By: Blonde One

My new toy this Christmas got its first outing when Mr Blonde One and I went up Mount Snowdon. I have 2 other watches that I use for the outdoors but this one has some new gadgets that I was excited to try!

The first thing was the thermometer. There was ice on the ground up high so I was looking forward to reading the thermometer (that’s assuming I could remember how to find it) and telling Mr Blonde One that it was minus something. Unfortunately I didn’t quite think the situation through thoroughly and could only tell Mr Blonde One that the temperature up my sleeve was 21°! But at least I knew that I was warm.

The other important thing that I was excited to use was the altimeter. When you are climbing mountains it’s often better to measure your progress in metres climbed rather than distance covered. For instance, it’s more useful to say that there is only 200 meters of climb left rather than to say there is one kilometer of distance. Walking on Dartmoor requires us to work out the estimated time to destination based on walking at approximately 4km an hour; this is not the case up a mountain so a ‘metres left to climb’ guide is much more handy. The new watch was brilliant and kept me busy and motivated as I watched the numbers increase all the way up to 1085 metres.