12 December 2013

Time for repair yet again

Don't combine tents and crampons. I once did! Bad idea. I was on my way to a glacier course; we had to scramble up a ~500m scree slope to get there. And backpacks are overloaded and heavy when you have to bring full camping kit, full glacier kit and food for the better part of a week. How exactly it went wrong I don't remember, but I ended up with a crampon tied to someone's bag ripping through the bag of my tent, which was tied to my bag. Thank heavens it only went through the bag! It could have been the tent itself. It wasn't, and I had a great time up there at the glacier.

Over 4 years later I went on a hike with my Dutch friends, on the North York Moors. That tear was still in my tent bag! And that time I did something unfortunate; I made things worse. Instead of just a linear tear I now had a T-shaped one. Not good. Time to snap into action! What to repair it with? It needs to be strong, light material that doesn't absorb too much water. Hmm!


Then I had an idea. My sleeping bag liner was damaged too! Due to some excessive tugging when trying to get comfortable. It's made of silk! That should do. I cut off the sliver that had been half-separated, ironed it and used it as a patch. That liner will still be big enough with that bit missing! The patch was even big enough to also repair another tear in the sleeping bag liner. And it was a bit tedious to sew the patches into position, but hey, it's done now, and repairs are highly gratifying. At least for me! Hence, perhaps, the high number of repair posts (like this one and this and this and this) on this blog...



Not sure when I'll need my tent again. But I'll make sure to enjoy its intact bag!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Well, Murphy is all over the place....;)