Camping In The Rain

Camp on a knoll above boggy ground.

Staying comfortable and dry when camping in the rain isn't actually very difficult but it does require some care and some thought. Site choice, setting up camp and living in camp all need handling differently from when it's dry and sunny.

Site Selection.

A good site should be well-drained and high enough above streams and pools that it won't flood if they rise rapidly. Avoid hollows and gullies. After heavy rain every flat area may be sodden. In that case it's best to camp on a slight slope to avoid water getting into your shelter. The tops of knolls and hillocks are often better drained and drier than surrounding areas.

Camp well above a river.

 

Setting Up Camp

1: Pitching. The aim here is to keep the inside of your shelter and your gear dry. When taking your shelter out of your pack ensure that other items aren't exposed to the rain and don't fall out onto wet ground. (Ideally your shelter should be packed at the top of the pack where it's easily accessible or else in a pocket or strapped on the outside). With single-skin tents or tarps and double-skin tents that erect as units or flysheet first there isn't a problem in keeping the inside dry. However if the tent pitches inner first you need to do so very quickly and, if possible, throw the flysheet over the top to keep off some of the rain. The last can be ineffective if it’s windy and can make pitching the tent slower and more difficult though.

A wet camp on tussocky ground - the alternative was a bog!

 

2: Getting under cover. Once the shelter is pitched you need to get inside without dampening the groundsheet or any dry gear. First, though, do any outside chores such as filling your water containers so you don't have to go out again. I then put the pack in the porch and crouch next to it while I strip off my wet waterproofs and any other wet garments - this can involve some contortions in a very small tent but it's worth the brief discomfort. What I never do is get in the inner tent or sit on the groundsheet in wet clothing. Once my waterproofs are off I sit on the groundsheet with my feet in the porch and removed my footwear - and socks if the latter are wet. 

Dry inside, wet gear & kitchen in the porch

 

3: Sorting gear. Once in the tent and out of wet clothing and footwear it's usually wise to don some warm clothing and get out your sleeping mat to sit on so you don't get cold. I then take other dry items out of the pack and stow them along the sides of the groundsheet. No wet items come inside. They stay in the porch. Wet waterproofs and other damp clothing can be stored on top of the pack with footwear alongside it.

Living In Camp 

Warm & dry inside the tent

1: Condensation. Once inside your shelter condensation is likely to be the main cause of dampness rather than the rain itself. When humidity is high condensation forms on cold surfaces like tent walls. Ventilation helps minimise this. How much ventilation is possible without the rain getting in depends on the design of the shelter. Ideally there should be covered vents high on the canopy that can be left open or flysheet doors with hoods over the top so the zips can be partly undone. Even with good ventilation condensation can still form when it's very damp. To avoid transferring it to your dry clothes and sleeping bag take care not to push against the walls. An absorbent cloth such as a cotton bandanna can be used to wipe away any drips.

Condensation

 

2: Cooking. Steam from boiling water quickly condenses on shelter walls. If conditions allow doors should be left undone and stoves positioned so that steam goes outside. Sometimes though it's impossible to have doors open without rain coming in. In that case keeping pans covered and unzipping doors briefly to let steam out can help reduce condensation.

3: Going Outside. If you have to go outside (pee bottles and, for women, Sheewee devices can reduce the need for this) don your wet gear so you don't get anything else wet. If it's a short trip I don't bother with socks, just slipping my feet into my wet footwear. Whilst outside check guylines and pegging points. Nylon stretches and sags when wet (polyester and cuben fibre don't do this) so guylines will probably need tightening. Pegs can start to pull out of soft damp ground too and may need stamping down.

A well-drained forest site.

 

Packing Up.

If it's still raining in the morning pack everything in your pack inside your shelter so it stays dry. This includes the inner tent if there is one. To avoid a wet shelter dampening the inside of the pack I strap it on the outside or stuff it in an outside pocket. If it has to go inside the pack I ensure that other contents are inside waterproof bags or liners and the shelter is outside them.

This piece first appeared in The Great Outdoors two years ago.

Suunto Traverse GPS Watch review for The Great Outdoors

I've been using altimeter watches for over twenty years now and have always found them very useful. Just being able to glance at your wrist for information, whether time or altitude, is quick and convenient. The addition of GPS makes such watches even better. The latest one I've tried is the Suunto Traverse. My thoughts are now on the TGO website here.

Interview in the Inverness Courier

An interview I gave to the Inverness Courier last month about my new book is now online here.

The interview covers a wide range of topics. It was done on the phone and the interviewer has written up what I said well (this doesn't always happen with phone interviews) - and it was probably a sub-editor who spelt my name wrong!

A Frosty Camp in Glen Feshie

Early morning in Glen Feshie

Sometimes the weather forecast isn’t quite accurate enough. Not wrong exactly (sometimes it is that) but not quite right as to just when types of weather will occur. That happened a few days ago when I wandered down Glen Feshie for the first time this year, intending on a camp under the pines followed by an ascent of Mullach Clach a’Bhlair. The forecast suggested the cloudy, windy weather would clear during the night and the following day would be fine until late in the afternoon.

A clear sky at dawn

 

At dusk as I walked down the glen there was a touch of pink in the western sky but mostly it was cloudy with spots of rain and a chill wind. The night was black with no stars as I pitched the tent and I was quite happy to be inside warm in my sleeping bag and soon falling asleep. I woke once, at 3.30 a.m., to a mass of stars and a hard frost. The weather had changed as forecast. Waking properly at dawn I looked out on a crisp pale world. Frost lay on everything and I could see fresh snow on the tops. The sky was blue. A cold wind swept down the glen though and there were streaks of cloud.

Climbing through the woods as the clouds close in

By the time I’d had breakfast and left the tent the clouds were dominating and the tops were beginning to fade into them. I packed and headed up anyway on an old overgrown and steep path through the trees to the open hillside. Away down Glen Feshie I could see mist filling Strathspey. Beyond the strath the Monadh Liath hills were cloud-capped.

View down Glen Feshie to a mist-filled Strathspey

Out in the open I felt the full blast of the wind which brought with it light flurries of snow. Soon I was walking through snow as well. The surface of little Lochan nam Bo was a mass of grey waves. I was on the edge of the clouds now and could see little of the slopes above. The summit was 300 metres higher and 3 kilometres away. I’d be in the mist and the wind the whole time. With the ground above snow-covered this probably meant white-out conditions. A walk back along the glen seemed more appealing so I turned and followed an icy track back down into the trees.

The landscape changes from brown to white

 

Much later in the day the weather did change again and the sun came out, at least on the eastern hills. But by then I was back in Aviemore in a café.

At Lochan nam Bo. Far enough.

Interview for the BMC

The longest long-distance trail I've done.

I seem to have been doing quite a few interviews recently. The latest one is for the BMC and is on its website here. It's entitled 'how to get into long distance walking', but actually covers quite a few other topics as well.

Is it Spring yet?

Strathspey, March 29, 2015

Snow is falling on the high Cairngorms. The air is frosty in the glens. It doesn't feel like spring yet. So when does the season really begin? Here's a piece I wrote for The Great Outdoors last year.

Every year sees a little tussle over the date of the first day of spring. March 1 says the Met Office. The equinox, March 20/21, say traditionalists. Both conveniently divide the seasons into three month blocks. The Met Office likes it neat and orderly so seasons begin on the first day of the month. Tradition goes with the equinoxes, when the hours of light and dark are roughly equal, for the start of spring and autumn, and the solstices, which mark the days when there is most or least daylight, for summer and winter. The latter is more in tune with natural cycles but neither really says when any season begins. Nature isn’t that rigid or predictable. Spring doesn’t start abruptly on any day. Spring comes in gradually over several weeks. It’s a process not a date.

And spring comes in at different times in different places. The further north you are the later it arrives – for an early spring go to Cornwall not Caithness. More importantly for walkers spring comes in later the higher up you go. Mountain summits can still be snow-covered when the valleys are green with fresh grass and bright with the first flowers. This catches some people out. Every year when spring is announced in the media mountain rescue teams and national park authorities issue warnings about winter conditions on the tops and most years someone ill-equipped and ill-prepared has to be rescued because they thought winter was over. Even when there is little snow left the contrast between lush green valleys and withered brown hills can be great. No snow in March doesn’t mean no more winter conditions either. One year recently in the Cairngorms the hills were almost bare when spring officially began but were then covered in snow from April well into May – most of my ‘winter’ activities took place in those months that year and some TGO Challengers found themselves struggling through deep snow in the Lairig Ghru.

Bynack More, March 27, 2015

The idea that each season is equal in length also doesn’t fit with what actually happens. The length of a season is fluid, varying from one year to the next. Spring sometimes goes by in a rush. Leaves and flowers appear, the world turns green and then after just a few weeks it feels more like summer, the newness already gone. In other years late snows and cold winds, even in the valleys, can delay the start of spring and when it begins it may take weeks to develop. Every year is different and this is one of the joys of spring. The same events happen but at different times and speeds.

Waiting for spring is always an exciting time. Spring for me signals the start of the year’s backpacking, the time when my load can be lightened and further distances travelled in the lengthening days. Here in the Cairngorms I think of April as usually being the first full spring month, at least in the glens, with May as spring at its height. By June it seems like summer. How will the spring of 2015 will develop? It’s certainly barely begun in the woods but the birds are singing and the lapwings are wheeling over the meadows, calling loudly. For me the return of the latter always marks the start of spring, regardless of the date. This year I first saw them on March 1^st, so this year I agree with the Met Office.