Step out into the backcountry.
The glow of the moon reflects off the snow, lighting the room in the small hours of the morning.
You slip out of your bivy sack, and begin to prepare for the long day ahead.
Your breath hangs in the air as you get dressed. You light the stove, place a pot on and add some water.
You step out of the hut to gather some of the freshly fallen snow and add it to the pot when you return.
As you wait for the water to boil, you gather your gear, and run down the checklist.
When the water boils, you turn off the stove, and prepare your breakfast of oatmeal with dried fruit, a protein bar, and a cup of coffee.
Taking your cup of coffee and the map, you sit in the doorway of the hut and review the day's route.
Looking out over the range, the mountains are bathed in moonlight and covered in a sparkling blanket of stars.
You take a deep breath of crisp, clean air. Rising from the doorway, you return to your gear and go over the checklist one last time.
With everything stowed, you shoulder the pack, and step out into the snow.
There's a long day ahead to make the next camp before nightfall.
As you make your way along the route, the sun begins to peek out over the horizon. Pausing for a moment, you look out over the valley below.
There isn't another soul in sight. As the orange and pink sunrise slowly chases away the shadows, in this moment,
you're reminded of why you keep returning to the backcountry...
(https://i.imgur.com/fL7JbBG.png)
Originally seen at the 2018 San Antonio Meetup, it was the brainchild of FistfulOfPaintballs (you can see the original here (https://i.imgur.com/4JsKCdc.jpg)), and was called Terminiferous Skydrodolch.
She mixed four GMK sets to create a unique gradient keyset; Terminal, Coniferous, Sky Dolch, and Hydro.
Like many who saw this creation, I loved it, but didn't really want to spend the money to have my own.
I spoke with her about possibly running it as it's own set, and now with her permission, I've adapted the color scheme into this new set.
The set has now been themed around backcountry hiking, climbing, and mountaineering, things I used to really enjoy doing, and something that the colors reminded me of a great deal.
The colors just screamed backcountry to me. So, I set out to make a set around that idea.
The colors represent different aspects of the backcountry. The white of snow in the mountains, the grey of the rock, blues of the ice and water, greens of the trees, grasses, and mosses.
The set uses all the stock GMK colors of the original sets (GR1, N9, AE, N7, TU2, N5), but the one exception is the Hydro alpha legends were changed from V4 to N5 to match the legends of the Hydro bottom row mods.
The most notable change from the originals is Icon Mods. They were chosen to be representative of legend symbols on maps, to go with the topographic map inspired deskmats.
The Gear:Walk-up KitA walk-up is a very easy climb that pretty much anyone can do, much like a base kit is a kit that everyone can use.
With the proliferation of the Alice layout, and taking a cue from Mito, I've added the second B and 2.25u and 2.75u spacebars to this kit.
(https://i.imgur.com/AgSgov5.png)
Slab KitSlabs are large featureless sections of rock in a climb, very much like a spacebar.
(https://i.imgur.com/ojUnuzH.png)
Crag KitA crag is a more difficult portion of a climb that requires some specialized equipment, much like a 40% board.
To minimize the number of kits that 40s users need to buy for basic compatibility, spacebars have been included in this kit.
(https://i.imgur.com/56QrLlo.png)
Cairn KitCairns are small stacks of stones used as guide markers for a route, similar to the sublegends of a VIM arrow set.
I don't know about anyone else, but I love VIM arrows and accent arrows, and I wish more sets had them.
This set gives you a replacement WASD arrows (so you can shine these up while gaming and not the base set), accent arrows for all the 65%/TKL/full size folks, IJKL arrows, and VIM arrows.
(https://i.imgur.com/689zcPE.png)
Scree KitScree are the small boulders and rocky debris at the base of a slope. It's small enough to walk over, and it can often create some entertaining experiences.
This is similar to novelties in that they typically fill out the bottom row, and while you can pass over them, they make things a little more fun.
The novelties are (from top to bottom, and left to right on rows with multiples): Prayer Flag, Mountain Range, Carabiner, Alpine Hut, Compass, Snowshoe, Multitool, Rope Coil, Camp Stove, Ice Axe.
(https://i.imgur.com/03zKW3a.png)
Deskmats:Night Hike(https://i.imgur.com/OQ2Ifdi.png)
Day Climb(https://i.imgur.com/p1arunU.png)
Renders:OSA(https://i.imgur.com/lVahPVA.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/04Cy0IX.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/vYyo0SZ.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/cWEkfDc.png)
Rama U80(https://i.imgur.com/nPFDXFj.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/v10Jl5j.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/Xn8WOYx.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/GjWosAl.png)IC Form:https://forms.gle/Li4TAEehBBv8B4Sy7 (https://forms.gle/Li4TAEehBBv8B4Sy7)Since this is an IC, the following information is still being worked out and more details will be coming.
Vendors:US: TBDCA: TBDEU: TBDAUS: TBDAsia: TBDAdditional Info:CablesI will be looking for a cable maker
more to come soon
ArtisansI have a few artisans in mind for this
more to come soon
To Do:More Renders
Cables
Artisans
Updates:Thanks to:FistfulOfPaintballs for letting me use the idea and run the set
Tyson and BlindAssassin111 for their advice and feedback
OneCreativeMind for all the awesome work on the novelties, deskmats, and packaging
Abec13 for the great renders
Signature Banner:
(https://i.imgur.com/mcUAqLG.png)
[url=https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=107602.0][img]https://i.imgur.com/mcUAqLG.png[/img][/url]