Building a cheap, lightweight, Paris-skipulk

In january the entire family went on skiing vacation to Orsa Grönklitt in Dalarna, Sweden. From experience I knew that transporting the children back and forth to the slopes can be a real chore. Especially when the children are tired after a long day. Having a pulk to pull all the equipment can be a real help. It's also real nice to be able to put the small children in the ski pulk when they decide they've had enough of cross-country skiing several kilometers from home. Last, but not least, I of course saw this as a chance to get an interesting new piece of gear.
Since I don't get a chance to use a skipulk that often I didn't want to spend too much money on it. I don't have as a goal to go on a long arctic expedition with 100kg either, so I figured I didn't really need the robustness of a Fjellpulken. I also had a look at the second-hand market. It is pretty good for pulks here. If you are not worried about weight it is quite easy to find old used Segebaden wooden pulks of good quality. These weigh quite a lot though and they require some care to maintain. There had to be a better alternative.

The Paris Expedition sled
After some googling I found the most authoritative site on skipulks: www.skipulk.com. The nice thing about this site is that they provide an excellent ski pulk PDF-book with detailed descriptions on how to build your own ski pulk. This book, and many others sites, recommend the Paris Expedition sled as a good starting point for a do-it-yourself project. The Paris sled is cheap (around 30€), light (2,2kg) and very durable. It also has good attachment points for packing straps and ropes for pulling. I quickly ordered one from globetrotter.de as there were none in stock at the local retailer kgoutdoor.se.

The Paris Expedition Sled

The hauling system
The pulk book contains a number of different designs for the critical pulk hauling system ranging from very simple designs suitable for flat terrain, to heavy duty systems for alpine use. I didn't have much time for the construction so I made a hauling system loosely based on the "Zinsard"-design. I figured it would be good enough for my purposes. I was not going to use the pulk on rough and steep terrain. It would be used mainly on prepared cross-country tracks.

The hauling system was made from 20mm electrical wire conduit (VP-rör)

The advantage of using plastic conduit is that it is very easy to work with. It is also cheap and you can get angle parts and joints to easily create constructions. It is also very flexible will not hurt you if you fall. The opinions vary on how robust the conduits are, some say they are better than bamboo, some say they are very fragile. For my purposes they worked well. To be on the safe side however, I also reinforced the poles with duct-tape, so that they would not splinter in a dangerous way if they broke. This probably makes them stronger too. The poles where attached to the the pulk by using packstraps through the grommets on the pulk. 

Using conduit joints, the poles can be disassembled for easier transportation

I also added joints so that the poles could be transported more easily. This was done using standard plastic joints for conduit. To keep them in place I also drilled a hole for a nut and a bolt. Later on I also drilled a hole so that the hauling rope went through the poles and all the pull forces where taken by the rope. This is quite useful since the joints don't need to be as strong then. If the poles will break it is also always possible to pull the pulk using the rope.

 A custom hipbelt was quickly sewn

I didn't have any existing hipbelt to use as a harness available, so I sewed my own. It was done in about an hour using nylon, some foam pad, and webbing. I made a mistake however and made the belt to short. It needs to have more padding on the stomach side as well. As attachment points I sewed in some metal D-rings. I did not place these in a good way however. They should be more on the sides so that the poles attach to the side of the body. To attach the poles to the belt I drilled a hole through the poles and threaded to loops of nylon cord through them. These loops could then be attached to the D-rings. This attachment system worked OK, but there is room for improvement. There was too much play between the poles and the hipbelt. Despite these shortcomings the belt worked perfectly OK for the loads that I was pulling.

Field testing
The pulk was mainly used to transport the kids back and home to the slopes. However, I also stressed the hauling system to some degree as I climbed the downhill slope all the way to the top and successfully skied down on a pretty steep slope with around 20kg of young son in the pulk. It worked very well, but I'm not sure how the poles would have handled a fall. I also tried going through the kids "Bumpy ride" training slope as well. On these occasions I could really feel the force of the pulk pushing me in the back, but it worked.

Going down the slalom slope at full speed with Simon lying in the pulk

One situation that didn't go so well however was if I needed to pull the pulk through difficult terrain. Part  of the difficulty could have been that the children were sitting up and produced a top heavy load. Anyway I felt that stronger poles could have been good in that situation. With two kids the pulk was pretty heavy then, probably about 45kg.

All in all, I'm very pleased with the Paris Pulk and the homemade hauling system also worked very well for what it was designed for. It made our winter vacation with the kids so much more fun and a lot easier too.

Children sleeping in the pulk after a long day at the Orsa Grönklitt Zoo

Little hiking - a lot of gear

When I was younger I thought that people with a lot of shiny new

gear, which they always talked about, were in fact the ones that

spent the least time outdoors. In many respects I still find this

to be true, but, I have become more humble since I have myself

fallen into the gear trap. Andy Howell put it well when he said

that buying and writing about gear is a substitute for not

getting out in the hills. I have two small children, aged 4 and

2, and frankly this makes it a lot more challenging to get time

off for hiking. Especially since my other major outdoor interest,

hunting, can take up a lot of time. In Sweden we have a "parental

insurance system" that makes it beneficial for parents to share

responsibility for the children when they are small and I have up

to now been on parental leave for more than a year in total. This

wonderful, but somewhat taxing experience makes me hesitant when

it comes to leaving my spouse to take care of the children

herself for a longer period of time. The first time I was on

parental leave with my two boys I lost 5kg of weight in just a

few weeks. This actually pushed me below the official limit for

malnutrition (Don't worry, I recovered quickly).

Filip (Aged 1,5) and daddy trying to make bannock bread for the first time. A good gear substitute. Don't bake the bread on the flames, wait for the embers!

With this excuse out of the way, I now feel free to unleash my

stream of thoughts on my newly found lightweight gear addiction.

This first installment will just give you a brief introduction of

my kit. A teaser if you like. It will be followed by more in

depth comments on the rationale behind each gear choice and some

experience reports.

Backpacks

I kind of started out my transition to lightweight gear by buying a new Backpack, a Gossamer Gear Mariposa Plus 2007 (Large). I wanted a fairly large pack that was also

sufficiently robust for occasional hiking in the forest (Although

many would probably want a tougher pack for this, if it was the

main activity.). The pack has not let me down and I'm very

pleased with the customer service at Gossamer Gear.

I also have a small daypack, the Marmot Kompressor. I use this backpack

almost everyday when going to work. It is a very good backpack

for daytrips. It is cheap too and available in many stores.

Shelters

It is in this area that my gear addiction really shows. I have too many tents. I will have to sell one soon, but I cannot decide on which.

Tarptent Cloudburst

http://www.tarptent.com/cloudburst2.html

This was my first lightweight tent. It is very light and has good wind stability. It is also quite large for a two man tent. It has worked quite well, but condensation is definitely an issue if there is little wind.

Six Moon Designs Lunar Duo
http://www.sixmoondesigns.com/shop/shopexd.asp?id=47
I would probably have bought the Lunar Duo, if it had existed when I bought my Cloudburst. This as a downright excellent tent for summer use. I've never slept more comfortably than in this tent. It has a high profile however, and you should be careful with your site selection in high winds.

Six Moon Designs Gatewood Cape

http://www.sixmoondesigns.com/shop/shopexd.asp?id=45
This is one of my favourite pieces of gear. I didn't buy it primarily as a tent for the night, but mostly for use as a shelter during hunting trips. It's great for that.

Bergans Kompakt Light 3

Bergans Kompakt Light 3

I got a good price through an acquaintance at Bergans and couldn't resist. The tent is not very light (about 3kg for a three-person tent), but it should be very good in cold and wet weather as there is a large vestibule you can sit and eat in. It could probably be used in the winter as well, which somehow motivates the purchase better (Although, to be perfectly honest I've not yet slept in a tent in winter...). I have a plan for transforming this tent into a truly lightweight summer shelter, but more on that later.

That's all for now. More on Sleeping, Cooking and Clothing systems will follow.