Dear Santa,

what a day, or night actually. I was out on my own, and found this beautiful camping spot at the beach, a great view over the lake, let me tell you. The inherent problems of beaches is that they're made of sand, and my Ti Shepard 1 g pegs weren't up to the task of securing my tarp. I needed to run around to search some rocks and sticks to be able to tie-out my tarp, and even fill some of my stuff sacks with sand. After an hour or so I finally had a halfway decent pitch, and set out to enjoy the sunset. During the night I was woken up by my tarp flapping around and the guylines whipping my face - a storm had come up, and my improvised stakes weren't up to the task. In the rain and wind I needed to retire to the forest, where my 1 g stakes were able to do the job, with the help of some rocks on top of them. Back at home I found out I should have got myself a pair of Toughstakes - those are especially made for sand & snow camping, and would have allowed me to sleep soundly through the night. As I plan to return to that beach, and also go snow camping a few times in the coming winter, it would be kind of you to drop a pair of Small Toughstakes into my stockings when you stop by. I will leave you a photo of my perfect pitch at the beach then next year!

Best,


- An aspiring UL-Backpacker



Leave a comment with a photo of your shelter pitched on sand or snow, and tell a story of how you pegged out the shelter.

UPDATE I

Thanks everyone, some sweet shelter peg-out solutions there =) And the winner is... Yaroslav Istomin - Congratulations! Please contact me via Email, you got till tomorrow 15 o'clock to get in touch otherwise it goes to the second in line! Thanks everyone else, see you tomorrow at 6 AM!

Disclaimer & Rules

Dear Santa,

all my friends talk about bivys and quilt covers lately, though I'm not sure yet if I'm open-minded enough to try sleeping under the stars - and a good bivy also costs a little fortune, something I don't want to expect from you in these hard economic times. However, my diligent research has shown that Terra Rosa Gear make a rather good and affordable quilt/ sleeping bag cover from tyvek - a material which the highly enlightened folks rate very high. If I would get this one, I will go out and sleep under the night sky; and also will be able to keep up in the conversations with my hiking buddies (Now I'm just sitting there silently zipping from my Platypus when the talk turns to sleeping without shelter).

Best,


- An aspiring UL Backpacker



Leave a comment with a photo of your sleeping setup (so quilt/ sleeping bag + pad/ inflatable mat + whatever else you have) and tell us where you wanna use the Terra Rosa Gear Quilt Cover.

UPDATE I

Thanks everyone, some sweet setups and trip plans there. And the winner is... Willem Vandoorne - Congratulations! Please contact me via Email, you got till tomorrow 15 o'clock to get in touch otherwise it goes to the second in line! Thanks everyone else, see you tomorrow at 6 AM!


Disclaimer & Rules

Dear Santa,

this cold and wet weather is nasty, let me tell you - I'd love for it to be a real winter already, with snow and such. In this wet weather it is mighty hard to keep my smartphone dry, let alone taking it out in the rain to write a text to my mate to ask him if he'd fancy a pint - I'm pretty much gave up on on alcohol because of that. Well, with a SealLine iSeries case for my phone, that would no longer need to be the case. I could text, tweet and call in a deluge, and would no longer need to worry that I break my smartphone. And if I pick up packrafting in the future, it also would come in handy - there's water everywhere. Anyway, I'd highly appreciate if you'd bring me one this year - see it as an investment, cuz if you don't, next year a new smartphone will be on my wishlist; and we both know that those aren't cheap!

Best,


- An aspiring UL Backpacker



Leave a comment with the brand of phone you want to put in there. It fits other phones than iPhones, although if they're massive the case will be too small.

UPDATE I

And the winner is... Mikael Leppä - Congratulations! Please contact me via Email, you got till tomorrow 15 o'clock to get in touch otherwise it goes to the second in line! Thanks everyone else, see you tomorrow at 6 AM!

Disclaimer & Rules