Lowe Alpine Illusion 16: A review

It’s no longer on Lowe Alpine’s website, but the Illusion 16 can be picked up for as little as £15. It started out life as a rope bag, but has been adopted by some as a lightweight day-sack. So what makes the Illusion a good pack?

 

 

LYO Freeze Dried Foods Traditional Polish Saurkraut: A Review

If you look up the process of freeze drying on the internet you will come across the word lyophilisation. This is one of several technical terms for the process. I can only presume that this is where the company LYO Foods and their co-operation partners Lyovit got their names from. They have been producing freeze dried meals since 1998 and received ‘The Gold Outdoor Industry Award’ in 2013. I’ve been looking for a UK supplier for 12 months or so and have finally found one. Base Camp Foods are based in Warrington, to the west of Manchester. I’ve had a couple of orders with the company and experienced their customer service. But more on them later, firstly I will cover the review of LYO Foods Traditional Polish Saurkraut.

 

Crowden Clough, the best so far!

I own the Cicerone book 'Scramble in the Dark Peak' and have been looking at the picture on the front of the book on a regular basis. I eventually looked in the front covers of the book and found it was part of Crowden Clough. Not found in the Crowden area of Woodhead, but in fact sitting between Grindsbrook Clough and The Cloughs in Edale. The picture is of a particularly challenging section of Crowden Clough found near its top. And I knew I had to give it a crack. It seemed like an appropriate progressive step from Wilderness Gully West that I did last week. So last Saturday, after finishing a night shift at work, I went straight to Edale with my gear in the car.

Wilderness Gully West, a scramble with fun thrown in.

In my pursuit of steadily increasing my outdoor challenges I have been looking at going up Wilderness Gully West for a few months. I've been checking it out at every opportunity to weigh up what level of challenge it may be. After Torside Clough I decided that this had to be next in line. So last Saturday I dropped on a window in the weather and headed out.

 

Winter Has Gone, Spring 2015 is here.

It looks like we are well into Spring with the snow in the past....maybe. But we have fantastic walking weather at the moment. And typical, I have a bad cold that seems to be catching up with a lot of people. I'm off to the Lake District in three weeks, so as my cold is clearing I can get out for some exercise this week. But while I'm in the house, I've dug out my photographs from the winter and found some photographs of a crampon practise sessions I had on 4th February this year.

North Ridge Onyx Smock: A Review

When I bought this smock, it was with reservations. I had been looking at picking up a Montane Fireball, but felt hat the pricing was a bit high. Looking at the Go Outdoors website I spotted the North Ridge Onyx Smock. My requirements for the top were pretty specific. Most of my insulated jackets have been purchased to be worn over the top of other layers on a stop/break or if the weather turns particularly cold. My mid-layer insulation pieces are generally fleece in nature, something I find only useful as a mid-layer. Fleeces let the wind through unless they are extremely thick, and I wanted something that was light and could be compressed to a small size. I required something quite close fitting, to be used as a mid-layer in the winter, and an outer layer in the summer. This is were the Onyx comes in because it uses Primaloft Infinity (Black Series) as it’s insulation.

 

 

Ram's Clough - A Quick Visit

I'm lucky to live on the fringes of the Peak District, and even better, a few areas with pretty good scrambles. So Saturday morning, following an eight hour shift at work, I headed out to Dove Stone Reservoir. My target was Ram's Clough, a little documented Clough that leads up onto Wimberry Moss.

 

 

Torside Clough, how tough?

Torside Clough is a glacial formed feature to the south of Torside Reservoir with a car park only a few hundred yards away. I haven't found very much information about the clough as it appears to be less popular or just not written about to the same extent as others such as Crowden Clough. And it was also my next choice for a scramble challenge.

Alpkit BruKit – Part 2

As mentioned in part one, I’ve been out to the Peak District and tested the BruKit in more extreme conditions. The temperature where I tested was at around 2C. Factoring in a wind of 15-20 mph and the temperature was running at about -5C to -7C.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas