Winterproofing my wildcamping gear part 2

My sleeping bag is a Mountain Equipment Xero 550 which I bought in February 2008; it’s quite light for a three season bag and very comfortable. I'd like to add a 4 season bag to my winter shopping list, but I really can’t justify the cost of owning more than one sleeping bag.

Using the same bag for all seasons does have its downsides, in the summer you’re carrying unnecessary weight, and it can become too hot, although the temperature is easily controlled with the two way zip. In the winter it can be quite cold, so I make up for the lack of down by wearing my trousers and either a fleece or my Patagonia Nano Puff jacket.

The mattress I've been using this summer is a NeoAir short, at 278g its very light, but for the winter I prefer a full length mat, so I’ll be reverting to my Prolite (472g). If it looks like being really cold, then I’ll use my old green Trecklite, which I’ve had for many years. It may be quite heavy at 823g, but even on snow is toasty warm.


Cooking

I don’t cook in the hills; I only boil water, either for brews, dehydrated meals or the occasional cuppa soup. This means my summer cooking gear should be perfectly adequate for the colder weather, the Optimus Crux Light stove (74g) works well with a Tibetan 550ml Titanium mug (87g), and boils quite quickly. This set up used to wobble alarmingly, before I solved the problem buy fitting a Primus gas canister feet (28g), which is quite stable on most ground. The one item missing from my camp kitchen is a windshield, so I intend to custom build one, from a disposable foil tray before my next trip.

Lovely Wind farms

If you think wind farms are a good thing and are environmentally friendly, then this post is for you!
If you think wind farms a blight on our wild places look at this post and weep!

Winter proofing my wild camping gear part 1

This winter I’m hoping to spend a few nights wild camping weather permitting. I’m now reasonably happy with my summer wild camping gear, but probably need to upgrade a few items for winter.

My Shelter

Staring with my tent, I still don’t feel 100% confident in the Laser Comp’s bad weather performance, but perhaps I’m expecting too much from a 3 season tent.

Having beefed up the guys and pegs it certainly performs better in the wind, but I’m not sure the Terra Nova pegs I’m using at the moment will hold in soft ground if a when the wind picks up. So the first item on my shopping list is some lightweight vee pegs. I’ve not seen any good lightweight vee pegs foe ages, so any recommendations would be welcome.  

The last few times I’ve used the Laser Comp I’ve had difficulty getting the inner tent taut. Separate pegs would do the trick but I’m not prepared to carry the extra weight so I think I’ll try shortening the inner tent elastics.

I also need to make a repair to the strap which takes the pressure of the flysheet zip, one of the prongs has broken off the plastic connecting clip making it even more difficult to use than normal.

Finally, I must make a new tent footprint before my next trip,  my home made experimental green bin liner footprint (weight 66g) needs replacing, its lasted 20 nights not bad for a free bin liner and 5 feet of parcel tape., defiantly my best buy so far.

Wild entertainment.

With the nights drawing in and the clocks due to go back, a winter wild camp means many hours of darkness to be occupied. Once gear has been sorted, brews made, and the evening meal cooked, what is there to do?

If it’s clear you can gaze at the stars, or maybe read, although I often find the book I’m reading is far too heavy to be lugged into the hills, and it’s also sometimes quite difficult to get comfortable when reading particularly if the ground is lumpy. My preference is listening to the radio, but my current pocket radio at 250g is far too heavy. Time to spring into action, and also a good excuse to buy more gear.

  

My start point in the search for a suitable radio was to post the question “Which radio should I buy?”

Unfortunately this didn’t generate many comments, however, I was delighted when Tracksterman posted a few days later, about his search for a replacement hill radio, which was full of useful information.


My main requirement is that the radio should be as light as possible, battery life is not too important as I'll only be away for one or two nights. I'd like a reasonable signal and sound quality, but as long as I can receive some sort of programme, for a few hours each evening, I'll be happy. If by any chance I’m out of signal range, then I can always take Alan’s advice and listen to the wind and streams. Although I'm very aware that the sound of gushing streams is likely to increase unwanted trips outside, for those of us over a certain age!

After much deliberation I’ve ordered a Roberts R986. Its very light, weighing in at 59g, including the headphones (14g) and battery (10g), and it’s astonishingly small, measuring only 80mm x 40mm x 15mm.

It has mono MW / mono FM and FM stereo wave bands, rotary volume and tuning controls and a deep base boost, and I’m hoping that the reliability will be good, as the R986 has been in production for quite a few years, so any teething problems should have been sorted long ago.

I bought the R986 from Bridport Music via Amazon. At £25 plus £1.22 shipping, it wasn’t the cheapest price I could find, but delivery was only two days, and I can’t bare waiting ages for something once I've placed my order, just to save the odd few coppers.

On taking delivery, initial reaction are favourable, it feels astonishingly light, the controls may be a tad fiddly but they're quite stiff, so the rotary volume and tuning controls stay put once adjusted. The reception and sound quality are pretty good, but it remains to be seen how well it performs in the hills. I will post again when I’ve given it a couple field tests.

Vanishing Glaciers and EO Wheeler

Tracksterman posted this link on his blog. The photography is superb, so imagine my surprise and delight when I realised that some of the images were taken by  E.O. Wheeler, who was a distant relative of my Mother.