More excitement.

I'm camping out later this week with Rixy.

Hopefully heading for Scafell and Scafell Pike. Would love to have done it with the whole group, but wanted to include a camp...this is the only date available this month due to other commitments, the next 2 months are a definate NO, as the Wife is due to give birth at the end of September...and November/December will be too cold for us lacking experience :-D

So, camping it is...and then at the end of the week, a ridiculously early start as I'm covering First Aid at the Yorkshire Dales Walking Festival.

I'll update as soon as I can, and will hopefully have some great pictures of the camp.

The First Aid Kit.

I'm sure those few of you who care to read this are fully aware of my efforts to be prepared for anything?

Well, I've just created a better First Aid Kit for our night walk up Snowdon in a few weeks.

I've based it around the Lifesystems Mountain Leader kit, a kit that costs in the region of £45 - £50.

I managed to cobble it together with my box full of random supplies in my office, and it has probably cost me in the region of £10.

Here's the blurb from the Lifesystems website. ( www.lifesystems.co.uk )

MOUNTAIN LEADER
FIRST AID KIT

The Mountain Leader First Aid Kit provides the equipment needed to care for a large group of between 1 and 14 persons. This kit is also used by survival training schools in the UK. It has been designed with the help of expedition doctor Hugh Montgomery and members of the British Special Forces medical team.

(I'll point out here that mine looks NOTHING like the pictures,and my case is inferior to the Lifesystems originals equipment cases. I reckon the contents aren't as good either, but they'll be good enough)


Oh good, you're still here :-D

Ok, I'll get on with the list.

General
1 x Primary Care Leaflet
1 x Tweezers
6 x Safety Pins
1 x Scissors (5.5cm Blade)
4 Pairs Vinyl Gloves
1 x Shears (6cm Blade)
1 x Glo Stick
1 x Resuscitation Face shield
1 x Spot Check Thermometer

Medication
16 x Paracetamol Tablets
16 x Ibuprofen Tablets

Bandages
2 x Open Woven Bandages 7.5cm x 5m
1 x Crepe Bandage 5cm x 4.5m
1 x Crepe Bandage 7.5cm x 4.5m
1 x Triangular Calico Bandage 90 x 127cm

Preparations, Disposables & Tapes
10 x Hygienic Cleansing Wipes
1 x Micropore Tape 2.5cm x 5m
1 x Zinc Oxide Tape 2.5cm x 2m
1 x Duct Tape 2m Roll
10 x 4-Ply Gauze Swabs 5 x 5cm
3 x Burn Gel Sachets (3.5g)

Dressings
1 x Pack of Assorted Plasters
1 x Medium Wound Dressing 12 x 12cm
2 x Low Adherent Dressings 5 x 5cm
2 x Low Adherent Dressings 10 x 10cm
1 x Small Plaster Fabric Strip 4cm x 1m
1 x Large Plaster Fabric Strip 7.5cm x 1m
6 x Wound Closure Strips
1 x Small Eyepad Wound Dressing
2 x Blister Plasters

In addition to the above, I have added the following,
1 x Patient Report Form and Pencil, there's also a section on this for the Goffer to take with them.
1 x Foil Blanket
1 x Tick Removing Tool
1 x Small Tub of Vaseline
8 x Asprin
5 x Anti-Hystamines
1 x Finger Dressing
2 x Tubes of Saline Solution
2 x Hand Warmers/Heat Pads
1 x Roll PVC Tape
1 x Cold Wrap Bandage
1 x Bites and Stings Kit
1 x Head Torch

I also threw in a couple of hand and surface cleansing wipes.

I'm sure the Lifesystems kit comes with mini (1.5cm) light sticks. I have 2 of these, plus 4 x 8inch light sticks. Intense 5 and 30 minutes plus a green and red 8 hour sticks.

I've also added a Combat Application Tourniquet.

Before anybody leans back and says What. The. Hell. Don't worry. I know how to use it, and it is there for the very most extreme cases. It will not be used unless ABSOLUTELY neccessary.

Fortunately, with the training I've had and the books I've read, I feel confident that our group will be able to cope with anything first aid orientated.
We have somebody VERY well trained (a Firefighter) somebody who I think will be quite good, and Me, a St John First Aider. (Although very new to it I will add)

There's absolutely nothing wrong with Lifesystems gear, in fact, I think they are well put together kits and reasonably priced, I just wanted to use some of my surplus. I did follow their model after all ;-)

So there we have it. Thanks for reading. Hope it wasn't too boring for you. Please feel free to comment.

A glorious day for Ingleborough.

Today started out absolutely beautifully.

The sun was shining, but there was still plenty of snow on the hill tops in the distance (even though we were to be heading in the opposite direction)

I picked Steve and Rixy up. Rixy was running 10 minutes late.

Steve being the gent jumped in the back. Rixy, with his travel sickness jumped in the front, and was delighted to be greeted by a packet of ginger biscuits on the dash. Shame I had emptied them out earlier just to wind him up haha.

We set off for Clapham, our start/finish point for the walk up Ingleborough.

When we got there we wondered why the car park was empty, I guess the 5 quid charge answered that. What tight Yorkshire man is gonna pay that?

I gently squeezed into a roadside spot, we donned our gear and headed off.

I've done Ingleborough once before, many moons ago and a totally different route, so wasn't sure what lay ahead. The start was quite easy, up a well made road next the the woods, through a farm, and then dropped back down to a well made path to the caves.

 After this it was a short climb to Trow Gill, and what an epic sight we were about to see. A huge gorge with masses of ice hanging down, and an ice river before us.

We chose to try it without ice spikes first just to save a couple of minutes, it worked. Fortunately the rocks sticking out above the ice gave us enough foot holds to get us up easily and safely.

 

Rixy was complaining that he wanted it to snow, so we kicked some loose stuff at him while he did the last 10 yards :-D

The going from here was quite easy for a while. Up the track, stop to make sure we are going the right way, turn around to head off and then land on my arse, over the wall and then onto the path to Gaping Gill.

We didn't bother nipping down into Gaping Gill, as we were conscious of the lack of time/daylight hours. We carried on over Thack Pot and started the ascent up Little Ingleborough and then onto Ingleborough.

It started to snow a little over Thack Pot which put a smile on my face, but the flakes were smaller than talcum powder, and it stopped quicker than it started. There was still quite a bit of snow on the ground from the previous week, but it was patchy on the path at this point, and quite compacted so easy going.

It all started getting much tougher as we started up the stairs. There was a lot of ice and compact, slippery snow all the way up.

As we crested the top of Little Ingleborough the world opened up, no more looking at the hill in front, just the open plateau and Ingleborough in he distance.

The wind hit us, it was quite strong, and bitterly cold. We hunkered down, pulled our scarves up and plodded on. What probably only took 10 minutes seemed to take forever.

As we reached the South side of Ingleborough and started to climb, we were thankfully sheltered from the wind again. Here the ground was solid snow but easy going. The climb up was quite easy going...and then we got to the top.

The top of Ingleborough is another big plateau. With the sun shining and the whole top covered by a level layer of snow, it could be mistaken for the Antarctic, with us 3 intrepid explorers like Shackleton, Hillary and Fiennes (with a very, very vivid imagination maybe) The scene was one of the most beautiful things I have seen. An expanse of white nothingness gaining slight altitude with only the clear sky beyond it. I hope the group shot (if you can call 3 a group?) can give you some visualisation of it. I faffed about with the camera on the phone and did the best I could to capture the awesome view.

After posing for the shot, we headed up to the wind break for a well deserved lunch. I broke out my 'new' (2nd hand ebay bargain purchase) Jetboil, Rixy and Steve got our their shiny jetboils too.

Non of us seem to be into 'standard' packed lunches, it was Pasta Salad (I think) for Steve followed by chocolate pudding, Lancashire Hot Pot for Rixy and Lamb Curry with Pilau Rice for me (gotta love rat packs) They soon cooked up, but took a little longer to boil than it did when testing the jetboil in the kitchen at home.

Rixy was well impressed when he saw a lady taking pics with her camera, but accidentally shouted "woohoo, photo bomb" loud enough for her to hear (she seemed to find it quite amusing).

Bear in mind at this point we had been laughing with/at each other all the way up. It must be a man thing (because the Wife doesn't understand it) but we had some awesome slagging off and insults flying between us all.

For all you women out there wondering why we do this, it's our way of showing affection to all the wankers and toss bags that we acquaint ourselves with :-D

We were all cooked up and eating, Rixy was fannying about trying not to spill on his jacket, I laughed at him and promptly slipped (but stayed upright I might add) slopping a spoon of Curry everywhere and after seeing that Steve sprayed a mouthfull of his meal all over Ingleborough. This is where we agreed that we'll probably grow old, but never grow up. Men can't do that. Men need to be left as boys, it's how we cope with life. 

Once we had composed ourselves it was time to pack up and bug out. Not before Rixy decided to go around the other side of the wind break to 'wash his cup out' Washing his cup out consisted of filling it with snow and lobbing it over the wall at us haha.

We set off to the Trig point, no point reaching a summit and not touching the trig now is there? We then turn about and headed back off of the Antarctic, towards Clapham! As a matter of fact, we headed for the south east 'corner' of the plateau and down one of the steepest sections.

 

It was only a short drop and once again we left the spikes in the bags as the rocks looked like good foot holds.

What also looked like (and indeed was) a good idea, was sliding half way down on our backsides, at which point I remembered about the survival bag in my pack. Time to break it out and spend half an hour acting like 3 year olds again haha.

Now some of you might have just read that and thought about how responsible we were, but we weren't, we were very sensible and recorded it :-D

There isn't much to say about the route down really. It was uneventful, full of insults, and full of laughs. It has become apparent on the few walks we have done, that on the way down it is all about getting our heads down and getting back to the motor.

There was one point where we could look back and see what we had achieved though. The view of Ingleborough from the south is lovely.

Keep your eyes peeled on my blog. Hopefully my writing abilities will get better with practice.

I thought I was going to be all prim and proper, but then decided that it wasn't me, so you're stuck with what you get I'm afraid.

Hopefully the content will be more regular too, walks will still be irregular, but that is because I am volunteering with St John Ambulance now, that should give some stories (but obviously confidentiality will play a big part).

 

Whernside at the end of the week.

Seing as a couple of us will be doing Whernside at the end of the week, I guessed I would need some more suitable kit.
Happliy, I found a Berghaus 35 Ltr rucksack up in the loft, so I can't overload myself with gear, neither do I have to cram it all into a 25 Ltr rucksack.
I bought a treking pole, even though I should use them in pairs! I also bough some water repellant trousers, Regatta Geo's, which will also keep me warmer than my Nosi-Life's.
I have some gas for my stove, which hasn't arrived yet!!!

I'm looking forward to it, as I haven't done it before, but I understand it's a long slog.
We will be setting off from the Ribblehead Viaduct, and completing the 7.5 mile, 1500ft ascent walk.
I think we're down to just me and Rixy (Jake)
Steve doesn't have suitable gear, Scott will have to be up early (1am) Monday for work, and Jools has family commitments. Brother Dave STILL isn't fit for purpose yet, so he can bloody well behave himself and sit at home haha.

It's the highest of Yorkshire Peaks, and one of the Yorkshire 3 Peaks Challenge, which we are looking to do next year in memory of a friend, and to support the Anthony Nolan Trust, as his family requested.

Simon's Seat...The Return.

Well, we're all back in one piece (each).

It was a hard slog.

In total, there were 5 of us. Steven, Rixy, Scott and Myself set off from Bradford, and met Jools, from Howden, in the Cavendish carpark.

Despite Steve being 15 minutes late, we arrived on time at 10:00. The journey over was filled with giggles, but the weather was trying to put dampners on us.

When we got there, we spent about 20 minutes just milling about, gearing up, and discussing the route. We followed Jools lead, as his map was waterproof, which they hadn't invented 20 years ago when I got my map!

We lost Steve pretty quick, but he then re-appeared, right before out eyes!!!

(NB: He wore his Airsoft gear, the most suitable gear in his possesion, before forking out loads, on kit he may never use again. Fair enough.)

We followed the path up towards Strid Wood, stopping 20 minutes in to re-check the map, get more 'comfortable' and drop a layer.

We were quite sheltered, under the trees, from the poor weather, as it was just a fine drizzle then, but as we approached the edge, towards the bridge, the rain got heavier.

We donned our layers again, and carried on into the open.

Despite the weather, the going was easy, and the view wasn't too bad.

We carried on walking...and talking (which is fine on the level, we'll come to walking, talking AND climbing uphill later!)

We discussed walking, ales, guns etc...proper MAN stuff ;-)

We crossed Barden Bridge and re-checked the map.

At this point, I was guaging how far we had gone, how far we had to go, and how far we HADN'T climbed yet! I knew there was something to come, but it didn't hit until a mile or so later.

Through the farm, over the road, and up the track...UP...UP...UP...and UP. We covered about 800 yeards, then we had to take a breather where the track leveled out to cross a road. That was steep!

What none of us, apart from Jools, realised was what was to come. It got STEEPER!!!

Fortunately the track weaved, which I guess helped, probably.

Steve was lagging a bit, but we kept holding on for him. It wasn't until we were rounding the next corner that we realised how bad it hit him.

Never mind, drop his rucksack and feed him sweets and water, that'll sort him out.

The hill was steep, very steep. After 20 minutes, he was sorted. He had just over exerted himself I thing, maybe we kept the pace a little too fast. Who knows. Either way, he picked himself up (we shared his pack for a bit) and carried on...carried on up. Just as we were nearing the end of the steep climb, there was a gate, a locked gate. Just what we wanted, but we had to climb over it, as it was locked. The obviously slightly more experienced ones climbed over near the hinge end, Scott climbed over the wobbly middle haha.

We were however, all fools.

As we jumped down the other side, we saw the stile...off to one side...hidden behind a wall!

We carried on up the hill, and once again into the open, exposed hillside.

A little further up...

The higher we got, the colder, wetter and less enticing it became. We were nearly there though, just over this next ridge. Surely?

The going was quite tough here. The path was narrow and we all had our heads down, just tramming along.

As we crested the ridge, the going got better, well made paths and a steady incline were well appreciated.

And then...the summit.

We could just see it through the mist. A little further than I expected, but it was there...in sight.

We got our heads down and went for it. The path there was OK, and we all had the summit in our sights.

As we got near, there was an outcrop of rocks...and an alert on Jools' GPS said there was a geocache nearby! He hunted for it, we got some shelter!

It was decided we would have a bite to eat there. Jools and Scott got their butties out, Steve got his Jetboil out (which he was sharing with Rixy), and I got my Dutch Army Meths Stove out.

Little did I know that I would turn to Steve for his Jetboil. By the time my water had started becoming tepid, we had cooked up 3 rat pack meals on Steve's stove...time for me to change mine. (Thanks to Jools for sharing this, if you subscribe to Trail magazine, you get a FREE Primus Solo HERE)By the time our meals had cooked, my water was just warm enough for a quick brew.

We stood around, shivering but having a good laugh and a dig at each other.

The weather was poor, but the spirits were high (even though Jools never found his cache.

We had been stood around in the cold and rain, but sheltered from the wind, for nearly half an hour, so it was time to move on and touch the trig, before heading down.

We did the further 200 yards, and in the weather, it was a bit of a scramble to the trig.

Unfortunately, Steve never made it, and plunged to his death in the clouds below...only joking...he just stayed at the bottom of the scramble as his legs/feet were knackered.

Scott, Myself, and Rixy, at the Trig.

The view from the trig.

From the trig, we chose to go towards Lords Seat, and down past the Grouse Butts. The path was excellent. Man made from big slabs of stone. This was a lovely pasth to walk, after the slog up.

It was pretty uneventful on the way down. We got talking between ourselves about this and that, and just kept going as the weather was worse than ever.

Many things were learnt from the trip out today.

I learnt that, despite the weather, I'll be heading out again.

I have Whernside booked for 18th November ;-)

I also learnt that I need LOTS of new/different kit if I'm venturing out more. I thought my kit would be OK, but it was actually less than adequate.

Steve has already been in touch, to discuss some better kit for himself, which surely mean he has got the bug?

Despite missing Brother David (due to his injury), it was a good set of lads to be out with, and I look forward to more outings soon.

Here's a map of the outing, with some good stats HERE

Simons Seat, take 2, the night before.

Seeing as it's gonna be a cold one, the stove and hot food has been packed.
The rucksack has been changed twice, and all the 'just in-case' kit has been packed.
Hopefully, all will go well tomorrow. We'll keep with timings, get to the top, cook some food, eat said food, then walk round and down.
Mixed in with all this, we'll have a laugh, and get some pics.

Here's that all important weather for the day ahead.

Yorkshire Dales mountain weather forecast - Met Office Mobile Weather

Mountain Rescue Teams.

They are there for a reason.

You'll see that a couple if weeks ago, I blogged about my Brother twisting his ankle at the top of Simon's Seat. Being a grown man (most of the time :D) I wasn't going to force him to call the local MRT (which would have been UWFRA)
Well, I bet he wished he had dented his pride a little now.
Because he chose to hobble down the 3.5 miles, I think he has caused permanent damage.
Physio have decided, that he has severed the ligaments on the outside of his ankle, and they won't repair.
It's not all bad. He can build the muscles up around the ankle, and a bit of physio will sort it out, bit it will be forever weak!

So folks, as bad as you may feel calling your local mountain rescue team out, think of the consequences before continuing to keep your pride.

Simons Seat, the revisit, the build up.

This Sunday (Oct 28th) I will be revisiting Simons Seat, and all being well, completing the circular.

Disabled Dave has bowed out with plenty of notice, as his ankle is still painful to walk on!!!

I have 3 potnetial new victims this week coming though :-)
Scott, Steven and Jake will be joining me.
I have all the confidence in them (maybe not so much Scott though haha) and it should be a good walk round.
I've modified the route up slightly, the route down is still unknown though.
I have studied the map, both paper and online versions, so have a pretty good idea which way we need to be heading etc.
Hopefully, this time next week, I'll have a good write up and some more pictures.

This is the route, running anti-clockwise.


View Untitled in a larger map

Fresh Air...

...Hell yeah! Well, I eventually got out hiking. We (My Brother Disabled Dave and I) decided to attack 'Simon's Seat' near Bolton Abbey. The day started slow, and got slower. Dave was late, and unprepared, and slightly hungover!!! We got to Bolton Abbey car park, got ready, and then set off walking. We headed over the bridge and along the track, then up the hill, which kept going! We're both unfit, we don't deny that, so it took us an hour and half to get up. I reckon we could do it in the hour if we were fitter. When we got to the top, the views were breath taking!

Now, on the way up, I pointed out that it was lovely and warm. The ever helpful Dave said 'Wait until you stop for a minute. It'll be freezing' I knew this, I wasn't daft. This lead me to putting my fleece on as we sat to eat out butties (mine which I had prepared the night before, Dave' which had been bought from Tesco's on the way there!) At this point, Dave said he was cold... We sat there, he drank my coffee and took the piss out of my first aid kit. We ate, we enjoyed the views, and we enjoyed them some more. Before we headed off, we got a pic at the top together, We packed up and made sure we had left no rubbish behind. If you know Simons Seat, you will know it is a rocky outcrop, so imagine a big Bear Grylls style leap from one to another. Dave said he wasn't so stupid and he didn't want to end up on Helicopter Heros (Pride thing, he's a Fire Fighter) This is where it went downhill (pardon the pun, we were heading for descent, and heading for disaster) Dave walked around the rocks while I hung on for him. As he caught me up I turned and put my best foot forward, then heard rustling and swearing behind me!!! I turn up to see him hopping about in agony, having twisted his ankle on a cotton plant (or something equally poor). Out comes the FAK and my Israeli Field Dressings. We had to bandage his ankle up, and then hobble down the way we had come from for 3 HOURS!!! Poor lad has done his ligaments in :D Now, all this pride thing meant he wasn't going to call out the local MRT (UWFRA) which could have made it worse, but we'll never know. As we headed down however, his pride was shattered. His pride was screwed up, swallowed, and farted out into the atmosphere. Upon gaining a small audience (one poor older lady) he told her to be careful and not hurt herself. This is where she exclaimed that she thought I was a kind person taking his disabled mate out for the day. So I bring you, Disabled Dave

I have told him the piss taking will be relentless. He can only redeem himself by getting up to match fitness soon and getting out there with me again!