2013 gear hits and misses

The good 

Very, very pleased with my OMM Kamleika over trousers. I have used these through the winter on the bike with either tracksters or merino leggings underneath and they have coped with low temperatures, spray and mud with aplomb. They have been even better for walking. I wore them for a solid 16 hours on the Bike and Hike during which it chucked it down and the temperature ranged from sleet to tee-shirt weather. After the first (wet) 8 hours I changed the trousers underneath and found them to be bone dry. After the second (dry) 8 hours there was no condensation. The truth is that I forgot I was wearing them. Highly recommended. 

The bad and the ugly

Not at all pleased with my Berghaus Active Shell which continues to let in water and weather at inappropriate times. It is also a very bright red and can be seen from space. Yuk.

Honourable mentions

I have been getting good use out my Montane pertex pullover which seems good for anything short of a hurricane. It breathes, is windproof and gets a kind of equilibrium going when it rains which keeps you dry underneath while it wets out. As with the OMM trousers you forget it is on unless you are working really hard. It's been good for some very long walks and for shorter winter runs in awful weather.It is not robust enough for the bike other than road and easy trails but it's a really versatile, packable piece of kit.
My Hope R4 bike lights continue to provide more pleasure than is decent on dark nights. They are now superseded in the bike tests by cheapies from the far east but I will stick with them for a few seasons yet.
A new pair of Scarpa Cristallos have barely been out the box except for one day in February but they were comfy from the start and gave a great feeling of security from the sharp edges of the new Vibram soles. Crampon compatibility was good and they look lovely - maybe that's just me...........

Gear of the Year

Time for some gear talk and my vote for gear of the year as winter comes to a close. 

I considered my excellent Inov-8 Roclite 315s which have been through a lot over two years - hell on the Fannichs, a Highland Cross and more snow than we have seen in the previous decade and are still going for more. Comfy, grippy and hardy.

Honourable mentions to my lovely Haglofs hoodie fleece, my Howies merino 'surf style' base layer - which they stopped doing for some reason - and my PolarBuff. Nice to be warm...

But the winner is....my still shiny Hope Vision R4 LED light set. For a northcountryboy like me it means an extra 18 hours a day of potential playtime per dreary December day. It's a headtorch, it's a bike light, it means an end to night time as an excuse for not riding, running or even hillwalking. It's like a sunny day you fix to the front of your bike. And its made in the UK. 

Turkey of the year also belongs to the UK. A Montane eVent SuperFly jacket that leaked from the off. It took nearly a year of discussions to persuade Montane that the jacket was faulty. Just not good enough.

Spring might be here....

A 10 mile 'long run' taking in the same trail as the post titled 'White woods'. 

However, tonight it was 12 degrees. Shorts on for the first time this year and and out into the twilight for a balmy spring run. The weather almost made it bearable. The wee guy on the BBC weather is going mental about the Fohn effect in which air heats as it moves downhill - the same effect was also highly evident in my shorts after 10 miles.

That's as much training as I intend to do for the half marathon - my time won't be great but I should finish.

Out with the owls again

Another beautiful day given up to work motivated me out for a 6 mile run at dusk up onto Saddle Hill. It felt spring like in the lower woods but winter returned in cold gusts as I gasped up the steep line of the track to the flat hill top, hands on thighs and lungs burning. The oncoming darkness and a sudden rain from the west caught me on the top of the hill. I jogged down into the smirr with the headtorch showing morse code rain drops across the black sky. Down by the road, owls screeched to each other - spring soon but I will miss these mad twilight outings.

A night run with Nessie

I spent the working day window gazing as the February sun made a short arc across a sky of clean, inviting spring blue. On such a day the only answer to the tedium of work is to plan your escape and shortly after 4pm I was in my running gear and in the car.

I pulled up at the Clansman with a full 60 minutes of daylight for an 80 minute run but with the insurance of a really, really bright headtorch. The path climbs up steep and straight through beautiful winter woods of oak, pine and birch in a diagonal rake for just over half a mile before it opens out on the right to views of the loch below. Beyond the loch a creamy three quarter moon had risen over the Monadliath and was starting to cast light and shade through the trees. Not a breath of wind stirred the woods as I jogged up the green path.

A rougher section followed, snaking a steep but simple path through the low crags at the top of the wood ending at a grassed over track where the climbing stopped for a while. I could run for a few minutes until a right turn onto a footpath pointed me upwards again, climbing with hands on thighs and burning lungs. The path was wetter now and ice cold melt water seeped into my shoes. Then across the fire track and onto a rough path across the open hillside where views of the deepening shadows down to the loch and out towards Dores opened up, The blue above deepened as first Venus and then Jupiter winked into view. Head down and feeling good I battered on for the top of Carn na Leitre ignoring the broadening views to secure the big reveal at the summit. I made an effort up the last slope and then stopped the watch, got jacket, hat and gloves on before I looked around.

Half the Highlands were laid out around me – Wyvis floated in the north, a white whale in the ink blue shadow ocean of the Aird. To the west the usual jumble of peaks were silhouetted against a thin strand of yellow horizon beyond the cloudy edge of the warm front forecast for the weekend. To the south Orion had risen with Sirius snapping at his heel. Silence thickened around me with the gathering dark. I tore myself away form it all and ran down towards the Great Glen Way where a thin layer of hard snow still lay across the trail. Ten minutes on I had to accept that night had fallen and turned on the torch where the path left the fire road and dived down into the wood of Corryfoyness.

Five minutes running under full beam brought me out at a small bench seat poised on the edge of the crags above Loch Ness. I sat down and took the night in. The moonlight fell unimpeded on the rumpled blanket of black water. It was 6 o'clock on a Friday night in February and absolutely no one else was out here. Inverness showed orange beyond the northern arm of the loch where people were making meals, gathering in pubs, driving home. I had this glorious place completely to myself with the likely exception of whatever was causing that wake across the water 1000 feet below. But night running makes any such view a cold comfort so I shivered off down the rocks into the trees where the mineshaft steep path led me down into the dark woods to the lochside.