GMK Backcountry
Originally seen at the 2018 San Antonio Meetup, it was the brainchild of FistfulOfPaintballs, and 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 been themed around backcountry hiking and climbing, something I used to enjoy doing, and something that the colors reminded me of a great deal.
It all 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.
Backcountry 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 Kit
A 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 2u and 2.75u spacebars to this kit.
Slab Kit
Slabs are large featureless sections of rock in a climb, very much like a spacebar.
Crag Kit
A 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.
Cairn Kit
Cairns 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.
Scree Kit
Scree 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.
Deskmats:
Night Hike
Day Climb
Renders:
OSA
Rama U80
IC Form:
https://forms.gle/Li4TAEehBBv8B4Sy7
The following information is still being worked out and more details will be coming.
Vendors:
NA: TBD
EU: TBD
AUS: TBD
Asia: TBD
Additional Info:
I will be looking for a cable maker and I have a few artisan makers in mind for this, more to come soon.
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
And thank you to the community at large, for all the great ideas and cool stuff you all make.
