Friday, October 30, 2009

hilltrek - made to measure hiking trousers


I started the process of buying a new pair of hiking trousers today from Hilltrek, the local outdoor manufacturer and retailer in Aboyne.



The specific trouser is the Cabrach Ventile® Trousers - Double - Made to Measure . My last pair were purchased from Hilltrek but they were not made to measure, but after years spent in the hills walking to free skiing they have seen better days.

I am a big fan of product personalization so I am real excited to be purchasing a made to measure trouser this time around. In the past I have purchased a few made to measure items, water proof over trousers, mainly used in my student days and back then I did more biking so I asked Hilltrek to add reflectors and Velcro to keep the trousers tight to my legs. You just cannot do that on an item purchased from the peg.

A fleece and a long time ago I got my first ski jacket made. I recall getting to visit the store to select the colours and to get sided-up. This was a long time ago but the jacket is still great, it has picked up a couple of repairs but it still does the business at Glenshee, even on the wildest of days.

We are going to document the whole process of making my new hiking trousers on this and the hilltrek blog. The first stage was to enter my leg size, leg length, waits and knee level on this webpage. We will next pick up the story at the Hilltrek store to see how the information from the website turns into a real personalized product.

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Fungle burn alternations again


Autumn Settled In, originally uploaded by ecotorch.

In the summer the fungle burn took a pounding with flood water and I was in shock to see parts of the burn re-configured. I had been just a couple of weeks since I had passed the burn but yet again I was surprised to see a new look fungle burn. This time man-made. A narrowing of the weir, I expect it will allow the wee trouts easier access up the burn.