Exploring the Best of North Yorkshire

by  on  in Microadventures, Uncategorized, Vanlife • 0 Comments
North-Yorkshire-Highlights-Saltwick-Bay

Low tide at the beautiful Saltwick Bay

It’s confession time. I thought about this week’s blog post whilst hanging out the washing at about 9.30am this morning. Which, given this should have gone out at 8.00am was a bit of a boob on my part. I’m blaming the Easter bank holiday – today feels like Monday, not Tuesday!

Rather than my usual ‘how to’ style posts, this week I’m going to take you on a wee tour of North Yorkshire, mainly because I’ve just come back from a lovely few days up there in our campervan, Sadie. Our weekend can be summarised as follows: windswept moors, hilly forest, windswept beaches, more windswept moors. As you can gather, it was pretty windy.

Sadly I don’t have any photos of our 20-mile mountain bike ride around Dalby Forest. Partly because I felt that carrying my new phone around the trail was guaranteed to make me fall off and squash it, and partly because I am pretty slow on the mountain bike and was therefore at the back of the pack. So you have to take my word for it that it was a sunny day and a fun route. I biked about 90 percent of it (which is good going for me) and felt totally knackered by the end of it (always the sign of a good day out).

Saltwick Bay

Saltwick-Bay

Saltwick Bay is about a mile down the coast from Whitby on the east coast of North Yorkshire. It’s pretty popular, but at low tide it’s big enough that you can wander away from the crowds. We went in search of driftwood and found fossils. Many, many fossils. There’s also the remains of a shipwreck:

Shipwreck-Saltwick-Bay

If you’re feeling a bit claustrophobic in Whitby, it’s well worth the walk over the cliff-top path to Saltwick Bay. Just make sure you keep an eye on the tides and don’t get trapped.

Blakey Ridge and Rosedale Valley

We had arranged to meet my sister and her partner for a walk in Rosedale valley the following day. As Sadie is a bit of a beast, we decided to get to the the start of our walk – the car park on the top of Blakey Ridge – early, to nab a good parking spot. Which meant we ate breakfast with this beautiful view:

Blakey-Ridge

Pretty good, huh? Blakey Ridge is a beautifully wild, desolate spot. The lonely Lion Inn stands proud, battered by the wind; a cosy refuge on a winter’s day. But on this occasion, the sun was out and we had our sandwiches packed.

Rosedale is a tranquil valley, surrounded by wild moors. It also has an interesting history. During the nineteenth century, the valley was mined for its high-quality iron ore. The remains of the brick kilns can still be seen, high on the hillside.

Brick-kiln-Rosedale

To transport the ore to the foundries, a railway was built and the remains of the tramlines now offer a flat, high-level path around the valley.

Rosedale-valley

On a clear day, you get stunning views across the valley. Keep your eye out for ring ouzels (the blackbirds of the moors) and listen for the call of curlews circling overhead. It’s a wild, windswept and beautiful place – a taste of the best North Yorkshire has to offer.

Review: The SOL (Survive Outdoors Longer) Emergency Bivvy

by  on  in Outdoor Gear • 0 Comments

SOL-emergency-bivvi
Emergency kit is a tricky thing. It’s like an insurance policy – you’re spending money on something you hope never to have to use. But I’ve spent enough time in the hills to know that accidents can happen however prepared you may be. And come the day that you do need it, you’ll be really glad you spent an extra few pounds on a product that could, quite literally, save your life.

For years, the traditional foil survival blanket filled the role of emergency protection against the weather or at least tried to. Foil blankets are all very well when it’s a reasonably warm, calm day. But on a rain-lashed mountainside, they’re about as much use as a toothpick on an ice field. And the good old law of sod says, that if you’re ever going to need an emergency bivvy, it’s not going to be on a beautiful summer’s day.

That’s where the SOL Emergency Bivvy comes in. It’s not much bigger or heavier than a foil survival blanket, but it has a much higher chance of keeping you warm and dry. A foil blanket is unlikely to save your life – this piece of kit could.

The SOL Emergency Bivvy

I bought the SOL Emergency Bivvy some years back when I was after a super-lightweight emergency bag for running mountain marathons. Even I, trying to get my pack weight down as much as possible, couldn’t begrudge the tiny 3.8oz weight. It has been my constant companion since; happily snuggled at the bottom of my rucksack ready for the day it will be needed.

The SOL Emergency Bivvy pretty much does what it says on the tin. Unlike other SOL bivvy bags which are designed to be used instead of a sleeping bag, this is very much a keep-you-alive, last resort option. So don’t expect to get a good night’s sleep if you’re using it on its own. (Respect to Tom and Craig from Hikeordie, who slept in a field for four days as part of their test.)

SOL Emergency Bivvy specifications

The SOL Bivvy works by reflecting your body heat – up to 90 percent according to the manufacturer, though it’s a bit unclear as to how this is measured. The outside of the bag is a bright, ‘help me’ shade of orange, which will come in handy if you’re awaiting rescue, though not if you’re stealth bivvying in a farmer’s field.

The bag is made from polyethylene, which has some stretch, so unlike your foil blanket, it shouldn’t rip when you’re getting in and out. With seam-sealed edges, it’s completely waterproof and windproof, but bear in mind it’s not breathable. If you’re wrapped up in it for a while, you’re likely to get some condensation inside.

Unwrapped, it’s 84 inches in length, long enough to be pulled over the head of even a tall person (for evidence of this, check out this video). It’s also pretty wide, so if you’re skinny you could probably fit two of you in it to help keep warm. (No, I’m not kidding – sharing body heat is a tried and tested strategy for warding off hypothermia. Choose your hiking companions wisely!)

Often emergency survival kit is designed to be single use. If you’ve ever tried to fold a foil survival blanket back up, you’ll know that it’s an exercise in frustration. Fortunately, the designers of the SOL Bivvy took this into consideration. The bivvy comes with a nice stuff sack that’s twice as large as the rolled-up bivvy. While it does take about ten minutes to get it rolled up tight, it will fit back in the stuff sack after use.

What to use it for

Although it’s termed a ‘bivvy’, the SOL Emergency Bivvy is not intended to be used as a regular bivy sack. If you’re after something to use for lightweight bivvies on a planned basis, check out the SOL Thermal or Escape Bivvy. But as an emergency piece of kit, it beats the old foil blanket hands down, and at £17, it’s an insurance policy you can’t afford not to take.

Have you used the SOL Emergency Bivvy? Let me know how you rated it!

Why You Should Invest in the Outdoor Gear You Love

by  on  in Outdoor Gear • 0 Comments
Old-outdoor-gear-love

Just some of my much-loved outdoor gear that’s over a decade old

I was rooting through my hiking and camping gear today and came to a shocking realisation. I could find barely any gear that you can still – right now – buy in the shops. This isn’t because I don’t have much gear (trust me, we have a loft, garage and climbing room full of the stuff), but rather that most of the gear I own, I bought a long time ago.

So am I hobbling around in tattered clothing, with an ancient, creaking rucksack that’s about to spill it’s cargo of holey tents and rusted metal stoves? Not at all. I’m not adverse to buying new kit, but I only tend to buy things when I need them. Though admittedly that hasn’t always been the case.

The three gear-buying personas

In my eyes, there are three approaches to buying outdoor kit:

  1. The fashionista / outdoor shop worker: Changes colour with the seasons. Always on trend and hankering for the latest piece of shiny kit. People who work in outdoor shops also fall into this category. As you’re surrounded by beautiful kit all day and have a nice staff discount to play with, this tends to translate into frequent gear purchases. (I know, I used to work in one.)
  2. “It’ll do for now”: Buys what they need, when they need it. Ever budget-conscious, these people always have an eye on the sale rack, never mind if the down jacket is two sizes too big and canary yellow.
  3. Buy what you love: Justifying expensive purchases by calling them an ‘investment’, these people have an eye for quality and a passion for research and comparison tables.

I have been each of these people over the years, but much of my kit that’s still going strong today was bought when I was in a ‘buy what you love’ frame of mine. This happily coincided with my student days, where I was dedicated enough to survive on kidney beans and chopped tomatoes for weeks at a time, in order to invest my student loan in beautiful new outdoor gear. And I had the excuse of climbing trips to the Alps and expeditions to Iceland and Greenland, all of which required KIT.

Yes, they may be a bit worn and tattered (though my down jacket’s in such good nick no-one ever believes it’s over twelve years’ old), but these pieces of gear are like old friends. Take my Macpac Pursuit rucksack. It’ll carry any load without complaint and somehow manage to balance it perfectly on your hips. It’s been dragged up rock faces, dumped in snow and once had a rather wobbly, overloaded trip on a mountain bike. I’ve used it travelling in New Zealand and on multi-day hikes in the UK. On every one of my mountaineering adventures, it has been my constant companion.

It wasn’t the cheapest rucksack at the time, but it has repaid the investment ten times over. So why did I choose this rucksack, when I was a skint student and there were many cheaper models? Because I loved it. And because it was about the roughest, toughest alpine rucksack around at the time.

Why you should buy things you love

Having experimented with various philosophies of buying, I’m now convinced that buying what you love is the best option for you, the environment and your bank balance (all things I care deeply about). This can be hard when money is tight and option two (“it’ll do for now”) seems to be the only viable route. But I know, from bitter experience, that if you buy something that’s merely ‘ok’, said item will rarely be used and is likely to end up lurking under your bed gathering spiders.

If you buy something you love on the other hand, you will cherish it, wear it often and, most importantly LOOK AFTER IT. This is why my down jacket still looks shiny and new. And yes, I admit I can be a bit pedantic about not chucking my stuff in the dirt. But even my very dear friend (who shall remain nameless) who attracts mud like a headtorch attracts mosquitos, has taken such great care of her beloved new coat that it still looks almost new TWO years after buying it. Which, for her, is something of a record.

It’s a no brainer: looking after your gear will help it last longer. So rather than buying a sleeping bag every three years, you may buy one every ten or fifteen years. Which means you’re actually making a saving by buying more expensive gear. And it’s better for the environment. Less waste, less energy and non-renewable resource use in manufacture, and fewer carbon emissions from transporting goods.

5 outdoor gear companies I love

What gear you love and what gear I love may be quite different. But, if you’re interested, these are my favourite outdoor gear companies at the moment.

  1. Patagonia: Fondly referred to by one of my friends as Patagucci, Patagonia kit is definitely at the more expensive end of the outdoor gear spectrum. But it does last – my R1 fleece still looks good today, eight years or so after I bought it. Compare that to other fleeces which go bobbly within the year, and well, do I have to sy anything more? Plus, they do a lot of environmental work and campaigning and let their staff go surfing.
  2. Macpac: A New Zealand brand, Macpac make, hands down, the most durable rucksacks on the planet (in my honest opinion). I’d beg them to bring back the Pursuit Classic into their range, but quite honestly, I’m not sure I’ll ever need to replace the one I’ve got.
  3. Alpkit: Alpkit is proof that quality kit doesn’t have to have a super-high price tag. I can still remember the murmurs on the outdoor scene when this British company broke into the market, and they continue making waves (so to speak) today.
  4. La Sportiva: The La Sportiva Nepal Extreme were the alpine boot of choice back when I was actually doing alpine climbing. They’re a bit on the heavy side now, but I still love my old, battered pair to bits. They are also my favourite company for climbing shoes, though if anyone from La Sportiva is reading this, you need to sort out the rubber delamination issue and PLEASE stop cutting the Miuras so high round the ankle bone.
  5. 3rd Rock Clothing: This small, British clothing eco-company is single-handedly responsible for the resurgence of ’80s style fluro-patterned leggings at the climbing wall. They’re made from recycled material though, so I’ll forgive them. Plus I absolutely love their comfy, durable clothing and environmental ethos.

What’s your favourite beloved old bit of kit that’s still going strong? Get in touch on Twitter to tell me all about it! If anyone would like to send me gear to review, please get it touch. Especially if you’re one of the companies listed above. 🙂

10 Things to Do With Your Extra Hour of Daylight

by  on  in Misc • 0 Comments

Extra-hour-daylight

British Summer Time is here! With promises of long, warm summer nights, sunny evenings at the crag and weekends packed with adventure from dawn to dusk. Admittedly, we’re still in March, which means for every day of sun you get one of rain with the additional bonus of the occasional hard frost, but hey, that’s what living in the UK is all about.

I love this time of year. Finally, the dark days of winter are behind us. There’s no longer the agony of staring out of the office window, knowing that by the time you get to leave work, the sun will have slipped away. And let’s face it, it’s much easier to get motivated to go for a post-work run when it’s still light outside.

If you’re itching to get outside, but lacking in inspiration, here are ten fun things to do outdoors with your extra hour of evening daylight.

Take a Different Route Home From Work

If you cycle, walk or run to work, winter commuting can be a punishing experience. Every day becomes a battle of your will versus the weather. Whether you have your head down, pedalling into a headwind, or you end up fighting with your umbrella as you get soaked by a passing lorry, the shortest route home is usually the preferable one.

The reward for your perseverance, is the warm, dry summer evenings, where commuting becomes a pleasure rather than a chore. So now you have a bit more daylight, why not choose an alternative route home and explore more of your local area? Use the CycleStreets planner to plan a longer route home on quiet back roads and cycle paths or swap your road bike for a mountain bike and go off-road.

Go Bouldering Outside

It may not be quite light enough to justify getting your ropes and trad gear out just yet, but there’s plenty of daylight for a quick bouldering session after work. With roadside venues such as Almsclife (Yorkshire), Bonehill Rocks (Devon), Burbage (Peak District) and Dumbarton Rocks (west of Glasgow), you can be parked up and have your bouldering pad out before most of your work colleagues have driven home.

If you’re new to climbing and have been training indoors over the winter, now is the perfect time to test out your skills on real rock. Just remember that bouldering outdoors can be quite different to indoors; check out these tips from the good folks at UKClimbing.

Get Out in the Garden

If you need some outdoor time, look no further than your own back garden. Gardening is relaxing, creative and can be pretty hard work! The combination of spring sun and rain means that everything is starting to grow, so it’s time to get the lawnmower out, tidy up the garden and start planting out those seedlings you’ve been nurturing in the greenhouse. Follow the RHS’s guide for jobs to do at this time of year.

Go on a Microadventure

Have you spent the winter snuggled up at home reading, planning and dreaming of adventure? Now is the time to get out there and have some! I know, I know, you need to ease yourself into this adventuring malarky. After all, the grey drizzle spreading over the M25 is quite different to the hot, wild African plains. But this is where microadventures come in.

Microadventures are pint-sized adventures. They’re not about taking on some huge daunting challenge that you need to raise thousands of pounds for. And there’s no need to go to your boss and beg for six months off work. Microadventures are simple, local and cheap, but most importantly, fun. Whether it’s cooking dinner over a camp fire, a mid-week overnight bivvy or even camping in your garden, microadventures are exactly what you want to make them. For more ideas and lots of tips check out Alastair Humphreys’ excellent blog.

Try Orienteering

If you’ve never tried orienteering (and if not, why not?), now is a great time to start. Most orienteering clubs put on friendly summer evening events at local parks and woodlands. These are ideal for beginners, and they’ll usually be someone around to show you the ropes. Check out this newcomer’s guide to getting into orienteering, and find an event near you on the British Orienteering website.

Take the Kids on an Adventure

I’m going to be a bit controversial, but hear me out. Spring is here. It’s time to turn the TV off, put the iPad out of reach on the top shelf and limit access to the Playstation. It’s time for a family adventure.

Now the evenings are lighter there are loads of (free) outdoor activities you can take advantage of. Cycle along a canal towpath, go on a treasure hunt or feed the ducks in the park. Go in search of the Gruffalo, roast marshmallows on an open fire or build a den in the woods. Your kids will have a great time and will be so tired, you’ll all get a great night’s sleep.

Get Fit with an Outdoor Bootcamp

Fed up of sweaty gyms? Give yourself plenty of arm-waving space by taking your work out outdoors. There’s also the added bonus of being able to breath fresh, unfiltered air. If you like being shouted at, British Military Fitness run classes at all levels across the country. UK Outdoor Fitness also offer nationwide classes (possibly with less shouting) and there are plenty of local trainers around if you’re looking for some one-to-one training.

Go to an Open Air Cinema

If you’re looking for something a little less active, then take a seat at an open air cinema. You can usually take along a picnic and drinks and they’re hosted in venues from castles and stately homes to rooftop gardens and cobbled streets.

If a spot of theatre is more your thing, then get along to a performance at Regent’s Park in London, Grosvenor Park in Chester or the stunning Minack Theatre in Cornwall.

Enter some evening running events

If your weekends are packed full of family commitments, opportunities to enter running races can be few and far between. The good news is, that as the evenings start getting lighter, there are more opportunities to compete in events after work. There’s a pretty comprehensive list of events here.

If you’re lucky enough to live near the hills, then there’s no excuse not to try out some of the local fell races. The
Fell Runner website has a full list of FRA registered races and you can search by region to find events in your area. Want to have even more fun? GO ORIENTEERING. (I’m not going to tell you again.)

Take a sunset walk

One of the nicest things about this time of year is that the sun sets at a perfect time for evening sunset walks. It’s not so early that you’re stuck at work, and you have plenty of time to get home for a late dinner afterwards. Take a stroll through your local park, woodland or fields. Close your eye and breathe in the sounds and smells of nature. Relax and enjoy the swathes of colour across the sky as the sun dips below the horizon. Be at peace.

What’s your favourite way to use the extra daylight we have in the evenings? Get in touch on Twitter and let me know, or drop a comment in the box below. Happy adventuring!

Losing Motivation (and How to Find It Again)

by  on  in Climbing • 0 Comments
Climbing-Motivation

Happy climbing in motivated times

Motivation has always been a funny thing for me. I like to think I’m quite a motivated person, but I also take setbacks hard. Like most people, I sometimes feel tempted to quit when things aren’t going quite the way I want them to.

Take rock climbing. It’s been a huge part of my life for the past fifteen years. I would never go so far as to say there is one sport I’d choose over all others, but if I had to pick, climbing would be a strong contender. It’s not just the physical aspect of it – having the strength and flexibility to pull, push and twist your way up a rock face – but the mental aspect. Climbing is a three-dimensional puzzle. You have to figure out what sequence of moves and holds will unlock the key to the route. And the really fun part? The puzzle is different for every person.

For most of the past ten years, I’ve focused on sport climbing, with some bouldering thrown in. Don’t get me wrong, I love trad, but for me, discovering sport climbing and redpointing* allowed me to push myself harder than I thought possible. Climbing 7a went from an impossibility to a frequent occurrence. 7b fell, then 7b+, and 7c was nearly in my grasp. Perhaps, I thought, with a bit more focused training, I could even climb 8a – a lifetime goal I’ve never been brave enough to admit to having.

Ironically enough, the peak of my climbing ability occurred when I lived in London – about the furthest place in the UK from any decent climbing. But in my final year of living in London, my climbing started to wane. I put it down to maintaining a long-distance relationship, along with a busy job and fitting in climbing around life. My increasing nervousness about leading down to a big (but safe) fall I’d taken.

When I moved up to Yorkshire eighteen months ago, I thought this would be the start of a new era. Time to get strong again, and crags practically on the doorstep. No excuses. But things didn’t quite turn out like that. Despite getting down to the wall more and climbing outside, I was getting weaker, not stronger.

Fine, I thought. I’ve been slack and need to get back on the training bandwagon. And I’ve been trying to do this, really I have. But despite my mental will to pull hard, my body didn’t respond. The power and finger strength that I’d always relied on had gone. I could no longer do even a single pull up, or a proper press up. And it seemed as if the more I tried, the weaker I got.

This week we are back down on Portland, my main weekend haunt from my London climbing years. Back at the Cuttings, I looked idly up at Hall of Mirrors – the 7c that I was so close to getting a few years ago. I was feeling positive, my fingers tingling in anticipation of getting back on the Portland rock I know and love; of warming up on routes I feel comfortable on. Getting my lead head sorted, and perhaps getting a quick 7a tick or two.

I was quickly brought back down to earth. I puffed my way up the 6b warm-up, tried to persuade myself that the move above the bolt would be totally fine (you’ve done it before) and finally slumped down in defeat. My optimism went right out the metaphorical window. And when I finally did get on my ‘project’ for the week, progress was essentially non-existent. I could see what I had to do, even picture the moves in my mind, but I just couldn’t get my body to actually do them. I walked away, frustrated and downcast.

Getting Back On the Horse

I remember one of the first lessons I was taught when I started horse-riding as a kid. If you fall off, get up and get back on that horse. I took my fair share of tumbles during my riding years and quite often the last thing I wanted to do after falling off was to get back on the horse which I knew was prancing round ready to gallop off and dump me again. But even so, I got back in the saddle.

The same is true if you fall out of a sport for a while. This may be because of injury, a busy period at work, or because you fell in love with another sport for a time. It may be for good, happy reasons: having a child, or falling in love with someone who loves you, but not your sport. When you do come back to training again, it can be tough to get going, to keep motivated when you know you should be doing better than this.

Getting back on the horse is not easy. It requires willpower, toughness and a willingness to fail. So why do it? Why not just move on and accept that that part of your life – the part where you were a good, strong climber – is over.

I’ll tell you why. It’s because there is still part of you that wants to believe that it doesn’t have to be over. The part of you that remembers that glorious feeling when every piece of the puzzle falls into place as you climb higher and higher, dancing up the rock face; grasping every challenge that faces you and conquering it. The feeling of finally clipping the chains on your project, having devoted countless hours to figuring out the precise moves and body positions you needed to climb it, and riding the wave of highs and lows that is redpointing. It’s the child in you that believes you can do anything, if you want it enough. Listen to that child. Nurture that child.

Finding Your Motivation

Losing motivation is easy. Finding it again is a journey. And the first thing to realise is that this won’t happen overnight. (Unless you are one of those super naturally fit people who can go from couch to Ironman in four weeks, in which case you probably aren’t reading this article.)

Step 1: Start with baby steps

Remember what you love about your sport and focus on that. If that means going backwards for a while, so be it. For example, I have always struggled with my leading head, and my lack of fitness made this even worse, to the point that I wasn’t even pushing myself on climbs or getting tired because I was too scared of getting pumped. Crazy, huh?

So when we took a few days off to go out to Spain earlier this year, my main goal wasn’t to climb a particular route or a particular grade, it was to enjoy myself. To learn to love climbing again. I gave permission to myself to only lead what I wanted to lead. And if that meant spending the whole trip seconding easy routes, so be it.

And I did spend most of the time seconding routes. But you know what? I loved it. My body slowly remembered how to move on rock. The subtleties of body position and the flow of climbing. I got pumped out of my mind on long 6a+ routes that a few years ago, I’d have been warming up on. But I didn’t mind. Much. Ok there was a part of me that was frustrated at my lack of progress, but a bigger part of me was whooping inside at rediscovering just how FUN climbing is.

Step 2: Set small goals

Goals are important tools for motivation. But remember, these don’t have to be end goals, they can be process goals. To start with, focus your goals on your training. Set yourself a realistic training programme (based on the current ‘you’, not the former ‘you’) and create small, incremental goals. If you’re struggling for motivation, then just keep going and trust the process.

Step 3: Explore new areas

Going back to old haunts and the sites of your top achievements is not a good idea right now. You’ll only end up comparing your current performance to your past performances and wind up feeling disheartened. (As per my example above.)

Instead, use this opportunity to explore new places. Climb the classic routes you used to overlook as being ‘too easy’. Bike or ski down the green and blue trails, rather than scaring yourself on the black runs. Instead of running your usual circuits from your front door, venture further afield to a new park, forest or hill. Enjoy the experience and focus on what you can do, not what you can’t.

A Final Word

It won’t happen overnight, or even in a few weeks or months. But little by little, your strength and confidence will return. Or you may discover that your goals and how you measure success in your sport has changed during your journey. That what you want to achieve is something quite different to what you originally thought.

Motivation is not a finite resource. There is plenty of it – you just need to capture and hold on to it. Plug the hole in your motivation reservoir and figure out how to fill it up again. And if in doubt, listen to your inner child; he, or she, is probably right.

Have you been struggling with motivation recently? Share what tips and tricks you have for pulling through in the comments below or with me on Twitter. Thanks to Stuart Stronach for the awesome photo – there aren’t many good ones of me climbing!

*Redpointing is climbing a route, cleanly in one go after practising some or all of the moves.