release their report this summer. If they get the green聽light, they鈥檒l start聽planning the build.

The post We Asked a Meteorologist About the UAE’s Plan to Bring Rain with a Fake Mountain appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.