Solomon's first trip

The weather was perfect, the auspices were good and so we decided to give it a shot.The next job was to pick a location. I grew up in Blaenavon, near to Abergavenny. My mum used to push me in my buggy up to Keepers pond and Foxhunter’s grave on the Blorenge so there was a nice symmetry in choosing this as a spot. There was a further reason in that there is a carpark and a pretty flat walk of about twenty minutes to get to the summit of the Blorenge and on the map, there was a large flat area on the other side of the mound that forms the summit. There would be views over to the Sugarloaf and everything would be good. My mum would come along with us carrying a frying pan and some sausages and then head off while we bunked down. The best laid plans of mice and men…
We didn’t get going until really late- Solomon’s tea is at five o’clock and I was still finishing packing the bags at four. It’s a twenty minute drive from Newport to Foxhunter’s but that didn’t take account of the terrible traffic around Pontypool. The weather was very hot and Solomon was getting ratty. By the time we arrived at the carpark it was nearly half five. Steph was slightly concerned that the car would get broken into. It was a reasonable concern- the carpark is close to Blaenavon, not exactly a hub of youth entertainment and a natural spot for night time youth drinking. My mum had a good idea- to check for broken glass around the carpark:
‘There’s only one piece and it’s not window glass’
I went over to check. She was right. There was one piece. It was fused to the ground in the centre of the black outline left by a burnt out car. It was twenty to six. I decided not to mention it.
The next problem occurred when we tried to get Solomon moving. Whether it was because he was hungry or whether he was a bit freaked out by the sheer size of the space we were in, never having been on a mountain before, he decided to refuse to move. He just stood still and repeated the word ‘car’ over and over again. He finally consented to nannie carrying him and I put nannie’s pack on my front. By the time we had taken the wrong path for about ten minutes and had to turn back a phrase of Withnail’s was on repeat in my mind- ‘This is a terrible, terrible mistake’.
There had been extensive burning on the Blorenge the previous year. Everywhere was blackened and the scent of charcoal was heavy on the air. Solomon was walking now but very, very slowly. I decided to run ahead to find a camping spot. As I crested the summit I could see that it was going to be a lot harder than I had anticipated. The burnt area stretched in every direction and I wasn’t willing to pit the Hog’s ultralight groundsheet against the heather stumps. I left my pack at the summit and ran ahead. Finally I found a small area out of sight of the summit and passing walkers which would just about go. I ran back and collected the rest of the family. Solomon had found the summit cairn which is pretty big and provided ample rocks for him to climb. He’s really into climbing at the moment and we only managed to persuade him to move by pointing out the big rocks nearer to our campsite.
Finally, at about seven we managed to settle.It had taken us over an hour to cover what would normally take about 15-20 minutes. I fired up the stove and began frying sausages. Although I never went camping with my parents, we occasionally had ‘cooking picnics’ on the mountains. The skylarks were singing, a real sound of my childhood. Finally, I began to relax. The tent went up really easily, a bonus in poor weather but equally welcome now. Solomon’s Readybed also went up quickly. Using the supplied foot pump it took about five minutes. I’d added an extra thin layer from a Poundland sleepmat to combat convection issues and Solomon’s sleeping bag went on top. One thing which I had forgotten about but I found really annoying was the sheer profusion of stuffsacks. It’s all very well organising things into stuffsacks, but how do you organise them when they have served their purpose? Suddenly it occurred to me that another bonus of ultralight is a reduction in the amount of things you have to keep track of. No sleepsocks, no spare clothes, no towels and so-on. I resorted to my old trick of bunging everything into one stuffsack. It might take a while to find things but at least you know where they are. By this point everything was ready. We had sausages, beans and smash and I popped open a Guinness. There was a fantastic view across the valley to the Sugarloaf, the weather was still really warm and Solomon was having a great time.
I cleared up while Steph got Solomon ready for bed. We’d brought a Hi-Gear folding bowl to wash him in but it was virtually useless. The amount of water needed to fill it was huge, and we ended up just washing him using the bottom half of the Brunton cookset. What was really good was the Trekmates micro towel. It dried well, felt nice against the skin and dried in next to no time. While Steph read him a story I walked my mum back to the car.
When I arrived back at the tent, Steph was just finishing up. Apparently, the only thing that had convinced Solomon into bed was the Thomas the tank engine picture- I was very glad to have carried that weight. We sat in silence outside the tent for a while, waiting for him to settle. It was a pretty big test for him, as he’s never slept in a bed before and this was an unfamiliar situation. After a bit of shifting about, he settled and we could relax. I got out my super ultralight playing cards and Steph got into my Minim ultra sleeping bag to keep warm. She was already wearing her Craghoppers down jacket and some merino long-johns but she runs very cold. The sun set was great, the lights of Abergavenny slowly flicked on and everything was right with the world.
I’d like to say we slept well but we didn’t. The pitch was pretty sloping and after trying to sleep with our feet facing down the slope we had to change. Luckily, we are small enough and the Hog big enough to make this possible. I took the bottom spot but that didn’t prevent Steph getting beaten around the head by Solomon flailing in his sleep. The sides of the Readybed aren’t high enough to prevent him flipping out and although it’s not high enough to hurt him, it would be enough to wake him. Steph swapped around and we settled down again. I never sleep too well on the first night of camping anyway, so I spent a lot of the night listening to podcasts and checking Solomon hadn’t fallen out. Still despite our fears and even though he spent half the night half out of his bag, he didn’t wake up and in fact slept extremely well. Steph was warm enough which was a bonus and said she probably would have slept a lot better on a flatter pitch.
We woke about seven. Solomon drank his milk from my swedish folding cup that he'd taken a liking to and then we all ate porridge from a bag.I took Solomon for a climb on the rocks and then we packed up. It took us an hour to walk back even with Solomon on my shoulders for a while. I took his first trig point photo (another reminder of my childhood!) and then we made it back to the car which was still there and untouched.
So was it worth it? Nothing is ever as perfect as it appears in my mind. As a gear shakedown, it worked extremely well and, more importantly, it showed it was possible. Solomon really enjoyed himself for most of it and with better time management, it would have been easy. It shows that with a child that young it pays to take what you think is possible (and in my mind, what I had planned was conservative!) and do a lot less. The ultralight simplicity is really worth it. Would I go again? Defininitely! It pays to take less, and next time, there is less that I would take next time. The bowl will be the first thing to go. Stuff sacks aren’t worth it either- I’ll use less and bigger sacks. Steph does need to see what is worth taking as well, but that is a product of experience. A lot of over-preparation is due to fear of the unknown and the more we do it, the better our routines will be. The Hog was fantastic-stable easy to pitch and absolutely massive. The only thing that needs attention is the zip, which you have to be a bit careful with to avid it catching on the storm flap. With regards to the rest of the equipment, a few things definitely need to change. The Jam was just about big enough and carried the weight, but next time I’ll take my old Karrimor sack to give me more flexibility. If we go a lot , it would be worth investing in a big but light sack. Steph could certainly do with it. The other thing that was useless was the Colemen F1. I’ve had a problem with the plastic components melting before. This time it locked up completely. I also rediscovered why I got so annoyed with gas stoves after it toppled over three times, losing all the water. I was kind of glad when it broke. I’m thinking of getting a remote canister stove, maybe the Edelrid Opilio. The weight’s pretty good and I can use it in really cold conditions when I need to.

Scuppered

I had a look around for various bodge trolley options on the high street. Nothing really seemed to fit the bill and I wasn't going to get anything proper sorted within the week although PTC's wheely looks promising. On Friday I got Solomon into the carrier and weighed it. It was 17kg. I still hadn't got any water, food or general toddler detritus in either of our packs. There was no way this was going to happen, especially when there was an ominous muscular pain in my shoulder after putting the pack on my back. It was time for a radical re-think. Seeing as how I would only be able to stagger as far as Solomon could walk anyway, Solomon was going to have to walk. Out with the baby carrier and in with the Golite Jam. And everything fitted. I could take more weight in the final carry and my baseweight was down to 6kg. I'd taken the flysheet and inner of the tent, and spare clothes for Solomon and Steph out of Steph's bag and added them to mine. but I hadn't put in nappies, wipes etc to either of our bags. Steph's baseweight was about 7kg, but her pack alone weighs 3kg and there wasn't going to be any consumables added. I could carry the water and food and be just about within a comfortable weight for the Jam.

We were good to go. Until it came to today and the weather gods served us up sluicing rain and chilly temperatures. The weather is supposed to improve later in the week. We'll postpone.

Family camping

I'm determined to get out this half term. We're going to visit my parents who live close to the Black mountains and the velleys. It's where I walked as a child and it's nice and accessible. Preperations are slowly moving forward. I rigged the Hog and seam sealed it- poorly of course, but done. I did it in my parents garden which is about twenty times the size of our garden and the aesthetic appeal of the Hog was vastly improved-it needs a bit of space to spread out I think. I've started to pack the bags as well. It's a hard process- Both the packs are already 7kg- Steph's before all the baby gear, food and water, Mine before I put Solomon in. Bugger. There are weight savings to be made, but it's a matter of persuading Steph that possibilities even though they might be unconventional. Case in point is her 1.7kg -2 rated sleeping bag. I've floated the idea of using a 650g down bag combined with down jacket(which she's taking already), down trousers and socks. There is an issue of putting Steph off completely, either through carrying a cripplingly heavy pack or not enjoying the camping. There's the problem of Solomon. I've got him a sleeping bag, which is already 850g (it broke my heart to buy it!) and was planning to put him on a Gelert x lite 3/4 mat. He tends to flail around like a madman in the night however. So I've got him this- it looks like the lightest option but it's still 1.6 kg. So finally, I'm starting to think I need a cart or trailer of some sort. Something like a pulk but with wheels. Having had a quick look, nothing seems available at all.

41 grams

I've never taken an mp3 with me on the hill. I've found friends who put music on in the tent to be annoying to say the least- it seems to grate against the natural sounds of the hill and most choices I've heard being played definitely suit an urban environment a lot better. I don't take books on overnight's because I don't tend to read them. On longer solo trips I've taken a book, but again, choice is important. My choice of JG Ballard's 'Crash' for the Rhinogs trip was definitely wrong- a fantastic book but it jarred with my surroundings. On top of that, after an afternoon stuck in the tent, I'd read it all, but a thicker book is a heavier book.

A couple of things have changed my mind a little, and made me think about giving an mp3 a shot. First, I never sleep very well when I'm camping- I tend to wake up a few times a night. It's a bit of a faff to read when I do wake up- find the book, find the torch etc. I haven't tried reading in the bivvy yet but I would gues that would be a pain. A bit of music might be just the ticket. Second, on my last trip, I wasted a fair bit of time not enjoying myself. Often, I do like walking in the mist and I do have a thing about experiencing the outdoors rather than shutting it out, but selective use of music may well have helped.

So when my sister asked what I wanted for my birthday I asked for an mp3. I am not a technologically minded person- I own virtually nothing in the way of gadgets and I still like to have a physical object in my hand when I buy music. I owned an mp3 when they first came out and managed to get about three songs on it before I abandoned it, so I wasn't bothered by complexity. But of course technology moves on and so what I got from a basic mp3 pretty much blew me away. It's the Archos 1 vision-and as far as mp3's go I gather it's for the 'casual' user, which I guess is me. It's advertised as 28g but the headphones put it up to 41g on my scales. I could use it without reading the instructions and it's got 4G of memory. Pretty much exactly what I needed. So what have I put on it? First thing on was a bunch of Bob Cartwright's excellent podcasts. I have listened to a few on the free cds he sends out with his products, but there's five years of podcasts for me to catch up on. Perfect tent listening I reckon, inspiring rather than jarring. My next target was some audio books. Librivox has hundreds for free- amazing! While the entire text of 'The decline and fall of the Roman empire' tempted me I decided that it was a bit like one of those ambitious peak bagging routes I plan and then fail to complete. So I now have H Rider Haggard's 'Alan Quartermain' downloaded. Easy listening for post hill exhaustion but exciting stuff nonetheless. And music? Pretty much the first album I got on there was U.F. Orb. A blatant sign of a misspent youth during the 90's, it's got to be my favourite album of all time. O.O.B.E still has the power to send a shiver down my spine and Blue room is just incredible.This will be the one for midnight dozing. In fact I'm getting all of my Orb back catalogue on it. Orbus Terarrum has a much more 'earthy' feel and tracks like 'Oxbow lakes' may well make for a decent black dog dispeller. I'll take it on the next trip and see how it goes.

Fannying about

I spend a fair about of time fannying about with my gear. It's a replacement for time spent on the hill, in a way. It's also part of the reason for things like my obsession with not using stuff sacks. The main thing I've done is to pack and repack my pack, finding the optimum configuration for ease and comfort. I find it frustrating when people take ages to pack their bag the night before a trip but it's just because I know exactly what's going in and where. What I should have done more of is pitch and re-pitch my tarp, but, having a bit of spare time I spent a bit of time fannying around with that.

I wanted to see if short guys at the back of the tarp would help the space in the half pyramid- turns out it helps with tautness and protection as well. I've always tried to pitch things as close to the ground as possible, but the bivvy should help with wind proofing and I'll look for more sheltered spots anyway. The two sides seem to give more protection at the front and there's more depth for sitting.

The next thing I had a go with was a micro tarp I made a few years back. It was when I had strarted trying to reduce weight and had read Ron Turnbull's Book of the Bivvy. The trouble was, I was going from a full two person tent and it was a jump too far for me at the time. I had an army surplus bivvy that weighed over a kilogram and when I saw the Gelert solo tent in a sale, I swapped immediately- the weight was pretty similar. Steph's cousin is in the (un?) fortunate position of having to replace all his camping gear from scratch. Interestingly he's at about the same point as I was when I started to lighten up- all his old gear was a mixture of budget stuff and gear bought for other purposes (massive skiing down jacket etc). That equals serious weight. He's expressed an interest in a tarp and bivvy combo and I have an Alpkit Hunka I didn't really need any more. The tarp is PU coated nylon with paracord guy loops and line but it still only weighs 160g. Pitching with only four pegs, it gives an overall weight of about 600g which is pretty good. Ironically, now I've said he can have this stuff, I've set it up and it looks pretty inviting. I'm also passing on a Golite Dawn and he's thinking about getting a Rab Photon jacket. I've never preached to him about weight, but he's hefted my bag a few times on different trips. It'll be interesting to see the path he travels as he buys his stuff. I'll do an update on his gear on the next trip we go on.

Buttermere and Blackbeck part two

After a reasonable rest we proceeded up towards Haystacks. As we went, we pondered the concept of being 'experienced', prompted in part by my thoughts from the night before, but also thanks to a comment made by a chap we met by Blacksail who had described us as 'experts', having talked to us for ten minutes! Although, clearly I'm not an experienced tarp user(!), and despite the fact that we feel like enthusiastic amateurs we decided that we could have grounds to consider ourselves reasonably experienced in the outdoors- we could be put down anywhere in Britain with a few pieces of kit and get ourselves to somewhere else in a good state. To the extent where maybe we're fooling ourselves. There are massive gaps in our knowledge-edible plants, avalanche awareness, contour reading. And to people who are more experienced we'd probably seem pretty naive. We have put in a good few years wild camping now, however, and we do have a few skills to rub together. It's a nice feeling to look back and see how far we've come. It's all been self taught as well. We haven't done guided walks and haven't sat in a classroom.Which also feels right. Of course the internet has been invaluable, but there does seem to be an ethic of getting out there and just experiencing it within the whole community. A nice change from the 'managed risk' which is so prevalent these days. It's a nice walk up to Haystacks from Blacksail. Steep, with some potential hands-on and worthwhile views all the way up. It's an atmospheric summit as well. On the way down to Blackbeck there were plenty of decent pitches although there was a lot of waterlogged ground. It would be well worth anther visit. We saw another set of campers on a precipitous pitch across the way but at Blackbeck Tarn we had the spot to ourselves. We pitched and had enough light for a wander round, a bit of scrambling practice and a relax. We went to bed fairly early as we were both a bit knackered.

This was the first time I'd had a proper chance to test out my theoretical sleep system, using insulated clothing to boost my sleeping bag. As the minim ultra can just about fit in a cargo pocket on a pair of army trousers, this was a bit of a gamble. The day had been fairly warm and sunny however so I didn't think it was too much of a test. I woke up a fair few times during the night. There was a big moon, and as I had only zipped the bug net on my bivvy I was able to look out at the moonlit landscape. This is what bivvying is supposed to be all about and I was very pleased with the Titanium Goat Bivvy. I've felt very claustrophobic and short of breath in other bivvies I've tried-I didn't feel this at all. In the morning I was a little disappointed with the sleep system. Although I had been really toasty for most of the night, I had felt a very slight chill at about six. Because it had been a warm night, I thought there was no way I could use the system at seriously cold temperatures. That disappointment lasted until I realised that there must have been a serious temperature drop during the night. There was a fair frost, Blackbeck tarn had begun to freeze over- the ice had proceeded about a foot from the shore all the way round. Smaller tarns had frozen completely. Of course I hadn't brought a thermometer with me, but various opinions put the temperature at between -5 and -10. Up until -5 will be good enough for me-that's around the temperature range I normally encounter.We packed up quickly and got going. Martyn wanted to catch the football and I anted to see my family. Of course, the weather was the best of the entire weekend. So it goes....

Caldera ULC Fusion first look.

On Friday, when I got back from a somewhat stressfull day at work there was a very light box with a customs label on it sitting in my hall. My new Caldera cone had finally arrived.
Here's what had happened. When I finally made the switch from a gas cannister stove, the caldera was the obvious choice. I only wanted to boil water and popular opinion was that there wasn't a better meths stove available in terms of quick boil time, stability and efficiency. I got the stove and cone and was instanly convinced. I enjoyed the fact that I could light up, walk away and know I'd come back to a pot that was still upright and not boiled dry. The only drawback was not really a problem for me-that of the size of the cone. I just inserted it into my pot, put a disposable pint glass on the top and filled it with my hot drinks kit. After a time, however, I got a new smaller (lighter) food bag, and I began to find it hard to get all my food in it. This was a stupid reason to get a new stove and so I had to think a bit harder. Despite the fact that I had marked up the pint glass with measurements, I still never used it for anything. I don't like things in my bag I don't use. Plus my old cone was getting bit bashed up. What's more, I had seen a new compact cone that fitted inside the mug. I had a good reason to at least consider a new piece of gear. So I made the fatal mistake of emailing Trail Designs about the Caldera ULC for my Snowpeak mini solo. Rand wrote back saying that they were currently playing around with ideas for a two part Caldera, they were about to make one for the mini solo and might as well make two if I was interested. I was interested.
So what did I get in my box? This: Clockwise from top left-The two halves of the cone, stand and grate for a wood fire, a gram cracker esbit stove, a pepsi can stmeths stove, two titanium tent pegs and a titanium floor to protect the ground. I also got a new fuel bottle, a measuring cup and three esbit tabs.
First up, I don't think I'll ever use the gram cracker. I love the simplicity of the idea, but the esbit stinks and it messes up pots really badly.
The wood stove I am interested in. Here's the grate on the stand inside the lower half of the cone and the picture at the top of the post is the grate on the stand by itself. Build your fire on the grate, fire it up and drop on the top half of the cone. There's a titanium floor to use so that you don't scorch the grass. I'll not use it regularly, but occasionally I fancy the idea. I assume the chimney effect will draw air up through the base of the fire and make it burn faster- The Grate sits above the lower vents. It's a nice simple solution to the woodfire concept.
The main reason I wanted this is so that it fits inside my pot but there are a few other advantages. First, although it only weighs a tiny bit less than my old cone, I don't have to use that pint pot. That saves me a whole ten grams(!) which is 25% of my rain chaps or almost 10% of my Z-pack (hey every little helps!). I can use my smaller food bag which also saves me (another tiny bit of!) weight. I used to have to fold up my foil lid for my pot, but I can keep it whole. Whats more, Titanium is a much nicer metal that aluminium. It looks nicer and it springs open rather than having to be moved into shape. It's got a real quality feel and the set up works perfectly.
The cone is slightly shorter than my old cone (on the left), but the pot sits on two tent pegs so that there is the same distance between the stove and the pot- I assume it will work in exactly the same way. You can put the pegs into holes at the very top of the cone when you're burning wood or you can just use the top half of the cone by itself as a windshield and potstand combined.
There are a few important things to point out. Firstly, this cone is not generally available.More importantly it's only suitable for a limited amount of pots at the moment. This is what Rand says:
"It is a system thats only for a limited amount of pots. The SPMSolo, the MLDesign 850 and the Evernew stacking set are the only ones we've figured out a basic system for" I'm figuring that they're getting the height/diameter/position of the split ratios sorted out.
This is certainly a work in progress. In the last email i got from them, they mentioned lower vents in the upper pot, which mine doesn't have. They did say as well that it was the best thing they've come up with. Based on my first impressions, I'd put a reasonable amount of money on them being right.