Rest of 2012 stuff, what worked and what didn't

Here are most of the rest of my 2012 experiments:

Black Diamond Ion headlamp - When I rose to hit the trail well before dawn and popped a fresh battery into my Ion, I expected to be able to see more than 2" from the headlamp. Wrong! When I got back, I tested a compatible lithium camera battery, and the results were incredible. (I took a photo of them side by side. You can barely see the Ion with the OEM light, while the other one is so bright it's completely saturated a large portion of the photo.) With a real battery, the Ion throws a pretty impressive amount of light.

Shangri-La 1 tarp - Decided to give the Shangri-La 1 a try, and was pretty impressed with it.  Easy to pitch, nice amount of room, reasonable weight. (I used an MLD Serenity bivy under it for bug protection.)  Held up nicely in some moderately bad weather. Still, since I'm often traveling through some pretty exposed areas, I'm inclined to seek something that'll take on some heavy wind if that's what Mother Nature brings. Will probably be trying a mid some time this year.

Golite 1 season quilt - This was my first quilt, and I liked it a lot.  Not used to sleeping right on my foam sleeping pad, but an MYOG fitted silk sheet is a lightweight solution that felt nice to the touch. Quilt provided a lot of warmth for the weight, was great for venting and temperature control.  Will be relying on quilts more going forward.

MYOG rain mitts - Last winter, I made myself a pair of WPB rain mitts with the simplest possible pattern, basically just a trace around my handprint for two symmetric panels I sewed together. Weight's about an ounce.  Also made a set of silk glove liners to go with them.  The combo worked pretty well to protect my hands from a cold, cold rain, but the lack of insulation was a significant weakness. This winter, I'll be making some overmitts big enough to fit over my MYOG fleece mittens.

Modified Flash 30 - Inspired by a BPL post on an REI Flash 30 mod, I bought one on clearance and took the seam ripper and razor blade to it. No elegance to my approach, but I hacked off everything that wasn't needed, replaced the giant waistbelt webbing and buckle, and made a simple silynylon lid to protect the top from direct rain. Finished weight was under 13 oz. Capacity is not huge (I'll probably follow the example of others who have lengthened the extension collar), but it's now a fun little pack for short trips.

Osprey 46 Hornet - This was the summer experiment that left me thinking the most. The Hornet's an attractive pack - pretty lightweight but potentially with the ability to carry a longer trip's worth of food than the purely frameless packs. Unfortunately, once the load hit mid-high 20s, I couldn't get things dialed in to put any weight on my hips. The limitation seemed to be the lack of any functional connection between the Delrin supports and the hipbelt, and because the overall pack shape changed with added weight, apparent pack fit was also affected in some strange ways.  I'll probably post separately about the details, as it'd be good to understand what's going on with the Hornet and how other pack-makers seem to have solved the problem. There's enough to like about the Hornet that I co
 uld easily see it as my favorite for long trips, but if the problem's not solvable, it's not clear it's going to fill that key niche above what I'm happy carrying in a
 CDT or an Exodus.

Comments/suggestions welcome. I'm especially interested to hear whether people have thoughts about Hornet or other packs that have stays or framesheets but are still light weight.

Cheers,

Bill