What gear do you take to climb a mountain?

[TVC]

Roughly what al78 suggested. Even if you just twist your ankle you could be sitting on the hill for a couple of hours before the rescue team come to get you down and you're going to get cold pretty quickly. I have a foil blanket in my bag as well, so far I've never used one, but I've given two away to people who had to wait for assistance.

 

[PaulB]

I generally wear Ronhills and a wicking top in summer, a pair of boots, lightweight'ish.

In my rucksack will be a fleece and windproof/waterproof, lunch, water and a sitmat for my arse at lunchtime Always in there is a small first aid kit, whistle, plastic bivvy bag and a headtorch with a disconnected battery and I carry a map and compass, none of this new fangled techno wizadry.

That reads like something very close to EXACTLY what I'd do too!

 

[PaulB]

Not enough information provided to be able to give a guide as to what might be required.

What? There's about, oooh, considerably more there than is usually known and you get on with it anyway. What do you want; a personalised DVD from someone the same age and BMI as you climbing that specific route in the very same weather?

 

[snorri]

What? There's about, oooh, considerably more there than is usually known and you get on with it anyway. What do you want; a personalised DVD from someone the same age and BMI as you climbing that specific route in the very same weather?

Just trying to introduce a degree of caution.
You mention gear for climbing a mountain and go on to relate an experience on the Eildon Hills which could not be described as mountains by any stretch of the imagination.
I'm bit mystified as to why you would be interested in what cycling enthusiasts would wear on a hillwalking trip.

 

[Globalti]

Some of the above depending on the forecast. Definitely lightweight. Same when I'm MTBing over a mountain.

I do agree about over-dressed ramblers though - we see them around my home, plodding along with piley, cagoule, knapsack, long trousers, red socks (of course) big boots and walking poles. They must smell by the end of the day.

Why do women joggers always wrap their bums up in layers of coats they won't wear?

 

[Fnaar]

Makes sense to go prepared imho... for whatever the weather/location might throw at you if the worst comes to the worst... better safe than sorry, and all that.

 

[fossyant]

What's all this talk about walking up hills.....sheesh this is a Bike forum, you should be on your bikes.....

Don't do walking !

 

[Andy in Sig]

There's nothing wrong with going up a hill in shorts and T shirt etc. However, the kit in your rucksack needs to offer you survival in the event of an immobilising injury e.g. badly sprained ankle as somebody has mentioned plus a drastic deterioration in the weather. To that end I would have in the rucksack a bivvy bag, a rucksack, one set of waterproofs, one warm layer (legs and torso), a cooker, food and brew kit. You can cram that into a fairly small (say 35 litre) rucksack.

I was once walking down from the summit of Snowdon with a group of friends. The summit to about 500 feet below it was in thick and very cold cloud and we were all woolly-hatted, fleeced and waterproofed. We emerged from the cold into a lovely summer day and immediately went down to T shirts. On the way up was a bloke with his wife and two young daughters, the latter being in summer dresses. We advised him not to carry on but he was obviously piqued at being so advised in front of his family and did indeed push on.

I assume that they got to the top because nothing appeared in the papers but I would bet that the two little girls were half frozen to death by the time they made it. If the weather had turned seriously nasty, it could have been very different. I suppose the moral is to treat hills with great care.

 

[PaulB]

Just trying to introduce a degree of caution.
You mention gear for climbing a mountain and go on to relate an experience on the Eildon Hills which could not be described as mountains by any stretch of the imagination.
I'm bit mystified as to why you would be interested in what cycling enthusiasts would wear on a hillwalking trip.

I don't think I did. I was contrasting what some people wear when it's unnecessary and compared that to ill-preparedness. Also, this is a general chat thread. There's cooking, TV, jokes, football, pop music and all sorts of other stuff. I wonder why people would be interested in such stuff on a cycling forum?

 

[Riding in Circles]

What gear would I take? First!

 

[magnatom]

Ah the Eildons. I know them well. They are more bumps than mountains! Last time my wife and I were there, we did all three in one day (one of them twice I think!

Did you get a flyby from Her Maj's airforce. It's pretty cool when they shoot between two of them and you are higher up than they are!

 

[Globalti]

Everybody has their horror stories; my worst is the fat middle aged woman we saw on the snowfield on top of Ben Nevis in a summer frock and sandals, carrying a supermarket bag.

On the way down we passed a young woman in high-heeled sandals teetering down the path, feet bleeding, swearing at her boyfriend and crying in pain. High heels may have been great going up but they weren't so good going down.....

 

[ASC1951]

Those people carrying large packs might be making a few day's of it. they would then need food/tents etc.

Quite. "If tents are carried, they will be needed" - H W Tilman.

I've actually done quite a lot of hillwalking e.g. all the Munros and Tops, many of them in winter conditions. My standard kit was shorts, Damart long johns and Ron Hills, with a Damart long sleeve vest, a thin fleece jacket and a longish cag. Layers go in and out of the rucksack as conditions change. I never bothered with overtrousers because if it's grim I wear gaiters and, being a shortarse, my cag comes nearly that far down. Gloves and a woolly hat, with traditional Dachstein mitts in winters.

I've also never bothered with Goretex. Expensive, heavy and IME a fabric for people who move so slowly they aren't going to break sweat.

I always take a plastic survival bag and map, whistle and compass - and the skill to use them. Soloing in the winter I would also take a light and a bivvy tent instead of the survival bag.

 

[Globalti]

There's so much chat about what equipment to carry. In 46 years of mountaineering on foot, on skis and on MTBs I've learned that a bucket of humility is pretty useful; it gives you the ability to turn back or modify the route. Combine humility with empathy for your companions or charges and a healthy dose of experience and you should never need all that emergency gear.

 

[PaulB]

I've also never bothered with Goretex. Expensive, heavy and IME a fabric for people who move so slowly they aren't going to break sweat.

Interesting. I worked for Gore for four years (in medical but we learned all about the fabrics) and I too will not bother with it again. The division I worked for was based in Scotland and when the fabric was developed, they tested it in the Highlands and concluded it was worthless. The moisture within (sweat) has to escape into a drier environment but you'll be wearing it because it's raining and therefore the outer air is not drier than the surface from which the sweat's escaping. Therefore, wearing it in the rain renders it redundant!

And the price they insist on! They once calculated that a Goretex XCR jacket costing £200 would cost the company 9 cents to manufacture that Goretex for the jacket itself as, of course, all R&D costs have been well and truly recouped long before.

Also, I had quite a considerable amount of gear (cycling too - they have Gore bikewear) from them either very cheap or cheaper than that(!) and found that they always fail...in the zip department! I've never had a single item that lasted as long as it should as the zip went! As the zips are heat bonded onto the Gore fabric, no repairers can get it workable or replaced.