Shoes-summer hillwalking

Which shoes you wear can make the difference between an enjoyable day in the hills and getting blisters, being cold/too hot and getting soaked. Too many people are choosing the wrong shoes for the job. This post should allow you to decide what to wear when.

Summer hillwalking

Ah, summer. MWIS has forecast clear, hot, settled weather for a week with a 90% chance of cloud free Munroes. It has been dry for the last week. So many people pull on thick woollen socks, a pair of leather boots and head into the hills.

Wool wicks and breathes fairly well. The leather, however, doesn't. Their feet overheat and the sweat accumulates. Due to the weight they are carrying (some people swear that 1kg on the feet is like carrying 7kg on their backs) they have a less enjoyable time, sweating about when there is no need. It is not as though wearing big leather walking boots is even more sensible from a "what if the weather turns bad" point of view. They will be more water resistant initially but eventually, unless they are brand new/really well maintained and you are using waterproof trousers and gaiters the water will get in...and it will stay in there till you sit them on a radiator for hours to dry them.

Increasingly I have seen people using fell/train running shoes by such brands as Inov-8, Salomon and Adidas. Inov-8 are the ultralight specialists, making shoes with no cushioning (it is assumed that the vegetation you are running over/you running on the balls of your feet will negate any need) that weigh very little (they handily name their shoes according to weight, e.g Roclite 320s weigh 320g per pair). They generally have very deep treads for grip on mud, shale and vegetation and some have a rubber similar to that used on climbing shoes which gives added grip on scree/scrambling.

I own two such pairs of shoes...Adidas Kanadias which I run and walk in and a pair of Inov-8 roclites which I walk in (slightly too big for me, not fun to run in). Both pairs of shoes are light and mainly composed of mesh. Stepping in a puddle therefor will soak your foot immediately but the shoe will dry after around 30 minutes on a warm day. I managed to break through the ice in the Cairngorms while walking on a meltwater pool that had a floating mass of snow on it. It was to get a picture and my shoe dried after 20 minutes in the sun.

 These shoes allow me to walk faster and in greater comfort. Admittedly there is less support for the ankles, which might be an issue for some but I am as yet young and fit, with robust ankles.



Socks

Up till recently I was a devotee of the nylon sock and for round the house and my day to day routine they are fine. Till I discovered well fitting merino socks I would wear a pair inside by thicker nylon ones when winter mountaineering, effectively trapping a layer of sweat against my skin.

I use either thin wool or double skin wicking synthetic socks when summer hillwalking now and merino wool socks in winter. That said, I did once see a guy walking up Ben Wyvis in Nike trainers in February.

Bivvy Bags

A bivvy(from bivouac) bag is a cover that goes over your sleeping bag and protects from the elements. These come in a variety of designs with almost all outdoor brands having their own take on the classic tube design.

I own two bivvy bags, an Alpkit Hunka in an attractive shade of red and a British Army surplus in olive green. The Alpkit one cost £33, weighs 288g and packs down very well. It is made of a material similar to gore-tex but lighter and is just big enough for me (6ft2 and fairly lean). It is available in a larger size for £50, I would recommend this for anyone over 6ft2 and anything other than stick thin. I like this bivvy bag for anything involving a large walk in (it is fairly light). It has the simplest sort of hood, a drawstring which leaves a minimum hole the size of a 10p, though in better weather it is wise to leave more to prevent condensation. I have used this bag on a few occasions, in the Alps and Scotland and it has performed well.

The army surplus one I picked up for £10, quite a bargain. They are available online for £30-£60 depending where the British army is deployed at the time :) It is far more spacious than the Alpkit one, with plenty room at the head. The closure is also by drawstring leaving a similar hole. This bag weighs 800g, more than double the Alpkit one, however for the extra comfort and room (it is possible for me to fit a fair sized rucksack in the bottom comfortably and move about a lot more in it) it is worth carrying on a short trip. I have used it twice so far, once for a chilly bivvy under the shelter stone in the Cairngorms where it kept me dry if not warm and once in a storm-lashed single skinned tent by the Cairngorm carpark. On this occasion we were woken at 6.30 by the wind uprooting our tent and the rain driving against the skin....there was a fair amount of water in the tent by this point perhaps due to condensation, perhaps due to the skin leaking (the conditions were fairly severe). Sleep was out of the question so we took it in turns to get dressed and sprint to the car. I did notice however that the bivvy bag had kept all moisture out of my sleeping bag and droplets seemed to be beading on the surface as opposed to soaking in-a good sign. In summer or if camping on boggy/uneven ground I would lay out a bivvy bag beneath me as I did on Arran when I chose a less than ideal campsite.

Many hillwalkers choose to carry survival bags...light, orange affairs that make great sledges in winter. These are completely non breathable andwaterproof, which means that instead of being soaked by the rain you will be soaked by your own breath and sweat if you stay in one long enough. I have only seen one used once, when under the shelter stone I lent my spare to a friend to keep his synthetic sleeping bag dry in the event of condensation on the underside of the rock. Mats made the schoolboy error of breathing into his bag during the night to keep warm and when the morning came (we crawled outside and basked like lizards in the blazing sun) he was soaked. These are available for £2.50 and are useful perhaps as a spare groundsheet when cut in the right way.

It is possible to pay up to £330 and up on a bivvy bag, for example this bag by Terra Nova. Generally you are paying for ventilation flaps of some sort and lighter weight and this bag is no exception. Whether it is worth paying depends on how much cash you have and what you want to do.

Given that some people find bivvy bags claustrophobic and cramped there has been a great deal of cross pollination between tents and bivvies, with the bivvy tent or hooped bivvy being produced by many companies. These weigh more than normal bivvy bags and generally do not have enough room on the inside to be pleasant for an extended period of time or allow anything practical to be done. Think....could I spend a rainy day in this drying my clothes, looking at maps and sorting my gear?

In the US there is a tradition of using tarps for shelter along with bivvy bags, in order to allow the hood to be open in bad weather. Tarps are light and having one big enough to cover the opening is not too difficult. Some people use a hardshell to cover their opening, allowing a free flow of air and reasonable protection from rain/snow/hail. Others still turn over and sleep on their front.

Bothy bags are often used by hillwalking groups as an emergency shelter for sitting out bad weather. These allow movement but will get damp inside quickly form condensation. Pairing these up with bivvy bags seems a popular choice. These are cheap, around £30 and up for a 2 person shelter.

Bivvy bags have bee a part of climbing and mountaineering for generations and will continue to frustrate. They are however extremely useful as a shelter option or in an emergency. Having slept with and without a bivvy bag I will always carry one, just in case...or because I feel like being comfortable.

Stoves....why you should use what.

Stoves are one of the staples of camping, this is widely accepted. We are probably all familiar with the most common type of stove...the threaded canister with a burner that screws in top. There are so many more options though....

A few factors to take into consideration when choosing a stove are stability, availability of fuel, price of fuel, size, weight and time to cooking temperature. Obviously for people cooking out of the back of a car weight is less of an issue and so on for most of those variables.

When using gas you will need two components; the burner and the gas canister. Gas canisters are expensive, take up a great deal of room in a rucksack and need to be carried out (still weighing a fair amount) and disposed of (far from eco friendly!). The gas burner I use is an MSR pocket rocket which weighs 85g and folds in on itself fairly well. It takes up very little room, even if stored in the plastic protector it is supplied in and will fit inside most mugs/pans.

Another popular gas stove is the Jetboil which uses a variety of features such as built in windshields, heat exchangers and insulated containers to boost performance. This gives an extremely efficient gas stove which loses very little power in cold weather, something of a problem with most gas stoves. The jetboil (whole system, from burner to mug, not including gas canister) weighs 395g and up depending on which model you opt for. It is expensive but you will save money in the long run over other gas stoves due to its greater efficiency.

Both of these systems lack stability, the jetboil less so as it comes with an optional canister stabilising stand and can be hung from a tree/tent/trekking pole when space is at a premium.

The MSR windpro and similar stoves get around this problem by having the burner separate to the fuel. This allows a larger, more stable base and the use of a windshield, further lowering cooking times and saving fuel. They are heavier than the MRS pocket rocket, weighing at least 200g.


The pros for gas probably explain their popularity. They are easy to use....open a valve, light it and cooking is straight ahead. Fuel is easy to find if pricy and they will not break the bank or your back depending on the model. That they are not ideal for cooking at altitude or in extremely cold temperatures will probably not put most customers off buying one.
 Another factor in gas's popularity may be that manufacturers have been pushing it as the ideal choice for years, perhaps due to their desire to buy their shiny own brand canisters?

Petroleum based liquid fuel stoves have been the norm for generations. They are harder to use than gas, heavier (as a pressurised bottle similar to a Sigg must be carried) but are far cheaper to run and the fuel can be found anywhere.

The MSR whisperlite is fairly typical. The specs on its page show that it fits into the mould cast above.

I am using one of these as the basecamp stove on an upcoming expedition and will see how it performs.

Methylated spirits seems to have fallen out of favour amongst all but terminal alcoholics who no longer value their eyesight. Trangia have been making these for years, following a design for a double walled stove that is over 100 years old. Meths vaporises at 12 degrees centigrade so they may be difficult to use at lower temperatures. They burn at a lower temperature but can easily bring 2l of water to a boil. Usually used with a large cooking set including windbreak and heatshield they weigh a great deal (Trangias are made from brass) however lightweight versions do exist.....my current favourite is one made from two coke cans, which follows a similar design to the Trangia and weighs next to nothing. Methylated spirits, while easy to find in the UK, can be harder to find elsewhere. £2 for 1l is normal.

Solid fuels, for example hexamine tablets and various gels are used by the British army. They are slow, messy and unadjustable. They will take a fair beating though, weighing a great deal more than they should generally.

So there it is, an incomplete list of stove types, attributes and my own thoughts on them. Please feel free to add your own views in the comments.

Adventures

This blog will cover climbing, mountaineering, hiking and all-round adventure gear. Whether the subject is stoves, ropes, shoes or rucksacks this will be an unbiased, carefully researched and reasonably informed examination of the products from someone who has bought his fair share of useless junk. From which sleeping mat weighs least to which fuel type gives the greatest efficiency, it will all go here.