In Filo Country

In Filo Country, originally uploaded by dimacleod.

NCIS Cairngorms

Some geartalk in this video from yesterday morning.

And one of the chaps at work wondered about camera fittings, so here is how I secure my Berghaus hardcase to my Osprey Atmos hip-belt. Means the camera can be taken out quickly.

As the Atmos has a split-belt, I can hook in a d-karabiner, and clip it to the loops of the camera case. when I unclip the belt-buckle, the case (and camera) don’t come flying off.

*Ask Darren about the NCIS reference.

Vaseline, Cookset Condom and Women’s Underwear

In the beginning … too cliqued, but the story has a beginning, not quite of Biblical proportions, but a beginning nonetheless. In the beginning, Big Kev was taking his son, “The Lad”, out for a trip to the Cairngorms. There was an open invitation to join them, so I pencilled it in my diary, and Dawn was going to travel up from London. Except for the plague that was brought upon both their houses. As I work for a far-seeing employer, I had already been inoculated against Cold, Flu, and the vengeful wrath of the Almighty.

And so it came to pass that I had a rapid turn-around after work on Friday night, and I was heading into the Chosen Land National Park. And lo, it was bloody brilliant!

Friday night.

With temperatures down to –4°c, it was going to be a cold one. I had the MWIS forecast and dressed accordingly. Also this month’s skymap was in my map-case. Leaving the car and walking through the woods, the cold mist clung to my face. No sounds except a distant water flow. No breath of wind except that which my lungs exhaled. The mist thickened with each breath and my gloves wiped away melting water droplets that clung to face.

Walking up the glen, I could smell woodsmoke from the bothy about 10 minutes before walking past it. No birds, no deer, no wind, no sounds bar the water in the glen and the occasional burn rushing down to join it. Clouds moved slowly in the sky, and a meteorite flashed by. Despite all the hi-tech modern kit, the inner-child still made a wish. About 90-minutes later, interrupted only by a “good evening” to a gentleman hiker walking his dog, I arrived at an empty ford (maplink). I had already decided to pitch where Mike and I had been earlier in the year. I stuck to that, even though I had the whole area to myself.

I cleared an area of debris, and pitched the tent. Then I cleared the debris from under the groundsheet. And once more before inflating my Insul sleep mat (the insulation will prove its worth tonight), and stripping down to baselayer, and climbing into sleeping bag (Cumulus Ultralight 350), and pulling my down jacket over my torso, and leaving my fleece-lined jacket over my lower body. I pulled on my warn cap and noted that the air inside the tent was much warmer than outside.

There was nothing interesting on the radio, so ate some peppered salami, drank some malt whisky and switched off the light and listened to Nature. I moved the Silva ADC device onto the groundsheet beside me. That would give me a shock in the morning.

I awoke twice in the night with a cold nose, so turned the cap around by 90° so that an earflap covered my nose.

Morning

With no fuss, it was morning. It was also –4.9°c and not quite 8am. Opening the zip on my sleeping bag, the cold quickly drove me to suit up – we’d see how good the Furtech trousers would be today!

Yes, there is an Akto in this photo

Filling the Camelbak from the stream, I found that the drink nozzle was frozen. This is the insulated version too. We had had problems with the crew-in gas canisters before, but was pleased to see that the Blackfly 4 worked well. However, I didn’t put it on a stone, and was using the Honey Stove separately, so it fell over as the frost in the ground melted. Twice.

Breakfast

Display reads –4.3°c

Leaving no trace

Any embers were doused with water, and scattered into the stream.

As I knew that there would be soot, I had carried in a ziplock bag to prevent it from making a mess of my kit.

Duly wrapped inside the pot-cozy, whilst the Honey Stove was back in its pouch.

I’ll do something about the fire starting kit, cutting the Maya sticks into shorter lengths, taking the small blue container of vaseline, pack enough cotton wool balls, and store it all in a lightweight, waterproof container, along with a knife that will fit there.

Everything was packed away and the ground checked for any tell-tale signs of my passing.

Hiking out

Low cloud gave glimpses of the mountains beyond. About 6 people had ventured past, and I would see two more before reaching the car.

South towards the Linn of Dee.

Looking back north up the glen.

Like some gate-keeper, this tree always freaks me.

A final parting shot from a great night out – a small party of deer were lurking near the car park.

Thank you, Nature. Shame out the cap, and the buff cravat.

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Standard kitlist: Akto Year 2

Extras: SnowClaw (just in case), Alpkit Filo jacket, Extremities cap (apparently it is called a “Took” hat). Smartwool liner socks worn under thick Ultimax socks.

Things to do: cut Maya sticks in half. Replace batteries in headtorch. Protect Camelbak from cold overnight (by the way, my Silva measured –24°c in my freezer on Sunday). Water had frozen on the filter of the Aquagear, so that needs watching too. Look into a separate camera for video clips – maybe my old Sony stills camera.

New gear that made the grade and will be with me again: Furtech trousers, Lowe Alpine briefs (xl-w-noir), Honey Stove, Blackfly 4 (using a stable base).

New gear that didn’t make the grade: PossumDown Gloves – toasty, but left tickly fibres on my rough manly face. I also couldn’t operate camera whilst wearing them. My normal Mountain Hardwear “powerstretch” liner gloves will be staying with me.

Filo Stuff

Just got my new jacket in and out of an OD x-small bag, but didn't manage to seal the waterproof roll-top. Maybe need to eat more spinach and force out more air from the coat - neither of which I was willing to attempt. This had been the most energetic I have been all day.

As with all down, I quickly got it out of the bag, and re-fluffed it. Yes, that did mainly involve me wearing it when sitting at the computer.

I finally had an excuse to use my indoor light-cube thingy.

Alpkit Filo

My toasty new down jacket, the Alpkit Filo.

Now I can turn the heating down in the flat and it'll pay for itself in no time. Oh, and get out in in it when taking photographs, and maybe, just maybe, when I get off my backside to do some hiking and hillwalking again.

Nemo blue, size XL.

To do - CG in outdoor background before publishing this.

Shooty and BangBang

I suppose it is a sign of the times we live in that you can buy bullet-proof backpacks and stab-proof hoodies. Will it lead to people putting themselves into more dangerous situations because they think they can survive it? Be safe, use Hill Phones instead.

Paramo Cascada Trousers

I splashed out on a pair of Paramo Cascada trousers today. I know they don't have lots of pocketses, but they seem to live up to the hype. The Cascada's would save me taking separate waterproof overtrousers.

If I was walking long distances I'd probably carry a pair of 'hotel trousers' anyway -which could be my normal light trousers. I am looking forward to trying them out.

Good fitting in the shop, HillTrek of Aboyne. Never been in it before, but a packed gear shop. Gave me a membership discount too. Nice.

Weather was naff this weekend in the Cairngorms, so I didn't go out. Despite a threatened virtual poking with a virtual stick from Simon. So went for a run out to Braemar with the big camera, but the light was yeuchy.

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Caught up with the last of Bob's podcasts from the European OutDoor Show (link).

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Watched BBC1's new programme "Mountain". It had me worried in places, but Mr Jones is a big boy, and I'm sure had training. I recognised some of the faces he pulled, when Am Basteir "The Executioner" was mentioned. I just checked in Cicerone, it means "The Baptiser" but is often referred to by the other translation. Hey ho.

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Across on the TGO News Desk, there's an article on some filmed ascents in the Cairngorms in mid-August. (link)

If The Cap Fits

Finally did something with the CafePress account. Ordered myself a baseball cap with the full AktoMan logo on it, in khaki (link).

Benn' 100507

Sponsored by "that 70's show". Yup, that's my shanks in a pair of Ronhills. Recently i've not been wearing my main hiking gear when going up Bennachie, but still faced the issue of waterproof trousers. Hence the Ronhills. 40 minutes to get from car to trig point. Oh, and saw a lorry on its side outside inverurie. Ambulance and police arrived a few minutes later. Driver climbed out of cab as people were heading over. I was too late and on wrong side of dual-carriageway.

Wear it with pride

I like t-shirts. They help me get into a frame of mind for a task. At present I tend to sport a "Keep on trekkin" one from "Life is Good". I'm on the prowl for an appropriate one my blogger-ID.

• ThinkGeek: "Blogito, Ergo Sum". I do like the "Comments (0)".
• GoogleStore: Blogger logo.
• Jinx: "Nobody reads my blog".
• SplitTheAtom: the design sums up blogging. A bit Emerson-esque in the philosophy though.
• BBC News: interesting, maybe work the Arabic "We will not be silent" into a t-shirt.
• Buy-Tees.com: Some interesting ones there. I'll look back after tee...oops, that should be tea.

Nowt to do with blogging, but this one just cracked me up. It is smart on such a deep level.

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Err, I just found that my blog is being copied via www.pkblogs.com under the heading:

Is your blog blocked in India, Pakistan, Iran or China?
If Yes then you can still access your blog anytime using pkblogs free Blog Gateway.

Err. Should I be concerned? Should Blogger.com be concerned? No-one asked me. I'm in the huff now.

24 hour flew

Breakfast of coffee and porridge the left bothy at 9am. I was outside all packed when I remembered that I hadn't signed the bothy book. I made the terrible decision to just crack on rather than step over and disturb the bodies in the bothy. Walking towards Derry Lodge, I pass an Akto pitched in the trees. I feel slightly guilty for choosing a warm bothy instead of a spacious tent.

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Luibeg Bridge.
Been walking for an hour and a half. Spotted another tent, some big orange TNF affair above the Derry Fords. Saw 2 deer, young ones, about 10m away - I wouldn't have seen them but they started moving. Only saw one small unspecified black bird. Heavy shower, light rain continuous. Nothing to see above low cloud. Speckled snow on the hills. River is in spate, which may cause me a problem in Glen Dee, as the map shows the path intersecting a number of streams.


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Got to the start of the Lairig Ghru. Was passed by 2 climbers who'd camped out last night and were heading up one of the ridges (if the weather was okay). Saw a few deer grazing on Creagan nan Gabhar, but nothing else. Had a fine view of the hills below the low cloud, highlighted by the snow. Like a living Wainwright sketch. Bod an Deamhain pictured above. Before I turned south down Glen Dee, one of the guys from last night (and his dog) came bounding up from Corrour Bothy. So, I wasn't the first out, and I hadn't even noticed that there was only one dog in the bothy that morning.

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Headed down to Glen Dee, and, apart from crossing some streams that were in spate, and the driving rain, there wasn't much else. Some good work has been done on the path (photo taken looking north):

Elsewhere, the work had been submerged by water, or hadn't started. It must take the teams years to do a stretch like this, and their efforts are much appreciated. Got to White Bridge just after 3pm.
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10 to 5 on Saturday, and the GPS says 24.5km (15 miles) tabbed since yesterday, and it's not even 5 o'clock. Hence the title. Heavens still falling. Getting changed out of wet gear in car park toilets. I'll need to apply Nikwax to the Salomon gloves, as they started frothing. I'll also need to organise the names of waypoints - I've too many in the Cairngorms and they are starting to cause me problems when I come to pick them out of the list.

Boots did well, but I can feel some dampness in the socks - checked later and no blisters. I don't know what the expectation is for Gore-Tex XCR, but the boots were getting rained on from above, and having to cope with ankle-deep puddles and streams.

Found it difficult to get the e+Lite comfortable on my forehead, but it was handy to have. I didn't get the feeling of losing my peripheral vision like I did with the Tikka. But I found that to get the torch low enough to see what was in front of me, it started to shine off my nose.

New leggings were warm, without feeling over-warm in the bothy. Car thermometer read 3'c, but I didn't feel it on my legs - though I was wearing overtrousers as well as Montane Terras.

Winter

Nae very romantic, blogging from a ferry queue in Ullapool, but it passes the time of day. As does hitting the outdoor shops. There are 3 I like to peruse.

Northwest Outdoors sells lots of gear, from wynnster to paramo and a fine coffee shop to sit in whilst justifying your new gear.

Next is the Ullapool Bookshop. It has more hiking and scottish history books than Waterstones in Aberdeen. Great selection and the epitome of a bookshop.

Lastly, the Ullapool Hardware shop - they keep the names simple here - has a reasonable selection of outdoors gear. Socks, flasks, fishing gear, etc.

So, a 'life is good' t-shirt and 2 scottish history books are now mine, all mine, my precious bookses. Yes, my presentses they are...

Couch 22

Mad Jim's posted some photos from the OM meet that I missed on Saturday. I'd be too scared to tackle that snow anyway.

Suite 1: Morven (including the killer ducks of Braemar).
Suite 2: Beinn Bhreac and Beinn a'Chaorainn.

Very impressive, chaps.

Now, off to update iTunes to handle the kafuffle over Bob's Outdoors Channel/Station whatever he's renamed it to stop the sodding lawyers having a go. In the meantime the streets are coated in broken glass and cars are hooring up 20mph-limited streets. Priorities? Humbug!

Picked up a pair of merino260 leggings in Tiso's. Actually, I bought them yesterday, but looked at the chest measurement instead of the waist size. So exchanged them today. They had a copy of "Sacred Summits: John Muir's Greatest Climbs" for 2 quid instead of £8.99, so I splurged out on that. That works out to be over a 10% discount on the whole shopping. Honest.

Day out:Quoich-Fhearnaig-Lui

Just back from a day out. First hike since October! How sad is that? Very sodding sad, that's how.

As I was heading into the Cairngorm NP with a mate, and the forecast was cold, with the chance of snow flurries, I packed survival gear just in case. Obviously the Akto was in there. I packed my big Scarpa SL's in case I needed them when we got there, but took (and wore) my Terrocs instead.

Parked at the Linn of Dee car park and road-walked round to Linn of Quoich. Snack break by the "Punchbowl", and noticed the flowers left by the bridge in memory of the poor wee lass who drowned there earlier in the year. The day was cold, even though we were only at around 400m. I'd already changed from my Sealskinz to new Aspen cold-weather gloves. Walking north-westerly, the wind was in our face.


Climbing up the path over the Quoich Water, we caught a stunning view of the snow on the peaks. Having already driven past a snow-capped Lochnagar, this wasn't a surprise, but was still stunning.

We pushed on to Clais Fhearnaig, where we planned to stop for a lunch. The snow-capped hills delayed us slightly, as we kept stopping to take photos. Two walkers passed us heading south, from their "Hellos", FJ reckoned they may have been German or Danish. She has more of an ear for that sort of thing.


A black&white spaniel (I think) came bounding over the heather of the Clais, followed by another dog and then a couple. More "hellos" and the dogs did their sniffing-investigation-bounding thing. Nice, well-behaved and non-intimidating behaviour. Even though I'm a cat person, I can appreciate the boundless enthusiasm of a dog in it's element.

As to other animals, we'd seen some stags when in the car, and a couple of female deer when on foot. Later on that day, a hovering-flying thing (kestrel? hawk of some sort), and a flight of black birds (not geese or grouse). I'm hopeless at bird-watching, if you haven't already guessed.

Stopped for lunch at the Lochan and got the Micron out. Took ages to boil 0.6 litres of water for cuppa-soups. I didn't time it, but the heat lost by stopping was not regained by drinking the warm drinks. Definitely needs a wind-shield. I'll take one next time.

Pushed on and into Glen Lui. A slight diversion to Bob Scott's Bothy to leave some presents for the OMers who were basing their weekend there. Although we didn't meet them, a gentleman called Neil was stopping there for a brew and meal before pushing on to camp overnight and then to the Lairig Ghru and Aviemore on Sunday. We had a brew too, rested up, repacked gear and headed back to the car. It was noticeable that the Micron took far less time to heat the same amount of water than outdoors. From the guest-book, Geoff had already headed off to Aviemore on foot, and we read about the heroic rescue of an entangled stag by a Dundonian hiker.

While Akto-spotting at the bothy, I went out to fix a tent that had blown down. Turned out to be be a perfectly OK hooped bivvy. My bad. Still, first one I'd seen in 'real life'.

Tabbed it back to the car in falling daylight, and kept our night-vision as a Landy went past. Far better chance of seeing things without using a head-torch. We were rewarded on the way back to the car by seeing 2 stags rushing away from us across a stream.

Stopped off in Banchory at the chipshop by the river, polished off a fine meal, then headed home.

Summary - 14 miles/23km. A fine day out. 0900 - 1630, including stops.

No blisters. Terrocs behaved well again. Had to keep feet dry as no drying in the weather at all. I had Sealskinz waterproof socks and liners with me in case needed. New jacket was nice and warm (temperature around/just above freezing).

For my legs I wore HH leggings and Montane Terra trousers. Any colder and I'd have added another layer. For snow walking, I reckon I'd really need some dedicated cold-weather trousers, or warmer leggings (or both).

Forgot to put on lip-salve and lost my camera's retaining clip. I'll put that down to still being groggy after fighting off the cold.

Gear 8: Montane Verso Jacket

Out in the Cairngorms at the weekend. Forecast from MWIS is cold at height. Not going up high, just walking up Glen Quoich and across to Glen Lui. As the forecast is cold, thought I'd better upgrade from my Columbia fleece softshell to something warmer. Decided on the Montane Verso as I have a Montane jacket already so trust the brand.

Something I noticed is that jackets tend to be quoted as "warmer" or telling you what it's made of, e.g. "60g provides thermal insulation of 2 TOG" or "155g of 95% Goose down at 800+ fill power". Why no comfort rating, like they have on sleeping bags? I know there are difficulties with sleeping bag ratings, but at least they are a guide. There were 4 coloured leaflet tags with the jacket, none tells me what temperature the jacket will keep me warm at (not even under 'laboratory conditions'). The chap in the shop can tell me, and a search on the Internet or query on OutdoorsMagic, but not the information sheet.

Bit out of it when in the gear shop, as the cold's been building up over the last few days - today I was at the sore eyes and feeling groggy stage, with intermittent sniffles.

Got a wee box of goodies for the OMers on Saturday. If I don't meet any, I'll leave it at Bob Scott's Bothy.

Couch 19

I've been mainly working and painting wargames figures this week. My boxed set of "Weir's Way" came through from Play.com - about half price in their sale. Which was nice. There are some clips of it on ScotlandOnTV.

In amongst the paperwork, there are letters from the MCoS and NTS, so I guess my annual membership is in need of renewal.

Bought a pair of warm winter hiking gloves today. In the first shop I went to, I got met by a security guard, her arms crossed. Now, IMHO, there are 2 types of security guards - this was one that made me feel like a potential criminal. So, I walked out and took my custom elsewhere.

Let me explain something. I don't like modern crowds. They are chaotic, arrogant and self-centred. I don't need that agro when I go out shopping. So, even if I start out in a happy mood, by the time I get to the shops, I'm often not a happy bunny any more.

Gear bought: Salomon Aspen GTX gloves

Weird Darren's blog is worth popping over to. Just leave your buff at home.

Off to the Cairngorms for a day's trek next weekend. So busy, that it takes 3 weeks of emails to organise one day out! Never mind, hope to get out a couple of times over the Christmas break (hence looking for warmer gloves).