SHEZONE OUTDOOR COMMUNITY

- Book Review -

6/4/2020

Several years ago, my husband and I decided to live on our sailboat in Seattle after moving from a fairly remote island in the Gulf of Alaska. Our decision was based, mainly, on our newly found passion for sailing and our desire to try something new and out of the norm. On the plus side, it seemed like a much more affordable way to live in the big city. “Living on a sailboat?!” Why yes! Sounds dreamy and romantic, doesn’t it?

Many people dream of a fresh start, living an alternative lifestyle, and just getting away from it all. In a world filled with people spending too much time inside and not enough time in nature, it’s no wonder that many of us yearn for something else. And back in February, just before our entire world was turned upside down, I started reading a book titled "Our Life Off the Grid - An Urban Couple Goes Feral" by J. David Cox. To some, the thought of living off the grid may sound like pure hell while for others it would be utopia. For David and his wife Sally, an urbanite couple in their mid-fifties, it just seemed like the right thing to do for their own mental health. So they moved from the city to a remote island on the west coast of British Columbia. However, dreamy and romantic, it was not. Take it from me, after living on a sailboat, I know! Just imagine pumping out your own sewage, running out of water in the middle of a shower when you’re all by yourself on the boat and having to run out on deck to fill up your water tank with a head of hair all sudsy from shampoo, carting your groceries and clean, dry laundry up and down the dock when there are monsoon rains, and the list goes on. And my list doesn’t even compare to the challenges David and Sally have to face just to go for a grocery run.

Reading this book was like spending Sunday afternoons with a favorite uncle, listening to him recount story upon story of his most excellent adventures and encounters. This memoir was written with such wit and satire, that I often found myself laughing out loud and relating to the experiences they’ve lived. David and Sally dove into this new lifestyle without any skills or knowledge about building houses, creating their own electricity, water, etc. yet they managed to create a home for themselves with all of life’s basic needs and more. This book is written in a way that is so organic and down to earth, that most would relate to their stories, from how to make things happen when you have no clue about what you’re doing to how couples work together, deal with each other, and grow together in the face of new challenges. They kept it real throughout, giving us the good, the bad, and the ugly.

If an alternative lifestyle was intriguing to you before reading this book, you just might still want a taste of it after reading it. Dreamy and romantic it is not but gratifying and worthwhile, it certainly seems to be to David and Sally. Sometimes, small changes make a difference but in David and Sally’s case it took a whole lifestyle change to make their existence worthwhile again.

And in this time of quarantines and social distancing, this book might bring you great joy and a bit of an escape from the mundane.

- Kirsten -
Fresh Air Reads contributor

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- Tips -

12/2/2020

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There was a time when you'd only spot snowshoers or skiers out on snowy winter trails but nowadays they are shared between skiers, snowshoers, fat bikers and dog walkers. And that makes it a little more complex to navigate the rules of trail behaviour without making any faux pas. Especially if you're new to the whole trail experience or winter one! So here are some winter trail tips to consider before your next snowy adventure.

* GENERAL GUIDELINES FOR ALL TRAIL USERS *

1. Learn about trail use rules
Not all trails are to be used for multiple winter sports. Before heading out, make sure to check on the website of the nature park or with the nearest tourism office that your chosen activity is allowed on the trails. And this even includes checking that your four-legged friends are welcomed.

2. When stopped, move off
If you stop to adjust your layers or have a snack, make way for others by moving off the trail.

3. Yield the trail
Uphill travellers always have right-of-way, just like on hiking trails.

4. Leave no trace
Minimising the impacts of human waste on our trails preserves them and just makes them more enjoyable for everyone. Make sure you to pack out ALL your garbage (taking a Ziplock bag is great for this) and if you need to pee, take a few steps away from the trail and cover it with snow.

* GUIDELINES FOR WINTER WALKERS *

1. Ski and snowshoe trails are off limits
Groomed cross-country ski tracks are made up of 2 parts; one is the rails for classical skiing and the the other flat section is for "skating" skiers. Neither of these should be walked on as it creates potholes which can be dangerous for skiers once they freeze and get hard. Same goes for snowshoeing specific trails.

2. Doggy trail etiquette
Make sure to keep control of your pooch at all times whether they are on leash where required or under voice control. And please, pick up after them too.

* GUIDELINES FOR SNOWSHOERS *

1. Preserve the rails
If you are sharing trails with groomed cross-country ski trails, keep off the rails.

2. Single-file for minimal impact
Best practice when sharing groomed trails is to walk single-filed and as far to one side of the groomed track to reduce impact for skiers.

* GUIDELINES FOR CROSS-COUNTRY SKIERS *

1. Know the way
Most trails are two-way but not always. For safety reasons, know the trail map (usually available online or at the trailhead) and go with the flow of traffic to avoid a collision.

2. Right of way
Faster skiers have the right of way. If you are slower, step out of the trail to allow the faster skier to pass. As a faster skier you may also yell “track!” to ask for the trail to be yielded to you.

3. Yielding the trail
If you meet on a hill, the skier going uphill should step to the side to yield the trail to the skier coming down the hill.

* GUIDELINES FOR FAT BIKE RIDERS *

1. Newbie niceties
Riding in the snow with a fat bike is a relatively new sport so make sure that if you head to a groomed trail that fat bikers are welcomed. It's best practice to check-in at the trailhead with ticket office, groomers or nearest tourist office. A courtesy chat will do lots for keeping all users welcome.

2. Always yield to others
Fat bikes should yield to all other users on multiuse trails, similar to the etiquette for bikes on summer hiking trails.

3. Stay visible
Ride with lights and reflectors especially on multiuser trails.

4. If you're sinking, head back
Groomed tracks need time to settle. Sometimes the snow is just too soft making it difficult to ride and creates ruts that will hardened once the snow hardens. If you're sinking, best to head back home.

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- BOOK REVIEW -

12/12/2019

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I don’t know about you, but sometimes, in a certain moment of extreme bias, I will pick a bottle of wine because of its pretty label and not touch another because the label is completely unappealing to me. As you can imagine or have experienced yourself, this behavior may lead to a horrible taste experience, or to the discovery of a gem of a wine, or missing out completely on an amazing wine because I thought the label was ugly. In the same vein, I will admit to doing the same with books. Either the cover will draw my attention, or the title, and even, sometimes, the font that was chosen for the title.

For this month’s book review, it was all about the title for me: The Accidental Adventurer by Ben Fogle. That title was so compelling to me and it made me wonder what could have happened to this man to accidentally make him an adventurer... Intriguing, right?

Throughout the book, Fogle takes the reader on a multitude of adventures that he has experienced throughout his adulthood: from his travels to some of the remotest areas of South America, rowing across the Atlantic, participating in the Marathon des Sables, humanitarian work in Africa, and the list goes on. He chronicles his travels and he recounts the events in a genuine and humorous prose, usually detailing any mishaps and more often than not, his complete lack of preparation or experience for some of the challenges he tackled. I really enjoyed how he included succinct snippets of history of some of the places he visited or the current or past political background of a country he was in.

The Accidental Adventurer was an entertaining and easy read, which kept me turning page after page. In the end, it was not as thought-provoking as I expected it to be, yet it took me on a whirlwind tour of what it might feel like to always live life to the fullest, no matter how ready one might be. The lesson here being: just go for it and do the things that make you feel most alive.
And just like the biased bottle-of-wine-picking method I sometimes adopt, choosing this book for its title led to the discovery of a bit of a gem. A great read for the Holiday season!

- Kirsten -
Fresh Air Reads Contributor

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- GEAR -

29/11/2019

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Patagonia, a long time environmental leader in the outdoor apparel industry, shattered anyone's illusions that the outdoor apparel industry was intrinsically eco-friendly when they published their New York Times Black Friday ad « Don't Buy This Jacket » back in 2011.

"The environmental cost of everything we make is astonishing. Consider the R2® Jacket shown, one of our best sellers. To make it required 135 liters of water, enough to meet the daily needs (three glasses a day) of 45 people. Its journey from its origin as 60% recycled polyester to our Reno warehouse generated nearly 20 pounds of carbon dioxide, 24 times the weight of the finished product. This jacket left behind, on its way to Reno, two-thirds its weight in waste. And this is a 60% recycled polyester jacket..."

Since then many outdoor gear producers have established corporate responsibility charts to address the environmental impact they have, others have taken it a step further with more concrete initiatives like upcycling, product lifetime repair or the recommerce of their used products. But what about us, the outdoor gear consumers? What can we concretely do to green our outdoor gear habits?

1. Stand by durability
The most sustainable piece of gear you have is the one you keep using. Selecting gear that is high-quality and durable. It's one of the best ways to lessen your environmental impact.

2. Be hands-on
A durable piece of gear is no guarantee against the occasional mishap like a tear in your tent or a zipper malfunction on your shell. Repairing rather than replacing it has become child's play even for those of us who don't consider ourselves that gifted with stitching or mechanics. There's a plethora of «How-to» videos on YouTube to show you the ropes but also many outdoor apparel companies now provide online resources on how to care and repair your gear.

Patagonia's Worn Wear Repair & Care library
Vaude & IFIXIT partnered to offer a Repair library
Arc'Teryx's Product Care library
Fjällräven's Care & Repair library
Columbia's Product Care library
Norrøna's Product Care library and apparel Spare Parts shop with video tutorials
Haglöfs Care Instructions library

3. Give them a second home
For whatever reason, you may need to breakup with your gear. When that happens find them a second home: swap, giveaway or sell.

Click & join our newly created free Outdoor Gear Swap group on Facebook

4. Recommerce all the way, baby
Support outdoor gear brands that recommerce. What's recommerce? It refers to the the buying and reselling of pre-owned goods. Outdoor apparel companies have entered the recommerce market not only by offering to retake and recycle their own products but even by buying back, repairing and reselling. This is still hard to come by in Switzerland but there are some options nearby and be on the look out for more.

The Northface's « Clothes the Loop » initiative is available near Switzerland in Annecy (F) and Strasbourg
Patagonia's « Worn Wear Trade In » store nearest to Switzerland is in Chamonix (F), Innsbruch (A) or Milan (IT)

5. Don't be a fashion victim
Fashion and outdoor apparel should not even be in the same sentence but unfortunately they are more and more interlinked. Select items in a colour, material and shape that will remain fashionable over the years. Gosh, here I am giving fashion advice. Who'd a thought it!

* Quote source: Patagonia

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- Gear -

12/11/2019

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On a given rainy November day, you know the one where even your pooch can't be dragged out for a walk, you'll find me pulling out all our rain and winter gear to check it for wear & tear. A little repairing will often extend the life of my favourite gear but sometimes they're just too beat up and damaged so replacing them is the only alternative. Purchasing everything new for everyone in my active family can get VERY pricey so here are 7 ways I get my hands on discounted gear online and in stores here in Switzerland.

1. Campz Outdoor & Adventure
Campz is an online store that offers weekly deals that can go up to 50% on branded items. They carry brands like Patagonia, FjällRäven, Vaude, Mammut, MSR, Sea to Summit and Poc. You can create a wishlist with the gear items you are interested and monitor the price to get them at the best deal. By signing up to their newsletter you receive a EUR 10.- voucher you can use towards your purchases (see their terms & conditions of use of voucher).

2. SportXX
SportXX is a sports retailer with an online platform and is part of the Migros Group which means you can use Migros' Cumulus vouchers on purchases at SportXX. To receive Cumulus vouchers you need to sign up to their fidelity program and you get credit for every purchase you make at any Migros Group stores. In addition, Cumulus members receive regular members only discounts.

3. Ochsner Sport
Ochsner Sport also offers a fidelity program where they offer a regular weekly 20% reduction to Club members on Wednesdays in the stores and on Sundays online. In addition, you receive credit for purchases and you can earn vouchers. They also have outlet stores and host their outlet products directly on their online shop platform with discounted items.

4. Decathlon
Decathlon is probably Europe's biggest sports retailer and famously known for their low-cost sport goods which they develop and test in-house. They tiptoed into the Swiss market just 3 years ago but have remained faithful to their commitment to keep prices competitive to the ones they list in their French stores. They are a great option for any new sport or outdoor activity you want to get started with and for kids that grow out of gear sometimes annually! They also have a customer fidelity program but to be honest, I have rarely benefitted from it.

5. Anibis
Anibis is a Swiss online classifieds platform and the one I've found to offer the best second-hand outdoor and sports gear. It is a little like a treasure hunt and you do need to regularly troll the listings but you can come across some gear gems. You can find anything from backpacks, to ski trousers, to bikes and tents listed.

6. Skid'Oc
Skid'Oc is a speciality store that exclusively sells and rents refurbished winter sports gear or low-cost liquidation winter sports gear. Based near Neuchâtel, they operate only from end of October to April each year.

7. Free gear swap
Swap gear with family and friends. We often pastedown kids outdoor gear but take it step further and do the same with family and outdoorsy friends. Get everyone to bring along items that are still in good condition but are being used by the current owner and swap.

Have any other tips for finding discounted outdoor gear here in Switzerland? Share them with us in the comments below.

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- Book Review -

16/9/2019

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I haven’t read any of her works before but The Shipping News is a wonderful film and I really enjoyed Brokeback Mountain so I was excited by the opportunity to read Annie Proulx latest novel "Barkskins".

"Barkskins" is an epic, tome of a novel -- over 700 hundred pages! –- that covers the fortunes of the descendants of two men who escape the poverty of 17th century France to try and find a new life in Canada (New France). Meanwhile, Proulx beautifully but painfully tells of the story of the gradual destruction of the forest of North America and in parallel, the destruction and dispersal of the native peoples.

The novel is written in sections of uneven length some lasting just 10 years, others nearly 120, and oscillates between the two family trees, whose family fortunes ebb and flow. It follows a rather dizzying array of characters and generations. The one permanent character throughout the book is the rapidly shrinking ancient forest.

This book will appeal to anyone who loves epics, forests, and beautiful scenery. It is very upsetting. It follows the irreversible impact of destroying ancient woodland, the impact of humanity on the living world, and what that means for our future. The book is, intentionally, raising alarms:

“Men behave as overlords. They decide what will flourish and what will die. I believe human kind is evolving into a terrible new species and I am sorry that I am one of them.” (p. 658)

It starts at the colonial expansions in Europe and step-by-step covers the decisions and attitudes that have led us to the dire state we are in today. “So extensive are the forest here that Americans cannot see an end to them. Therefore, they have no interest in preserving them.” (p. 480). Proulx contrasts the successes and impact of the short-sighted capitalist machine compared to the native beliefs and attitudes.

There is also an undeniably feminist slant to the book. On the forest, “To Mari it was a living entity, as vital as the waterways, filled with gifts of medicine, food, shelter, tool material, which everyone discovered and remembered. One lived with harmony and gratitude. She believed the interminable chopping of every tree for the foolish purpose of clearing the land was bad. But that, thought Rene was woman’s talk. The forest was there, enormous and limitless. The task of men was to subdue its exuberance, to tame the land it grew on – useless land until cleared and planted with wheat and potatoes.” (p. 51)

For all its merits, however, this is quite a difficult novel to get into. For me, it suffered from real pacing issues. Some parts of the story are really slow, especially at the beginning, which I suspect will put some people off. There is a very long section on the original character Charles Duquet’s entry into international trade with abundant detail about the intricacies of 18th century international trade, which I would thoroughly recommend skim reading, unless you are that way inclined. By contrast, there are other sections of the novel where the author just seems to try and cover too much ground, covering the lives of so many characters in such a short period of time, that it makes it difficult to identify with any of the characters before they have been killed off in some sort of gruesome accident. It reminded me of going to see "The Complete Works of Shakespeare" in 90 minutes! I felt this was especially the case with the Sel family members. I assume some of this was deliberate, to show the short, brutal lives of the native peoples, especially as compared to the forest, but as a reader I felt a little short changed, especially after having read nearly 100 pages on how the Dutch East India company traded.

The book found its pace for me with the introduction of James Duke and his descendants. Without too many spoilers, the novel does end with some glimmer of light with the focus returning to the present day, to the Sel family and the works they were doing to save today’s forest. I particularly, enjoyed the character of Sapastia Sel, “She seemed to feel personal guilt for eroded slopes and dirty rivers. If she looked up she saw not the heaven’s blue but apocalyptic clouds in aircraft gouged sky” (p. 683). I would have enjoyed reading a lot more about her, but once again the pacing issues stepped in and the end felt rushed to reach a conclusion.

In the end though I really enjoyed this novel, but it is one that needs an investment of time and a fair amount of attention. As a tip for anyone starting to read it, there is actually a family tree laid out, but only at the end of the physical book. I felt that would have very much helped me navigate some of the more productive generations of the families.

- Gemma -
Fresh Air Reads Contributor

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- Book Review -

7/8/2019

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Personally I have forever had a deep and innate attraction to water, from the time I was a child swimming in a pool, to the very first time I saw the ocean, to becoming an oceanographer. And so, when I read the title of this book, I immediately signed up to review it. In her book Swell: A Waterbiography, Jenny Landreth, invites readers to embark on a journey wherein she recounts the rich history of women and swimming. As well as being part social history, this book is also part memoir, whereby Ms. Landreth interspersed the book with five chapters about her own journey as a reluctant and unskilled swimmer in her childhood and adolescent years to her passion and addiction to swimming as an adult.

While swimming may seem like such an innocuous and readily available activity to all, it wasn’t always so - and still isn’t so for many people today. Ms. Landreth chronicles how women, from the Roman times onward to the 19th and early 20th centuries, had to fight against so much negativity and oppression to simply swim. As unfathomable as the power and authority placed upon these women were to me, Landreth’s strong feminist voice and sardonic interjections made me laugh rather than scream in outrage at the injustices they experienced. From being drowned as witches, to allowing women to swim in the sea - but only because it made them less feeble and physically stronger to give birth - to ridiculous regulations on bathing attire for women, this book celebrates the struggles and achievements of our swimming foremothers. Unbelievably, it wasn’t until the 1930s that women were finally, if not reluctantly, admitted as equals into the water.

Swell, filled me with gratitude for these women of yore for an activity that I, until now, took for granted not even realizing that it had been such a struggle for some. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in swimming or history or women pioneers. As one reviewer said

“ If you love swimming, you’ll love this. If you hate swimming, you’ll still love this.” - Jo Brand

Next time you go for a swim, do so mindfully, because these women made it so that we simply can.
- Kirsten -
Oceanographer and Fresh Air Reads Contributor

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- Tips -

22/7/2019

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It's one thing to know that spending more time outside being active is good for us and it's another making it happen. Trust me, even the most enthusiastic outdoorsy peeps I know get derailed with the roadblocks that life sets up at some point or another (me included!!!).

When I asked friends and people I meet what gets in their way from being active outdoors on a regular basis, these 3 obstacles are the ones most consistently mentioned:

1. Being too busy
2. Not motivated
3. No time to do the prep work

The good news my friend, is that these roadblocks can be minimised. I'm not going to say that I have the magic formula to make them disappear altogether. Heck if I did, I'd be out there ALL. OF. THE. TIME. But there are a few things you can easily do that will increase how successful you are at getting out there:

1. Schedule like a diva
You're probably either one of two types, a planner or a spontaneous doer. Either way you might find yourself too busy to get some outdoor time in because for our planner it just hasn't made it to the top of her to-do list and our spontaneous doer finds herself double-booked after accepting multiple appealing invits. In both cases, some intentional scheduling of outdoor time and not budging on this -- that's where the diva attribute comes in! -- can bust the "being too busy" roadblock. The longer a commitment has been on your radar, and in your calendar, the less chances you will drop it or forget about it. And having time planned ahead doesn't mean you loose on the spontaneity; you don't need to decide what outdoor adventuring you'll be doing already when you block time out. The key is to reserve that limited resource, time.

2. Shout it on the rooftops
Let everyone and their neighbour know what adventures you have coming up. OK, that's a slight exaggeration but having others get excited alongside you and ask you about it as it nears will increase your sense of accountability. And if you have particularly outdoorsy friends make sure that they know about it as they'll not let you off the hook once they hear about your planned adventures.

3. Follow these hashtags
Time spent scrolling social media can actually inspire and motivate you to get outdoors with your own adventures. On Instagram you can follow hashtags just like you can follow people. Here are our top picks for continued outdoor inspiration:

#outdooradventures
#microadventures
#womenwhoadventure
#gooutside

4. Get a helping hand
I'll be the first one to admit it takes time researching my outdoor adventures. And once it's done there's the actual preparation - equipment, logistics, food. If you're short on time this could be enough to throw the whole enterprise out the window. Instead, try partnering with a friend and split the prep work or actually join a community like ours that will take this part on for you. Show up and adventure!

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- Book Review -

8/7/2019

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"I Found my Tribe" by Ruth Fitzmaurice caught my imagination because this is a phrase that I often hear when adults talk about friendship groups and finding like-minded people. And the theme of wild swimming appealed to me as I like to swim outdoors in places that are beautiful.

This story is a truly tragic one of a woman who loses her husband to Motor Neuron Disease when she is in her early 30's and has five young children. She is a woman who is passionate and demonstrative in every moment of the book. If she is not painting her house in primary colours, racing around the supermarket with her children grabbing bags of crisps and biscuits off the shelves, she is talking to her special tree, running along cliff tops or packing her whole family off to the other side of the world to make the most of every moment.

I read the book twice, once last summer and I read it again for this book review. It has left me feeling emotional both times. The book races along, switching timelines, telling anecdotes of her hectic life interwoven with glimpses into the emotional release she gets from running to survive and swimming in the sea to feel truly free. Neither of these activities can take her daily life struggles away and nor can her friends take her pain so you are left with a real-life story of a passionate woman fighting to retain her sense of self under circumstances that are far from being a fairy tale.
Throughout the book, you get the feeling that if she stops, she will crumble, so she reminds you at every juncture of exactly that. She rages against the unfairness of her situation and is determined to give her children a life of memories, chaos and love. Even her decision to have another child, when her husband's condition is deteriorating significantly, is one born out of a desire to create and to fill her world and block out the deafening noise of her situation.
- Deirdre Bowley -
Fresh Air Reads Contributor

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- Gear Review and Giveaway -

2/7/2019

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"My target is women who pee!" now that's an opening statement by Kula Cloth™ creator, Anastasia Allison, that caught my attention. I'm a women and I pee. And I need to pee in the woods a lot as that's where I spend much of my time. But to be honest, though I'm an advocate of the minimum impact practices coined Leave No Trace, I've never been tempted by the peedanna solution to substitute toilet paper use in nature and usually go with "drip drying" and carrying out toilet paper I do use. But the Kula Cloth™ pee cloth got my attention.

Ok, let's take a step back as I know some of you are like, "A peedanna what????" A peedanna, or a pee rag, is a bandanna or a similar cloth that's used after urinating instead of toilet paper. The idea is that you dab away those lingering drops and then hang the peedanna on the outside of your backpack to dry. When you return from your outdoor adventure, you pop it in the wash and it's then ready to be reused. That all sounds good but - yes there's a but - as happy as I may be to try many things I didn't find this very compelling because:

1. The bacteria on the bandanna from the pee is just waiting to be transferred when reusing it and that's just yucky!
2. If the bandanna's hanging on the outside of my pack, the pee will transfer to the outside of my bag. Yucky too!
3. The possible pee smell that will be following me. Tripple yucky and that's a strike.

So having discarded the mere idea of a peedanna as an alternative up to now, why was I even inclined to test out the Kula Cloth™ ?

1. This pee cloth was developed to be a pee cloth.
This may sounds obvious but what it highlights is the fact that Anastasia intentionally researched and selected a material that would make the Kula Cloth™ hygienic for its intended purpose. It's made from advanced silver-infused textiles that are purposely intended to be in contact with the human body making it antibacterial. And the fabrics used are non-toxic, eco-friendly (many are organic) and are manufactured sustainably in the United States†.

2. The option to hang it on my backpack folded
The double snap feature included on the Kula Cloth™ means you can hang it to the outside of your pack folded so that pee absorbing textile can't get in contact with your backpack. Or a fellow hiker for that matter!

3. The promise of no pee smell trailing me on the trails
During the testing phase Anastasia included extensive testing of the odor-proofness of the Kula Cloth™. It proved to be odour free even after several days of use†.

4. And they look great!
Part of Anastasia's ambition was to provide a pee cloth women (though men can use them as well) would be proud to have hanging off their packs. She's achieved that by creating an Artists Series in collaboration with a number of artists like Claire Giordano.

I took along my newly purchased* "Indigo Peaks" Kula Cloth™ on my 2-day hike to put it to the test. After two days of use it had no odour. None! It's super soft so no uncomfortable dabbing. The absorbing side and its outer waterproof fabric delivered and while using it or hanging it to my pack, my hands always stayed dried. It was very quick drying and every time I used it it didn't feel wet to the skin after the previous use. Visually, you don't see any stains after using it and as the absorbing material is black you can feel at ease to use it even if you have your period. The only negative aspect I found to using the Kula Cloth™ was not having any visual distinction between the snaps. I have mistakenly pulled on the wrong side when wanting to unfold it. I expect that if I keep doing this I could rip one snap off making it impossible to fold the Kula Cloth™ when hanging it on my pack.

Overall, I was impressed by the quality of the material both with respect to how it delivered on its specs and the luxurious softness it provided. It's light and saves precious weight and volume on a multi-day trekking trip. The prints are vibrant, colourful and picture worthy: a plus for a pee cloth! And it's definitely a conversation starter. Especially here in Switzerland where you still don't see many hikers hanging pee rags.

To celebrate the first Kula Cloth™ coming to Switzerland, Anastasia sent along a second one from the Artist Series designed by Swiss artist Nikki Frumkin and we are giving it away to one of you!

2 Ways to enter the giveaway:

1. On our IG account

2. On our FB account

Giveaway is open until 14 July 2019, 23:59

† Source: https://kulacloth.com/pages/faqs
* I am not an affiliate to this product. All opinions and thoughts are my own.

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