Red Yeti's Blog

Wild camping in the Black Mountain range in South Wales at the weekend (not to be confused with Black Mountain which is in the Black Mountains a few kilometres to the North East – easy eh?) and I had one of those moments that remind you to keep your wits about you.

We were coming off a ridge down to where a friendly farmer had allowed us to stash the car in his barn for a very reasonable sum. It was one of those rolling South Wales ridges with a sharp scoop out of the Eastern side formed by glaciers during the last ice age.

I was carefully picking my way down a steepening grassy slope and sure enough called back to the others behind me that it looked like we’d started down a too early and had met a little rock-step.

I could see the top of a rowan poking its branches above the grass a few meters down-slope. They often don’t get much more than four to six meters tall in the mountains, since they’re blasted by the weather, so I figured it was a four or five metre drop.

There was a fast running stream, a few meters to my left and slightly behind me so I went down another couple of meters to look at it running over the edge.

And froze – I was about three meters above a vertical cliff that was around thirty meters high. Easily ten times higher than I’d guessed from the rowan.

I wasn’t in any appreciable danger, I was already “highly averse” to falling off what I’d thought was a four meter rock-step so wasn’t pushing my luck. It was just a bit of a surprise!

The waterfall had a very reliable “counter slope” just beside it that was bedded on very solid rock. So I went back up, before coming down onto that and stared down at the water pouring into space. Which really was one of the most impressive sites I’ve seen in a while and therefore, to me, well worth being in that spot. (Believe me – the picture shrinks the drop massively!)

As usual when looking at a drop like that, some words from a Summer Mountain Leader (“ML”) course came back to me. “One of the particular dangers of the Welsh mountains is their convex slopes. Meaning that as you walk down, you can’t always see the terrain ahead of you getting steeper and steeper, until you fall off it!”.

It just made me think that without being subconsciously aware of that particular danger and without consciously keeping my guard up as we happily ambled back to the car things might, just might, have ended up rather differently.

On the way there we’d listened to one of Podcast Bob’s offerings (Mountain First Aid 27/2/07) where he interviewed Wayne Thackery of Woodhead Mountain Rescue Team. Wayne said that in his experience although many, many people go in to the hills without proper gear most of those get away with it “by the skin of their teeth”.

Whereas, of the people who go in with experience and proper preparation, the ones that get caught out are generally coming off something after achieving their objective for the day. They just let their guard down (which might sound familiar to one of the this year’s HR crew…)

The Haute Route in August – ah… warm and sunny. Dust-dry trails, roiling heat haze rising from glaring rocks… Here’s hoping!

Sunblock

Sunblock is a no-brainer. The excellent and amazingly comprehensive web site over at Needle Sports (no I’m not sponsored by them – exactly the reverse in fact) has some nice smallish tubes of sun cream that should last for the whole route for one person. I’ve been looking for an alcohol based gel block for the last ten years (since I used some in Australia) but I’ve only just managed to find one in the UK. Garnier have brought out Ambre Solaire Clear Protect Gel that dries almost immediately with hardly any residue. Pretty strong on the perfume though! Not tried it properly yet but next year I might try Lighthiker’s trick of squeezing some into a plastic soft drink bag.

Sunglasses

I’d count sunglasses as essential in the Alps in summer (and winter of course!). Although I’m happiest without them, even I can’t put up with the glare coming off the rock for hours on end. And there’s good evidence that exposing your eyes to that much UV will damage them in the long run. A wrap around pair is preferable of course just to keep the light to a minimum. Also, it’s possible for cheaper specs to be worse than no glasses at all since they may not block the UV properly. Because they’re dark, your pupils enlarge but since the they’re not blocking the UV your eye is getting even more UV exposure than it would have done if you just squinted. So, probably not worth skimping on the price too much.

I’ve just come across the Adidas Evil Eye sun glasses. The interesting thing for me is the versions that come with the ability to convert into ski goggles. The arms click out and are replaced with a head band and there’s a thin foam insert that clips to the back of the frames to form a seal. They also have a clip-in prescription lens available that you can take to an optician and have ground for your eyes. I’m not sure how well they’d work with regard to condensation since they’re only single skinned but the potential weight and bulk savings make them look very interesting…

Hat

I’ve always hated hats but something has just converted me: An LTM6 Airflo Tilley Hat

These things are beautifully put together and thought out. They deliberatly don’t fit closely to your head but instead sit on top of it loosely with a comfortable chin strap to stop it blowing off. The strap works well and has kept it on my head whilst walking over the windy tops of South Wales recently. I read recently that Ryan Jordan reckons his Tilley is his favourite bit of kit (notice he’s almost always wearing one in pictures) and Chris Townsend gave the Tilley T3 a “Best Buy” in a recent TGO review

Extra Water Container

Typically I only carry two litres of water but I’m going to bring an extra bottle in case it’s very warm. For once I’m not about to recommend some cutting-edge, shiny bit of gear for this: an old tonic water bottle is perfect!

Any plastic bottle that’s been used for storing fizzy drink works. They’re made of much tougher stuff than the ones for still water. Wash it out, fill it with hot water and bicarbonate of soda for a couple of days, wipe off the sticky label residue with meths or white gas and your done. Tonic water bottles seem to have the least residual taste/smell from whatever they held before.

In summary:

• Sunblock
• Hat
• Extra water container

Guide Book

We’re using the famous “Chamonix-Zermatt – The Walker’s Haute Route” by Kev Reyolds.

It is possible to navigate the whole route using way markers and the route description from the guide. But if the TMB is anything to go by, the way marking will probably border on vandalism in easy to follow sections and disappear for long stretches in the mountains.

Cicerone publish a set of updates to their guides on the web site.

Maps

Although some people do the HR using just the Kev Reynolds guide book, to me, a map is essential even if the trail is well marked. I’ll be carrying two of each (well, LB will have one copy). Anyone that’s walked with us will know our bad habit of wandering off trails to do other “interesting bits” so anyone walking with us is well advised to carry their own maps.

Swiss Topo produce two maps that cover the whole route (offset from their main mapping to do so). They’re both 1:50000: “5003 Mont Blanc Grand Combin” and “5006 Matterhorn – Mischabel“. I did consider getting 1:25000 scale maps (it’s more that I like maps than wanted the detail!) but it would take nine to cover the route.

They don’t come with a key printed on them but one is available as a PDF download. I’ve printed the first page on a piece of A5 paper at half scale since it’s the one with useful info for navigation.

I’ve always used the The Map Shop for foreign maps but a supplier of Swiss Topo maps local to your own country shouldn’t be hard to find on the Internet.

Map cases drive me mad so I send them to Aqua3 for coating. It’s not cheap but it makes them just about indestructible and has also got people approaching me to ask where I got maps, that they’d only previously seen as plain paper, in what appears to be a plastic version. A good conversation starter – as long as you can speak the language!

Compass

Again, to me a compass is essential and if you’ve got a map then you really need a compass to be able to use it fully. I also carry a spare, not just because they they’re small enough to lose easily but I’ve also known someone trip and ram their compass into rock!

The Silva Expedition 4 (38 grams)is the usual choice in the UK hills (just make sure you get one marked in degrees rather than the military version that’s marked off in Radians).

But it’s expensive so I carry a Field 7 for a backup (24 grams).

GPS

I’ll be carrying a Garmin Gecko 301 (87 grams). Although I’ve navigated for hours in visibility so poor that I’ve had to throw little snowballs a few feet ahead of me to be able to focus on something it’s a pain if you’re tired and everyone’s relying on you to get to shelter.

I don’t actually plan to switch it on at all especially since they tend to eat batteries. However I will be using Lithium/Iron sulphide cells (Energizer e2) that are meant to last about 7 times longer than alkaline cells according to the manufactures but seem to last a good three times longer according to reviews I’ve read.

Blisters

If you get blisters already you probably have all kinds of clever ways of dealing with them but even if you expect your feet to survive with no problems, I think a pack of Compeed For Blisters are worth carrying since an unexpected blister can cripple you. They stay on best if the edges are taped down further with some microporous tape

Medication and Conditions

If you’re with anyone else on a walk, consider telling them about the medication or any medical conditions. That goes for someone who’s organising or leading too. I was caught out by this once. I was co-leading a mountaineering club group with someone who had gone around insisting that everyone fill out the medical section of the membership form only a fortnight earlier but it was he who missed filling out his so I didn’t know what to watch for.

It could have been worse but luckily I picked up on something that he clearly wasn’t talking about. In the end he landed in a hospital for three days due to a condition he’d not mentioned (he was fine in the end!).

First Aid

I’ll be carrying a first aid kit that’s just intended for LB and me. LifeSystems do good ones (the very expedition-experienced paramedic that I took a couple of first aid courses with recommended them). But Adventure Medical Kits seem to be very well stocked as well as lighter than the LifeVenture. They also include Duct Tape in the .7 version which the last wilderness first aid course we did emphasized as being very handy (think slings, splinting). Fast and Light have it listed as “for gear repair” but I think they’re missing the point.

I’m not going to go into detail as to what I think should be carried as I’m a long way from being qualified. However I would add one thing to any first aid kit: A pencil and waterproof paper.

If you needed to go for help, can you be sure you’d remember the grid reference of someone that needed rescuing? What time the incident happened? Anything else that a First Aider tending to the casualty might want you to tell the rescue service? I know I wouldn’t.

For general bits and pieces that seem hard to get hold of from the local chemists (like a membrane face shield for instance) try St John Supplies

So just as I say “I’ve been looking for an alcohol based gel block for the last ten years” two come along at once (like buses – as the saying goes). There must be others – anyone know of any?

I found one in Blacks that looks very good since it doesn’t have any perfume added to it: Care Plus® Skin-Saver – Gel Concentrate SPF 25

Total weight 80 grams with 75ml of the gel – so I’d guesstimate 10 grams of packaging assuming alcohol based gel is lighter than water. Meaning for this size of tube there’s no weight saving to be had by decanting into an old orange drink bag.

This will be coming with me.

As you might guess from the X-Ray, our Haute Route plans have hit a bit of a snag.

We were walking on a marked nature trail around an Eco-Museum in Sweden and LB slipped on a wet log. She went sideways into what appeared to be long grass. But hiding in the grass were a couple of large logs which her hand jammed into and her arm snapped. All very unpleasant.

The ambulance crew and the doc all thought it looked like multiple fractures but in the end it turned out that her mum nailed it immediately – a radius fracture just below the wrist. To my eyes it was a stomach-turning second wrist below the usual one.

The X-rays were a relief – just a single clean break.

She was lucky enough to see an excellent doctor that managed to set the fracture beautifully meaning it didn’t need surgery to pin it. Have a squint at the X-Ray above (post being set) and see if you can identify the break.

We were initially told by 112 to walk back to the car. We didn’t have one and the nearest certain lift we could commandeer was several kilometres.

It took her mum some very stern talking to get the ambulance summoned. When they arrived the drivers said they much preferred to be called to the scene than having to deal with someone vomiting from pain after walking some distance.

Some interesting lessons:

We were in a relatively good position as far as getting treatment and access to pain killers was concerned. For a similar injury in a more remote spot I would have been glad to have Co-codamol with me (assuming very roughly three hours or more till help arrived, according to the first aid course we were on in February). Even the non-prescription 8mg level is apparently rated as being strong enough to at least dull the pain of a broken limb.

We’re back in the UK now and coping with what at the moment appears to be no more than a massive inconvenience and some manageable pain for LB. Though we still need to fight through the thicket of NHS bureaucracy to see anyone in the UK who’s qualified to assess it let alone approve a new X-ray.

So that leaves us with the Haute Route. There are a couple of factors that mean we absolutely cannot move the trip back. So it’s go in a fortnight, or cancel.

I thought that the travel insurance would be the trip-killer. But having called the BMC and then Fortis, who back their insurance, we were told that although they wouldn’t cover the fracture for three months all other insurance remained in place. In fact the very helpful lady said that although they would happily discuss compensation for cancelling the trip, since we were with the BMC, she had a feeling we might not want to!

At the moment we don’t know for sure either way. There are some questions around removing the cast because the four weeks we were told that are required before removal expire midway though the trip.

Assuming that we do go, there are some things to consider.

Of course we’d welcome any positive suggestions as to what else to consider if we decide to go (like “take a wire coat hanger to scratch under the cast!”). I’m sure there are plenty of reasons not to go but you can find scary reasons not to do anything. Remember to ask “What would you do if you weren’t afraid?”

I’ll finish off the posts on gear some time very soon and maybe something on the very successful canoeing trip.