Sarah bought a pair of carbon fibre poles about 7 years ago because they were lightweight and on special of $80. They have served her well but at the weekend, the inevitable happened and one of them snapped when crossing a steep, rock fall. It went into a fissure and weight came onto it's shaft where it pushed against a rock. Not good as we were on very rocky ground for the next 2 days. She carried on using it, broken, for an hour until I suddenly thought that, for the first time ever, I was carrying some duct tape!
I also realised our tent pegs are aluminium with a concave/convex shaft for strength. Would you believe the concavity was identical to the shape of the pole shaft at the break! Thus I splinted 3 pegs onto it and Hey Presto! a perfectly usable pole for the remainder of the trip.
Thank you, whoever suggested to always carry some duct tape!
By the way - we did the St Arnaud Range - absolutely gorgeous with heaps of choice of tarns to camp by!
I'm sure tramping has taught us to be innovative with our limited resources. Nice one, Deepriver.
Haha great story, I love a good duct tape fix. I used to flat with a Gaffer, the ones that work on film and tv? They're called gaffers because basically all they do all day is fix things with gaffer tape, that's what he told me.
A few long burly cable ties, dental floss and a big sharp needle are in my repair kit, along the leukoplast tape (sticks much better an seems stronger than duct tape).
I don't know what they make dental floss out off but a short 10 stitch seam has fixed a shoulder strap to one of my packs without breaking for a couple of years.
Cable ties are great for replacing buckles, splints, handcuffs for unruly people who overbook huts...
>Cable ties are great for replacing buckles, splints, handcuffs for unruly people who overbook huts...
love it!
