Into The Jungle: Jungle Trekking Clothing

As anyone who is active within the outdoors knows, the clothing required varies greatly depending on the environment. What works for one environment can actually become a disadvantage in another. When choosing clothing for the jungle it is important to base your decisions upon a few rules:

1. Is the clothing quick drying?
2. Does it protect me from insects, plants and the sun?
3. Is it lightweight and comfortable?

If the clothing that you use for the jungle isn't capable of drying out relatively quickly then it will hold moisture all day and become very uncomfortable. Protection will come in the form of long sleeved tops and full length trousers, many newer products come impregnated with permethrin, such as the Craghopper Nosilife range. This is a chemical that kills insects such as mosquito's on contact and can also be bought separately to impregnate items such as mosquito nets.

HEADWEAR

A wide brimmed hat is extremely useful for keeping the sweat off your face and providing protection from the sun. If your not a fan of hats then I have used a Buff bandanna in the jungle and this worked well too, it also makes for a handy sweat rag when things get really heated during a trek!

A suitable wide brimmed hat worn by a local jungle guide

UPPER BODY

When in the thick of the jungle long sleeve jungle shirts are the best, most importantly they are lightweight and don't hold moisture, they provide protection from sharp and poisonous plants and protect you from insects. They are also very practical as they have chest pockets which allow you to store items that you might need regular, easy access to whilst trekking. 

During days where trekking was in the dense jungle I opted to wear a jungle shirt, but when the environment was a little more open i wore a Helly Hansen collared t shirt as I found them to be more comfortable and quick drying.

LOWER BODY

Without a doubt Craghoppers Nosilife Trousers are the best for jungle trekking. I used one pair for my whole
trek and I couldn't say a bad word about them and at £30 you can't go wrong! Craghoppers even provide you with a little dry sack which attaches inside the leg pocket, ideal for any items that need to be kept dry but are needed throughout the day. 

FOOTWEAR

Jungle footwear is very specific, Gore-tex or any form of waterproofing is utterly useless in the jungle as no matter what you do the water will get into your boots and then they will never dry, trekking up rivers makes sure of it! The ideal jungle boots have drainage wholes near the arch of your foot to allow the water to flow freely out. Another important feature is deep tread on the sole of the boots to provide grip when trekking over the loose, wet and extremely muddy terrain that is so common in the jungle.

Altberg Jungle Microlite boot - perfect for the jungle

I used the Altberg Jungle Microlite boot and would recommend this to anyone planning on trekking in the jungle. Other cheaper options are the Welco and US Army issue jungle boots

Finally it is vital that you carry two sets of clothing, one wet and one dry. The wet kit is used for the days trekking and the dry kit is used for sleeping in (don't forget to put your dry kit in a tough dry sack or it won't stay dry for long!)

Happy Trekking!!

Feeding the furnace: Hill training nutrition

After doing tedious amounts of research on the Internet in regards to nutrition for hill training and mountain marathons, I've found that most work on a ratio of 80 percent effective nutrition and 20 percent effective training.

The main aim of my hill training has been to build the strength, endurance and conditioning of my leg muscles, to do this I have implied a tough training program (to follow on this blog shortly) which results in the production of small micro tears in my leg muscles. When these micro tears repair, they grow back stronger and generally bigger. This only occurs when you provide your muscles with the building blocks to repair themselves i.e. protein, carbohydrates and vitamins.

When training for endurance there is an optimum ratio of 3:1 carbohydrates: protein. These come in the form of supplement powders or pre-made shakes. I use 'For Goodness Shakes' and 'Sport in Science REGO' simply because I don't suffer from delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) the day after training (due to the supplements providing the correct nutrition for muscle repair), and they are the only supplements that actually taste like real food!! Although this is what I use it is solely down to personal preference along with what works best with your body.

Supplementation is great when you train hard and need all the help you can get, but I'm a big believer in getting as much nutrition from regular food as is possible, therefore I focus a lot of time into preparing very nutritious, high calorie and healthy food.

To achieve this I operate on the basis of eating a high calorie breakfast consisting of whole grains, protein and fruit, a lunch rich in carbohydrates, fruit, veg and protein ( e.g. chicken and vegetable soup with a fruit smoothie), and a dinner rich in all the important of the above. Snacks consist of fruit, carbohydrates and protein, personally I prefer a fruit and veg smoothie with some protein and carbohydrate supplement powder added.

This is the basis that i operate on for my nutrition and is not professional advice. Professional recommendations should always be sort after from a GP and nutritionist before embarking on a nutritional program.

55 Km, 2 Days, The Omm!! Training: part 1

So after two years of wanting to get in on some of this overnight mountain marathon action, me and a buddy of mine have forked out the £110 and entered Class B of the 2012 Original Mountain Marathon in the Howgills, Lake District.

Immediately I knew I was going to need hours on the ground combined with leg burning hill sessions if I were to stand a chance of bagging a decent position within the 55km, 10 hour course. But, not only is a trip to the Lake District massively time consuming, but it would also set me back about £60 so i chucked in the Salomon Speedcross 3's and my Haglofs Endo Jacket, met up with my race partner and we headed up to the infamous training ground for the British Army's elite: The Brecon Beacons!

Our first session was to say the least, a little unorthodox! We set out at 9pm from my house and were ready to run by 10:45pm from the car park at the Gospel Pass in the Black Mountains. Our plan was to run up over Lord Herefords Knob to the path junction, and down to the Grwyne Fawr Reservoir, where I heard from the National Park that there was a small bothy located nearby. Knowing that there was a bothy we decided to leave the tent in the car and just spend the night there, BIG MISTAKE......

In standard welsh mountain conditions we arrived at where we believed to be the site of the bothy, after searching through every sheep shelter and building on the map near the reservoir we realised we were going to have to "Man Up" and run out of the valley we had just descended into, and back up to Gospel Pass to the car (roughly 12km away). 

So after a quick chuckle at how stupid and rushed we had been we chucked a Clif Bar and a SIS Go gel down our necks along with a good dose of pride, and off we went into the welsh fog and horizontal rain. After a bit of 'escape and evasion' from farmers with spotlights, tricky descents down overgrown steep ground and wind chilled legs, we made it back to the car at an antisocial 2:30am.

Once in the warmth of my dry house we both agreed that was the most epic, but definitely the best training session we had ever had, plus we learnt some extremely important lessons from it:

1. Always take a bivi or survival so you can spend the night out
2. Get an exact grid reference for the bothy!
3. And most importantly: NEVER EVER LOSE YOUR SENSE OF HUMOUR!

Now as much as i hate to admit, our pride was later taken by a colleague of my race partner who told us that the bothy IS THERE, it just isn't on the map! #!!!!Always get a grid reference!!!!

The epicentre outdoor store

Outstanding service

I just wanted to write a quick mention for theepicentre.co.uk, they recently gave me some outstanding service for an order. I ordered a pair of Grivel Asymmetric bars for my Grivel G14  crampons, they instantly called me to tell me that they had none in stock apart from a pair that had no packaging, to cover for this they refunded me £13 (the price of the bars) so all I had to pay for was the postage (which would have been free if I had asked for next day delivery). They were in contact throughout the ordering process and notified me whenever an order update arose (which is incredibly rare these days) because I needed them urgently, they then left a note within the package to call for a refund of the £13. Here's the website:

http://www.theepicentre.co.uk/

Outstanding service and I will be ordering from them again the future, and I recommend anyone else to do the same. 

MSR Asgard : A fantastic expedition, extended walking trip, and basecamp tent...

After receiving this tent for my 21st birthday the first test i could give it was on my universities climbing and mountaineering clubs trip to the Peak district. The pitching was very simple, the continuous pole sleeves allowed easy insertion of all poles, the inner is very water resistant too which helped to hold out the slight drizzle that was present. The stakes supplied by MSR are fantastic, they are very sturdy and penetrate the hardest of ground yet are very easy to remove due to the attached cord, the flysheet is extremely lightweight and easy to fit with simple buckle attachments. The tent is very sturdy when freestanding but the guy attachment points and lines supplied make for an absolutely bombproof tent that barely moves in high winds (as tested in the Lake District). 

I am a huge fan of the bowframe system used by MSR, not only does it provide a great amount of stability but it increases the space within the inner tent dramatically by making the sidewalls near vertical, as well as extending the highest point of porch, and also being very easy to set up 

The porches are very very generous, two large expedition packs as well as wit kit and boots can fit in one while a large cooking set up can fit in the other. The porch opening can be operated from the inner tent so that you don't get any drips first thing in the morning when opening it! 

The gear lofts are genius and there are plenty of other storage pockets located either side of the inner. The groundsheet reaches nice and high up the sides which is great for very soggy conditions, and is also very waterproof. All seams are fully sealed throughout the tent and i haven't yet experienced any leakages 

Overall a fantastic tent for anyone looking for an awesome looking tent that can be used for full mountain and mountaineering use as well as a comfy hiking base camp! 

Petzl Nomics

After long periods sat in front of the laptop researching review after review after review i decided to purchase the Petzl Nomics, My initial choice was to be either the Black Diamond Vipers or the Petzl Quarks but after seeing rated reviews from several British Mountain Guides about the true versatility and extent to which the Petzl Nomics can perform, i decided to pick up a pair for £300 reduced from £400. Many reviews stated them to be useless on anything but vertical ice but after seeing many other well regarded reviews aswell as videos of Ueli Steck climbing with them i couldn't resist!

I'm yet to use them on any ice or snow (mainly due to the atrocious conditions present in North Wales lately) but have had a go dry tooling and was very impressed, the handle is extremely comfortable and dramatically reduces the strain on the forearm muscles as well as being adjustable to suit different glove thicknesses (which has a surprisingly high effect on performance!). The pommel also worked well when placing the pick into wooden pillars as it jams itself up against the pillar allowing you to hold the axe high up along the shaft without any movement in the axe.

I look forward to testing these axes in Scotland this weekend, and giving a true review!

Gear Review: Salomon Speedcross 2

The shoes really are something else, after working at Go Outdoors for a little while and seeing the rate at which they fly of the shelves i decided to pick a pair up, i purchased them for £50 from snowandrock.com and haven't turned back since!

 They worked really well when trail running in the snow up the Brecon Beacons, i was afraid that the snow would begin to ball up within the tread  but this was not the case, and instead, i received fantastic purchase within the snow.


UPHILL PERFORMANCE:

For uphill running especially in loose terrain such as the snow and soft mud that was present up the Brecon Beacons, the tread really does bite in. The tread on the toe works very well too and prevents you loosing unnecessary energy when propelling from your toes uphill. 


The only negative point which i will make is that they did rub a small amount on my heels which after 24km became a slight problem and required every outdoor enthusiasts best friend: Duct Tape, to come into play. I imagine this was just due to them being very new and not broken in therefore i imagine they are fine was worn in (which they were by the time it came to competing in the Open 5 series).


DOWNHILL PERFORMANCE:




Again, these shoes are fantastic downhill, the forwards facing tread also bite in very well and allowed me to maintain a very high pace for a long period of time down hill.


OVERALL PERFORMANCE:


Overall i would recommend these shoes to anyone looking for a light, tough and extremely effective shoe for loose and soft terrain. 

Haglofs Open 5 Series: Quantock Hills

After the success on our training run up the Brecon Beacons we drove to Taunton to compete in the Haglofs Open 5 series adventure race.

A rough night in the tent with deflated sleeping mats and a very loud jack russell left us feeling a little far from 'race ready' but a bit of "power porridge" (porridge with protein/ carbohydrate powder) got us buzzing for the up coming event.

The event requires you to navigate to different checkpoints that are given to you on the morning of the race, you have to check in at as many possible checkpoints as possible within a 5 hour time limit. You can either run or mountain bike first (biking first is recommended as the checkpoints are worth more) but we ran first as this is our strongest.

One thing we weren't aware of is the fact that some of the checkpoints are worth nothing, they tell you this when you start the race making navigation quite difficult!

The total distance was roughly 20km of running and 30+km of mountain biking (of which 90% was uphill!) We came a respectable 8th place (1 minute from 7th place) and learnt that a lot of energy gels and plenty of fluid is a must!!














A quick protein shake at the end to help recovery!!

Running the Fan Dance: Jake and Slader

Since winter is on the way myself and a good friend of mine decided to kick our training into gear, so to start we had a crack at "The Fan Dance" which is a slang name for one of the selection events that the SAS hopefuls have to endure. To save our knees we went lightweight in leggings and short shorts, rather than the 80 lb bergens and rifles!! 

We started the stopwatch and began the inital ascent up to pen y fan that left us a little jelly legged, but raring to get to the halfway point at Taf Fechan Forest within the 1:30 hours mark.

We thought it only fair to knock an hour off the 4 hour time limit that the boys enduring selection have to meet, considering they're carrying the equivalent of a young teenager on their backs!

After hitting the half way point at 1 hour and 33 minutes, it was time to hall ass back up the roman road and jacob's ladder to pen y fan. Half way down the other side of pen y fan and corn du the time said 2 hours and 57 minutes. A sprint finish got us back to the final checkpoint in 3 hours and 17 seconds!

The snowy conditions gave an interesting terrain for running and our legs a good beasting!