So Sad

So sad, yesterday i drove up to Seathwaite in the Duddon valley for the funeral of a local legend which took place at Seathwaite church. It was very moving. But my thoughts on this event are private and not for printing here.
What i want to say though is, how magnificent the mountains looked on my way there. As you approach J36 on the M6 the mountains were so clear and looked so near. The white tops set against a cold crystal clear blue sky was just a joy.

When you drive through Lowick and look right, the magnificent view of the Coniston fells comes into view. Its always a good panorama but today was just so clear every feature of the mountain and the ridge was just jaw dropping. I had to stop and have a few minutes starring across. The Langdales were also clear and looked to have so much more snow on them than the Coniston fells. The snow on Coniston was thin and this was what made all the features stand out. In contrast the Langdales just looked like a christmas cake.

Pushing on i came down the long descent to Grizebeck and  the view across the Duddon estuary to Black Combe and White Combe was equally beautiful.
Driving up the Duddon Valley to me is always a pleasure and it feels just like i am getting closer to home. I have never lived in the Duddon but it is one of my favourite places in the world. I have been going there for 30 years and have many friends there. I just love the people and the way of life. Its my escape.

As you approach the village of Seathwaite the fells beyond jumped out at me. Grey Frier and the ridge across to Brim Fell, Dow Crag and down to White Pike just stunning today. The sun shone strongly and although it had that soft covering of snow on the ground it was a splendid day. The church was bathed in  the warm rays of a full sun.

It could have been easy to forget the real reason why i was there today. I was there to say goodbye to an old friend and to show support to the family who are great friends of ours.
It was a lovely day and he won't be forgotten.
RIP. TH. 1924 -2010

Lightweight Stoves?

I was sorting out the loft and came across some old copies of TGO mag. Flicking through June 1981 i saw this add for LIGHTWEIGHT EQUIPMENT, how times have changed. LOL

CLOUDVEIL KOVEN JACKET

I recently bought this new jacket, because it looked a quality product and it fitted well. I needed a lighter weight jacket for 3 season use as my dependable Paramo adventure is a little too heavy and bulky to be a permanent fixture in all seasons.
Cloudveil are somewhat unknown in the UK although they have been going from around the late 90's. They are an American company based in the well named place, Jackson Hole. They design and manufacture Hiking, Skiing, Climbing, Fishing gear as well as other outdoor activity gear.




The Koven Jacket i bought is a medium size and it weighs in at 460gr. and it folds away small.

The main features are:-
Drop down storm sealing hood (not wired)
Hidden storm sealing collar cinch
Bonded draft flap with lined chin guard
Adjustable storm sealing hem
Laminated cuff tabs
Dual slider pit zips
Chest pocket & oversized hand warmer pockets
Internal stretch mesh pockets
Fully seam sealed
Bonded and sewn YKK® water-resistant zippers.


The material (copied from the website), Cloudburst™ Stretch is a high denier, high-tech fabric offering extreme breathability and maximum comfort. Exceptionally high resistance to water pressure means protection against even the heaviest precipitation conditions. Two-way mechanical stretch enhances freedom of movement and maintains a soft and supple feel. Features a 100 wash super durable DWR. 100% nylon, 20,000 mmH2O /20,000 g/m2/24 hour, 45 x 45 denier, 115 g/m2.


I gave it a testing yesterday and it proved itself to be a capable weather proofer.  For my body frame, the fit is as good as i require with slightly long sleeves which i like. When its raining i would rather pull the sleeves down over my hands and secure the tabs than wear gloves.

The hood closures work very well but it took me a few tries before i mastered the closure properly. You have to zip the jacket up 3/4's the way, pull the hood over your head, then find the hood draw cords which are located in the fleece collar. Pull both cords down and they lock the hood at the desired tension. Then fully zip up the jacket. 
When i wore the hood without a cap the hood didn't move when the head turned but when a cap/hat is worn the hood turns with the head. 
Although the test day was not very windy the hood kept out the elements. I did find having a cap on compensated for not having a wired hood. 
The hood edges have been reinforced by having more material, this does give the edge some support.

There are good pit zips and they are two way operating. I found them very useful on hill climbs. I kept them open for most of the  day and they didn't let water in. The other good point about the sleeves is that when you reach up as in the photo the jacket body remains in situ, it doesn't rise up.


The hand warmer pockets are a good size but the chest pocket i think, is a little on the small size. You cannot get an os map in it thats for sure, and like loads of similar jackets the actual pocket gets covered by your rucksack strap anyway. WHY DO DESIGNERS KEEP DOING THIS. DO THEY NOT HIKE?
On the inside there is a small mesh pocket for your phone or GPS.


I kept my waterproofs on all day. That's the jacket and a pair of Rab event overtrousers. When i removed them at the car, i had no sign of any water ingress. There was obviously some dampness caused through exertion but not wetness. So far so good. I now just need to assess the jacket in a prolonged downpour to be sure, but the initial signs are that it's a good buy. 


The only cons i can think off at this time is that it doesn't drop down at the tail to cover your rear end although it isn't a short jacket in any case.

Walking on snow and ice

Has anybody tried these snow and ice grips over this cold spell. They look intersting and at £15 a pair from Ellis Brigham they must be worth considering, not just for hiking but for more serious stuff like getting to the pub and back. They are very quick and easy to fit over both shoes or boots. They are from a company called Yaktrax.

BG

Hi BG.
Thanks for taking the time to read my blog, hope you find a few things of interest and would welcome any comments.

The Weekend in Gosforth Cumbria

Friday night and Saturday morning it hammered it down. I lay in bed listening to the rain bashing the windows and the wind howling. By the time we had got up the rain had eased a little but it was still blowy and quite nippy.
The tops were nowhere to be seen again as they were shrouded in low cloud.
We had a drive into Whitehaven and it was very quiet. Its usually a bustling little place but not today. We drove on to St Bees and a brew in Hartley's tea shop. The sea was enormous, the waves huge and the walkway was getting a good drenching. People were running along trying to dodge the spray over the top while others were taking photographs. We watched from the warmth of the cafe. We are not daft.

Sunday, still low cloud but a much calmer day. Quite warm. We decided to go for a walk/stroll through Bleng forest and back which was really good. It made a change to be out walking. There was still some ice about but the majority had thawed.
There was plenty of people about taking dogs for a walk etc and the odd hiker. Good for him. I don't mean "odd" strange i mean "odd" just the one or two.
It was a shame that we had to drive back today as walking the lower fells would have been a delight with the weather being reasonable, but thats life and there will be other times.

We had some new waterproofs to test out this weekend but we didn't get a proper chance. It will have to wait till next time.

As we sped home we were disappointed that Winter hill and Rivington Pike were bathed in sunshine and clear blue sky's having spent the weekend seeing nothing but mist. Typical, we should have stayed at home!

Cumbria Weekend

We have driven up to the Lakes today. The weather is lousy. Low cloud and its raining believe it or not. Well there's a surprise. We went to the Greyhound at Grizebeck for lunch and to our horror it was shut. It doesn't open until 6.00pm!!! Great.

We got to Gosforth and the weather was a little better. Just drizzle but still low cloud. Temperature a sweltering 7 degrees. Shorts and tee shirt weather.

Going to the Gosforth Hall for a beer tonight. We might as well get wet inside as well as out. Cheers.

Instep Crampons

As we all know the weather has been somewhat restrictive so i put the old brainbox to work on a solution to the ice dancing that we in particular have been doing.
Crampons are easy enough to come by but they are not what you want when out for a walk on the moors or similar terrains.
They are far too big, clumsy and can be quite expensive.
What i needed was a small pair of spikes that would fit in the instep of my boot and aid walking without sliding. I also wanted something light and would easily fit into a daypack.
So the task was to design and make a pair, that wouldn't cost the earth, could be made in a day and use bog standard DIY store materials. The only thing is a garage or workshop is required and obviously some decent tools.
Tools:-
On the tools front i used a hacksaw, flat file, small round file, 1.5mm drill bit, a 6mm drill bit, a power drill,a vice, a blowlamp, pliers and a hammer. I also already had a aerosol of silver car wheel spray so i used that as well.
Sizes:-
The material used is 55mm x 3mm thick plate purchased from a local store.
The length was cut to 130mm which includes the spike length, but this was to suit my boots, other boots would be different.
The spike length is 20mm.
The strapping retainers are just std washers made from aluminium.

The retaining straps are standard pieces and can be purchased from outdoor shops or DIY stores.
I am pleased the way they turned out and initial trials have proved they are effective.
They weight 340gr the pair including the straps. They are going to be made a little lighter as i am going to drill some more holes to the flat body of the crampon.

You just watch, it will thaw now and i probably will have to wait a while to test them in anger.

Anyway here are some photographs of the end result.

New Shoes!

Sheila has been out and bought a new pair of walking shoes. She picked Inov-8 roclite 282 '09s. We thought that seeing it's a decent day with plenty of snow on the ground that we could give them a bit of a testing. I also wanted to see how the Golite fly trails coped as well.
Neither shoe has a waterproof membrane, which is the way we prefer it. We walked through deep drifted snow and compacted snow and both shoes performed well. Surprisingly they didn't get too wet and when we took them off they didn't need excessive drying out.

Neither shoe had a problem with grip on the snow although on sheet ice they didn't grip too well as you would expect.

Trip retraced

The day before yesterday we decided to retrace our walk of the 2nd Jan. That day we could hardly see anything, so with the day dawning cold and clear the photo's will be of a better quality. The views were spectacular and we were surprised just how few people we saw. (More pics in gallery)

A bad day? No!

We are snowed in today. All public transport terminated. Sheila was told to get off the bus as it was going no further. That was at 6.15am . She had to walk back home. Looks like we will have to go for a walk. Yes!

Memoirs of a Serial Hiller

Memoirs of a serial Hiller is the title of a book written by a good friend of mine who's name is Alan Butterworth. I spent all my working life in the general company of Alan and he is the complete raconteur and wit. Without the pranks, sarcasm, poems, plays etc my working days would have been very ordinary. We have many hiking tales, far too many to recount here and now. But maybe i will at some time in the future.

His book, as can be read in the article on the photograph attached, is about his hiking adventures of a witty nature and is a must read if you are an outdoor enthusiast. My claim to fame in all this is that i made the front cover of the book.
( Photo far left). This photograph, although the quality here is poor due to it being scanned from a newspaper, is myself on top of a mountain in Iceland at midnight. We were there this night to watch the sun disappear below the horizon and then moments later reappear, dawning a new day. A fantastic event which i will never forget.

My thanks go to Alan for putting me up front in the book and for all the memories i have of hikes we have completed. May there be more to come.
The book, now in its 2nd edition can be purchased at  www.amazon.co.uk.

Winter in the Pennine foothills

We woke today with it snowing heavily and due to the recent number of late nights we decided to go for a walk in the Pennine foothills between Oldham and Rochdale. The lanes up onto the moorlands were very icy underfoot and with the new snow on top led to some spectacular ice dancing.
The snow was good fun and at times we couldn't see much in front of us. As we got higher the conditions deteriorated as the mist came in and we could hardly tell the land from the sky. It doesn't make for good photography but i have put a folder in the picture gallery if you fancy being bored for 5 minutes.
We headed up to Tandle hill as the views from the top are usually stunning with panoramas across to Jodrell bank telescope, Holme Moss, Winter hill, Oldham, Rochdale and Manchester.
Today though this was hidden from view as the snow storm was obliterating everything.
From the top of Tandle Hill we headed off towards the Rochdale canal at Boarshaw which was basically our path back home.
It has been a fantastic day of good snow and reasonable temperatures. It was great to be out in the snow again and look forward to the next trip.

Air tight seal bags.

These Pour and Store bags are brilliant and most of all cheap. A box of 8 bags cost me £1.08p from Tesco. I have used them for a couple of years now and depending on what you put in them you can reuse them time and time again.
I put personal items in them for example my wallet, phone,GPS etc and they keep everything dry and they are strong enough to withstand rough treatment.
I also use them to put dehydrated food in and also my porridge.
They are not effected by boiling water or freezing conditions as this is what they are made for originally in the home. The good thing as well is that they are light at 10gr.

A Manchester Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone. Thanks to all who have been on the blog and sent emails etc.
Sheila and I usually go away for Christmas either to Scotland or to the Lake District. This year we didn't book either. As it turned out it was a good idea. The driving conditions in Scotland would have resulted in the trip being cancelled and us losing our deposits.
We decided to have Christmas on our own this year. The first time ever. It was decided that we would have a busman's holiday and be tourists in our own town. We checked into the Midland Hotel in Manchester. We have stayed in many of Manchester's hotels but we have agreed that this hotel has come top of the list so far.
The rooms, staff, food and the bar were excellent. What more did we want.
Well that was the good part. Manchester city centre was something else. We had booked 3 nights in the hotel and was looking forward to the towns Christmas festivities. Christmas eve, Manchester was dead. No pubs open, well not that we could find. Christmas day the odd pub was open from 12 o'clock until 3.00pm. We expected the pubs on Christmas day to close early so we were not too disappointed that the city was again dead. It seemed surreal walking around with nobody in sight and all the streets empty of cars. There was fog in the city and it reminded us of the old streets of london scenes from the victorian times.
We had booked our Christmas Lunch in Chinatown and it was a very enjoyable banquet. We were a bit shocked at how few people were booked in for the meal. When considering that thousands of apartment have been built in Manchester, where was everybody?
Boxing day, we were all set up in the Old Monkey on Portland street for a few beers. There was a good crowd in and we didn't even mind it having a few city supporters in. The game had just finished with the blues winning but enough said about that. The atmosphere was very good when we were told that the pub was shutting at 8.00pm. The pub went silent for a second and then "what" was heard from all around. In total disbelief we had just 15 minutes to get another pint, drink it and leave. There were people coming in, one's and two's and big groups and being told it was shut. Turning out a full pub has got to be madness.
Having left the pub we wandered round trying to find another watering hole which we did, Wetherspoons was open, just off Albert Square, until 9.00pm !!!! wow. After 2 pints here we ended up going back to the Midland Hotel bar. Nothing wrong with that but we like the pub atmosphere.
We later found out that there was some refreshment palaces open in the Gay Village. By then we were a bit worse for wear anyway so it didn't matter.
All in all we had a very stress free break and would do it again, but we were disappointed with Manchester's lack of festive spirit. Cheers to everyone at the Midland.

This weekend trip

With a poor weather forecast predicted we decided to do a quick dash up to Cumbria and stay over at Sheila's mums. We drove up 1st thing Friday morning and it was very cold as we set off. The car said -4 degrees. On the way over we decided to go up Whitfell as its only a quick bimble. The views were fantastic although not as much snow as we thought there would be.
When we picked Dorothy up we decided to go to Wastwater and take some photo's. (Some pics in the gallery) It was a beautiful clear day but very cold and windy and you needed to be well wrapped up. We had a bit of a stroll as it was too nice to miss but the thought of a nice malt scotch and a pot of coffee was called for. We got back to the car and headed off for the Screes pub at Nether Wasdale. Pity i had to drive but i would make up for it later in the Gosforth Hall hotel.
One of the reasons we went was to try out the Golite Fly trail shoes. They surprised me how good they were, even on frozen ground . I thought i would slide everywhere but they were quite stable. Another good buy.
Driving back today, we decided to go over Birker fell and get some photo's of the Scafell range. When we got up there the cloud base was too low and we couldn't see any of it. More's the pity.
We then headed over to Seathwaite, Duddon valley to deliver christmas presents. From here we headed home just as the weather was turning stormy.

Thermos Flask Ultimate

My Thermos flask which i use on day walks has started to leak. It was only a cheap thing so i didn't expect it to last as long as it did. About 8yrs.
We decided that we should replace both mine and Sheila's with something a bit more decent. After a search on the web i came across this flask. It's a Thermos Ultimate. 0.5L capacity and the weight is 0.29kg if you remove the rubber strips. The good thing about this flask is that it keeps drinks hot for 24 hours. Lots of other flasks only manage 8hrs.
Not many places had this flask on offer but i found it at Asda on line for £20.
Having received it i was pleased at just what a quality piece of kit it is. It's double skinned and insulated. The stopper has no buttons or flip up pourers which are basically leak spots anyway. It just has the 2 side grooves so when you unscrew it you can pour out the contents without removing the stopper completely. The cup/lid is not too big but i think its just an ideal size.
The flask is guaranteed for 10 years and the bumf says it is dent proof. Well we will see about that in the future. All in All we are pleased with our purchase.

Petzl E+Lite

I was reading the January edition of TGO magazine and was very surprised to see the reviews of head lighting did not include the Petzl E+Lite. For some reason better known to Chris he has omitted what i consider to be one of my best pieces of functional lightweight backpacking gear. Maybe he reviewed it in 2007 i don't know or maybe because its not brand new. However it should be compared because its so good.
The E+Lite is so small and light but perfectly formed. It weighs in at 28gr and has 45 hour battery life. It is waterproof down to 1m. It packs away in its own case, nice and tidy and you can keep spare batteries here as well.
It costs £21 generally, but you can get it cheaper if you search the web.
For me this head torch is one that all backpackers should have and we never leave home without it.

Golite fell shoes

Just been into TK Max and they are selling Golite Fell shoe/ running shoe (Trail Fly model) for the bargain price of £21.50. Hurry up and grab an early christmas present for yourself. They had all sizes and lots of them and in a number of colours.

The Vaude Odyssee Winter

This is our backpacking tent of the last couple of years. We like it very much. It's an ideal tent for 2 persons as long as you are not too tall. 5ft 10 max i would say. We looked at other manufacturers and other designs and decided in the end that this suited us best. The main criteria was 1st the weight, 2nd the materials and running very closely was the cost.
The stated weight was 1.8kg and this is acceptable for sharing by 2. I have made some modifications to the guy lines and cleats and we don't use the bag provided. I changed 4 pegs for lighter ones, although the pegs provided are very good. Now it weighs in at 1.6kg. Fly: 40D Polyamid Ripstop 240T bothside siliconised 3000mm
Inner: 30D Polyester Ripstop 285T
Floor: 40D Polyamid Ripstop 240T PU laminated 10000mm. Great groundsheet.
Poles: Al 7001 T6; Featherlite 8.8mm.
Putting the tent up in adverse weather is very easy and one person can do it while the other is making a brew. There are 2 main poles and one small cross pole to keep the porch supported.

The tent stands up well in high winds and ours has not leaked from either the flysheet or ground sheet at any time. The worst weather we camped out in was Feb 2008 in Langdale. The forecast from MWIS was for atrocious weather so we decided it was ideal to see what it could do. The wind howled and the rain was stair rods for most of the weekend. Langdale flooded as usual but we were prepared for this happening and pitched on slightly higher ground. The forecast said gusts of up to 70 miles per hour and i guess it wasn't too far from reality. We had to put some rocks on the pegs to stop them flying out but the tent was fine. After a few beers in the Old DG we didn't hear the wind or rain anyway.

The saturday night temperature dropped down quite fast and i guess it was just above freezing. Quite a bit of condensation was on the inner tent and i reduced this by leaving the top of the doorway open slightly just underneath the peak of the porch. We don't use a groundsheet footprint as we believe that this is defeating the object of being lightweight. If you want an extra groundsheet then just buy a stronger tent.

We paid £225 for it from ultralight outdoor gear but i have seen it this year for sale at £170. Bargain. We certainly won't be changing it any time soon.
Q. Would we consider a tarp.
A. Nope.