Leatherman invaluable on Ocean Frontiers 1000 Hour Day Expedition
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Deciding what to bring with you when travelling – wether you're simply out on the field for work, going away for the weekend or heading out on a lengthy hike – is always a difficult decision. This question of “Do I really need this?” becomes almost an obsession when preparing to set out on a world-first, 2-man, unsupported expedition in the high arctic as we did. The two of us could only carry/haul/paddle/drag so much equipment with us – so when push came to shove while packing, we sacrificed many items we thought were essential – but our 2 Leatherman Charge XTis stayed with us the whole way.
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Our ‘Ocean Frontiers 1000 Hour Day Expedition', sponsored by Leatherman along with other leading names including the Australian Geographic Society , Gore-Tex and others, was no normal journey to the Arctic . My expedition partner Clark Carter (21yrs), and I (22 yrs), were headed for Victoria Island , up above the Canadian mainland – the 9 th largest island in the world, and largely unexplored. Teaming with dramatic wildlife – arctic wolves, polar bears, musk ox, seals, arctic foxes, caribou etc – this bizarre lake-strewn land offered the perfect adventure. The problem was, with such varied terrain (almost as much water as land), we had to design and build our own combination kayak/sled/cart to allow us to transport all our gear. We called them P.A.C.s (Paddleable Amphibious Carts), and we built these wheeled kayaks out of aluminium in my garage at home.
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The most important aspect of an ‘unsupported' expedition such as ours is that you are alone out there, and need to be 100% totally self sufficient. Not only did this mean we had to bring 65 days worth of food with us, but we also had to be able to fix any problems that arose, such as repairs to our PACs. We really needed to bring a lot of tools, but we certainly couldn't bring a whole toolbox – so a Leatherman was the obvious solution – essentially a toolbox, all combined into one compact, reliable, convenient little unit.
We were astounded at all the uses we put our Leatherman tools to on this journey, and it quickly earned its spot packed on top of everything else, in the most accessible hatch of our PACs.
- We needed the pliers to help undo shoelaces that, after a dunking, had frozen absolutely solid like steel wire. We left behind the wooden handle for our hand-drill to save weight, so the Leatherman pliers doubled as a handle for our drill also.
- We needed the file to smooth off sharp corners on our PACs that kept wearing through our webbing.
- You know you're in hard times when ‘unbreakable' polycarbonate hiking cutlery starts snapping on you. Sick of repairing them daily, I fashioned a spoon from a musk-ox horn we found – whittling and filing it down with somewhat greater ease and speed than the ancient Inuit could have managed without Leatherman tools.
- After several weeks we were craving a bit of extra food and managed to successfully hunt ptarmigan. Of the various knives we had with us, the Leatherman's blade was the simplest (and sharpest) to use for preparing these birds for dinner.
- We lost a paddle, and had to build one using one of our 4 poles we used to support our polar-bear perimeter tripwire around the tent each night. Again the Leatherman proved its worth.
- The extreme conditions and salt air played havoc with our electrical systems and wiring – leading to many critical on-the-spot repairs – unscrewing the box containing our bear alarm circuitry (using the Leatherman driver), and cutting, snipping and re-wring the insides with the wire-strippers and pliers.
On top of the above tasks we put them to, our two Leatherman Charge XTis found their way into our daily life, constantly being used for odd jobs here and there – both of them ultimately earning their spot inside the tent each night. Now that's saying something. We put these tools through hell and not one element in them failed or even became damaged. Impressive, versatile and Addictive are the three words that spring to mind when we think about the Leatherman tool.
Visit www.1000HourDay.com for further information and photos on our expedition.
Chris Bray
Explorers Club Member, Australian Geographic Society's Young Adventurer of the Year 2004