Scottish winter walking - Dylan's Ride Blog

Just been for a bit of a walk in Scotland. Dalwhinnie to Corrour to be exact, over several days, carrying everything I needed. I'm a mountain biker at heart, but I'm more than happy to put on a pair of walking boots sometimes. Just because I go for a walk doesn't mean I'm a rambler... Proper backpacking is a very distant relative to gentle country walks, in the same way that a full day on the bike is different to a gentle pottle to the shops. Walking along flat tracks gets boring, but walking can be technical too! In winter, a steep mountain path can be every bit as technically challenging and downright exhausting as the hardest stuff you've ever done on a bike.

Scotland has very different access laws to England and Wales. Basically, open country is fair game on bike or foot. This means that the highlands offer everything from easy gravel tracks to the sort of 'carry your bike' stuff you get in the lakes without the crowds, and the silly distinction between trails you can legally ride and those you can't. Combine that with bothies, which are very basic huts in remote locations, and you have the potential for some really challenging walks or rides.

Whilst walking, my inner mountain biker couldn't help noticing the miles of flowing technical singletrack that stretched from Culra to Ben Alder cottage. The drainage channels might be tricky to ride over, but the ribbon of smooth singletrack would more than compensate for the occasional stop to hop the bike over a gap. There were a few tyre marks around, even on a nasty steep climb (I can only immagine how difficult that must have been to push a bike as even walking was hard work). Using a mountain bike is actually quite a popular way to get into the more remote areas furthest from the road, although some care in route selection is required, as just because it's legal to ride, doesn't mean it's sensible to ride.

Anyway. I got to really push some new kit to it's limits, and if time permits I'll try and stick a few reviews up. In the meantime, here's a few opinions:

I brought along a Terra Nova Voyager tent, and I'm pretty impressed by it, as manages to combine great performance in pretty harsh conditions with an decent weight (the ideal tent would of course weight nothing and take no space!) to carry. Lots of nice, well thought out details like titianium pegs - who says Ti is just for bike bling!, and well enough made to keep you comfortable in high winds and very cold conditions. I spent a lot of time looking at tent reviews, and details. You can find tents which are lighter, cheaper and sometimes both. Cutting cost or weight seems to lead to compromise, so I actually wanted something where I could be be sure that there was enough quantity of materials, and materials of sufficient quality to cope with 3/4 season use. I'm glad I did as a slight navigational cockup (a long story), led to me being forced to camp on a very windy and cold col at 800 metres. Despite picking such a rubbish place to camp, the tent kept me sheltered in some really quite strong winds, and low temperatures. Greater ranges it wasn't, but it was pretty nasty for the UK.

As ever, my MSR Expedition stove. I've had it years, and it's still going strong. The wind shield and heat reflector look a little bit home-made but no less effective for it. The stove is reliable, once it gets going. Lighting is trick when it's really cold (and boy was it cold), as coleman fuel doesn't seem to light when you prime the stove. Once going, the stove will heat up stuff in pretty short order. It is a bit more complex and heavier than a modern gas stove like a JetBoil.  However fuel for several days of fuel is pretty light compared to more than one gas canister. Better yet, it's easy to see how much fuel you have left. I took about 600 ml of coleman fuel, which left a comfortable surplus after 4 dinners and breakfasts. I could have saved a bit of fuel had I been able to prime the stove with less flaring. Prehaps I should try priming paste? If I was travelling to remote parts of the world, I'd take this one, as it will burn just about any flammiable liquid. I have used both diesel, petrol and parafin (kerosene) before. Coleman fuel is still first choice as it burns cleanly.

One other big priority when camping in a cold climate is to be able to stay warm when you stop moving. An Alpkit Filo down jacket does the job very well. It's almost identical to the North Face Nuptse, only a lot cheaper. It packs down to a very small size, and keeps you toasty warm. The big disadvantage of down is that it needs to stay dry to keep you warm, so it's really best to keep in reserve for when you are safely inside your tent. Once inside your tent, taking off your boots and putting on some fleece boots makes a huge difference to morale. Being able to take your feet out of your damp socks and boots and into something warm and dry means your feet recover so much faster than keeping them in wet socks.

I'm a big fan of alpkit stuff. Pretty well made and great value. As I said earlier, I already have the down jacket, and was suitably impressed to try more of their kit. I guess now that just about everything (including the big brandname stuff) is made the China, smaller 'microbrands' like Alpkit can source kit from the same factories, and by dealing directly over the internet, can sell it very competitively, by removing several intermediaries in the supply chain. Net result: globablisation has given me a titanium mug (which is great for minimalistic cookware), a Ti spork (which I took but usually used a plastic spoon instead) and a 'slim airic' self inflating sleeping mat for 25 quid, rather than 60 quid for a thermarest. I already have a very old thermarest, and despite having the same pack weight and size as the new mat, it's both thinner and shorter, so it has been relegated to car camping duties, where comfort over weight counts. Nobody likes to carry more stuff than they need, but scrimping on a sleeping mat, and sacrificing a comfortable night's sleep seems like a poor idea. Having spent many an uncomfortable nigth on a closed cell mat, which lets you feel every stone and bump, I'm happy to carry the extra bulk and weight of a self inflating mat these days.

My Berghaus Pro Shield softshell has become something of a favourite of mine. It's great on the bike, and when walking. I found the cut long enough to be comfortable on a bike. If you are doing fairly high intensity exercise, it's often far more comfortable than a goretex jacket, as I find I tend to get way too hot in goretex. Unless it's raining heavily, or you are moving very slowly, the main source of wetness is your own sweat (nice!), so something which breathes very well is a good bet. Unlike a fleece it's windproof, so you stay warm even when moving quickly on a bike, or walking in high wind. I found I'd wear this much of the time, when previously I'd have worn a goretex jacket. You still might need the goretex jacket for really foul conditions, so this is a more of a substitute for a fleece rather than a 'hardshell'.