Preparing for Winter - Part 2

Footwear - where to begin!!!!!!!!!

When you have big feet you don't get much choice in womens footwear. In fact, you get none from trail shoe and boot manufacturers if you are bigger than a size 8 UK. The sizing in itself is a minefield that I also have difficulty in understanding as an EU 42 could be a size 9 in womens but size 8 in mens. Aaaaaarrrrgggghhhhh. I now just go into the shops and ask for EU 42 or 43 in mens and hope that they might fit.

I've been chatting to ptc*, Sandy and bobinson for a few weeks about what to do on my footwear dilemma. Over the last few winters I have been wearing a mixture of La Sportiva Trango Evo S and Keen Targhee Mids. I managed to trash the La Sportivas playing on scree in Skye and replaced them with the next model up the Trango Evo Alp for proper winter playtime. The Keens are exceptionally comfy but are leaking like sieves and not the best on wet rock. As the Alps are for proper snow and a bit like overkill for our wet cold winters, it was time to look for something more suitable.The boys and I had talked over a number of options and I really wanted to try the Haglofs Vertigo Mids. Unfortunately there's only one retailer in Weegieland who stock Haglofs footwear and only the Crag shoe and not even in my size so I couldn't even see how the fit was. I had tracked some down online but was reluctant to take £135 risk.

There was nothing else for it, I had to go wander the gear shops to see what they had in store and try stuff on ;-)  The majority of boots I looked at were just too heavy and stiff but a couple of pairs by Salomon caught my eye, Quest 4D Mid and Mission. I spent a fair bit of time wandering about in both but decided on taking the Mission.

They feel really comfy on. There's good enough ankle support without it being restrictive  and they have the feel of a slightly stiffer approach shoe but not so stiff that you're clumping about. The sole seemed sticky enough on the angled logs and slate thingy they had in the shop but they didn't have any steep wet grass for me to really test it on ;-)

I shall spend most of my time indoors tomorrow wandering about in these trying to make my mind up if  I'm to take them with me to Corran to hopefully play in some Lochaber snow.

Preparing for Winter - Part 1

It's nearly time for the white stuff and I had one or two things that required some tweaking. PTC* had been talking to me about winter wildcamp adventures which had me anxious as I knew my current sleeping set up wasn't good enough for freezing cold snowy nights. I recently got a lovely Thermasrest Neoair and was very impressed with how comfy and warm I was using it with my Marmot Helium on my wild camp back in September compared to when I had used my Thermarest Prolte 4 (now Prolite Plus). This new combo still wasn't going to get me through a winter summit camp.

Over coffee & cake much discussion was had with PTC*and Bobinson where we came to the conclusion that yes it was a very good idea that I had ordered some toasty phd down booties which would compliment my phd Yukon and that what I need to look at was the purchase of a second sleeping bag to double up with. As discussion continued it progressed to me asking if the boys had been at the new Decathlon which had opened in Glasgow's East End. Before I knew it we were in the vehicles heading east.

Decathlon is a store that I was used to from my time in London, so I was well aware of the potential bargains to be had, especially with their own brand stuff. We all wandered round poking & prodding lots of stuff. A couple of things caught my eye. An inflatable sit mat for £4.85 - all 78g

I then came across these Bionnassey trousers which looked like they could be a bargain at £39.95. In essence they reminded me of my favorite Patagonia Alpine Guide Pants, made of some heavy duty scholler with nice thigh vents with mesh, removable internal gaiters and braces. They were tried on. The fit was good and the leg length. I felt another item about to be purchased. Then I spotted that there was a bit of a price difference between the mens & womens - they had the cheek to be charging £10 more for the womens version AND it had a pocket less than the mens!! I was not a happy blonde. I sourced out a person from the mountaineering department who could find no reason for the price difference but could not price match to the mens so I wasn't buying them out of principle until they were the same price. He had emailed London to investigate and the price would be sorted but not then so no sale today on this item.

Next item to get my interest was this very brightly coloured sleeping bag. This might be suitable for my doubling up for winter. At a stated weight of 640g that would be a reasonable weight to carry. It had a temp rating of 15C but looked very flimsy. I had to test it for warmth ;-) PTC's hands were shaky due to laughing taking this photo, sorry for the blurriness but you get the idea. Another item purchased :-)

We had to get out of there before I bought any more but one more thing caught our eye, something that may help keep th heat in the Neoair. This emergency blanket thing was examined by PTC* and myself and we decided there was enough for a half each to play with.

Enough money spent. Time to leave the building.......

Wet wet wet............

We hadn't been to the Lakes for a while and it was time for the annual Autumn get together. The usual suspects were assembled with Cath very kindly offering us shelter in the Fell & Rock Club Hut at Raw Head - this turned out to be a godsend. Steve also  gave the rallying call to the Outdoorsmagic side of things with a reasonable number being very brave and camping at the NT Campsite.

Langdale is a great part of he Lakes which I like, but so do a lot of people. I think I'm getting spoiled doing my walking in Scotland where its a lot easier to avoid the honeypot hills. The weather was not being our friend with the forecast being quite hideous and the actual weather even worse. Cabin fever did start kicking in so it was time to stop playing Jelly Baby Theater. Me, Matt and Kate decided to go for a wander round the Langdale valley to see how the various waterfalls were looking. It was going to be a good test for the gear ;-) We were doing a wee circuit, Elterwater, Skelwith Force, Colwith Force, Little Langdale and back to Elterwater. Well, we did come across some water ;-)

Matt

 Skelwith Force

 Colwith Force

Salter's Bridge

En route Matt also took us on a wee detour into Cathedral Cave which was very entertaining with our wee re-enactment of Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs with John, John & Bob fro the hut along with two other poor sods who just happened to be in the tunnel as the same time as us :-)

Despite the weather, we had fun. I did have very wet feet. My Keen Targhee Mids lasted minutes which is not good. They were also abysmal grip wise on wet grass and I ended up doing a spectacular arse plant. I really need to get in touch with them to see what they say about the supreme lack of waterproofness. I know the model I have is an older one with Event liner and they have changed this for the latest version. However, they are supremely comfortable and even though my feet were wet I wasn't too uncomfortable. I do still like them I just have to be very selective what terrain I take them on.

Still, twas a grand day out :-)

Little Langdale Tarn

The Youth Of Today

It was always going to be a busy day. ptc*, Bobinson, Craig & Ian were the reduced WHW FallDoon Team mountainbiking (former 2) and running (latter 2) Stage 1 from Fort William to Tyndrum. The roadbike component of the Team had pulled out at the eleventh hour but it was still full steam ahead for the others. We had already organised to rendezvous at the ever wonderful Real Food Cafe around teatime ish to hear the tales of the day but before that we had Jamie to pick up from the airport and introduce him to certainly my favourite hill The Cobbler.

It was a crisp morning so I had my usual kit dilemas of "what to wear?" Footware was easy. I'd wanted an excuse to give the 5:10 Camp Fours a UK outing as they'd only been out to play in Italy on some via ferrata. I don't like getting too hot or too cold. Rain wasn't on the cards and I figured it was day oot for the phd Ultra Vest. I needn't have worried, the sun was shining and dam all in the way of wind. This however meant that everyone and their dug was also thinking it was a good day to do The Cobbler. Even Jamie who is more used to the Lakes & Peak was surprised at the numbers. It didn't stop him from having a muck about on the Narnain Boulders

That was only the beginning of the playtime. Before too long we were on the right hand summit looking over to people "threading the needle" on the left hand summit. Steve elected to be chief photographer whilst Jamie & I joined the queue. It was worth it. It's been a few years since I've thread the needle and the rock is certainly more polished than I remember it.

We were meeting Sandy somewhere on the track to then head to Tyndrum. He'd been off wildcamping on Ben Lomond. Stories were exchanged including the meeting we'd had with a young cheeky chappie. We'd met Kieran not far from the beallach on the eastern approach up "the front" of The Cobbler. He seemed very enthusiastic and took great delight in telling us he'd conquered this on his own. I did question him on this but he said none of his family or mates were into hillwalking so he'd come on his own. He said he lived in Arrochar so essentially this was his playground. Lucky boy we thought and good on him for getting out. The chat continued and I discovered he didn't have any food with him so I said I'd give him a Snickers Bar once he got to the top. As we continued up and we were becoming more enthralled by this boy's ambitions. He said he wanted to do Ben Nevis next year. We told him that he really needed an adult with him for that one. We got to the summit and he got his Snicker Bar.

 We all headed back to the the central summit and advised Kieran that he'd be better to go down the stepped path off the back whilst we went off to thread the needle. We were all encouraged how this 14 year old was so keen on being outdoors whilst most kids were couch potatoes. As we were en route to the car we met Kieran again. This time he was with another boy, two women and a dug. The women shouted his name. We looked puzzled at one another whilst Kieran gave us a very worried look and came out with a very cheeky "What took you so long?" Me thinks this boy had been on his own little adventure though not as solo as we had been led to believe. Bet he thought he was onto a real winner when he got the Snickers Bar out of me - oh the youth of today.......................

Got to The Real Food Cafe about 1730 but there was no sign of the WHW FallDoon Team. We had limited technology but were able to access Twitter where we could see the mountainbikers were behind the runners @ Kingshouse. Fish & chips were scoffed and began working on our pressure sores on the sofas next to the fire. News came through around 7ish they were at Bridge of Orchy. We were very relieved when the mountainbikers eventually appeared at 2045 with the runners about 30 mins later. Time for refueling

Amazingly ptc* is still smiling

What a day :-)

Friends & dugs

As some of you will know I'm a total softie when it comes to animals especially dugs. I would so love to have one of my own but as I'm in a job that makes me work stupidly long hours it just aint practical. I do however have the opportunity to "borrow" my friend's dug. It just so happened that he needed a home for a few days as his usual kennel was full so I got first refusal - bit of a no brainer :-)

For living in a city I'm not too bad for getting access to green areas for walking the mutt. I'm seconds from the Forth & Clyde Canal and that takes me along to Dawsholm Park which Luca and I explored extensively. The thing was I wanted to take him for a proper runabout so decided to head for the Kilpatricks. Steve had the kids and unfortunately Jennifer is a bit allergic to dugs so they weren't joining me. I got on the "dog & bone" (corny I know) roping in Sandy & Louise whilst leaving messages for ptc* to come find us on Doughnot Hill.

They've  done some work around the Kilpatricks including some strange gate things that Sandy nearly got stuck in!!

The weather was very pleasant and the route up to Doughnot Hill gives you a good view of Lang Crags

The dug was havin a great time. I was a wee bit worried about letting him off the lead as I'd never had him out on terrain like this before but he was a wee gem not going too far ahead and sticking mainly to the path we were following. It was a tad windy on top so we only stayed long enough for a quick photo op before heading for some shelter.

By this time we'd had comms from ptc* who was approaching from Loch Humphry. Rendezvous point was decided and before we knew it the dug was making more friends

We got all the lowdown from ptc* on his latest adventure, the WHW Falldoon - mad but great :-) We will be watching his progress via the Spot Tracker with interest and have already made plans to see the teams in The Real Food Cafe Saturday evening. Any excuse for a fish supper ;-)