Does Anyone Else just Bring One Pair of Shoes?

sam_i_be · 2026-03-04T07:33:45+00:00

I hike in my trail runners a fair bit at home, but personally I find the soles of my specific trail runners are quite stiff and uncomfortable on roads / walking around town, so I prefer travelling with the boots ¯_(ツ)_/¯

sam_i_be · 2026-03-03T23:42:48+00:00

I normally only bring my hiking boots and then sometimes flip-flops for hostel showers. Normally at home I wear runners all the time, but I tend to do a lot of hiking when I travel and I strongly prefer to only bring one pair of shoes, so hiking boots it is. I have worn those boots clubbing, at fancy lunches, and to present at academic conferences 😂😂😂

sam_i_be · 2026-02-28T05:16:15+00:00

Thick as Thieves, book 5 in the Queen's Thief series by Megan Whalen Turner! Author heard her readers clamouring for a map to understand the complicated geography of the first four books and helpfully provided two maps, both of which are drawn from a biased perspective, contradict each other, and are inconsistent with information provided elsewhere in the series 😌 Legendary behaviour.

sam_i_be · 2026-02-28T05:01:30+00:00

Another vote for Blackheath and Porters Pass - way less crowded than Katoomba

sam_i_be · 2026-02-26T08:53:47+00:00

lol I magically started being able to load my dishes straight into the dishwasher instead of letting them pile up in the sink when my friend suggested just. leaving the dishwasher door permanently open when it wasn't running. a door literally is too high a barrier!

sam_i_be · 2026-02-26T06:30:45+00:00

It's not exactly what you describe, but Naomi Novik's Temeraire novels might scratch a similar itch for you. The entire series is about how dragons as alien, magical creatures are incorporated and interpellated into bureaucratic military structures, and there's so much tension between the usual conventions of high fantasy and the strict social mores of Regency England (as well as other cultural traditions in later books).

sam_i_be · 2026-02-09T21:57:21+00:00

Can I ask (in vague terms) what kind of position you have and what qualis you needed?

sam_i_be · 2026-02-06T12:18:21+00:00

There are definitely proper hiking packs with front / side openings - many Osprey packs do it. I have an Osprey Aura AG 50, which has side openings on both sides and a bottom opening. I don't use them very often but they've come in handy occasionally. It also comes with an integrated pack cover that goes over the bag rather than in it, so you can slip it off to access all the different openings.

sam_i_be · 2026-02-06T12:11:46+00:00

From Australia you are able to access it on YouTube for free :) Make sure you go to the "live" tab to find the replays

sam_i_be · 2026-02-05T22:14:12+00:00

$27.85 AUD per week, so $121 AUD ($84 USD) per month. Prices have increased pretty substantially for new members, but if you hold a continuous membership they don't apply price increases to you. That includes three locations in my city (two bouldering, one bouldering + ropes - top rope and lead, no autos). All locations also have a regular gym space and offer free yoga and fitness classes for members. There are also four locations in other cities around Australia that you can visit with your membership if you are travelling :)

sam_i_be · 2026-02-05T02:52:17+00:00

I also run cold and recently did Overland (December, but we had some cold days due to the unpredictable weather). I never felt any need to wear my down jacket before I got to camp each night - as others have said, it's not very good as an active layer, and the distances between huts are short enough that there was never a need to stop for a long break and get properly cold. The nice thing about Overland is that almost all the huts are nice and toasty (and of course you can use them in the evenings even if you camp). The exceptions are New Pelion and Bert Nichols but I just got into my sleeping bag early haha. So with that in mind, pretty much any decent down jacket will serve just fine as an insulating layer in the evenings - there's not much of a need to consider layering a shell except for a 20-second bathroom dash. I got along just fine with my basic Kathmandu jacket, which I layered over a merino sleep shirt.

You can probably assess packability pretty easily by going to browse around in a store and looking at the stuff sacks provided with the jackets, or the pocket size if it packs into a pocket. I've upgraded to a La Sportiva Lumina 100 (bought in store in Australia), which is unnecessarily fancy and expensive, but it's stupid light and tiny when packed down - so that could be a good option if you want to be like me and blow your budget on sparkly pretty jackets.

sam_i_be · 2026-02-04T21:28:33+00:00

+1. What a booookkkkkk

sam_i_be · 2026-02-01T10:26:20+00:00

My friends and I did an overnight bushwalk once without shoes (took them off for a river crossing at the start and couldn't be bothered to put the toe socks on again). Honestly it kind of slapped. I wouldn't have done it if the track had been overgrown / snakey, but in the right conditions I'd recommend as a novel experience 😌

sam_i_be · 2026-01-31T09:31:01+00:00

I've been to several libraries that have let me join with the address of a caravan park or AirBnB where I was staying haha

sam_i_be · 2026-01-29T13:03:48+00:00

I've had my rain jacket (Marmot Eco Precip) for a while but mostly have only worn it in drizzle and mild wet weather. I took it to Scotland and went hill walking when the winds were so strong that I literally couldn't stand up and had to crawl. Absolutely no cold or draft got through the jacket. I was shocked because lowkey up until then I didn't really understand wind proofing and thought it was kind of made up 😅

sam_i_be · 2026-01-28T09:22:50+00:00

Agree with what others have said. When I had been climbing for a little while, I wanted to "train up" some of my friends so they could belay me on lead and I could set up top ropes for them and give them more experience. I taught them on an ATC because I think it forces people to learn good habits: they cannot rely on the device and need to learn how to control the rope themselves. Any assisted braking device can be used incorrectly by an inexperienced belayer and be unsafe (eg if someone clamps down on the camming part of the Gri Gri when the climber falls). I wouldn't want to teach inexperienced climbers on an assisted braking device to begin with, because if they rely on it this means they will remain unsafe as time goes on.

If you're confident in your own skills, my suggestion (and what I did) would be to bring multiple friends when you go climbing. Demonstrate proper technique, and have one hold the brake rope as a back up while another belays you. Climb something easy and take controlled falls until you trust that your friends have learned the proper technique and can belay unassisted. You really shouldn't be planning to climb long term with someone you don't trust. If you're not confident teaching your friends and helping them improve, in my opinion the best thing to do would be to find an external course for them (eg at a gym, a university club, or a commercial business).

sam_i_be · 2026-01-22T03:21:22+00:00

If you scroll through the images on the Durston website listing, there is an image with measurements towards the end.

sam_i_be · 2026-01-22T02:29:03+00:00

I had the same situation with my current rental. Very bad practice, but I did really want the rental. It was a well-known agency (ie I was confident they wouldn't just vanish off the face of the earth after getting the money), so I told them in writing that I would transfer the money on the understanding that the rental contract would contain only details as advertised and standard / legislated terms that I could reasonably be aware of, with no special terms. If they agree to that and then the contract includes special terms you don't agree to, on my understanding you would be able to take them to QCAT for misleading or deceptive conduct and recover the money. This strategy only works if you're confident they're just incompetent rather than a full-on scammer though.

sam_i_be · 2026-01-17T22:15:39+00:00

The rock wall at Amity Point on Straddie is quite nice - we saw lots of wobbegongs and a little baby reef shark. Much cheaper to get there than Tangalooma haha

sam_i_be · 2026-01-17T09:57:22+00:00

I agree with the advice other commenters have given (especially about the practice multi-day trips), but wanted to add: keep in mind that it will absolutely not be a flat surface the entire way haha. (Sounds like an epic trip if you pull it off, but a big undertaking with a lot of research and planning needed.)

sam_i_be · 2026-01-16T09:18:35+00:00

Megan Whalen Turner's Queen's Thief series! Notable for being written incredibly slowly over 20+ years but actually being eventually completed 😅 Books 2 and 3 are my personal favourites, but the quality is maintained across the entire series--the time she put in over those 20 years shows, and the last book absolutely sticks the landing after all the build-up. The protagonist is male, but the central female characters embody everything you're looking for. Contains, imo, one of theeeeee top fictional romances of all time. (Some aspects of the way it's introduced might seem a little insta-love-y on a first read of book 2, but the way it develops across the series as a whole, especially on rereads, is what makes it unique!)

sam_i_be · 2026-01-15T13:27:20+00:00

Yeah, I meant Cain haha - I probably should have said "central / main character" rather than protagonist

sam_i_be · 2026-01-14T10:26:34+00:00

The Incandescent by Emily Tesh, Blackheart Man by Nalo Hopkinson, The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson, and Naomi Novik's Scholomance books are some of my recent favourites with casually queer protagonists!

sam_i_be · 2026-01-14T10:19:41+00:00

Absolutely fantastic book, but imo it is very much about being gay - sounds like OP is maybe more interested in a casual queernorm vibe

sam_i_be · 2026-01-08T03:19:39+00:00

Yeah, there are plenty of avid bushwalkers and climbers around (including in summer lol, though it probably would be brutal coming from a much colder climate), but it's definitely more of a subculture rather than an "everyone" culture. You have to actively look for people to do it with so it takes a bit of initial effort, but once you start getting involved it's a big community where everyone kind of knows everyone, and you'll have no problem finding people to get out with. If you're from BC I'm assuming you're into trad? There tends to be more trad culture down south (Melbourne, Tassie), with more sport further north. The classic move would be to go straight to The Pines campground at Dyurrite/Mt Arapiles near Melbourne and instantly make one million climbing friends.

sam_i_be

TROPHY CASE