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Outdoor upgrade

Camping gear has evolved

Kathleen Lippa
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Apr 07/03) - The gap is widening between the "new school" and "old school" in camping and outdoor gear.

Sure, you can still rough it in the bush if you want. But Northern gear experts are strongly encouraging outdoor enthusiasts to find out what the new school has to offer.

High-tech insulation for sleeping bags, gourmet cooking stoves, cutting-edge water filtration systems, and more comfortable backpacks are part of the new school of camping gear.

The Synthesis sleeping bag for women by Sierra Designs ($450) is one example of new school camping gear. Shorter in length, wider in the shoulders with extra insulation for the feet, the Synthesis is trying to go where no sleeping bag has gone before.

Doug Coulter, customer service representative at Overlander Sports, says sleeping bags haven't changed all that much, "But insulation has."

The Solar Flare Endurance sleeping bag by The North Face ($650) is good to -29 C, and is insulated with top quality goose down.

The bag's material is made of Pertex "Endurance" -- a highly water resistant, windproof material shown to be more breathable than Gore-Tex. The bag also carries a lifetime warranty.

The outdoor gourmet

But you can't last long in the wild without good meals. And the new school has plenty of new stoves that allow campers to eat like kings.

The Outback Oven by Coleman ($145) is a non-stick model with a temperature gauge on top "if you want to eat gourmet out in the wild," said Coulter.

There is pre-packaged food designed specifically for the oven, including fudge brownies, banana nutbread, Dutch apple pie, and pizza.

The Hanging Stove ($160), for use inside your tent when the weather is too foul to cook in, is a delicate-looking alternative to the typical outdoor stove.

It requires no matches and is quick and easy to light.

Just when you thought you'd seen it all when it comes to cooking stoves, along comes The Hiker by Optimum ($239), a stove that burns everything -- kerosene/paraffin, white gasoline/petrol, diesel oil, methylated alcohol, spirits and Coleman fuel.

At Wolverine Sports Shop, manager Dale Johnston recently showed off the multi-fuel, multi-season stove used for high-altitude treks and Arctic expeditions.

Its "burning time" lasts up to two hours. One filling is 0.35 litres or 12 ounces.

The Optimus Brunton Nova costs $219 and is a more compact version of The Hiker.

Food itself has come a long way.

Just-add-water meals such as black bean tamale pie, and chili come pre-packaged and can be eaten right out of their bags.

Water cooler in the woods

When it comes to water purification systems, the old school way was to use iodine tablets.

Tablets aren't cool any more.

There are much more sophisticated and dependable water treatment systems, like Pur-Hiker ($100), a water bottle and filter all in one.

For North American travels, this small, compact system is good enough. But it doesn't kill viruses.

For Third World travels the Exstream Mackenzie Water Purifier ($81) is a better bet as it filters the water and kills viruses.

Every adventurer needs power, especially if they are doing work out in the field.

Well, now a power source is closer and easier to use than ever.

The Brunton Solarport 2.2 portable power source ($129) converts solar energy into 2.2 watts of electricity and will charge cell phones, laptop computers, GPS units, portable MP3/CD players all with the harnessed power of the sun.

And where is the adventurer going to pack all their gear? Backpacks are more high tech than ever. The North Face has done away with the old school aluminum stays -- those bars that hold a backpack firmly in place -- and created stays made of carbon fibre.

Carbon fibre stays are lighter and stronger than aluminum, and are embedded in the pack to make an X across your back.

The North Face backpack ($400) even comes especially designed for women, so the shoulder pad area is more shapely and the belt that wraps around the hips is wider and more comfortable.