By: Blonde Two
For the Two Blondes, the start of their next Dartmoor outdoor season moves ever closer this weekend with the changing of the clocks. We have done more summer walking than ever this year and our rucksacks are a bit on the warm-weather side.
From hereon in, there are some key things that we should all be making sure we do before we go out on the hills:
1. Plan your route carefully. You should know when sunset is and how long your route will take you. If you don’t leave a route card, at least tell someone where you will be.
2. Wear a watch. You need to know when to get off the hills and you need one for navigation.
3. Check your torch and spare batteries. Make sure both are waterproofed in your rucksack.
4. Check your emergency rations. Sugary snacks, nuts and a hot drink can all make the difference between a sensible decision and a stupid one.
5. Carry waterproofs. Make sure that you have waterproof trousers as well as a top. Take the time to re-proof them if necessary.
6. Pack a warm hat and a pair of gloves. Carry spares too if possible.
7. Take a hot drink or a stove out with you. Keeping warm uses up vital energy that you might need for getting out of trouble.
8. Carry a means of keeping sheltered and dry in an emergency. Bothy bags are great but an orange survival bag should be the bare minimum.
9. Learn how to get help in an emergency. Police for Mountain Rescue (have location, time, weather and injury details to hand), six blasts on your whistle or six flashes of your torch at one minute intervals.
10. Make sure that you are fit enough for the route you are planning to undertake. There is a route out there to suit everyone, don’t be over ambitious. Get fit for the hills not on the hills.
Thank you for that reminder! A fantastic peice of advice for us all! Keep safe!
You too Ray, good to hear from you!
Good kit. I’ll add a dry pair of socks to the hat and gloves – nothing worse than bare, damp feet or wet socks in a bivvy bag! If you have to put wet boots back on, you can always put the wet socks back on too, but the dry ones are bliss.
Dry socks – YES! Mr B2 can testify to the misery of going to bed on a cold night in wet socks!
A first aid kit including a decent sized roller bandage. When I cut a vein in my shin a large Elstoplast was useless, but a bandage wrapped fairly tightly on top stopped the flow. You learn from experience!
You are right of course. I never take that out of my rucksack but it really does pay to carry one.
Or if all else fails arrange a chair within sight of the hills (I fear the Malverns – mere pimples – will have to do in my case) and imagine oneself getting fit. But why stop there? Imagine oneself (that’s me, not you) handsomer, younger, kinder, less cowardly, in fact:
more FORGETIVE
My favourite WS word, uttered by Falstaff. Pronounced with a soft G.
I am not mocking your list – all good stuff – although I can remember breaking all of your recommendations at one time or another during the days when I walked. It’s just that I’m peripheral to your world and am reduced to sniping from the sidelines. A Greek chorus of one.
Here’s a slogan: Blonde Two will lead you safely to the sunlit uplands and – even more important – will lead you safely back again. She is, in fact, the gold in them thar hills.
Forgetive! I love it. It shall be added to my vocabulary forthwith.
I had a dog once – ~Shanty by name – who could always lead me down from them thar hills, in rain, in fog, in the dawn mist. She would look at me pityingly and her eyes said “You silly woman! You’ve lost yourself again, haven’t you?” And then she would set off – – and I followed, to safety.
Nice slogan but shouldn’t it be an odd number of words – (or is that plants in the garden?)
Anyway, I love “forgetive” but did have to look it up … “capable of imagining or inventing”, a worthwhile ambition for anyone.
Regarding breaking the regulations; it is necessary to know and understand the rules before you can safely break them. You know better than I do that this is the same in writing. It also counts in cooking, driving and apparently dating (although I haven’t done that for a long time).