Review: Alpkit Morphosis - first look.

I called in at Alpkit on my return from Nepal to check out their new Morphosis Jacket. I was so impressed with it that I also bought the Half-Zip Top too.
My old Softshell has started to see better days and I was looking to replace it. The Morphosis is Alpkit's modern slant on the classic softshell. It's classic Alpkit - all function and no faff, just how I like my gear.
It's made from a breathable, wind resistant, DWR coated outer material that has a bit of stretch, and a 140gsm micro-gridded fleece liner. The fleece liner is exempt from under the arms and the sides, ideal for heat control under exertion. The usual stuff like internal baffles and hem & hood adjustment are simple and effective. I'm a regular medium and the fit and cut are excellent.

With some foul weather on the near horizon I'm looking forward to giving them a rigorous test. I'll let you know how I fare in a couple of months. Below is a bit of information to be getting on with.

Alpkit announce their #ContinuumProject

Perfectly in line with their "Go Nice Places, Do Good Things" tagline the good folk at Alpkit have announced their latest social & environmental initiative through their Alpkit Foundation.

The Continuum Project is a partnership with several other organisations to donate, recycle, and redistribute, your old and unwanted outdoor gear to those people in society who are less fortunate.

Here at Chase The Rainbow we love things like this and we'll be digging out as much of our old kit as possible. If you have some stuff kicking around then why not donate it to a good cause; you'll feel good about it and so will the people who benefit from your generosity :)

You can read all about the project here:

The Alpkit Continuum Project

You can follow Alpkit here:

Website

Facebook

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Instagram

YouTube

You can also follow Chase The Rainbow here:

Facebook

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Strava

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Thank you for looking, see you soon.

Please don't forget to Like, Share, and Comment, if you enjoyed it :)

Consume less, live more. Plant more trees.

My first YouTube video - Welcome to Chase The Rainbow.

I posted my first video on YouTube. It's crap, but it's a start :)
I'm a one-take wonder. One day I'll learn how to edit and stuff.
Damn, I look an old git on camera :D

You can also follow Chase The Rainbow here:

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

Strava

YouTube

Thank you for looking, see you soon.

Please don't forget to Like, Share, and Comment, if you enjoyed it :)

Consume less, live more. Plant more trees.








First look: Alpkit Hooped Bivvy-Bag (prototype).

Some time ago I had a chat with Nick at Alpkit about the possibility of adapting one of their Hunka Bivvy bags in to an ultralite hooped bivvy for The Tour Divide.

After a little brainstorming session Nick went away to work on something for me.

This is the result. It's the first working prototype of, I believe, a potential production model. I hope I haven't jumped the gun here and let the cat out of the bag.

I've christened her "Little Nellie".

Nick pretty much nailed it first go.

Mitch Bryan and I will be doing some CO2 testing on it for safety purposes (breathability) and then I'll take it out in the field and see how I get on with it. It's a new laminate material and Nick seems pretty excited about it.

Review: Alpkit Atom LitePak.

Alpkit are a company that are going places (in more ways than one!), and they just won Online Retailer of the Year 2015 at the prestigious TGO Awards. Recent restructuring has seen them move up a gear in terms of product development and with that comes a measured increase in the range of equipment that they currently offer to customers.

The Atom LitePak is just one of these.

In the spring of 2015 I was tinkering about at home with some simple designs for just such a product when it conveniently popped up on their website. Plenty of outdoor manufacturers do a similar product but none of them were fitting in with what I needed. Most were way too big; the Sea-To-Summit Ultra-Sil Daypack, for example, is a whopping 20 litres. The 11 litre LitePak was just what I was looking for. I wanted something compact, light, and unobtrusive, for stashing food supplies during bikepacking trips, and for kicking around town when travelling.

Review: First look - Alpkit Kepler Merino Baselayer Range.

Alpkit Kepler Merino Baselayers.

Alpkit have been on a bit of a mission lately with a lot of new products being drip-fed to consumers throughout the course of the year.

One of these - The Kepler Merino Range - has been on my radar for a while.

I'm a huge fan of merino wool products, I have a fair bit of it in my wardrobe, so I was excited to check out their offerings to see how they measure up.

The benefits of merino wool are well documented, great breathability, quick drying, fast wicking, warm when wet, and extremely resistant to odours. In recent years it's become the de-rigueur product of choice for most outdoor users and manufacturers.
With the likes of Rab and Icebreaker retailing some serious high-end performance products the competition is stiff.

Alpkit. A great brand and a cool place to visit.

Alpkit have a great showroom.

Alpkit are a brand that many of you may not be familiar with. A lot of climbers and mountain-bikers (particularly Bikepackers) certainly will be.

They are based in Newthorpe, close to the town of Eastwood, on the Nottinghamshire/Derbyshire border.

They have a great reputation for producing quality kit and because they sell direct, either from their website or from the factory showroom, they are able to keep their prices very competitive. And I mean competitive. 

I'm a great believer in buying the best that you can afford, it always pays off in the long term; and believe me I've made the mistake of buying cheap! Alpkit, however, seem to have pulled off the coup de gras of making quality kit and keeping prices attractive.

I've visited their showroom a few times and I own a few items of their kit. After today's visit I own quite a few more.

I went particularly for some of their Bikepacking kit. (Bikepacking is simply the lightweight mountainbiking alternative to bicycle touring with pannier racks etc.)

I have been drooling over it for a while but with my current plan to take on The Tour Divide in America I thought it was time to take the plunge and get myself kitted out.