The Mountaineers

m47mu74nt · **Reply #30 on:** November 05, 2017, 10:48:37 PM

Mine qualifies as favorite, and most carried !

Wire Edge · **Reply #31 on:** November 05, 2017, 11:14:31 PM

A few years back I found a cheap one on eBay with a cracked scale. I put a set of StayGlow scales on it! It’s well used and a couple of the tools don’t have the snap they once did, but I still really like that model.

Barry Rowland · **Reply #32 on:** November 06, 2017, 01:02:29 AM

I have to try it out on wood. I'm a big fan of the Craftsman and the Ranger. I have to say that file is the sweetest file I've ever seen!

El Corkscrew · **Reply #33 on:** January 08, 2018, 12:13:01 AM

Just sharpened up el Mountaineer with el rod sir Mags so generously gifted. Thinking about slapping plus scales on it... Too bad I have to wait another 26 days to carry it

on account of el 30 different saks/days challenge...

But it will be a fun challenge and many neglected saks such as el mountaineer will have the chance to shine

Lynn LeFey · **Reply #34 on:** January 08, 2018, 01:55:59 AM

I gave a friend of mine a multitool. She said it was great, but needed a more aggressive file.

I got her a used Mountaineer on ebay. She was satisfied that the file was sufficient.

I should also note that on probably Thursday, I'll have my own Mountaineer, another ebay acquisition.

Barry Rowland · **Reply #35 on:** January 08, 2018, 04:51:35 AM

Great news Lynn...post some pics for us!

Thunderpants · **Reply #36 on:** January 08, 2018, 06:25:51 PM

Never thought I'd say this, but the crappy old Lite on my Mountaineer Lite saved my derriere the other day.
We'd just arrived in Denmark for Christmas. After dinner a friend and I leave everyone setting up the Christmas tree - the house we're staying at is supposedly near the sea so we want to go and find it. It's pitch black outside, no street lights and most houses are dark, as they're holiday houses made for summer and unoccupied in winter. We're plodding along these mud tracks, lit by the brightest lamp in the world - which suddenly dies. No worries, I think - I have a "Tank" LED light on my keychain. So along we go, turning left, right, without really paying much attention to navigation. "That sounds like the sea over there!" we say about a dozen times, only to find dark swathes of forest. Now this guy I'm with is diabetic. After about half an hour he stops to do a sugar test. Chomps into a Snickers to refuel. Grudgingly we admit we're kind of lost - which is ridiculous; even more ridiculous is the fact that neither of us has a working phone (mine is playing Fairy Tale of New York back at the shack, his has no connection and 9% power.) And to top off the absurdity of the situation, neither of us can remember our own address - it's some weird thing in Danish which we didn't think we'd need to memorise just yet. So we can't even knock on someone's door and beg for directions!
With perfect timing, the "Tank" on my keychain dies. It's pitch black, no stars, just a few lonely strings of fairy lights every hundred metres or so. It starts to rain. Mr Diabetic asks if I have any sweeties on me - as luck would have it I have some vile liquorice I picked up at the train station. So he's not going to die just yet, which is good! But now we can't even see where we're going, can't read the street names. Suddenly I remember my penknife! By the purest bit of luck, I chose to bring my Mountaineer Lite along with us on holiday. Originally I was going to take just a Spyderco and a Swisstool Spirit but then I remembered I'd need a corkscrew... So along came the Mountaineer Lite, which is my most expensive 91mm Vic but which doesn't get a helluva lot of use.
Ever since I've had it I've been dismissive about the Lite - the dimmest glow in the universe! But on this occasion it really saved the day. It was enough to see by, enough to read road names. We found the sea - the Kattegat of "Vikings" fame. And another sea on the other side of this narrow peninsula. Mr Blood Sugar Level was about to have another crisis when we passed a house which looked oddly familiar... There was a wreath on the door and the lights were on. "Maybe that's our house!" - and of course it was.
So we didn't scale any mountains, or do anything remotely adventurous, but it did turn into a bit of an adventure, even if it was just one of those lame adventures you have when you walk out the door totally unprepared, thinking - "Of course we're not going to get lost! We're not idiots!"
Here's the only picture I took of the Mountaineer Lite while we were on holiday. A bit blurry. But what the heck.

Ron Who · **Reply #37 on:** January 08, 2018, 06:29:33 PM

So you lived to tell! Well done. It won´t happen again, I trust.

Thunderpants · **Reply #38 on:** January 08, 2018, 06:40:36 PM

Cheers Ron!

Lynn LeFey · **Reply #39 on:** January 08, 2018, 07:00:12 PM

Quote from: Thunderpants on January 08, 2018, 06:25:51 PM

Ever since I've had it I've been dismissive about the Lite - the dimmest glow in the universe! But on this occasion it really saved the day.

I think people get WAY overhyped on lumens, somehow forgetting that full moonlight, which is usually PLENTY to see by, is like a quarter lumen equivalent. A 2 lumen light is plenty for walking around at night, assuming you're in no big hurry.

By the way, this was a fantastic story.

Also by the way, I had a thread discussing the red LED in the older 'lite' tools, and apparently, the white LED is in the 9+ range. That's a pretty good light, and the 5-7 range is where I like lights for 'camp tasks', doing stuff within 20 feet or so. If it's 9 lumens, it's PLENTY for walking around at night.

Here's the thread I started on the red LED version, that got the discussion going.
https://forum.multitool.org/index.php?topic=44027.0

Barry Rowland · **Reply #40 on:** January 08, 2018, 09:06:17 PM

Awesome story!!

Thunderpants · **Reply #41 on:** January 08, 2018, 10:02:15 PM

Cheers Lynn & Barry.
I'm sure if I'd bought my Mountaineer Lite nearer to 2009 or whenever they were made, the battery would have been fresher and whole thing more dazzling. As it is, the battery must have been 4 or 5 years old - not dead, but getting there. Fresh batteries improved things by several orders of magnitude.
I too am no fan of crazy dazzling lights - I can't think of anything more pointless than something that blasts out 200 lumens and nothing else. I've found that the Olight i3s has a great range of modes and runs well off a rechargeable AAA Eneloop.
Silly me didn't have the Olight with me that day, just my flaky Tank, which would be banished from my keychain forever were it not for its colour which matches my Alox Classic! (Pink!)
Getting back to the Mountaineer - I did think the Lite was a bit of a waste of space but now that it has proven itself reliable and usable in a dodgy situation, my overall assessment of the SAK has inched towards a perfect score. There isn't really anything unnecessary on there. The only thing I find odd about it is the placement of a chisel on the side with the awl etc. I would by far prefer to have the flat & thin screwdriver which, of all my SAKs, is only present on the Craftsman & Spirit. I use this tool all the time whenever fiddling with wiring. In our holiday house in Denmark there was some scary wiring - you know, insulation stopping short of the wall plug so all the coloured wires are showing - and as we had kids scrambling all over the place I decided they needed to be fixed. Coulda done it with the Mountaineer Lite if they hadn't decided to bless it with the world's tiniest chisel instead... But who knows, maybe I'll need that next holiday!

Lynn LeFey · **Reply #42 on:** January 08, 2018, 11:12:14 PM

Yeah, losing a toothpick to gain a light seems like a no brainer.

(EDIT: Crap, they embed it in the 91mm instead of just putting it in the scales, right? )

Dag-smurf it! Now I want a Super Tinker Lite, which, knowing my luck, they don't make.

Gareth · **Reply #43 on:** January 09, 2018, 11:43:26 AM

Great story TP. The Mountaineer Lite is one of the very few SAKs I'd still really like to get my hands on.

Thunderpants · **Reply #44 on:** January 09, 2018, 11:57:52 AM

Cheers Gareth.
Here it is in all its glory. Alongside a surprisingly decent Chinese Spyderco.

Gareth · **Reply #45 on:** January 09, 2018, 12:02:17 PM

Barry Rowland · **Reply #46 on:** January 09, 2018, 05:54:46 PM

Thunderpants · **Reply #47 on:** January 11, 2018, 11:26:43 AM

So... should I go ahead and take the scales off this Spartan and stick them on my ugly white Mountaineer?
Then I'd have a French Mountaineer, which I'd call Lachenal, or Destivelle, or Terray; Destivelle being the prettiest of the bunch.

Thunderpants · **Reply #48 on:** January 11, 2018, 12:20:56 PM

Well the votes are in (all 0 of them) so I went and made the French "Drapeau" Mountaineer that Victorinox should have made in the first place.
Et voila! The Vic Destivelle! Elle est trés belle!
And that's the end of my French. (8 years of school French and that's it?! Merde! C'est pas possible!)

ThundahBeagle · **Reply #49 on:** January 11, 2018, 12:27:43 PM

Quote from: El Corkscrew on January 08, 2018, 12:13:01 AM

Just sharpened up el Mountaineer with el rod sir Mags so generously gifted. Thinking about slapping plus scales on it... Too bad I have to wait another 26 days to carry it on account of el 30 different saks/days challenge...

But it will be a fun challenge and many neglected saks such as el mountaineer will have the chance to shine

Um...silly question...do the rules of "30 different SAKs" negate the possibility of carrying more than one? Or having a spare in a backpack, sling, or briefcase?

Barry Rowland · **Reply #50 on:** January 11, 2018, 12:46:31 PM

Beautiful!!

Barry Rowland · **Reply #51 on:** January 11, 2018, 12:49:53 PM

I think multiple SAKs are okay in this challenge....or at least I hope so because I usually have a 58 or 65 in my pocket too!

.

m47mu74nt · **Reply #52 on:** January 12, 2018, 06:35:08 AM

Quote from: Thunderpants on January 11, 2018, 12:20:56 PM

Well the votes are in (all 0 of them) so I went and made the French "Drapeau" Mountaineer that Victorinox should have made in the first place.
Et voila! The Vic Destivelle! Elle est trés belle!
And that's the end of my French. (8 years of school French and that's it?! Merde! C'est pas possible!)

FolderBeholder · **Reply #53 on:** March 23, 2018, 08:38:38 PM

I'm about to join this club! I was on eBay and thought this was a Trail Guide, which I don't own, but I see now that it's a Mountaineer. I didn't own this model either, until now.

So this one is in route (eBay photo):