Latrigg, a Wainwright for Everyone

What happens when you take your car for a new timing belt and water pump fitting and it turns out the wrong water pump was fitted? It waits until you get to the best part of your holiday, good weather in the Lake District, and heading out to go up Great Gable. Then it packs up and leaves you stranded in a place where a car would come in handy to get to the peaks you chose to go up. And to cap it off, you can’t go too far away from the garage where your car is because they are unsure of the cause of the problem.

So if you find yourself stuck in a campsite just outside Keswick, you can’t go too far, and you need to keep a mobile phone signal, there are some options. In my case I chose Latrigg.

A walk around Buttermere with lunch by the water.

So this wasn’t a hard walk, it was really quite easy, but it was very picturesque. It is surround by such peaks as Red Pike, High Stile, High Crag, Haystacks and Buttermere Fell on it’s western shore. On it’s eastern shore are Robinson and High Snockrigg. Off to the south east is Fleetwith Pike and Honnister Pass running along side it. North west is Crummock Water.

Berghaus Vapour Light 20 Daysack

Other people's experiences may differ, but I have found that many of the rucksacks on the market with claims of back systems which will reduce the levels of perspiration do not work very well. It’s a little like the mistake of thinking that materials like Gore-Tex won’t make you sweat. It simply is, in most cases, not true. You still sweat in Gore-Tex, or Event, but this perspiration is transported away by the material in an attempt to limit the level of perspiration. This may not be true for everyone, some people perspire much more or less than others. The passive back systems on rucksacks are much the same. I’ve tried several packs and find that my back perspires regardless of the technology involved. More with some, less with others. When you have a rucksack on your back a micro climate is created between you and the pack where the temperature increases and you begin to perspire. This creates a highly humid space that I believe makes me sweat even more, much like hot and humid weather. In my case, it’s like the Tropics. What I have found is that my back perspires less with the Montane Medusa 32 I own as this has a quite small surface area in contact with my back. It’s this situation that has driven me to re-evaluate the rucksacks I own and possibly replace them with what maybe more comfortable alternatives. I’ve also made weight a bit more of a factor, so I decided to pick up one of the new Berghaus packs, the Vapour Light 20 day-sack.

Esbit Stainless steel solid fuel stove…….reasonably solid anyway!

I watched a video on Youtube the other day where someone was looking for a way to save 3g on the weight of his stove. I don’t know about others but that is just far to much for me. Saving a couple of hundred grammes is one thing, but to try and save 3? Each to their own. My own choices of stove have been either a Jetboil ZIP or a Trangia Triangle and alcohol stove with a titanium pot. I decided to see if I could drop a reasonable amount of weight without sacrificing heating ability.

Not a Horror Story – The Eagle Creek Pack-it Specter Quarter Cube

The choice for packing solutions for gear items is becoming ever more vast. It seems like every time I look on a website I find a new company producing stuff sacks, compression sacks and the like. It's becoming a bit of a minefield, there are some quite expensive products. I'm not keen on some of the ultra light materials as they can be a bit on the noisy side. I prefer Silnylon as it tends to be more abrasion resistant, and quieter. There's nothing worse than someone sat next to you rustling through a bag. I know that if you are wild camping there may be no one around. But I like to have minimum impact on my environment. Silnylon products are also generally cheaper. So I picked up an Eagle Creek Pack-it Specter Quarter Cube recently.

There's no place like Holm........Holmfirth 6 Reservoirs Walk

I always think that there are places you have never been, little gems, not far from your door. Just outside Holmfirth, to the South West, are five reservoirs. They are:

Digley Reservoir

Brownhill Reservoir

Ramsden Reservoir

Riding Wood Reservoir

Yateholme Reservoir

Bilberry Reservoir

Would you honestly trust your life with this?

I use fire steels quite a lot, they are a reliable way to start a gas or alcohol stove. They can be quite expensive, but they work up to thousands of times, depending on size. Emergency use of a fire steel is something I can't really see me requiring, but you never know. There are few areas in the UK where you are so remote it may take some time for rescue services to reach you. But if you do find yourself in this situation, here in the UK or abroad, you want your fire steel to be reliable.

Primaloft Information to start off a series of Reviews

Okay, so I have already reviewed the Keela Belay jacket. But I thought this information might be useful to show the efficiency of different types and weights of Primaloft insulation used in the jackets I already have and will review.

Thermal insulation has a value, a CLO value where one CLO unit represents 0.155m²K/W. This is based on the difference between a persons skin temperature and the outside temperature of the material. So a higher value represents a higher difference between your skin temperature and the outer material temperature, a good thing if it is cold. This means a higher CLO value is better.

An Inspired Read

If you have read 'Touching the Void', you will know it is the grim recount of Joe Simpson's survival of an accident that almost killed him. Joe broke his leg on the descent from Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes and was initially helped down by his climbing partner Simon Yates. But as Simon lowered Joe, near the bottom of the mountain, Joe found himself suspended in fresh air after being lowered over a overhang. Unable to climb back up the rope, and with Simon in a poor belay position, Simon took the decision to cut Joe free.

A Neon Fly and a Magnum

Okay, maybe not a walking subject, but it was a brilliant start to my holiday. I've been listening to Magnum since my late teens, around 25 years. For quite a long time I've planned to go and see them at the Holmfirth Picturedrome for about 5 years. Unfortunately a little car accident got in the way. Finally, last week I went to see them.