It can be hard to shed the nagging feeling that you've forgotten something when heading into the wilderness, so gearmaker VSSL has sought to put minds at ease with a single package designed for all that the outdoors might throw at you. The company says its new Camp device packs over 70 essential items in all, while the body itself serves as a bright flashlight at one end and a compass at the other.
VSSL has caught out eye before with its sleek and functional survival tubes. These essentially function as LED flashlights on the outside, but make use of the cylindrical body to pack more than just a set of batteries on the inside. The VSSL Flask we looked at in 2015, for example, packed the flashlight, a compass, a set of collapsible steel drinking glasses and a bottle opener.
This time, VSSL has looked to beef things up in a big way by including everything you might need at camp, but working out what gear to include wasn't easy. The team says it spent three years fiddling with the makeup of the VSSL Camp and reckons it has wound up with something like the "Swiss army knife of camp gear."
The 200-lumen flashlight offers four lighting modes and will burn for up to 20 hours at maximum brightness, while the oil-filled compass at the other end is said to function in temperatures between -10 °C and 50 °C (14 °F and 122 ° F).
Sandwiched within the Camp's 9-inch long (23 cm) aluminum body is a set of useful outdoor items, all packed neatly into circular labeled screw-top containers. These fit snugly inside the watertight body and can be accessed by unscrewing the compass end of the device.
Onboard is a beeswax candle with four hours burn time, a bamboo cloth for wiping duties, a 1-L (34-oz) water bag and a 25-ft (7.6-m) spool of marine grade rope for hanging wet items by the fire. Speaking of which, the firestarter kit comes with tinder and waterproof matches, while the fishing kit contains hooks, bobbers and lines to help you supply for mealtime.
Other handy items include adventure tape for patching wounds or marking trails, a wire saw, can opener, sewing kit and extra gear ties for hanging miscellaneous items. And on the survival side of things there's a beadless whistle for the bears, a signaling mirror, water purification tablets and a first aid kit with bandages, safety pins and antiseptic wipes.
VSSL has taken to Kickstarter to raise funds for production of its Camp device, and has hit the ground running by reining in more than CAD$100,000 at the time of writing, with 17 days left on the campaign (US$75,000). Available in black and silver, pledges for the full kit start at CAD$139 (US$104) with shipping slated for May if all goes to plan. You can check out the pitch video below.
Source: VSSL/Kickstarter
