Fundamentals of Swimpacking

Timing of expedition: The best weather for the expedition is overcast sky with no rain. The Lakes are known to be very windy during the summer season with easterly winds dominating during the day time (11-12 pm – 6-7 pm). The winds are powered by the thermal effect, thus they are prevalent when the sun is heating the shore. Sunny weather makes swimming west in Nitinat Lake (or Hobiton and Tsusiat) impractical as the majority of swim will be against the wind and, most importantly, against the chop. Swimming in sharp chop with a bag is extremely hard and will decrease the swimming speeds a lot. Thus, I suggest doing the first part of the swim when the sky is overcast. Central Vancouver Island is a bit rainier in August and September then June and July, so it will be easier to find a good overcast day if we aim the trip for the period of late August, early September. Ideally, the perfect plan would be to go to Nitinat for wind surfing Late August, Early September and wait for an ove...

I want to attempt Nitinat Triangle June-July 2019. Want to join me? I post this early so that we have enough time to prepare for the trip and go on a few practice trips before we head out to the Island. I also apply for MEC Adventure Grant on Jan 15, 2019 for this trip and if you want to be supported by the grant you should let me know by Jan 1st. You must be from BC or AB to be eligible for the grand, but you're still welcome to participate in the trip if you are from outside BC or AB. Short Description: On this trip I want to cover the infamous Nitinat Triangle on Vancouver Island by staged open water swimming in 3-4 days with no support crew. It is a 37 km long loop that connects 3 lakes – Lakes Hobiton, Tsusiat and Nitinat by land and water. Why? Nitinat Triangle goes through one of the largest preserved old growth rainforests on the West Coast of Canada – Pacific Rim National Park. Swimming in a remote natural body of water surrounded by a millennia-old forest for multipl...

A short update on a practice swim in Indian Arm and Buntzen Lake on Tuesday, Nov 06, 2018. Total distance (including the unrecorded portion that is not registered on the profile image): 15.8 km Swimming: 7.3 km Hiking: 8.5 km Elevation gain: 612 m Total time: ~6 hr Planning: This loop has been attempted before in a 2-day trip in summer 2018, but the last hiking part wasn't finished that time. Documented in this trip report . Last time it seemed too short for a multi-day trip, so this time I decided to do it in a day. Map software promised ~ 7.4 km swimming = maximum of ~4 hrs hr and ~40 min walk between the lakes + 40 min faff. The sunset that week was ~4:30 pm and I wanted to have about 40 min leeway. The last stretch of hiking would be ok to do in dark as the trail is well known and I walked on it before. That made the start cut off at 11 pm.  Initially I picked Sunday, Nov 3rd as the start day as it was the first day after a heavy rain and the weather was promi...

In this blog I am addressing more frequent questions that people often ask me and later will discuss some ideas that I have how to decrease the drag from a bag. But first: Bag towing update: Recently I have tried a new technique for bag towing that worked much better then the one I suggested before (ankle mount). This time I have tried to tie single rope on a tightening knot to my waste and the other end to the bag. The rope had 3 floaties made out of pool noodle above my heals to prevent the rope tangling in my feet. This setup completely freed up my feet adding a bit of power and prevented rocking of the bag (increased efficiency). I will be using this setup in future. Question: Why does the bag not sink? This was one of the first questions that we wanted to answer when me and Martin first went for a swimpacking day-trip. We stuffed our dry bags  with everything that we would bring to a multi day ...