Ripcord Adventure Gear Guide #1

Letter from the Editor
I’m writing the introduction for the first RAJ Gear Guide lying on
my back in the jungle on an uninhabited island in the middle of
Lake Malawi, the slosh-sloshing of waves hitting the beach in the
background, and an occasional bulbul squawking in the trees above
my tent. If you’re green-eyed with envy, it’s quite understandable,
but somebody has to do it. How else will you know which
mosquito nets best keep the bugs at bay, which solar lanterns can
also charge smartphones, and which rucksacks on the market are
genuinely monkey-proof?
When we first conceived the RAJ Gear Guide way back in spring
2015, we wanted to create a reference guide for adventurers. The kit
and clothing you choose when you’re exploring, frequently makes
the difference between success and failure in the challenge you have
set yourself, and certainly dictates whether or not you will be
comfortable and safe as you do it. There is a wealth of information
online about what to wear, pack and carry for every imaginable
scenario, but it is poorly curated (if at all), disorganised, and often
biased or limited in its detail. For something so vital, that’s just not
good enough.
In the RAJ Gear Guide, you’ll find articles by explorers and
adventurers who have been there, seen it and done it. They write
from personal experience, and are brutally honest. If something isn’t
up to scratch, however pretty it looks, they say so. We’re not going
to pull any punches.
There is no point ‘testing’ something in an office or the local park: it
has to be done in real world conditions by people who know what
they’re talking about. Rather than let Max Lovell-Hoare review his
cold weather gear at home in his admittedly drafty English
farmhouse, we exiled him to Siberia in winter. Bryn Kewley spent
two years on the road motor biking from London to Singapore
before putting his findings in print, and ultra-athlete Carlton
Rowlands ran, cycled, swam and skied on three different continents
before providing us with his interview and Nuala Moore, openwater
swimmer, bravely plunged into the Bering Strait to give us
feedback on Mullion’s Aquafloat Superior Jacket and Trousers. Do
you start to get the picture?