Why Use a GPS?

Having a GPS when out and about is a great thing and I never leave home without my Garmin GPSmap 60CSx. I am going to do a review on this at a later date, but for now I'm going to explain how I use my GPS and what I use it for.

LifeSystems Mountain Survival First Aid Kit

Here is a brief review of my LifeSystems Mountain Survival First Aid Kit, which also serves as a list of the sorts of things you should have when climbing up mountains. This list is by no means definitive, but is a good place to start, enabling you to offer first aid to anyone who might need it. Remember you should know what you are doing and with any luck won't end up being a casualty, but there are plenty of others who are ill-prepared that might just need some help.

New Petzl!

My girlfriend Rachel often needs to borrow my head torch, either when camping or just for stuff around the house (like a power cut!) so the other week I treated her to her very own Petzl!

As you can see its a lovely shade of pink, which will stop me from wanting to borrow it! It also made her happy as she hates camping equipment that normally comes in 'beige' or 'khaki'.

Its a good bit of kit, with 2 level of brightness, and comfortable adjustable headband - she was very excited as you can tell from the picture below when she first tried it on.

Rachel with her new Petzl Tikkina!

Steady Stove

I was researching camping equipment before out last expedition and came across this site that had a rather clever way to secure you stove in the ground to prevent it rocking and falling over.

Whist setting up the stove by Lake Llyn y Fan Fawr, I decided to give it a go, the ground was quite soft so the stove was quite un stable. I was quite impressed with how this simple idea made the stove more steady but I couldnt help try and improve on the concept. What I cam up with was to secure the stove from 3 points forming a triangle as in the picture below. This created a comletely steady stove, that hardly moved at all. I had complete confidence that a slight gust of wind wasnt going to knock the stove over, taking that nights dinner with it!

MSR Hubba Hubba HP

Last week I purchased the MSR Hubba Hubba HP. I've long been after buying my own tent and after weeks of research i bit the bullet and placed an order.

I haven't yet tested the tent in the field so I will post back later on, but initial impressions from pitching in the garden are really good so I cant wait to get out there and use it for real.

Glyntawe - April 2011

This was our first wild camp in the Breacon Beacons. A 3 day hike with 2 nights high camping by lakes around Fan Hir

Dan's Kit List

Dan's Kit List

Andrew's Kit List

Here is a list of some key bits of kit I never leave home without.

Wild Camp 8th to 10th April 2011

EXERCISE: “WILD-CAMP”

Friday 8th to Sunday 10th April 2011

Aim:

Spend a weekend in the Mountains around Glyntawe in the Brecon Beacons, taking all the kit for 2 nights of Wild Camping.

Details used for planning the weekend are below along with a kit list. Photo's will be posted soon!

Monyash - July 2010

A 4 day group camp with the girlfriends/wives. Not much walking but we did manage to escape for 1 day to climb Kinder Scout

Glyntawe - March 2010

A challenging walk in the Black Mountains but well worth the effort

Cwmtaf - October 2009

A cold October weekend in the Brecon Beacons. The 3 season sleeping bags didnt quite cut it making the nights quite cold, not helped by the large tent we were using. Even so, a great weekend of walking!

Hiking Explorations

Welcome to Hiking Explorations, a place to share your experiences of hiking and explorations in the outdoors.