I've got a head for heights!

Here is some quite staggering footage taken from a walk through a valley in Southern Spain. Seemingly the pathway was built back in 1901 but as you can see it hasn't seen a good refurb in quite some time - probably 109 years or so. There is a rather flimsy cable you are able to attach yourself to save you if you fall however I don't think I'd trust this with my life (for what that's worth). I think this footage is a few years old but it puts the fear in God in you nonetheless. Now I'm no sufferer of vertigo but I don't think this is a yomp I'll be hurrying to tick off and will leave this to the adventurous climbers amongst you. Enjoy and let me know how you get on!

P.S. Don't forget your bicycle clips.

Further Satmap Active 10 Problem - and Solutions

Following my previous Satmap Active 10 review I have been experiencing further problems with the unit following a recent walk in the Lake District. These have manifested themselves in the way of the unit getting stuck in the "North up" mode rather than being able to switch between "North up" and "Direction of movement up". The former is obviously where the map displayed is as you would find the OS map holding it upright the latter showing you the direction you are pointing the satmap in as up.

Despite previous frustrations attempting to contact satmap to no avail regarding battery issues and following Sophie Easterbrooks comment on my previous blog regarding Satmap's high levels of aftersales care I emailed them again regarding the "North up" issue along with the previous battery problems Id experienced with the satmap. In their defence they totally redeemed themselves and were back to me within the day with solutions for extending the battery life offering assistance regarding the current problem I'm experiencing. This is ongoing as I need to email certain details to them for them to consider. I'll post the outcome when it's sorted.

Regarding the battery life the optimum settings are to have the unit turn the backlight off after 15 sesonds, this can be changed in Settings>Power Control>Automatic Screen Turn Off>Off after 15 seconds. In order to extend the life further the unit should update every 4 seconds rather than every second too, to change this go to Settings>Advanced Power Control>Power Saving Mode>Advanced. I was always under the impression that Duracel were the best batteries on the market for your handheld gadgets. Turns out I was wrong on this one and you will get around 20% more out of the unit if you use energiser batteries - you learn something new every day!

When I hear back from them regarding the "North Up" issue I will post the suggestion/solution on here.

Gas gas gas

Further to a recent post by Alan Rayner regarding cooking equipment, relative weights of the equipment and reliability (please go here to view the post) I was led to question the reliability of gas either at altitude or low temperatures. This rang true from a previous trip into the Cairngorms when we stayed in Corrour Bothy and my gas stove was absolutely useless, I thought at the time that it was down to the altitude (we were around 550m which is hardly that high mind) however following Alan's post I now think that it is down to the ambient temperature (which was pretty freezing). My subsequent wracking of the grey matter regarding gas efficiency has led me to attempt to set my mind at ease by conducting an experiment to assesss out which is the most reliable gas both at altitude and at crazy low temperatures.

Thus I am going to take the gas I used that fateful weekend which is the "Gosystem" gas, ye olde faithful "CampingGaz" and "Colemans" (which I've heard to be pretty reliable and I now expect to be the front runner). I'm gonna fire (pardon the pun) at this by chucking all the gas in my freezer (measuring the temp insude the freezer) and when they are down to temp I am going to boil 300ml water in a whistling kettle. The clock starts when the kettle goes on the stove (to a pre-determined setting) and stops when the kettle starts to whistle - simples!

I'll then redo this test following the canisters being in the fridge. At some point I'll then take the gasses up the hill somewhere to see if in fact altitude makes any difference whatsoever.

The glory glory of the Highlands

Following my recent jaunt to the Scottish Highlands, no walking again - more driving but below are some more snaps I took whilst I was up in that neck of the woods.

The well known view of Loch Tummel from The Queen's View

Fleetwood Mac - The Best Rock in the World

View up the River Feshie from Feshie Bridge

Not very photogenic and looking a bit wooden - a loving mother and her child

Cairngorm Ski Area and Loch Morlich

Skiddaw - I think

Date: Saturday March 20th 2010

Those there: Me, Dave, The Dark One

Mountains Climbed: Carl Side, Skiddaw

Map: OS Landranger 90 / OS Explorer OL4

After the previous escapade with crappy weather we had another shot at Skiddaw. Myself and brother Dave left home at around 6ish so we could get a flyer and be on out on the Fells by 9ish with full stomachs courtesy of a local cafe to be decided upon likely by their opening times. We did manage some breakfast (less the Dark One as he only had a couple of hours kip due to pub commitments the previous night so he had to stop en route for further recharging - he looked real primo when he arrived and he put his freshness down to the new alarm app he'd invested in on his iPhone, we weren't in total agreement that he looked that fresh). It was at this point tucking into my panini that I realised I also needed to stock up on some packed lunch as mine was currently in the fridge - 2 hours away at home! Not the first time and certainly not the last.

Palaver over we finally got started at about 10:30. We parked between Milbeck and Applethwaite and started off up Carl Side in the lashing rain. The cloud cover up high was thick but we went for it on the basis that we may well be turning back. It's a fairly long slog up some pretty steep terrain to Carl Side but this does give you some pretty impressive views out across Keswick and Derwent Water. We did then descend to Long Side to get the best view of Ullock Pike and up Skiddaw which is an incredible looking Goliath of a beast from that perspective and on this occasion draped in a rather soft and fluffy luxury blanket which in fact to be quite the contrary. The rain did start to ease at this point, praise the lord as I was feeling mildly moist and a touch nippy - time to re-proof the jacket me thinks.


From Long Side we contoured around Carl Side on the path to the base of Skiddaw for the final push to the summit. We immediately started to notice the difference of the lower cloud which was noticeable but not at thick as we'd anticipated. What was deeper than anticipated was the snow (in places) which is always a bit slowing on the pace. With that and Dave's double squash session and Si's 2 hours sleep (2 1/2 if you consider the drivers seat slumber en route) progress became a bit steady. A couple of friendly hikers passed us in the snow heading for the top, pleasantries were exchanged. Not long later they passed by us on their way down saying that they'd hit the top and that is was biting so they were on their way back to the bottom. Strange I though as the Trig point is a way up the plateau - I think they probably thought the cairn was the top. On the back of that nugget of info we decided we'd employ the summit and plummet method. So in the clouds (visibility of about 20m) we got to the windy plateau and headed the few metres to the trig point, where we tapped it and headed to somewhere where we could get out of the wind for a bite to eat and a drink - there was absolutely no point in being up there longer than we needed to be, the view was non existent.

We headed off the top and towards Little Man which at the outset we had intended to do (we were initially hoping to do 8 Wainwrights) but due to the conditions we knocked it on the head (as we did with 6 of the others), navigating off the path in these conditions is never a great plan (always play safe and use zi common sense).

We sidled from the top down the main path. It was still some time before we got out of the fog however the rain had stopped and although the wind was ripping through it did go some way to drying my outer layers. At one of the gates on the way down we came across a group of gents who sensibly sacked off the top due to the nastiness setting in. Not much further on we came across a few guys in jeans and trainers tooled with cameras, asking how far it was to the top and for an idea of what the conditions were? We duly filled them in at which point they sensibly turned back, not quite the day to be out in your Sunday best.

Lunch in the way of an oversize pasty was thrown down (into my mouth, not discarded on the floor - that would have been sacrilege) for the knee jerking yomp back to the car park and along the road back to the cars. On the way eagle-eyed Dave spotted a couple of deer on the road which we had to get some snaps of! Not often you see deer as close as this in the wild (mind there are a few places north of the border where they are in herds)

Following that it was time for a pint or two in the Peacock and then the drive home. We set out to do 8 Wainwrights and 10 1/2 miles, we actually did 2 Wainwrights and 8 miles. Nice walk, would be mad keen to see the view from the top at some point so will hopefully come back and have another go shortly in advance of the challenge (Lakeland 3000's that is not the TGO that is currently on a lot of folks minds).

I'm having an internal "which camera is best" battle at the moment as I'm thinking there is just no point in taking an SLR up on the hillside when the weather is as it was. Thinking I'm now on the lookout for a decent compact for these darker days that I can keep more accesible whilst it's wetting it down.

View Skiddaw 20/03/10 in a larger map