Haglofs Matrix 60

It's been a while since I've been wild camping so there was much faffing about with gear and I hoped that I'd chucked everything into the crate before we headed north.

It was the first outing for the Haglofs Matrix 60. I'd bought it for winter backpacking but needed to test run it. I'd pondered long and hard before buying this pack. At 1650g its not the lightest one around nor the heaviest. The features that sold it to me were the twin compartment for separating the gear, the quality of the build and the way it carried and that was before I took it out to play. Yes there are a couple of features that I would have preferred, like hip fin pockets and slightly deeper wand pockets but these ended up not being an issue in the end. 

Onto how it performed. Packing it was actually a pleasure as you could easily stash in the lower compartment practically all the camp stuff. The only thing I couldn't squish in was the Jetboil. It has a rather nifty internal compression set up too as well as the internal divider that can be removed. That left loads of space in the main compartment for the warm clothes and grub which was able to be well compressed too with its side and top compression straps. The closure on the main compartment is nice and bombproof too. The floating lid is easy enough to shoogle about to where you want it. It's got an internal zipped pocket as well as the cavernous top pocket. I "pimped the pack" by adding some Radlight Endurance Pouches which worked a treat.

All packed & ready to go

Next, the carry. The shoulder straps and hip fins are nicely padded as well being very easy to adjust. Back length for me was perfect so no need to adjust anything. First impressions when you put it on fully loaded (approx 11kg) is nice and comfy and you're not conscious of any significant weight. That feeling continued as we trundled along for the 6km and 400m of ascent to the camp spot. Result. I didn't take it up with us for our summit trip the next morning but going with how it carried on the way in I would have been happy to take this over more rugged terrain than the path out from Mamore Lodge to Sgurr Eildhe Mor. The journey back was also a pleasure. Definitely a very nice carry.

All in all I was impressed with the Matrix 60. It's going to do what I need it to do. It's made of pretty rugged material and the quality of build is good so should last a long time. Let's hope I get enough opportunities to use it.

10/10/10 10:10am 1010m

As far as whacky ideas go this is a fairly tame one but Kate and I liked the idea of being on a 1010m hill at 10:10am on 10/10/10. This had come about after we realised that we'd missed out with Stob Ban 999m as we'd done it on the 5th of September 09 instead of waiting to the 9th So the search was on for a 1010m hill. There are 4 in Scotland and the list was wittled down on the merits of location and ability to wildcamp. Kate had to be back in Cardiff on the Monday so Sgurr Eildhe Mor was the hill that ticked all the boxes.

So here we were over a year later and a few others were interested in this quirky outing, queue Zoe, Maria, Ben and David. By this time Kate and I were both on the injury list so we were taking the leisurely approach while the others were on a bagging mission. After a spot of lunch in The Ice Factor we parked up at Mamore Lodge with blue sky above. We were pleasantly surprised to spot a rather big bird circling above. Not being a twitcher or able to get the best picture we still have no idea what it is. Anyone any suggestions?

 

While we were getting ready to leave I filled Kate in on my little plan for Mamore Lodge should I win the Lottery. It is such a magnificent place and it's a real shame that it's not being used at the moment. Now when I win  the lottery................................

As we headed up the track there was a very obvious north south divide with the weather. Glencoe was shrouded in haze and low cloud while ahead of us we had blue sky. In the sun it was very pleasant but the wind was certainly gusting. By the time we reached Coire an Lochain we knew we might struggle to find enough sheltered space for us all and marveled at the Atko that was pitched at the north end of the bealach. After wandering about for 45 minutes trying to decide where the best camp spot would be, we decided that it would be better to head down towards Alt Coire Bhinnein especially as the winds were to get stronger overnight. Someone else had the same idea too but we found an area next to the stream that took our two Terra Nova Voyager Superlites. We were starting to wonder where the others were. The original plan was for us to rendezvous and camp on the narrow spur of land between the two lochains. With Kate and I deciding to drop down we kept looking out for the others. Zoe and Ben were coming off Sgor Eildhe Beag but we'd not seen them before we dropped down. Maria and David had gone over to Binnein Beag. They appeared at our camp spot just as the sun started to set. Next thing we saw was someone waving from the top of the bealach - it was Ben. Maria and David decided to brave the wind and head up to where Zoe and Ben had camped. We arranged to meet at 8am for the summit bid.

Looking back down Loch Leven

It was an interesting evening and night. The temperature dropped like a stone once the sun had gone down and even though it was a SE wind it had a real nip in it. Before too long Kate and I had retreated to our tents. We were kept entertained by the rutting stags who at times sounded very close. I'm sure I heard the clash of antlers a  couple of times. I was also somewhat perturbed when someone came past my tent saying "oh shit" at 130am - guess they might have wanted to camp where we were.

No magical sunset or sunrise pics from this wildcamp outing but that wasn't the purpose of the trip, we were here to do a numbers thing. We found the rest of the gang on the spur of land between the two lochains. Tents were still intact. We had 300m to climb so we left all the stuff and wandered up. Our timing was a little off, we were 30 minutes too early so we faffed about taking photos and munching Curly Wurly's.

Typically, none of us could agree on when it was 10:10am as all our watches and phones gave us different times. Not to worry, at least we were on the top long before the actual time and left well after. More photies though the haze meant we didn't get the full effect of the views. Ah well, mission accomplished.

Sgor Eildhe Beag & Coire an Lochain

Lookibg down to Coire an Lochain from summit ridge

Maria on Sgurr Eildhe Mor ridge

Kate enjoying the view

Official time and altitude keeper

Mission Accomplished

Once back at camp I remembered that I hadn't carried out my wee experiment for gourmet camp food - popping corn. Jetboil was fired up, oil heated and first batch into the pan - it was yummy. For some reason the second batch didn't pop and burned the bottom of the pan. Something I will try again as it was a nice wee treat that really weighs nothing. With everyone all packed up we headed back to Mamore Lodge. The journey back to Weegie would not be complete without  dropping into Crafts & Things Cafe Glencoe for coffee and chocolate cake along with popping into The Real Food Cafe. We settled for hot chocolate the as were had dinner waiting for us back in Weegie. Now, what to do for 11/11/11..............