Cottage News for 2013
Posted on 06 Februar 2013
The big Outdoor Shows are at the moment where all bis companies present their highlights. And who presents the small cottages which delight us with superb new equipment every year?? After a succesful article from Hendrik in 2011 and a successful article from me in 2012 we both decided to present the news from all these fantastic cottages for 2013 together. So we contacted lots of cottages and asked for their news for this year’s hiking year.
Flat Cat Gear
Flat Cat Gear is the company if you wanna make delicious muffins or other interesting things on tour. They got lots of feedback from their customers in the last time and could improve the fantastic cooking system. One new hightlight is the Epicurean Titanium UL15. It is an ultralight version of the Epicurean titanium and should be released in late February.
Not really for backpacking, but also interesting is the Emergency Kitchen Kit. It is a remote fueling systrem to convert either the Lynx 2.5 or ISO-Clean 2.5 stove to an emergency kitchen (hurricane, earthquake, disaster recovery). The kit will allow you to refuel your stove remotely from large reservoirs (500 ml to 5000 ml and above). Hope you never get into such emergency case!!!
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Enlightened Equipment
Bushbuddy
Fritz from Bushbuddy is still busy. He is still working on the titanium Bushbuddy design and working with titanium is not very easy, so this stove will not be available any time soon.
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Aarn Designs
Aarn Designs promises that 2013 will be a good year. The focus for this year is on small and detailed refinements of the existing packs. Some other innovative and light trekking and travel packs which are in work should be mentioned, but they are in a pre prototyping stage. But finally I can announce that Aarn wanna offer the packs in Cuben Fiber on a custom order basis in summer.
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Six Moon Designs
The fantastic Skyscape X Cuben Fiber tent is back in the Six Moon Designs store. It weighs only 15oz and orders can be placed now.

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Terra Rosa Gear
Evan from Terra Rosa Gear will also have an interesting year. He is on some cool trips and adventures around the globe. Terra Rosa Gear will continue to tick along as usual during that time and there will be no new things in the first half of the year. If he finds some free time in the second half of the year he will add gaiters to the line up and a new tarp size that has been very popular in the custom work
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Katabatic Gear
Katabatic Gearhas a big range of fantastic quilts for every temperature and an excellent strap system to fix the quilt next to your sleeping mat. So why should they change something. The only thing which is to be mentioned is that they offer an 850 cuin waterproof down for their quilts.
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Gossamer Gear
Until now I got no response from Gossamer Gear but during the last days the released the Air Beam Pack Frame on their website. This is an removable, adjustable, inflatable pack frame that will fit in any Gossamer gear pack. This light frame can also be used as sit pad or deflated and rolled as a pillow. It is availavle in size S/M/L and weighs together with the pump and repair kit 101/108/117g. The pad size corresponds with the size of your pack.
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Locus Gear
Further more he has a new prototype of a shelter which will be released during the first half of the year. This shelter is in the prototyping stage at the moment and there are no detailed specifications available.
Finally for all those wo have waited such a long time for the new Locus Gear CP2 trekking poles with FlipLock. These poles will be available soon.
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Goose Feet Gear
Ben from Goose Feet is still running his cottage with superb down accessoires. This time there are also no new things at the shop, but if you have a nice project in your mind he will also make custom solutions with the finest fabrics.
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Alpacka Raft
At the beginning of the Year Alpacka Raft presented us the Cargo Fly system. This is an airtight, waterproof zipper system in the stern of the boat. With this system you can now store your gear inside the tubes instead at the front of the boat and have a better balance when paddling. Fore more information check their website. Retrofits on old boats with the ‚big butt‘ stern are also possible.
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Not really a own cottage, but Anfibio is the home brand of the Packrafting Store in Germany. Last year they released a this home brand. For this year they have some new things in the line whgich I will mention, when the time comes. The Packrafting Store will also offer the Cargo Fly for Europe.
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That’s all for the moment. If you are now missing Hyperlite Mountain Gear, MLD, LAUFBURSCHE and many others please switch to Hendrik from Hiking in Finland to see what all these other cottages have planned. As mentioned already by Hendrik the Trekking-Lite-Store is the source in Europe for all this excellent light gear and the birds chirping that he is getting some fantastic titanium gear from Evernew in stock.
If you have a cottage which is not mentioned in this article or should be announced in future articles, please feel free and contact me.
13 responses to Cottage News for 2013
I am currently looking for a bivy. I guess the event bivy offered at some point by Locus Gear should be a better option rather than a bivy made out of Tyvek. What’s your thought?
Tyvek is the most breathable material, though eVent is a lot more waterproof. One would really only need an eVent bivy when the bivy is the only „shelter“ one is using – if you’re under tarp oder Mid then a bivy from Tyvek is enough, as it protects your quilt from wind driven snow or rain and condensation =)
In deed Tyvek is more breathable than eVent, but I would use such an eVent bivy forwet winter trips or only for overnighter without a tent
I’d be curious to see each material side by side in a rain/wind storm. My gut tells me Tyvek is the winner, but everything I hear is eVent. Someone should set that up 🙂
I will try and see what I can do!
Why is no one else making an event bivy? Isn’t event supposed to be one of top fabrics out there right now for this this purpose?
MLD makes an event bivy, though it’s sold out atm. Also Integral Designs makes one.
Some interesting kit. Some firms here now outsource and therefore its debatable they are Cottage anymore. Nice to see this year you’re not accused of copying others ideas posting this.
Locus Gear are getting a good name for high quality kit. Like to see more reviews on their shelters.
A review of my Khufu is planned when the winter is over. Think Hendrik plans one in the next weeks. He mentioned something in his last newsletter
It was a misunderstanding between Hendrik and me last year and everything was clarified after that: I’m happy that we work together this year because it is a lot of hard work.
FYI, According to the result of test at the authorised laboratory, the eVent I’ve been using for the shelter and bivy is much more breathable than Tyvek.
That sounds interesting. Should be an exellent eVent fabric.
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