Pack and Roll

This is an old trick that has been around for a while. It is pretty simple—just roll your clothes instead of folding them and you can fit more into your suitcase. It’s a pretty neat trick. Your clothes will wrinkle less and somehow your suitcase gets more organized. On my most recent trip I tried the conventional square fold on the way to my destination, then rolled my clothes on the way back. I could not believe the difference it made.

Give it a try, I think you will like it!

A Great Tank Top

A few months ago I bought a Prana tank for travel, climbing, etc. I love tanks that can double as something that looks decent for walking around town and something comfortable for athletic things. I have to say, so far I’m a huge fan. The shirt is a neutral color so it goes with a lot of things I have. I was super excited when I found a tank that didn’t have ridiculous flowers all over it. Plus, it fits really well. The only downside is that the fabric seems to pill easily and the shirt at full retail is fairly pricey, but still a very comfortable shirt. 

Flying North

In order to get to some of the smaller towns up in northern Norway during the winter you have to take a tiny propeller plane. Of course, what makes this even more fun is that the weather is usually windy and fowl during the winter. The first time taking this little plane was not so bad. The views were spectacular. Even as the sun disappeared over the southern horizon, tiny houses built into the mountain walls of islands still stood out in the shadowy blue dusky light. Although my first flight involved some slight crosswind landings, I still found the experience quite charming and exciting. However, my second time turned my stomach a bit more. 

I recall getting on the tiny little propeller plane and being blown about by wind on the walk over to the plane. The flight was delayed for some reason that involved the plane being checked by technicians. I was given a 30 second translation by another passenger because all of the announcements were in Norwegian, so I didn’t have a great idea of what was going on. All I knew was that technicians had checked the plane out and we were ready to fly. Everyone boarded the plane, and after a very turbulent takeoff, we had embarked on our short 45 minute journey.

Things were going smoothly, and after about 15 minutes in we got a very long announcement from the pilot. Since it was all in Norwegian, I had no idea what was said. It’s not that no one speaks English, but more that they might assume no tourists would hop on a tiny plane up to northern Norway above the Arctic Circle during the winter months. I flipped open a magazine and started reading the Norwegian words as if that would somehow help me to understand the announcement that had just been made. The pilot came on the microphone again and continued with the announcements. Another passenger told me, “Its windy where we are landing. We are going to try and land at our destination, but if it is too windy we’re going to land in a town that is a bit south. Then the airline will pay for a taxi ride to the final destination.” I nodded. I really hoped we wouldn’t have to take the taxi. There is no direct route, and the drive would add several hours onto an already long day with four flights.

I continued flipping through the magazine. Another announcement came on. It must have been about our descent because the plane started heading down and the turbulence started. This was not like the little bumps in the United States flights where the grouchy flight attendants yell at you to buckle your seat belts. This was quite a bit more intense and it was picking up. I looked in the seat pocket to make sure there was a vomit bag. Check. Then I gazed around the plane to see what other people thought. Many of the passengers were laughing and making woo sounds every time we hit a rougher patch.  “Are these people crazy?” I thought as the plane continued bumping as if it were an old rickety roller coaster. The other passengers must be used to this kind of flight. The pilot made yet another announcement. We flew over the island and out towards the sea. I asked another passenger if we were flying to the other town.

“No, the pilot is just trying to land against the wind.”

I looked down at the ocean and its crashing waves getting closer to us. That long taxi ride didn’t sound like such a bad thing at this point. The plane made a sudden sharp turn toward the island while still losing altitude. The engineer in me told me I would be fine, but my creative side kept thinking back to all those times I had thrown balsa wood airplanes into the wind, and the horrible things that happened to those little planes.

The water got closer. The turbulence got worse. Finally the plane completed its turn and started heading back towards the island against the heavy winds for a turbulence grand finale. We landed and I sat, dumbfounded, as the plane swayed slightly in the wind while stopped on the runway.

Travelling With Carry-Ons

There is more than one reason to travel without checking bags- it costs less, you don’t have to worry about lost baggage, and it is faster to check in. For many of my travels I like to do carry-ons only. My most recent trip involved 12 different flights with 5 different airlines in all, some of which had incredibly short connections, so the carry-ons only rule was pretty much a must. However, travelling with all carry-ons can prove to be somewhat difficult, especially when travelling for long periods of time and need to bring gear for cold weather in addition to research materials such as hard drives and a computer. I think I am starting to get a method down though.

Backpacks are usually too large to fit into the overhead compartment, but if you put many of your belongings under the seat in front if you, you can shrink the backpack small enough to fit into the overhead. There are some pretty impressive fold-up bags out there that can be stowed under the seat. Recently I’ve been a fan of the Packable Tote by Eagle Creek. It is big enough to fit a laptop, a book, and several other items. I love the fact that it has a zipper pocket in the front and a zipper on top so your stuff doesn’t fall out. The only downside is that the bag is kind of big compared to me. I tried to use it for carrying around a camera and bottle of water while going out for a day and leaving my stuff at the hotel. I looked pretty ridiculous given that the bag is probably the size of my upper body. Then again, the size is why I bought it, and I have no problem fitting all my extras in it.

As far as backpacks go, I have been using the Deuter FuturaPro 34 for women. I have to say that pack is incredibly comfortable to wear. Also, when the pack was mostly full, I never had any issues fitting it into a normal sized overhead compartment. I was even able to fit my winter gear for going up north to do research. Fitting in fleece pants, yaktrax, gaiters, and the works in addition to all of my other things was not a problem. I think it is a pretty decent travel pack overall.

One thing that I might try in the future is to use a slightly larger pack. When I had some time to kill in a town before checking into my hotel, I tried to squeeze everything extra I had in the tote into the pack, and everything didn’t quite fit (I think I had my camera, a book, a pair of pants and a hard drive that were left in the tote that I was carrying around). So, I may try this with a slightly larger pack in the future. Otherwise, the times that I have done this on overseas flights, I have been pretty happy.

Oh Useful Clothing, How I would Love to Find You

After leaving yet another gear store disgruntled, I finally decided to start this blog. I can’t complain too much as I know the generation of women before me had it a lot worse. There have been some great improvements in women’s gear over the years.

I wanted to provide a place to incite discussion among adventurous women about topics ranging from travelling as a female, doing crazy outdoor things, and getting the best gear to go along with these adventures. Also, I just wanted a place talk about my own experiences, vent my own frustrations, and rave about the good things out there for women.

I’m a woman who loves the outdoors. While I am by no means an expert at anything, I am willing to try many things and have improved some of my technical skills over the years. Also, I travel alone to foreign countries quite frequently. Both of these things make useful gear something I desire and look for. So, on many trips to outdoor stores this summer, I have become disappointed when the women’s options were just not matching up to the men’s practical clothing. Since when did organic cotton with flowers on it compare to a nice form fitting synthetic button up with zipper pockets? GAH! I am all for fashionable clothing, but have these companies considered that you can make clothing items fashionable AND functional? Every now and then I find a hybrid of sorts, but it never quite matches all of the characteristics of the men’s clothing.

Here are a few things that I look for in travel/outdoor clothes:

Quick drying material

This is practical on both the travelling and outdoor fronts. When travelling I often wash my clothes in a sink, so it is great when they can get dry overnight. Sorry, organic cotton doesn’t do this. The fact that the cotton is organic does not make it dry quicker than regular cotton. Secondly, these quick dry materials are great for backpacking and hiking and climbing. I love material that dries quickly after sweating or stomping through a stream. Seriously, it’s great.

Pockets

I just wanna store my crap some place. Guess what, I am not going to carry a purse while going on a hike. Wait, I don’t want to carry a purse in general. What a retarded concept. Plus, when I am travelling around a foreign town, or running from plane to plane, carrying a purse just seems like it would be easy to lose. I want to keep my passport in a zipper pocket close to me. Money belts just don’t cut it. They look kind of silly and are a big burden. Plus, money belts can be easily snapped right off of you. In later posts I will talk about some of my personal ways to ward of pickpocketing along with ways around carrying a purse (which can easily be lifted from a table or snatched from your shoulders as I saw happen to another women right across a street from me). Ultimately, though, I still struggle to find fashionable women’s travel clothing with pockets.

Pockets while running are nice too. During longer runs it’s nice to stick GU’s somewhere. Also I like to bring along a few bucks and my bus pass when I go out on really long runs. It would be crazy awesome to have a little pocket in running shorts for this.

Durability

I wear the hell out of my clothes, so it is nice to buy something I know I can depend on. I seem to have problems with seams busting out in pants and zippers going bad. While I realize some stores have a lifetime guarantee, it doesn’t help me when I am on the road and only have two pairs of pants. Really, I just want something reliable.

Fit

Comfort and fit are pretty important to me when doing athletic activities. I like to be able to move around and not feel constrained, but at the same time I don’t need to look like a frumpy sack of potatoes. Unfortunately since I have a petite build, I usually end up looking like a sack of potatoes. I use belts with my ski pants, and I am constantly pulling up my travel pants. I think it would be okay to add a little bit of shape to women’s clothing. We do have hips, and our legs have shape as well. It might be beneficial to fit clothing a bit more to women’s builds. I am not asking for skin-tight skinny jeans, but I don’t need to be wearing something that resembles a potato sack.

Fashion

Personally, I am not way into fashion. However, I enjoy looking nice. By nice, I mean not wearing a blue synthetic shirt with pink flower patterns all over it with potato sack pants. Seriously. I searched for ages for a nice base layer synthetic tank with a built in bra that I could throw on for travel or for hiking, and all I could find was crap with flowers on it. Do the companies who make these shirts really think I want to travel around the world wearing a shirt a seven year old might choose? What’s even worse is the quality of many of the tanks was quite poor given the cost. Why is it so hard to find a women’s travel tank top that looks even slightly mature or classy? I do not need to assert my femininity with a giant flower on my boob thank you very much.

Why is it that my boyfriend gets to choose from the classy chocolate brown slacks with zipper pockets and a sleek form fitting blue button up with a hidden passport pocket and I get to choose between potato sack slacks, a travel dress with a single zipper pocket that is long enough for an ultra religious group, a cotton dress with some pockets, or a synthetic skirt with no pockets. Can the designers do any better than that? There have got to be some better options here.

I am on the lookout, and I plan to give praise to the companies that are doing it right.