High Summer Update: New Edition Almost Ready!

The Rockwall, Kootenay National Park, July 

The new edition of High Summer, the story of my walk along the length of the Canadian Rockies in 1988, is almost ready for publication. Andrew Terrill of Enchanted Rock Press has just sent me the typeset proofs of the print edition to check, which is exciting! 

As I mentioned in previous posts the new edition will have far more photographs than the first one. Indeed, my main work has been selecting and scanning slides to send to Andrew for him to process for publication. I've also written a new introduction looking back at the walk. The original text hasn't been altered though, I've just added a few footnotes. 

In the snow near the finish, October 

Now to check the proofs!

Hikers Toolkit - A Recommended Free App

 

Back in July I was asked if I'd have a look at a new free outdoors app called the Hikers Toolkit. I did and I liked it, which is why there's a quote from me on the website saying that the app "is useful and contains helpful information and links. It's easy to use and uncluttered with no confusing or unnecessary material. I think having the info together is valuable".

The app contains the following:
Grid reference
Basic mapping
Interactive compass
Grid magnetic angle
Timing and conversion calculators
Weather links
Sunrise/Sunset
Moon phase
Windchill calculator
Emergency procedures

All bar the weather links work offline. Those links give connections to the Met Office Mountain Weather Forecast, MWIS, and the Scottish Avalanche Information Service. Having these three together makes it easy to check them all at the same time.

I think the most useful tool for regular use in the hills is the grid reference, which you can see as just numbers or with your position on a basic map. The latter does have contour lines and is legible on a phone screen smeared with sunscreen and food and with my reflection as you can see in my photo! 

The most useful page of all is one that no-one wants to ever have to use and that's the Emergency one. However if an emergency does occur having clear information about what to do would be valuable. In an actual situation I can imagine it would be easy not to remember everything. Having instructions could be helpful and calming.

This free app is well having on your phone even if you rarely use it. At the moment it's only available for Android phones via Google Play but it should be available for iOS soon. 

Video clips from recent camp on Cairngorm Plateau

 

Two little videos taken early in the morning on September 8 on the trip described in my last post. The one with me taken on my Sony a6700 camera, the one with my shadow on the Oppo Reno 8 Pro smartphone. Not much difference than I can see.

I really should wake up a bit more before making videos though!

First Overnight Trip In Two Months: The Cairngorm Plateau & Ben Macdui

Sunrise on the Cairngorm Plateau

With a sunny couple of days forecast it looked ideal for an overnight trip in the hills, the first for two months following an operation on a hand. Not wanting to push my hand, which is still not fully better, or my fitness, which has suffered due to the layoff I decided a relatively short trip in familiar territory was a good idea. I didn’t want to deal with storms either, just see how my hand and body deals with a return to walking with a full load and sleeping in a tent.

At this time of year I avoid camping in forests or glens due to the midges unless it’s really windy. As only light breezes were forecast a camp high on the Cairngorm Plateau seemed sensible. An afternoon start was somewhat delayed by two meetings, the first before I’d left the car park. Here a couple who’d read my books recognized me and we had a short chat. It’s always good to talk to readers.

Next I met a publisher! I hadn’t gone far along the path when I met Bob Davidson and Moira Forsyth, once of Sandstone Press, who were finishing the round of the Northern Corries. It was great to see them. I will always be grateful to Bob for publishing my book on my Pacific Northwest Trail walk, Grizzly Bears and Razor Clams, which had been turned down by other publishers on the basis that no-one had heard of the PNT and therefore no-one could be interested in it and why didn’t I write a book on the Lake District anyway, they always sell? Bob went on to publish another three of my books.

Cairn Lochan

Anyway, back to the walk. This isn’t a plug for my books, honest! As I crossed below the Northern Corries and started the climb to Miadan Creag an Leth-choin a few people passed me descending, including a mountain biker bouncing down the rocks, but I had no further excuse to stop and chat. Progress wasn’t fast anyway, the heat saw to that. Last time I walked in such hot weather was at the start of the Cape Wrath Trail back in May. Slowness was fine. I wasn’t going far and I was revelling being back in the mountains. The sun was bright, the sky deep blue, the temperature high, but the land showed the ending of summer, the grasses faded, an orange and brown tint replacing the green. The cliffs of Cairn Lochan glowed in the sunshine.

Late afternoon on the Plateau

Reaching the Cairngorm Plateau I started to think about where to camp. I’d set out just thinking I would pitch my tent ‘somewhere up there’. Now I was ‘up there’ I had to decide where ‘somewhere’ was. I considered the long Feith Buidhe valley where I’d camped many times. No, not this time. I went on to the next stream, the Garbh Uisge Beag. I couldn’t remember ever camping here. I would rectify that now. I wandered a little way down beside the burn and found a good grassy site not far above the water with a view east to Beinn Mheadhoin and north to Cairn Gorm.

The red light of dawn

I settled in for a peaceful night. A gentle breeze whispered in the grasses. A hot meal, a bit of reading, time for sleep. I woke early, the first grey light creeping into the tent. Out to the east the sky was red above the shadowed hills. Dawn was beginning. No more sleep! Streaks of cloud above Cairn Gorm turned pink and orange in the first rays of the still hidden sun.

Sunrise soon

An hour after I woke the sun appeared, a searing white disc rising through redness over the shoulder of Beinn Mheadhoin. Soon the heat started to rise too. Another hot day was beginning. The night had been quite warm anyway given the height (1150 metres) with a low of 10°C. Shorts, sun hat, and dark glasses again.

Camp

The summit of Ben Macdui was less than 2km away. Leaving the tent I headed over the North Top, it’s flat summit strewn with circular rock walls protecting bivi sites, and on to the trig point where a couple of snow buntings hopped around waiting for crumbs. Too soon after breakfast for me to be stopping for a snack but I could see others in the distance heading this way so I guessed the little birds wouldn’t have too long to wait.

Cairn Toul & clouds

As always unless the mist is down I walked west a few hundred metres to where the slope begins to fall steeply into the Lairig Ghru pass. Along this edge are the best views from Ben Macdui, right across the pass to the great mountains of Cairn Toul and Braeriach. This is a spectacular vista only the top of which is seen from the very top of Ben Macdui. Few people see it though.

Rock spike & Braeriach

There’s a spike of rock here, stood up, I guess, by someone in the distant past. I always head for it, a marker for the view, a familiar and distinctive stone amongst a mass of rocks. I feel a connection with whoever erected it.

Cloud over Strathspey

To the north the sky was grey and hazy. A band of low white cloud hung over Strathspey. Here it was hot and bright. Back at camp I drank water and nibbled energy bars before packing up and heading along the stream towards the steep drop-off above the Loch Avon basin. A walker was coming towards me, which was unusual as there’s no path here and I rarely see anyone in this area. Behind me I could see a distant line of people heading for Macdui along the well-trodden main route.

As we approached each other the man veered towards me. “Do you know these hills well?” “Fairly well”. “I’m not sure where I am”. “Where are you heading?” “Ben Macdui, I think I’m going the right way but my watch keeps telling me I’m not”.  He had a print-out of the route from a guidebook or website and a watch that was pointing him towards the nearest point on the path to Macdui. This however was in the wrong direction, given where he was. “Just keep following this stream and you’ll hit the main path. It’s not far”. He assured me he had a real map in his pack though he didn’t produce it. He’d seen Loch Avon so I guessed he must have come down Coire Domhain and then round the edge of the cliffs but I couldn’t be certain and he couldn’t give me enough information to work it out.

Feith Buidhe & Loch Avon

He continued on towards Macdui. I continued on to the edge of the drop to the Loch Avon Basin then followed it round to where the racing water of the Feith Buidhe begins its crashing, roaring descent. This is always a tremendous spot; rugged, dramatic, wild. I love it.

View from the top of Hell's Lum

From the Feith Buidhe I wandered round to the top of Hell’s Lum Crag and then into Coire Domhain where I picked up a narrow path. This is used by climbers to reach the top of the cliffs and two of them were coming towards me now, one with a rope draped across her shoulders. She stopped. “Chris?”. It was Jessie Leong, a writer, mountaineer, photographer and more, whom I’d only spoken to before on zoom calls when we were judges for an outdoor gear award. Now we’d met for the first time, in the heart of the Cairngorms. She and her companion were off to do a couple of routes on Hell’s Lum.

"Is this the start of the Fiacaill?"

At the head of the corrie I could see figures along the edge of the Northern Corries, as I expected on a sunny Saturday as it’s popular and easily accessible. Soon I joined them for the last stretch of my walk to the descent route down the Fiacaill a’ Choire Chais. In no hurry and with the sun beating down I ambled along the edge of the cliffs above Coire an t-Sneachda admiring the buttresses and pinnacles. Leaving the path for a viewpoint right on the edge I noticed a party of six were following me. “Is this the start of the Fiacaill ridge?” I looked at the steep drop below. “Er, no. Definitely not”. I pointed out the big cairn at the top of the ridge, a kilometre or so away. “That’s where you want to go”. He said something about descending from a saddle into Coire Cas so they could get back to the car park. I advised against descending the Coire Cas headwall and again pointed them to the Fiacaill cairn.

This is the start of the Fiacaill

I left them eating sandwiches and carried on to point 1141 and that big cairn. Here I sat in the sun and thought of all the times I’d sheltered behind the cairn from rain, and wind, and snow, and of how glad I’d been when it emerged reassuringly from the mist during blizzards and I knew my navigation skills hadn’t let me down. The party of six passed me and started down the ridge. Soon I followed. I’d thought it hot on the Plateau. Now it felt like I was descending into a furnace. I reached the car soaked in sweat.

Early morning light over Beinn Mheadhoin

The trip was a success. A great walk and camp in perfect weather in a favourite place. My hand was sore but not enough to intrude on my enjoyment. I still seemed to be reasonably fit. It won’t be another two months before I’m out again.

A Look At The October Issue Of The Great Outdoors

The October issue of The Great Outdoors is out now. In it I review the Altra Lone Peak 8 trail shoes that I wore on the Cape Wrath Trail. That's it for single reviews for me this month but I am quoted extensively in the Gear Of The Year 2024 feature as I tested quite a few of the products. Not all of them though, and one of those, the Flextail Zero Pump, which wins Best Tech and which is reviewed in more detail separately by David Lintern, I am going to buy. It sounds excellent! David also reviews the superb MidgeSpecs, which I reviewed on this blog, which also gets the Best Accessory award. 

In the comparative reviews Lucy Wallace tries out eight pairs of trekking poles and David Lintern and Kirsty Pallas test out the comfort of four sleeping mats each. 

The theme of the issue is long-distance hikes. John Fleetwood walks England end to end from St. Michael's Mount to Lindisfarne Abbey. Marek Bidwell backpacks the original Skye Trail from Armadale to Rubha Hunish. Then there's an incredibly long walk that took Bethany Hughes seven years; 18,000 miles from Patagonia to the Arctic. In the Middle East David Myers makes an extraordinary and sobering solo 1000-mile circuit of the Jordan River watershed.

Elsewhere in the issue Sarah Hobbs of Strathspey Storywalks is Creator of the Month; Ronald Turnbull reviews Everest 24: New Views on the 1924 Mount Everest Expedition from the Royal Geographical Society; Jim Perrin's Mountain Portrait looks at fine but often ignored Beinn Dearg in Torridon; Nadia Shaikh hopes for a Right to Raom policy in England and Wales in the Opinion column; Phillipa Cherryson finds out why Rhayader calls itself the outdoor capital of Wales; Alex Roddie looks at how to make outdoor adventures more sustainable; and Emma Schroeder finds an eclectic mix of interesting things in British streets including rubber ducks, sarcastic weather, and proprietary cats. 

Wild Walks has a bothy theme. In the Scottish Highlands Stefan Durkacz visits Luib Chonnal bothy and climbs two nearby Corbetts while Alex Roddie walks the Affric-Kintail Way past Camban bothy and the remote Glen Affric Youth Hostel, and takes a tough walk to Ben Alder Cottage bothy. In the Southern Uplands Ian Battersby goes to Clennoch Bothy and Moorbrock Hill, and in Dumfries & Galloway visits Greensykes Bothy. In the Lake District James Forrest spends a night in the area's most remote bothy, Mosedale Cottage, and goes up Branstree while Vivienne Crow overnights in Dubs Hut as she links two long ridges over High Stile and Dale Head. In the technically bothyless Peak District Francesca Donovan goes up Kinder Scout via Oyster Clough Cabin. Finally in Wales Andrew Galloway finds shelter in Dulyn Bothy in the Carneddau and Phillipa Cherryson stays in Grwyne Fawr Bothy in the Black Mountains and ascends Waun Fach. 

 

Back to the hills on a last glorious day of summer

Carn na Loine

The last day of meteorological summer and the first day with hot sunshine and a clear blue sky for quite a while was a good day for my first hillwalk in over six weeks following my hand operation in July. Being patient while the wound healed and I could start to use my hand again without setting recovery back has not been easy. The generally dismal August weather has helped! All the wet, windy, cloudy days didn’t make me feel I really wanted to be out there.

Now the wound has healed enough that I don’t need a bandage and my hand doesn’t hurt much if I use it -carefully! - I decided I could manage a pack and possibly trekking poles and go up a hill. In case this wasn’t a wise idea a short walk from home seemed best. No point driving any distance and then finding walking far was unwise. I’ve only been driving again for just over a week anyway. And my hand isn’t fully healed. I’m still seeing a physio every week and have a desensitisation and flexing programme to follow.

Split boulder & juniper

The highest nearby hill is 549 metre Carn na Loine, a rolling lump in the midst of a large area of heather moorland on the north-east border of the Cairngorms National Park. Most of the walking would be on estate tracks but the last section to the summit and the first part of the descent would be on pathless tussocky ground that would soon show how comfortable my hand felt with some lurching and stumbling.

Autumn colours starting in an old plantation now returning to a more natural forest

The day seemed unnaturally beautiful. There have been so few days like this in 2024’s summer. Everything shone and glowed. The blue of the sky was unreal. The heather is still purple. Birches and rowans are showing the first signs of autumn colour and the berries on the latter are astonishingly bright red.

Rowan rich with berries

The moors were used for grouse shooting but this hasn’t happened for several years nor has there been any recent muirburn. Little trees are starting to raise their head above the heather., Whether this will continue I don’t know. I hope so. In rocky places there are scatterings of bigger trees, mostly Scots pine but also larch, birch and rowan.  Clumps of willow and juniper are spreading too. It feels like a land that is slowly recovering.

Rowan and pines at the mouth of the ravine leading to Huntly's Cave

Leaving the track my pace slowed by at least three quarters. The terrain was more difficult than I remembered. It always is! I only come up here when I’ve forgotten what it’s like. The heather is bouncy and deep, hiding holes and spongy tussocks. Even with the poles walking was awkward and ungainly. I was pleased I could grip a pole without my hand hurting much.

View to the Cairngorms

The close-up views were sharp and clear but distant ones hazy and grey. The Cairngorms hung in the air, indistinct, far away.

The summit

The summit trig point made a good backrest for a stop for water and a snack. It had gained a triangular cap that looked as though it might have been a feeding tray of some sort. The descent down further pathless moorland was a bit easier than the ascent as gravity helped, sometimes too much! I gained a lower track with relief.

A lone pine

The Gomi Power Bank, made from recycled materials and endlessly repairable

Batteries and plastic are not environmentally friendly. In fact they're high on the list of the opposite. But they are just about impossible to avoid. Plastic is everywhere and batteries are essential for the ever-increasing number of electronic items. Power banks, just batteries encased in plastic whose sole purpose is to charge the batteries in other items like smartphones, combine the two. Power banks can themselves be recharged of course but eventually the batteries will fade, as all batteries do. These days I always carry a power bank or two (depending on the length of the trip), mainly for recharging my smartphone but also for headlamp, satellite communicator, e-reader, or camera if needed.

Like all electricals power banks can be recycled and much of the material reused or, possibly, even repaired (see Recycle Your Electricals). However any replacement will be made from new plastic and new batteries with all the environmental problems producing these involve. Unless it's a Gomi Power Bank, that is. This power bank has a recycled plastic and aluminium shell with repurposed e-bike batteries inside. Not only that but it's designed to be repairable. It comes with a full 2 year warranty for free fixes and repairs and can be easily repaired with spare parts available at minimal costs outside of the warranty (the two halves of the case are held together by screws not glue). 

Designed and handmade in Brighton the power bank comes in a range of swirly colours that are a refreshing change from the usual black slab look. The pattern also makes it easier to find in the pack. This marbled finish is created using hard-to-recycle plastics like bags, bubble wrap and food packaging and is unique to each power bank.

The Gomi Power Bank has a 10,000 mAh capacity, 2 charging ports, and a USB-C port for recharging. It's quite compact and weighs 244 grams on my digital scales (Gomi says 247 grams). I've been using one for the last six weeks, carrying it loose in a pack and in pockets, and it is a little scratched - but then so are my other power banks. There are lighter power banks but none that are anywhere near as sustainable. When my other power banks fail I'll recycle them and go on using the Gomi one. When necessary I'll repair it. When it's the only one I have left I'll get a second one for longer trips unless Gomi has launched a 20,000 or higher mAh one, which would be wonderful. 

My Gomi Power Bank was supplied free of charge as a contender for an outdoor gear award I was judging. I have to admit that until it was suggested by one of the other judges I'd never heard of it before. As it's not specifically an outdoor product it didn't in the end win the award. It's definitely one of the most exciting and innovative products I've come across this year though and I'm very happy to recommend it.

Updated Collection Of Links To My Posts On Long-Distance Hiking

Many years ago I put together links to a selection of pieces on long-distance walking and long-distance trails that have appeared since I began this blog way back in 2007. They're a mixture of trip reports, gear reviews and general thoughts. I last updated this list in 2020. It's high time I did so again so here it is. The added posts appear next, before the Southern Upland Way picture. I've added the dates they were posted.

The Southern Upland Way Is Forty   August 2024

Twenty-five Years of Trekking Pole Shelters   July 2024

What I ate on the Cape Wrath Trail July 2024

My Cape Wrath Trail walk June 2024

Update from the Cape Wrath Trail: The Heat Exchanger Pot Performed Even Better Than Expected June 2024

Stoves I've used for long-distance walking over the decades - updated April 10, 2023

Thoughts on Packs for Backpacking  January 2022

Packs I've Used On Long-Distance Walks January 2022

Dealing With The Challenges Of Long-Distance Walking April 2021

In The Beginning: First Long-Distance Walk & First Cairngorms Backpacking Trip July 2020

Gear I Used On My Long Walk In The Colorado Rockies  July 2020

Reminiscences and Thoughts on Long-Distance Walking and Writing, inspired by a piece by Alex Roddie  January 2020

The Pleasures of Long Distance Trails

The Pacific Crest Trail

Walking the Watershed of Scotland

Then & Now: Comparing Gear For Long Distance Walks

Scottish Watershed Gear

Pacific Northwest Trail Gear Review

Interview on Backpacking

The Joy of Long Distance Backpacking

Thoughts on Long Distance Backpacking

From Mountains to Desert: Yosemite Valley to Death Valley

Pacific Crest Trail Gear in 1982 .... and what I'd take now

Yosemite Valley to Death Valley Camps

Yosemite Valley to Death Valley: The Gear

Photography Then & Now on the Yukon & Watershed Walks

Camping & Cooking Gear for the TGO Challenge & Long Distance Walks 

Food for Long Distance Hiking

Planning for the 30th TGO Challenge 

Yosemite Valley to Death Valley: Food & Water 

40 Years On: Gear for Long-Distance Walks Then & Now 

Camping on the GR5 Trail through the French Alps 

GR5 through the Alps: The Gear 

TGO Challenge 2019: The Gear

Ten Packs for Long-Distance Walking 

Thoughts on long-distance hiking and a review of sorts of The Great Alone 

Tents and tarps I've used for long-distance walking over the decades 

Stoves I've used for long-distance walking over the decades

Thunderstorms & Sunshine: Return to the Colorado Rockies

A Look At Tech & Backpacking Part 2: Windwatches, e-readers, power banks, solar panels

Solar panel charging a power bank in the Colorado Rockies, 2019

Satellite navigators and communicators have been the most significant changes to my outdoor life in the last few decades, as I said in my first tech post. They’re not the only ones though and I’ve found several other electronic items useful and added them to my load.

Windwatches & Weather Trackers

For my first two decades of backpacking I carried various mechanical thermometers which told me the temperature at the time I looked at them (roughly – I don’t think they were very accurate) but couldn’t record changes or, of course, any other weather information. That changed in 1998 with the electronic Silva Windwatch, which had a small anemometer and recorded the temperature. In 2004 I replaced this with the more powerful Silva ADC Pro as this also had a barometer, altimeter, compass, and clock.

These little electronic instruments proved very useful for my gear testing work where it was valuable  to know the lowest overnight temperature, the humidity level, and the windspeed, and for building up a record for places I visit often and giving a weather picture for the whole of a long-distance walk. I wouldn’t be without one now.

However the ADC Pro only lasted five years before the anemometer broke. I was disappointed when Silva said it couldn’t be repaired, looked round for an alternative and found the Kestrel 4000 Pocket Weather Tracker. This had all the functions of the ADC Pro and more. I got it in 2010 and it’s been on every walk since and is still going strong. It is a bit heavier – 103g as opposed to 70g – but is clearly far more durable. The 4000 has been unavailable for years. The closest current model is the 5000 Environmental Meter.

Digital Watches

Digital watches that record masses of data started appearing in the early 1990s. For a few years I used one called the Avocet Vertech which had a thermometer, barometer and altimeter and could measure ascent and descent rate. I stopped using this when the Silva Windwatch arrived as the latter could measure wind speed as well.

Since the Vertech I’ve tested quite a few digital watches from TechTrail, Suunto, Garmin and others as the functions increased until now they can do much the same as a smartphone. I’ve never really taken to them though and once I’ve tested the functions I’ve ended up using them just to tell the time when I’ve used one at all. Mostly I don’t wear one. If I need to know the time my smartphone, Garmin InReach, and Kestrel weather tracker can all tell me. I think three clocks is enough! The first two of these can also record routes, speed and more – not that I usually bother.

I don’t feel the need to have the time available at a glance when on walks so I’m happy not to wear a watch. Mostly it doesn’t matter whether an hour or three hours has passed. I’m not racing. I’m not trying to set fast times. But I can see the usefulness of these watches for those who are.

Kindle

I’ve always carried books on overnight walks. On long-distance walks I have carried several at a time when it’s many days between supply points and I’m not sure if I’ll be able to buy anything I want to read at the next one anyway. Sometimes my selection of reading matter has ended up being rather unusual! I started carrying books so I had something to do during long stormy evenings inside a tent and occasionally during tedious road walks. As well as books to read purely for pleasure I often carried trail guides and natural history guides. 

Reading a natural history guide to the Sierra Nevada on a desert road on the Pacific Crest Trail in 1982

On the length of the Canadian Rockies walk, my account of which will soon be republished, I carried Ben Gadd’s hefty Handbook of the Canadian Rockies, which had inspired the walk, the whole way.

The Handbook of the Canadian Rockies after my walk. I obviously used it as a platform for my coffee mug!

All this changed in 2010 when I used my first smartphone as an e-reader at times on the Pacific Northwest Trail. The screen was annoyingly small but I could see the big advantages. Soon after returning home I bought a Kindle e-reader. On my next long walk, the Scottish Watershed in 2013, I had a whole library of books for the weight of a small paperback. I’ve taken a Kindle on every overnight trip since. Smartphone screens are bigger now but still not the size of a Kindle and that, along with the glare-free display and the very long battery life, means I still prefer one.

The options of listening to music or podcasts or even watching movies were far in the future when I carried my first books to an overnight camp. As I really like reading I haven’t taken up these other possibilities except for listening to music very occasionally. I generally like to be able to hear what’s happening around me and not cut myself off.

Power

Top: Garmin InReach Mini 2, Samsung Galaxy XCover Pro, spare phone battery. Bottom: Nitecore NB10000 Gen 2 Power Bank

An increase in electronic devices means an increase in power to keep them running. Back in the 1980s all I needed were batteries for my headlamp (plenty of these on long trips as pre-LED lights were not very efficient) and tiny button batteries for my camera.

The first digital devices ran on disposable batteries you could buy in many places. Soon some could also use rechargeable batteries. By the 2000s many came with built-in proprietary rechargeable batteries and needed charging from the mains or a power bank. The last only arrived in 2001 and it was quite a few years before lightweight ones were available.

When I bought my first smartphone in 2010 I chose an Android one rather than an iPhone because it had an interchangeable battery and I knew I wouldn’t be able to charge it from a wall socket very often on long walks. On the Pacific Northwest Trail that year I carried three batteries plus a tiny 49g solar charger but no power bank as I couldn’t find a suitable one.  

Since then I have gone through several power banks, none of which have proved very durable. My first power banks were around 2-3000 mAh. That’s not enough to charge a smartphone once now. My first smartphone had a 1400 mAh battery, my current one has a 4050 mAh battery, and that’s not big these days. So as devices, especially phones, needed more power so power banks needed upgrading.

Currently I have two lightweight Nitecore NB10000 mAh Gen 2 ones that I hope will last a fair while. On an overnight trip I take one Nitecore, on longer trips I take both. I also have a spare battery for my Samsung Galaxy XCover Pro phone, which is one of the few phones currently available with a removable battery (the latest version is the XCover 7 which I reviewed here). Although mainly used for the phone the power banks can charge the InReach, the Kindle, headlamp, and camera.

Solar panel in use on the very sunny Yosemite Valley to Death Valley walk, 2016

Solar panels are an alternative to power banks. The little one I took on the Pacific Northwest Trail half-charged my phone after three days of unbroken sunshine, which didn’t happen very often. I’ve taken bigger ones weighing 300-400g on walks in sunnier places since and they’ve worked quite well. I’m not sure there’s any weight saving over power banks though and they are more of a hassle to use. My last one dates from 2018. There are lighter more flexible ones available now so I will probably replace it.

Weights

How much all these electronics add to my load depends on the length of trip. On a two-day trip I’ll take the Samsung phone (223g), spare phone battery (73g), Garmin InReach (106g), 1 Nitecore power bank (154g), the Kestrel 4000 (103g), and Kindle (186), plus cables and pouches (195g) for a total of 1040g. For a longer trip I’ll add the second Nitecore power bank, a second smartphone, and a USB wall plug (54g) if I’ll be anyway with a wall socket for a total of 1471g. That sounds a great deal, but much of it is cancelled out by not carrying books, especially on long trips. A small paperback weighs around 200g. On a long trip I might have three or four of them. Guidebooks are often heavier. The Handbook of the Canadian Rockies, which went the whole length of the range, weighs 737g. I doubt I ever had less than 1200g of books on that walk.

Photography

I haven’t included photography even though the change from film to digital has made a huge difference as it’s not an essential part of backpacking and I’ve written about it several time before, most recently here.

How Satellites Have Changed My Hiking Life: A Look At Tech & Backpacking Part 1

Igloo Ed Huesers using a handheld GPS device in Yellowstone National Park in 2009

Working on the forthcoming republication of High Summer, the story of my walk the length of the Canadian Rockies in 1988, I’ve been struck by one huge difference between then and now, the rise of electronic and digital tech. Whilst all the backpacking clothing and equipment I used wouldn’t look too out of place now and its functions haven’t changed at all I now carry items that were the stuff of science fiction back then (which is appropriate as many of them require satellites in space to operate). I’ve written about this in general in a new introduction to the book but I thought it would be interesting to look at the timeline of the changes and how and when new items were added and the effect they had.

Satellites are the key to these changes, satellites for navigation and for communication. So they come first. This is the space age!

Satellite Navigation

Silva Multi Navigator

Magellan launched the first consumer Global Positioning System device that used a satellite array to calculate its location on the ground just a year after my walk and similar ones soon appeared during the 1990s. I tested a few for The Great Outdoors magazine. One of the earliest was the Silva Multi Navigator which I tried in 1995*. This was a bulky device weighing 227g that ran on 2 AA batteries. Like other GPS devices it gave your position in Lat/Lon or grid numbers which you could then find on a map. You could record tracks so you could retrace your route and it had an electronic compass and a barometer/altimeter. It sounds very basic now but seemed like magic at the time. You could stand on a featureless hillside in thick mist, press a button and a grid reference appeared. Plot that on the map and you knew where you were to within maybe ten metres. Amazing!

I wasn’t though convinced enough of the value of GPS devices to take one on my round of the Munros and Tops in 1996. With 512 summits to climb I wanted to keep the weight of my load down and decided GPS was something I could do without. In retrospect there were a couple of times it would have been useful but mostly it would have just sat in the pack.

SatMap

The next development was GPS mapping and a decade after using the Multi Navigator I was using a SatMap device with maps on it. Now I could see where I was without having to read the grid reference on a map. Amazing again and, I thought, much more useful.

My first smartphone in use on the Pacific Northwest Trail in 2010

In 2007 Apple launched the iPhone and the smartphone revolution began. I could immediately see the advantages of these tiny computers for long-distance walks. They could take pictures, carry books to read, show your position on a map, link to the internet, and even be used for phone calls. In 2010 I bought one, the HTC Desire, and took it on the Pacific Northwest Trail with all the maps downloaded on to it. Long before I finished the trail I was hooked. I’ve never been backpacking without a smartphone since. I’ve never carried a standalone GPS device again either. There seems no need. I do still carry printed maps though. I like the overview a big map sheet gives and anyway I think I’d feel underequipped without one plus a magnetic compass. Twenty-five plus years of using them on hundreds of days has left the need for them ingrained. I do virtually all my navigation with the smartphone however.

For communication with the outside world the first smartphones were only useful when there was a signal though, which was hardly ever in wild places. On the Pacific Northwest Trail I was just as out of touch most of the time as I had been on earlier walks. I was just less likely to get lost, which would have made a huge difference on the Canadian Rockies walk where I spent around a week somewhat unsure of my whereabouts. That part of the walk would have been unrecognisable if I’d had GPS mapping.

Satellite Communication

SPOT & Garmin InReach

With satellite navigation established satellite communication soon followed and being in touch without a phone signal became possible. I’ve been using a GPS** satellite communicator the last thirteen years (I was surprised to discover it was so long but my first gear list with one is dated January 2011). Until two years ago this was a SPOT unit which I just used to send an ‘I’m OK’ message from camp each evening. It had no screen so ironically it didn’t show my position, though it did to the recipients of the message. Still, I had my smartphone to show where I was in case I didn’t know.

It wasn’t long before satellite communicators with screens and two-way messaging became available. I was happy enough with the basic SPOT for a while but then I was sent a Garmin InReach Mini 2 to test in 2022. As with my first smartphone I was quickly hooked. Especially as it linked with my phone so I could use its much bigger screen for sending and reading texts and emails. I still send the basic OK message each day but when needed I send more info such as when I expect to finish a walk and I can also receive messages and news from home.You can read my full review of the InReach Mini 2 here.

Satellite communicators are key safety devices of course and can be used to call for help just by pressing a button. I’ve never had to do this and obviously hope I never will but having it is a reassurance, as much to my family as to me, as is being able to let them know I’m OK every day. Before this was possible they were used to me disappearing for weeks at a time but now I suspect they’d think that irresponsible.

GPS has changed navigation and communication in the outdoors greatly, making the first much easier and the second possible. Whether this is good or bad or a mix of both is another matter. Whatever anyone thinks the change has happened.

There are other electronic and tech devices that didn’t exist for the first half of my backpacking life too – e-readers, weather trackers, portable battery packs. I’ll go into these and what they added to my backpacking in terms of utility and weight (or reduction in it) in Part Two of these all-things techy posts.

*I can’t remember all the dates I started using stuff of course. I consult a Word document containing lists of the gear I’ve used on just about every overnight or longer trip since 1993. It now runs to 490 pages! Luckily Word’s search engine works well.

** Now there are several global navigation satellite systems they should correctly be referred to as GNSS. However GPS was first and is established as the generic term so I’ve stuck with that.

Livestream with Tony Hobbs now on YouTube

 

The Livestream I did with Tony Hobbs is now on his YouTube site. There was a slight sound hiccup at the start so it begins with Tony asking if I can hear him after it was sorted out!

Sign on lower slopes of Mount Whitney in the Sierra Nevada, California

We discussed permits and wild camping in the UK and then water treatment and when and where it's necessary or not. There were interesting questions and comments - thanks to everyone who took part.

I did treat this water from a cattle tank on the Arizona Trail!

Southern Upland Way Photography: From Film To Digital, From DSLR To Mirrorless

Sony NEX-5

Searching through images for my piece on the fortieth anniversary of the Southern Upland Way I realized that my two walks of this trail in 2003 and 2011 came at times when my photographic approach and gear were changing in major ways.

Ricoh RDC-5000

In 2003 my main camera was a film SLR, the Canon EOS 300, but I’d started dabbling with digital cameras. As well as the EOS 300 with 24-70 zoom lens I took the Ricoh RDC-5000 compact digital camera, which I’d first used on the Arizona Trail in 2000, on the Southern Upland Way. The Canon was for images suitable for print publication and for slide shows, the Ricoh for online use. The latter had a tiny 2.3 megapixel sensor and a 38-86mm full frame equivalent zoom lens. It ran on four AA batteries, which didn’t last long, and wasn’t that light at 315g without the batteries. At the time the images were just about acceptable for online use though often blotchy and with an artificial digital look. Any current smartphone is far superior.

Ricoh RDC-5000

I haven’t yet scanned any of the hundreds of transparencies I took with the Canon on the Southern Upland Way so I only have the Ricoh ones to post here and I only took 35 with it, making it rather a deadweight to carry.

Ricoh RDC-5000

Whilst not very happy with the digital images I realised that digital was the way forward and I was on the lookout for a reasonable affordable camera that could produce pictures I would be happy to send to an editor for publication. The next year, 2004, Canon produced one, the 6.3 megapixel EOS 300D DSLR with an APS-C size sensor. It was £1000, not cheap but far less than other DSLRs. I bought one and by the end of 2005 I had stopped using film.

Canon 450D 

Jump to 2011 and my time with DSLRs was coming to an end. The previous year I had taken my Canon DSLR, now the 12.2 megapixel EOS 450D, with a 14 megapixel Sigma DP1 digital compact with APS-C sensor as backup, on the Pacific Northwest Trail. Rain quickly destroyed the Sigma so I came home in need of another camera. The first mirrorless cameras with APS-C sensors and interchangeable lenses were just appearing and after handling a few I bought a 14.2 megapixel Sony NEX-5, delighted at how light and compact it was compared to a DSLR.  

Sony NEX-5

The Sony was intended as backup to the Canon and on the Southern Upland Way I took just one lens with it, an 18-55mm zoom. I took three lenses with the Canon. However I quickly preferred the Sony and ended up taking most of my images with it, 743 in total, and just 186 with the Canon. Now the latter had become a bit of a deadweight. My time with DSLRs was ending. By early 2012 I’d bought a second Sony mirrorless camera, the 24 megapixel NEX-7, and stopped using the EOS 450D.

Sony NEX-5

Since then I have stayed with Sony APS-C mirrorless cameras and currently use a6600 and a6700 ones, though occasionally the Nex-7, which I still have.  I only bought these cameras last year. I wrote about them here.

All photos taken on the Southern Upland Way, the Ricoh ones in 2003, the Sony and Canon ones in 2011.