[e.ian.howick]

>That’s a nifty paddle setup! You don’t have any issue with the blades twisting?

Yes, it was an issue, it would have been good to put some tape around the walking pole joints to stop them twisting, but I could manage getting across those rivers.

I think my paddle set-up would give better propulsion at a similar carried weight to your hand paddles, but I’d still want a better paddle if I was heading down a grade 1-3 river. The river in my picture above is discoloured, flowing quite swiftly, it’s been raining about 50% of the time for the last week. I needed to pick a spot with a decent section and an exit point downstream, I was getting step downstream several hundred yards by the time I got across, so I’m not confident hand paddles would have been enough.

I have some quite light 25 mm dia carbon tube and a piece of ferrule tube, I’m going to make a two piece shaft from it I can lash those plastic blades to, think I can get a functioning paddle for under 400 g. I might try to make some very light carbon-kevlar blades that can fit on the paddle shaft, they probably won’t be lighter than the plastic ones but might be stronger and more efficient.

Yes, I agree the DIY Ultralight looks a great boat for my use, but thanks for the pointer to the Supai Canyon, I might end up getting one of those for this style of mainly alpine hiking trip, but where I need to get across a big river at some point. (Unless the DIY Ultralight comes back into stock!) A complete set-up including paddle for less than 1 kg would be really good.

[e.ian.howick]

Great Effort!

I’m doing a similar style of trip, mainly hiking/transalpine but carrying a packraft to get across rivers that would be otherwise uncrossable. I took a couple of paddle blades from a cheap beach toy inflatable and drilled a couple of holes so I could lash them to my walking poles. Good enough to cross even a quite fast flowing river, although I’d want something better for descending such a river. (Yes, it’s a Klymit LWD, I’m in the early stages of building a Skeena, but would really like to have a DIY Ultralight for such trips where I’m carrying ice axe, crampons, small alpine tent and a packraft).

 

[e.ian.howick]

Thanks Matt, thought there was probably a reason. Think I’ll push the button on a standard Skeena soon and stick to using the Klymit LWD for now when I need a lighter weight option/only need to be able to cross rivers.

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