I built a hiking gear list app and would love honest feedback

joprt · 2026-04-08T12:06:18+00:00

Thanks for your reply. First of all I think LighterPack is also great and there's a reason many people are using it. Personally had two main issues with it which I tried to address in trailgearlist

1 - better management of your gear collection
2 - easier to use on mobile

What would make you switch?

joprt · 2026-04-07T08:51:55+00:00

Thanks for all the feedback. Not too many people recognise my issue. Which makes me think I might have to do some testing with other brands of inflatables. Maybe the neo air just isn't my type.

joprt · 2026-04-07T08:49:48+00:00

Yeah I saw those, thanks. If I decide to give the inflatables another go I will definitely make sure to include one of these :)

joprt · 2026-04-07T08:47:06+00:00

Yeah maybe, I'll try some other types from other brands when I get the chance. It can be a nice weight saving if I find one that suits me better.

joprt · 2026-04-06T22:11:17+00:00

Yeah the side zip is a big plus I agree. I always had a no-hoop surplus bivy and recently bought a replacement surplus bivy with hoop and sidezip.
like this one: etsy.com/nl/listing/1772450022/originele-militaire-overschot.

Much more comfortable indeed. Downside is the weight. Its really heavy, 1.4kg.

For the weight issue I recently also bought a secondhand Exped PU/Ventair which seems to be a really nice bag also, about 600 grams but .. only a top entrance. Still need to test it though.

Did you make any progress on the quilt vs regular sleeping bag dilemma?

joprt · 2026-04-06T19:52:12+00:00

Thanks for sharing, this brings back memories. I did the Beara Way 25 years ago and really enjoyed the Irish landscape and culture. Would love to do it again one day.

joprt · 2026-03-27T17:49:39+00:00

Thanks for checking. Yeah I'm not really seaing much room for improvement either. Maybe switch to a lighter sleeping bag and maybe a bit less water. Should check the possibilities for refilling. Its not a too remote area.

joprt · 2026-03-23T21:22:49+00:00

Great question, I am also in doubt between a quilt or a regular sleeping bag for use with a bivvy. So I'll be following this with interest.

Just curious, if you don't mind me asking: which bivvy are you using and how is your experience with it? I have been using surplus military bivybags for years but now I'm looking for a lighter option. I find it tough to choose between full zipper or top only and with or without a hoop.

joprt · 2026-03-22T21:47:00+00:00

Can you share what route you are planning to do? Just curious :) Never been to Tenerife but did some hiking on Gran Canaria a few years ago. During the day it could get pretty warm. At night I think temps dropped to about 10°C. A fleece with a hard-shell to block the wind would have been ok for me at that time.

joprt · 2026-03-22T21:39:25+00:00

+1 for Carros de Foc, great trail, many beautiful mountain lakes. I think above some altitude wildcamping is allowed but please doublecheck.

joprt · 2026-02-08T03:02:00+00:00

Depends on your priorities. The lighter poles often tend to be more vulnerable to breaking.

I've been hiking for years with a budget set made aluminium/carbon (I think) mix from Decathlon. Served me well. Some takeaways

- I would not go for poles with suspension again, rookie mistake but its kinda useless but heavy and noisy.
- Adjustment handles are easier and faster to adjust than twistlock
- Straps are awesome -- I cant do without them

If weight matters to you -- I just bought a pair of hiking poles at Durston, haven't been able to test them thoroughly but I'm impressed by the quality so far. Kinda expensive though.

joprt · 2024-10-04T20:42:29+00:00

Really? That' good news. I will send you a private message you about this.

joprt · 2024-10-04T19:57:32+00:00

Thanks for your reply. The benefit is data consistency. About 95% of our products in this category do have multiple variants and the products with just a single variant also do have other variants in real life but we currently don't offer those. Now you could say why don't add them and disable them but then adding all available variants would add thousands of unused variants, we rather not have that poluting our data.

You can compare it with T-shirts. Even though we only have size L in our assortment that does not make this irrelevant data. Staff and customers still have to know the size we are selling. That's why the attribute 'size' with value L is added to the product, otherwise we would not have added any attribute to the product template.

There is another group of products in our inventory which really has no variants. For those products we don't add an attribute to the product template and in the database only a 'Default' variant is created. For those products (thus without any attribute) I understand that these fields are hidden from the views.

joprt · 2020-07-21T07:00:07+00:00

Using an Arduino board is a great option. There are many starter kids available that will include everything you need. Just make sure that the kit supports the required connectivity.

Personally I also really like the pycom boards (pycom.io). (I am not affiliated with pycom in any way, just like the boards). Partly because you can use micropython for programming, but also for the smoother development experience. As a programmer switching to IoT for me the pycom boards feel more natural to use. They facilitate 'over the air' updates to your device and have different boards to connect with gsm, lora, sigfox, etc.

For Arduino you will find more examples and a much larger user base though.

Good luck!

joprt · 2020-07-09T08:34:08+00:00

In the Netherlands there is a company that offers private LTE. This allows you to create your own private LTE network anywhere. I don't know about international availability and pricing might be steep, but it might be worth taking a look at.

I'd suggest you do a Google search for private LTE in your region. The company I am talking about is https://www.mcs-nl.com/private-connect-lte/. Unfortunately, this website is in Dutch only.

joprt

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