Top 10 winter tips!
If you’re going into them there snowy hills, make sure you’ve got your winter head-on. Here are a few tips for staying smart in the colder months from the frost-encrusted grey cells of Team Trail…
Store your water upside down
1 There’s nothing more satisfying than using physics to your practical advantage, and in winter doing this with your water carries with it a certain lifepreserving benefit. One problem with the cold weather concerns water freezing, particularly in wind, or on overnight camps. A simple way to get round this – or at least delay the effects – is to carry your water upside down. The reason is, water freezes from the top surface down, with obvious consequences for those trying to drink from the spout of a water bottle. Carry it upside down and the bottom of the bottle becomes the top – meaning you’ve got more of a chance of being able to drink. Failing that, warm up your water before you go out on the hill. As it’ll spend most of the day cooling down (rather than freezing) you’ll have trickly water all day.
Take a flask
2 Warm tea or squash is a wonderful pick-me-up. Invest in a decent flask and it should stay perky for hours.
“THE FACT IS, IT’S PARTICULARLY CRITICAL TO WASH WATERPROOF AND BREATHABLE CLOTHING SUCH AS GORE-TEX, ECO SHELL AND EVENT”
Start cool
3 A good rule of thumb for perfect thermal contentment is to start walking slightly cold, as opposed to beginning the day by layering up into comfort straight out of the car. This has two benefits. The first is that you’ll avoid getting sweaty and having to stop within ten minutes to take off a layer as you warm up. The second, it gets you moving!
Layer, layer, layer
4 Winter doesn’t mean you’re going to be cold – it means you’re going to be cold some of the time. This is particularly important as sweat is water, and water makes your kit wet, and wet kit makes you cold – not to mention uncomfortable. The rest of the time you’ll be walking and producing sweat, just as always. So the critical thing to remember is to take enough clothes to layer up for every temperature, so you can tweak it as you go. A good yardstick is (below):
Take spares
5 Spare gloves and a spare hat are essential – your hands will get cold and wet, and so will your head, and it’s in these places you will lose heat the quickest. Ensure you take a pair of waterproof gloves and a hat that will keep the rain at bay as spares, because if you have to break them out, you’re probably in need. Also take a spare headtorch, spare socks, a spare compass and spare batteries – or a power pack and cable for your phone. Stash them in a waterproof bag and if you don’t need ’em, save ’em for next time! It may seem excessive but if you end up needing them, you’ll be very glad you packed them.
Reproof your gear
6 So many people consider shell gear exempt from the usual clothing rules of ‘when it’s dirty, wash it’ and wonder why it all stops working properly after a few months. The fact is, it’s particularly critical to wash waterproof and breathable clothing such as Gore-Tex, Eco Shell and eVent. The billions of pores that allow this clothing to let sweat vapour out are easily clogged by muck, and the special repellancy treatment that causes water to bead upon the surface of the outer fabric – as opposed to smear suffocatingly across it – wears off periodically. Both of these cause the fabric to lose the ability to breathe, and you’ll find yourself getting wet from sweat – first in the sleeves, then the back, then eventually, everywhere. Washing and proofing regularly with products from Storm, Granger’s or Nikwax will keep your gear looking great and, more importantly, working perfectly.
Pack goggles
7 Sunglasses are useful in bright sunlight, but for driving snow there is no substitute for a pair of goggles. Many people use tinted alpine-spec ski goggles built to deal with the ferocious UV of the high mountains and the spindrift kicked up by the piste. But in the UK you may be better with clear lenses for winter blizzards – as if the sun is out, it’s more likely you’ll be wearing your sunglasses, and if it isn’t, you’ll have no desire for darkly tinted lenses.
Take more food
8 Cold weather burns more calories, for the simple reason that your body is working harder to keep warm, and in all likelihood just to move through the landscape, particularly in snow. Polar adventurers can eat up to 5000 calories a day, so take a leaf from their book and pack lots of calorific snacks for those refuelling stops. Nuts, chocolates, sweets... it’s time to load up!
Keep electrics warm
9 Cold can chomp through batteries like nothing else – particularly if they are exposed to the cold, such as when in a headtorch. Use lithium batteries which are more resistant to the cold than alkaline batteries, and keep a spare stashed somewhere insulated. Also be wary of storing your phone in your trouser or jacket pocket if it’s really gnarly – the combination of moisture from your body and cold from the elements can turn it into a popsicle.
Be prepared!
10 You never really know what the weather is going to do in the mountains in autumn or winter. The weather on the tops could be markedly different to the weather in the valley. So your packing strategy has to take into account every eventuality, within reason. Pack that extra layer. Consider those lightweight crampons. Take those spare gloves. Waterproof everything. And don’t forget to keep people informed of where you are and when you’re likely to be back. Winter is glorious – and enjoying it in safety sets you free!