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As you may have noticed there’s not been much in the way of backpacking of late. Typically, I’ve been away for the last few weeks of sunshine, but was determined to get out this weekend before the weather turned nasty.

I headed to the village of Abergwyngregyn on Saturday afternoon to start a loop of the National Trust land there, however it quickly became apparent that the high winds forecast for the next day were already beginning to make their presence felt and the stronger gusts were making the peaks a little tricky.

Due to my late departure, the strengthening winds, and the poor forecast for Sunday, I decided to to turn around and my way back once I’d reached the summit of Drum; the original plan had been to camp at Carnedd Llewelyn, but I didn’t want to risk getting stuck in high winds. I made my way back and found a decent pitch for the night just below Foel Ganol, out of the worst of the wind. With tent pitched just before dark, it was on with the stove for a hot chocolate before bed. As I watched lights begin to appear around Bangor I could feel the wind start to pick up and it looked like I was going to be in for a blustery night.

It’s been a while since I last slept in the Superlite Voyager and I’d forgotten how noisy the Silnylon flysheet is, even in light winds. By 1am gusts of up to 40mph were hitting the tent. I was woken at 4am with the tent pressed flat against my face, despite it being pitched tail into the wind. I stuck my ADC Wind out the door to find a reading of 50-60mph gusts. I hopped out and checked the pegs and guys and headed back to the warmth of the sleeping bag. I stuck some earplugs in and tried to get back to sleep.

I was snug as a bug in my sleeping bag, despite the wind. The PHD Minim Ultra is everything I hoped it would be. Its hardly noticeable when packed in its stuff sack and I could really feel the weight difference in my pack during the day, not to mention the increase in space (which I managed to avoid filling with other unnecessary stuff). It lofted very quickly after being unpacked, and the lack of zip turned out to be a non-issue.The temperature fell steadily through the night, from 15°C at 11pm to 11°C at 4am (temps from ADC Wind), but I was comfortable in the Ultra wearing just my base layer. When I was woken at 4, I did feel that my hip was a bit cold (I’d been laying on my side), but this clearly hadn’t been bad enough to wake me up during the night.

I finally gave up trying to sleep at 5am. I made a hot chocolate and some breakfast, packed up, and fought my way off the hill. The wind was really strong by this point. I had planned to take some photos of the camp for this post, but the lack of sleep had driven it from my mind, and I had quite a job just keeping upright in the stronger gusts. I got back to the car by 8am and headed home. It was a shame as the sun was shining, but I’m glad I decided to turn back, rather than get stuck on the hill in those winds. Here’s to next time!

I’ve been stuck at work, unable to enjoy the recent good spell of weather. The good news is that I might be able to get some time off work next week and head to the hills, so I hope this cold snap we’ve been having will clear off and leave us with more of that early April warm, sunny weather. I’m planning my first wild-camping trip, which will see me head to the North Western Carneddau, Snowdonia. It’s a good location for a quick dash to the hills, with splendid scenery and a relatively short journey time. The route will be loosely based on this trip report by Geoff at v-g.me.uk, although there may be the odd shortcut as I won’t have 2 full days to explore as much as I would like.

I usually like to plan my own walks, but I’ve been visiting Geoff and Vivien’s site for a while now and have been looking forward to trying some of their routes. I shall report back when I finally get out there.

My PHD Minim Ultra has arrived and first impressions are that it feels incredibly warm for the weight and packs down to an obscenely small size. All PHD kit comes with fairly roomy stuff sacks and the Ultra is no exception, however the Ultra fits quite happily in my Minimus down vest’s stuff sack. I’m a little concerned about over-compressing the 900 fill so I’m not sure if I’ll use the Minimus sack or stick with the one provided, but it’s nice to have the option to reduce the volume if needed. I’ve not had a chance to get out in the hills yet, but I might get some time off next week if I’m lucky. If the weather looks ok and the temperature stays well above freezing then I’ll take the Ultra for a test run. Read More

After weeks of to-ing and fro-ing I’ve caved in and ordered myself a new sleeping bag. The Minim Ultra has had so many good reviews that I’ve bitten the bullet. I’m a fairly cold sleeper so it will be interesting to see how I get on with it and what sort of operating window it will have in the variable British Summer (and I use the term loosely).

Down sleeping bags are not cheap and spending this sort of money without actually seeing the product (and then waiting 30 days to have it made) is always a gamble. The gamble paid off when I purchased a Minim 300 in the PHD sale last year, and I can’t rate that bag highly enough. My plan now is to use the Minim Ultra during the summer, then see about buying a Combi bag if I decide to continue my camping into the winter this year (and I might, as trips might fit in better with work).

More to follow – watch this space.

Here is the kit list I drew up the other day as part of my DofE talk. I think most of it is fairly obvious stuff; it’s all kit that has received decent reviews, is reasonably priced, and has a good value to weight ratio. The list is just an example of possible choices and was put together to give some ideas. It should not be treated as a definitive list of must-purchase items. As most of the groups have 4-6 members, the expensive kit like tents and cooking equipment can be divided between twos or threes, which will reduce the cost considerably. I’ve left out most of the clothing and footwear as they should already own these items.

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I was recently asked to give a brief (a relative term; I was there for over an hour) equipment show-and-tell to some Duke of Edinburgh’s Award candidates. In my talk I gave an overview of my gear, summarised why I had chosen certain items over others, and then outlined what I might take with me on a four day ‘expedition’. It was an interesting event, and I enjoyed talking to the guys about their plans. We were supposed to cover a lot more info, including how to pack a rucksack, what sort of clothing to wear, and appropriate footwear, but ran out of time – it appears that I can talk almost indefinitely about camping gear.

As I’ve passed most of my old gear to friends and family I used some of their instructor’s demo gear, which was more the sort of equipment one might expect a DofE group to be carrying – large tents, Trangias, 2kg sleeping bags, foam mats etc. – to demonstrate that one needs to find a happy medium between low cost and low weight. It also highlighted the fact that light gear is not always the most expensive; several Poundland items (mug/plate/cutlery) were lighter than my titanium equivalents (I chose not to argue the point that if I tried to heat water for a cuppa in a plastic mug it would melt) and a heavier tent split between a group might still be lighter per-person than taking several solo tents.

I got a couple of questions at the end centred around the cost of some of my lightweight items I’d brought along and asked for possible alternatives – I could see that one or two of them were especially taken aback with the cost of my big three (tent, pack, sleeping bag) so hope I haven’t put any of them off. I think the majority understood that lightweight stuff was an option, not a necessity, and that the most expensive kit wasn’t a guarantee of comfort, but I thought it might be useful to put together a list of equipment they might want to investigate further. It’s a list of relatively low cost, reasonably light camping equipment that has received favourable reviews and looks like it’s up to the job. I hope this will demonstrate that you don’t have to spend thousands of pounds on equipment to get decent gear that doesn’t weigh a tonne! I’ve also stressed to them the importance of trying on things like rucksacks before buying them, not just finding the best bargain on eBay.

What advice would you give a group about to undertake their first DofE expedition?

Hi, and welcome to the site. Do let me know what you think of the place in the comments. I’ll be trying to keep the site updated as often as possible, and I hope that this blog doesn’t fall into disuse as so many do. The idea is to create a site that balances gear talk/reviews with trip reports and more general discussion of outdoor activities in the UK and abroad (if the chance arises). It will be interesting to see if I succeed.

I’m unashamedly hooked on all things gadgety, so I’m sure there will be a bias, at least to start with, on gear and tech. All those gadgets and gizmos certainly increase my enjoyment of camping, however I find that when I’m out walking the technology tends to fade into the background, which is how it should be. Gear and tech are a means to an end; they are tools that enable us to go exploring in the wild places, whilst remaining self-sufficient and, more importantly, safe.

With that said, I’ve included a gear page with a list of items I usually take with me on trips. I aim to start writing a few reviews of the items in it over the next few weeks and hope that the information will prove useful to people looking to invest in similar equipment. I’ll also be posting some trip reports in the coming months, although currently work doesn’t allow much time for getting out in the hills.