Changes and trekking gear

I’m back again, and hope you’re all doing well!

I’ve changed career paths—no longer a materials scientist, I’m now doing web development. Yay! We’ll see how this works out. I’m delving heavily into the CakePHP framework and finding it to be great for rapid development. A very, very nice experience with it so far, and there’s plenty of documentation which is good.

I, I, I…too many sentences are starting with that pronoun in this belated blog post! I want to try to write more often but the things I think of either seem too ranty or too much like a forum post. So in the latter’s vein, here’s an interesting article about Snipers—Cowardly assassins or surgical soldiers?

I’ve bought my plane ticket to go trekking in Nepal in March so I’m researching the best gear to get. My list so far is a good 45-50L backpack, a compact sleeping bag, a small torch, some good lightweight pants and maybe a multitool? Not thinking about shoes or boots, since I climbed up Mt Kinabalu barefoot last year, simple sneakers should probably suffice for the Anapurna trail (maybe not the Everest Basecamp trek but it will be summer). Anyone got any good ideas or particular trekking gear I should be checking out?

Update: I’ve found the perfect pack. A 55L Black Wolf Mckinley rucksack.

The stitching is very good quality (as you’d expect from Black Wolf) and feels rugged. In stark contrast to my $20 pair of ‘hiking’ shoes… There’s a neat ‘Micro Glide’ adjustable harness along with more belts, buckles and attachment points than I’m ever going to need. Even what looks like ski pole clips on the front. I’m pretty happy with it so far. Lets see how it holds up in the wild…