A long overdue update: I did NOT install those hanging points in the cellar, I went, as several of you suggested, for trees outside in stead. As most of you told me: I do indeed sleep astonishingly well in a hammock. The 4 day trip in the mountainous region in the south of Belgium (4 x 32km, with every day around 600m vertical meters up and down again) went VERY well, I started with neckpain (arthrosis) and feared the worst, but I ended the trip pain free. I am hooked, this hammocking may very well extend my trekking career with a decade...
My hammock, a Hennessy Expedition Asym Clasic is on the small side for me, but it works. I experienced CBS (cold but syndrome) and started on the underquilt. You-all told me so...Contrary to wat I said here earlier, I went for down isolation.
As I planned initially I went for a sewn-on version. I found a cheap and light down camping blancket, 1.8m x 1.2m, I reduced the width for the legs to 70cm, for the head to 50cm, but for the torso I maintained the full original width of 120 cm. The pieces I cut off were then put together to double up the central part of the quilt, under the torso. So doing I ended up with a quilt that was vaguely man-shaped, with a 60cm x 90cm part under the torso double-layered, with 7 cm of loft.
I hung the hammock, with my weight in sandbags in stead of me, and attached the quilt under the hammock with pieces of ducttape: that way I was sure to have the correct differential cut, neither to tight with loss of loft, or to loose with drafty heatleaks.
I went to a professional seamstress (my niece...) to do the sewing because I was afraid that with my old sewing machine, if I lost 2 seconds of control in the middle of the hammock, I was at risk of ending up with a fatally weakened hammock ripping in half when used. The sewing was perfect.
For the overquilt I was lucky in finding a second hand down sleeping bag for 25€. I cut of the hood, and opened up the zipper (that initially went to about halfway) all the way to the footend of the sleeping bag, only keeping a footbox of about 30cm. The hood I cut off was re-used to extend the footend of the underquilt with 15 cm.
Last but not least I converted the original Hennessy raintarp so it could double up as walking cape: I noticed it being only slightly larger then my old cycling cape, so I transferred the hood of said cycling cape tot the apropriate place in the middle of the tarp, and bingo!! A weight gain of 1.5kg just there.
Only once did I stray from the idea of saving weight: I made a "woodgasstove" from old tins: it is NOT the lightest of cooking arrangement, but gives the possibility of a small wood fire in the evenings. A little fire to sit around and talk is a treat, a mental luxury at the end of a hard day walking I do not want to be without. And most places in the Alps open fires are not allowed, while little stovers are tolerated...
Finally I bought A light weight back pack (Osprey Exos 48).
By next wednesday I want my pack packed as for the trek, with a max of 10kg, INCLUDING all raingear but without consumables.
Then starts the "walking uphill" training: daily trek to my old university (8km), where I can then do 90m of stairs. First day I do those stairs 3 times (270m), building up the following weeks to higher and higher.
I intend to retest sleeping in the hammock again, especially in rainy weather (enough of that in Belgium...): mostly build up and take down in the rain, things like that?
26th of this month my friend and I go for it: Switserland, here we come...
Anybody interested in a bit more technical plans, measurements, drawings, step by step descriptions of how those quilts were made: only ask. But please: after sept. 10th, when I am back from the trip? By then I can also evaluate them better, after the experience. There will be foto's.
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