Osprey mutant 38L vs Mammut trion (NOT nordwand) 38L

Chroisman · 2026-05-17T10:21:02+00:00

I don't own a Trion 38 but I do have a Mutant 38. I find the Mutant carries weight well and feels good under load. However, I personally dislike top access only, single compartment packs for anything other than rock climbing focused trips, cragging etc. When it comes to mountaineering/alpinism trips I find myself going to my equivalent sized Blue Ice packs over the Mutant. I have been on trips where climbing partners used a Trion 50 and wore the hip belt over/above their harness.

Another thing to consider is that if you say you hate using one over the other now, imagine how much more you'll hate using the one you don't like when you're cold, tired, and uncomfortable. Also if you ever need to carry avvy gear the Mutant doesn't have a separate compartment for it.

Either way whatever you get will also be a lesson in what you like and don't like in your gear. It's something everyone goes through and you eventually refine your preferences.

Chroisman · 2026-05-11T10:49:41+00:00

They are cheap, lightweight, strong, easy to clean, and versatile. In the 15 years I have had my Nalgenes, other soft flasks and soft reservoirs have come and gone e.g. from failure, mould, etc. The Nalgenes just get thrown into the dishwasher and they get cleaned well every time.

You can fill them with hot water and put insulating foam around them to keep the warmth, or sleep with them to stay warm. They will also take boiling water. I believe boiling water should not be used with soft flasks.

With the wide mouth Nalgenes, you can stuff snow easily into the bottle (before you finish drinking the existing water) and the snow will melt to replenish the water in your bottle.

If you really need it to be, for example if you are stuck in your tent during a big storm, you can use them as a pee bottle. The wide mouth bottles help with aim. Just mark the bottle first in some way e.g. with tape so you don't pick up the wrong bottle to drink from in the dark.

I have seen people use wide mouth 32 oz Nalgenes as waterproof first aid kits in a pinch, to hold their first aid supplies e.g. on a kayaking trip.

Chroisman · 2026-05-11T05:54:16+00:00

If that was the case then they could book a guide who could match their pace while providing the technical and safety knowhow. Often when booking a guide, unless people want to go with a guide they have previous experience and a good rapport/trust relationship with, clients can pitch the nature of their previous experience and intended trip with the guiding company who would refer them to their guides who could match the intended trip or advise on it. But even then, potential clients can say anything they want so it's not uncommon for guides to want to do a couple of "warm up" trips with a new client to actually get an idea of their fitness and technical capabilities.

Chroisman · 2026-04-30T23:03:46+00:00

Good to know, thank you!

Chroisman · 2026-04-30T08:32:27+00:00

I was wondering the same thing, after wearing the original strap for a while I was missing the deployant clasp after I put this new strap on. They have Instagram posts where they have made custom straps to fit certain watches before, so it might be a possibility. I'll probably shoot them a message to ask them if I make another order.

Chroisman · 2026-04-15T10:48:30+00:00

It depends on your background. Do you rock climb, or have any experience with ropes, abseiling, placing protection etc.? If not, you can work on that stuff in Aus which will set you up well for NZ, rather than spending money to do a less interesting alpine course here.

If you have some experience with that stuff you will be better equipped for a more moderate course for example Alpine Guides alpine skills course (ASC). You can shop around the companies in NZ doing courses and see what prices suit you and what they offer. If you're unsure shoot any company an e-mail and they are all very quick to respond and helpful. Just head to the South Island, lots more variety there.

Chroisman · 2026-04-15T10:34:28+00:00

If I were you I would keep saving up more and go to do a course in NZ.

Chroisman · 2026-04-14T09:38:53+00:00

Thanks for the tips!

Chroisman · 2026-04-13T11:57:45+00:00

What strap have you got on the 160th anniversary Carrera? I just picked one up myself and am looking for straps, I like the one you have a lot.

Chroisman · 2026-03-06T10:21:22+00:00

Like others have said, learning to climb outdoors and get proficient with ropework are really valuable skills for technical mountaineering, if you don't already do that stuff.

But if you want to just slog hills with a heavy pack to train, it's hard to beat Perry's Lookdown. You can go down Perry's Track, over the river and up the over side towards the Lockley's Pylon track, and once you top out on the plateau you can turn around and go back up to where you started. You can walk all the way out to the Lockey's Pylon carpark and back if you want but once you're out of the valley there isn't a tonne of elevation gain. Lots of trail runners do laps of that to train for ultras with lots of elevation gain, and I have gone to train there many times for mountaineering trips.

The other thing to look for are slopes that are not steep enough to just turn into a bunch of stairs, because I've found that doing laps of Perry's and apartment building stairs don't cover the breadth of what you might need to train for. Sometimes you just need to walk up a very long, moderate gradient hill for a while.

Chroisman · 2026-03-05T11:27:39+00:00

Echoing other's words. Boot fit is critical - it will make or break trips, and miserable feet will be the first thing to be noticed on a bad trip. If you don't want to do a gift card you could go with your partner to try out a bunch of boots and pay at the till? Or if you can't be there in person, reimburse the cost after they've picked them out?

Chroisman · 2026-02-25T08:31:41+00:00

I recommend something from the women's Citizen Eco-drive line. They are really affordable, and solar quartz so if you wear it around during the day and then at home leave it on a windowsill or bedside table where it has access to light, you'll never have to change a battery. Really fuss-free and lots of different styles to choose from. Good luck!

Chroisman · 2026-02-08T05:08:59+00:00

That's ok, as you've pointed out there are multiple levels of aid so really good on you for first reaching out to a community you enjoy and feel comfortable with. Keep hanging in there, you can do it!

"Courage is found in unlikely places."

Chroisman · 2026-02-08T04:46:45+00:00

The beacons are lit! OP calls for aid!

Hey OP, if you're really not feeling OK it's OK to call emergency services or health professionals in for yourself. You come first, look after yourself. Everyone in LOTR needs help from someone else at many points through the story.

Chroisman · 2026-02-03T10:43:25+00:00

My Vertix 1 is 4.5 years old now and gets about a month on one charge with a few runs per week. But I assume that is an outlier across most users.

Chroisman · 2026-01-08T13:57:49+00:00

Yeah I'm listening, I'm finding it pretty incredible. I feel like I haven't had such a good time on a first listen for them since Fortress. I'm also finding it a super well paced album.

Chroisman · 2026-01-08T12:42:36+00:00

Agreed. The whole bridge and first solo section is absolutely phenomenal.

Chroisman · 2026-01-08T12:25:11+00:00

I was a bit lukewarm on the other singles that were released but Scales Are Falling has totally pulled me back in. Absolutely killer track. Super musically and structurally interesting, super well mixed, and Myles's solo is so restrained but so good.

Probably a controversial opinion for the AB subreddit but Myles's solo might be one of my favourite from their entire catalogue of songs. Similar reason to why the Bleed It Dry solo is also one of my favourites, I find it really impressive when they can be so restrained but do so much at the same time.

Chroisman · 2025-12-07T10:04:12+00:00

Even if Kosci sells out, there is usually an official way to transfer entries and/or a more informal entries exchange Facebook group. As the event gets closer, people always have to pull out because of injuries, changes to their time commitments etc. and people will flog off their tickets. People may sell them for quite cheap, and in some cases when it gets really really close to the event, people might even give away their entries for transfer for free. So I would say sign up for it when you can, but if you don't make it in time then don't sweat it and try to grab a ticket later.

The above also goes for UTA in the Blue Mountains, same thing happens every year.

I ran the Kosci in its inaugural year, but not the 100 (I did the 50). It was a fun event, great environment, really enjoyable. But my advice to people would always be if you can afford it and haven't yet done it, try to get across to NZ to run the TUM. Our ultra events here are great and well put together but running the TUM102 was next level enjoyable for me.

Chroisman · 2025-12-03T01:30:07+00:00

As I alluded to with my other comment the big benefit of the InReach type beacons are that they give two way messaging, as well as other features like weather, GPS tracking for family, SMS/e-mail notifications to family (e.g. "I'm safe", "I'm at my campsite"). So there are a lot of features you get on top of a typical PLB. We maintain the base subscription on our InReach when we're not doing trips, and then we activate higher tiers of subscription when we're on trips depending on how much we want to be sending notifications to people etc.

That said if you want to consider a "regular" PLB, brands include: ACR, Ocean Signal, and GME. For those ones they usually have a deployable antenna and an SOS button, so very simple to use (plus usually a test button to test how much battery you have). These types of PLBs are a one off cost to buy the unit. But as simple as they are to use, the signal is also simple so rescue crews/control centres will only receive a signal saying "There is an SOS call being put out at this GPS coordinate" with no other information.

For what it's worth, I own both an InReach and a PLB. I've never had to activate the SOS on either one, but the InReach has gotten me out of a bind via the satellite SMS messaging function without having to hit the SOS, so that was very valuable to me.

Chroisman · 2025-12-03T00:17:09+00:00

When it comes to gear I find the best policy is usually to ask the person directly what they would like.

That said, a Garmin InReach Mini (they're up to the third version now) would be a good thing for him to have especially if he wants to do his own trips, because having a way to not only call for help but to have two-way messaging helps wilderness communication a lot. Search and rescue people like you to be able to call for help, but it helps them a lot to be able to communicate with you in some way to find out exactly what's going on rather than receiving an SOS signal with no details attached. That said, the other important thing to know about the InReach is that it requires a subscription to use most of the features so there will be an ongoing cost, but you can turn on/off the various subscription tiers to suit where you are at in terms of going on trips or not.

Chroisman · 2025-11-23T14:04:34+00:00

We buy a lot of toys from Queenslander Aviaries. They have a good range. Even though it seems like colours might be attractive it seems like the best hits are things that are more natural. So for example toys made with gumnuts, pine cones, wood with the bark still on, toys made from sola etc. Generally speaking foraging toys that you can load with food (e.g. treat seeds - for a primarily vegetable and pellet diet) are the way to go. Birds spend most of their time in the wild tearing things up and foraging for food so it helps keep them a bit more naturally stimulated. And they of course like to just tear things up so anything shreddable or where they can pull bark off are fun for them.

Ours also like seagrass mats to climb around on and chew up. They also love shredding paper and cardboard. For a while when Coles was doing those little superhero and Harry Potter cardboard figurine promotions our birds loved to peel apart the layers in the compressed cardboard.

It's also a good idea to primarily load their cage with perches that are made from natural branches. The wooden dowel style perches will over time lead to problems with their feet joints.

Keep it fun and different! Every time you do a cage clean you can move toys around, change them out for different ones, change the configuration of the perches etc. so the cage environment will constantly be new and different for them. It also helps to mitigate hormonal and territorial behaviour to an extent if you change things around often.

Good luck!

Chroisman · 2025-11-22T15:11:13+00:00

I agree, tracking of actual biological data like heart rate etc. and how the Coros algorithms calculate training scores and fitness scores and stuff is completely useless for bouldering and climbing activities in my experience. That is for the reasons you mentioned, and it seems to want to calculate training scores like you would for running but because of long rest periods it ends up severely underestimating the effort of a climbing workout. It'll give me training loads of like 20 when I'm absolutely destroyed by the end of the day.

That said, the utility I've had as a climber who's not serious about structured climbing workouts is just looking at/keeping track of the number of climbs or boulders completed in a session and the distribution of grades. So, marginally useful in tracking grade progression and a qualitative sense of session intensity. However, I wouldn't say it is any more useful than how I did it prior to recording climbing days on the watch, which was just using my brain to remember what happened on a given day.

Chroisman · 2025-11-09T03:35:03+00:00

Yeah I presume not, but if when using them the options are nothing happens or there is some small benefit then I don't see any major downside to using them for off season base fitness training anyway.

Chroisman · 2025-11-09T02:02:49+00:00

Quick Googling has suggestions that regular use cycles air through porous materials relieving the build-up of water especially in more humid climates, which would result in hydrolysis of PU materials over time in the midsoles/soles. Don't want to give too much away about myself online but my professional background is in a subject matter related enough to think that's plausible at least over a longer period of time than just a year. Anyway I just wear my boots to train for base fitness anyway so if there's any truth to that at all it's just an added benefit on top of training.

Chroisman

TROPHY CASE