Vikings Your Under a Vest !! For Fashion Faux Pas....

Dont be scared by "old " Technolgy !!

I have recently been testing some "Old Tech" kit,

some kit that works very well in our Outdoor Enviroment.

While working hard and then standing still. 

Some kit that uses a natural condition to its best advantage. 

Kit that just works!

Our bodies work best when warm and dry its technical name is Homeostatis
We work hard to maintain this balance when we are outdoors

Thanks to Rhodri Lewis from Nordiclife and his passion for staying warm and comfatable during his work offshore and in the outdoors. He brought the Brynje brand back to the UK for us.

When anyone mentions String Vests this is what springs to mind

and if your lucky this
or maybe even this if your old enough




However thanks to modern fabrics and technological advances and some "new" thinking from elite atheletes and military personal.
String Vests have reappeared.

Brynje have been around in Norway since 1887 and began by providing wool clothing to Norwegians. By 1949, when Henrik Brun, a Norwegian army officer, and Jacob Jacobsen officially formed Brynje, the pair had begun a revolution in extreme weather clothing. Brynje quickly inspired the devotion of elite mountaineers, outfitting John Hunt’s legendary 1953 expedition. This made Brynje the first base layer to the top of Everest with Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing!

Rhodri explained the science to me and told me just to try it; 'The secret to the high performance is that it draws excess moisture away from the skin while maintaining a warm regulated cushion of air next to the body. With conventional solid knit underwear the perspiration cannot escape quickly enough through the fabric, so the fabric next to your skin becomes sodden and you quickly become cold.' 

Rhodri went on to explain This is not the case with Brynje's mesh system as the air pockets in between the holes allow the body to 'breathe' more easily and naturally -  which also explains why mesh systems work equally well in  hot and cold climates.  "Everyone hates that cold wet base layer stuck to the skin, and that virtually disappears when you use mesh. Firstly, you only have a small amount of material in contact with the skin, and secondly it's the 'cap layer' that holds the moisture as it leaves your skin as vapour and condenses on the cap layer, which is held away from the skin by the mesh."

I have worked with Mike Parsons and Mary Rose who have a great book called Invisible on Everest and a long standing knowledge and understanding of outdoor clothing. This is now included on their site Outdoor Gear Coach so I gleaned more knowledge from them. 

I also read Andy KirkPatricks blog on staying Warm from UK Climbing and he mentioned his Brynje mesh base layer.

So the Vikings brought this garment to the UK

 

Over the centriues it has come to be adapted and adopted by runners

 This is Ron Hill one of GB greatest distance runners 

Cyclists This is Greg Lemond who wore Brynje as preferred base layer to stay cool.

Cool Dudes 

 

Shackleton wore one on his trip to Antartica      

 

And the Commandos were issued them or made them from one piece of string that could be used when unwound for a multitude of uses 

                                     

I have been using it with a Montane Krypton Jacket over the top as my capping garment, along with this I have used a silk layer and a Montane Primino Merino Base Layer.  The mesh also works well with just a windproof such as Montane Lite Speed Jacket; Temperature regulation and a degree of waterproofness is great with this system.

This for me has been a winning combination, maybe not for everyone else.......

 

Two different styles for vagueries of weather. I have even used a mesh vest under a shirt in monsoon India this year. Its works like a layer of insulating scaffolding, keeping my wet shirt away from my skin. Helping with the dry feeling and aiding my shirt to dry quicker when the rains stopped.

I think I look like this  In reality its more like this........

Summary; Brilliant piece of outdoor kit that really works. 

It takes a bit of re-education on how to use it to best effect. Its all about the minor gains that give us the best results along with value for money and durability. 

As the Norwegians say 

Det finnes ikke dårlig vær, bare dårlige klær

Copeland Chase

The Copeland Chase 

For £9 what can go wrong?

At the last minute I decided to enter a revived classic tradional Mounatin Orienteering event hosted by West Cumbria Orienteering Club in the little visited fells around Kirkland. 

                                    An early start and with a forecast getting better thro the day I met up with John

the orgainser and registered, did the usual faffing and then was given a map to set off.

Walking to the start I was trying to work out the scale dimensions and a 1:15000 with 5m contour interval with O type colours took a little time to get used to.
In the end it took a looong time to get used to as I cleared, set off from the start and then found the out-run track runnable I got my head down and shuffled quickly.





Its unusal not to be flogging up a steep hill in the first 1km and I was going quicker than ususal. A bloke from WCOC came past and I sort of tagged onto the back of him. The Plateau arrived with a fence and jumped it and shot off into some tussocks not unlike on the OMM a few weeks previous. I marched on thro and started to drop quickly. I saw Steve Heaton and Kaaren Nash behind me and this spurred me on.

I then stopped at the coll I thought was my No. 1 and realised I was facing the wrong direction nothing fitted, so i did the classic thing when in a rush, of trying to make it fit!!. I thought I would give up on No. 1 and just go round the others, not dibbing.
I set off downhill to number 2 and then realised the sheepfold fast approaching was in the wrong vallet when I unfolded the map to have a look for a line to No. 3!!!!!

 OOh long uphill back to 2 where I had just been stood!!!! (the kites were a little flattened)

So a day of pics and fun and meeting some old and new friends.

All the pics can be found here on my Google + page 

If you want an original please contact me. 

 

A great day out and an expereince I can share 

Results can be found here 

All for £9 Si dibber hire , comprehensive map, and FREE tea and cake at the end.
What could go wrong?

Hope to see you on the next one? 

Somewhere!!!!!

More Mile Cheviot 2 Fell Shoes

I have been trying out a pair of More Mile Cheviot 2 Fell Shoes recently. I bought them as an alternative to the usual Norman Walsh Fell Shoes I have worn for years. Being a Bolton lad I used to pop into see Norman and have a chat with him about the fell scene sometimes I would buy a pair of shoes as well. I have been spoilt coming from Bolton home of a few famous shoe brands and runners including Walsh, Reebok, Brasher who worked with Reebok; Martin Jones, Paul Dugdale Horwich RMI, Mike Freary Bolton UH, Ron Hill produced the Rivington Pike shoe named after the oldest fell race in the calender.

So these came as an alternative to a trusted brand to try out now in the Northern Lakes where I now live and work as a full time outdoor instructor and with Nav4 helping to organise and with training courses for Mountain Marathons, Hill and Adventure racingThis is the mark two version and comes in several eye catching colour designs. The lacing is a standard eyelet lacing system that has been tried and tested and cant really be faulted. It secures the foot well and can be adapted along its length to fit differing foot widths. 

The sole unit is deep lugged and is useful on the northern fells where the ground is not so rocky. These would be ideal for Howgills, Southern Uplands, Cross Country, Orienteering type areas of event. I found them very slippy on wet rock, but most sole units and compounds are. They cleaned reasonably well enhancing the grip over this sort of terrain. 

The midsole offers good cushioning but not to much for contouring, more testing is needed here to give a better picture for myself. 

The toe box is good for me in that its open and rounded and has plenty of space with a toe protector over the mesh upper. This drains very well going through boggy ground. 

The insole stays in place even when wet very handy and gives a confident feel to the shoe. 

   

 In this picture on the left you can see the tongue rolling that occurs to frequently, this could easily be rectified with a simple loop to centralise the tongue. Another thing that I found on buying my original pair was that they are lasted very small. I normally take a 41(7) but on trying them on I had to return them and get an 8. I am not sure if half sizes are available? The 8 means that the shoe rolls a little and is slighty floppy across the toe cut area on me.


During this day out I saw another bloke running up in the same pair as I was coming down the hill with my dog back toward Mungrisedale. I never got a chance to ask what he thought of them.

 In summary this is a good shoe that with a little more time from me on the fells may be more of a grower on me. I will get out more and evaluate further. The price is right  

Night Navigation In June

 I was asked by Ian from Striding Ahead to help him with his preparation for his ML assessment for some Night Navigation Practice; in June! Its not dark till 11.30ish so we opted for an overnight camp also.
 Gary Fletcher came along also and we met in the Lake District for our mini adventure.

 We set off into a fantastic warm evening toward our overnight campsite via few sneaky and not so sneaky features. Ian and Gary did really well as we had twisted the emphasis of the Navigation to help delivery. 

The Valley below us got smaller as ascended the night sky got redder a great sign for the day ahead also. This gave us chance to fit some mortar around the navigation brickwork. 

This mortar included flora, fauna, weather interpretation, coaching methods etc all vital for a broad knowledge base for mountain leaders.

We arrived at our campsite around 02.00 in the morning after a great night finding some difficult features. Ian set up his tent and went straight bed to wake up earlyto go for another walk and get some more pics

Gary and I opted for the bivvy bag approach on such a warm night. NB condensation in the morning after a warm night still can dampen your kit. Strange occurrences happen as the hot days over the last week had depleted the water supplies from the river. 

Another of the mortar issues was campcraft and clean water. I had been looking at Sawyer Water filters for a trip to the source of the Ganges later in the year. This would of been ideal for the dribble of water we found at the outlet. Then today a colleague Paul Lewis of Peak Mountaineering was talking about them. I will definatley look them up now after a serendipitous moment.  Could of done with a whole range of their products; sun cream and bug spray!

                                        Day two dawned bright and we off again at 08.00 on another mini adventure.Working our way back to the cars, the weather was kind to us. We even managed to save a young herdwick from certain death after being stuck in pool of muddy water. A very smelly affair trying to pull her out, she managed to wobble away on unsteady legs to find some grass. Good Karma?

 We had a great mini adventure in the lakes and covered a lot of topics. Please let me know if you have an adventure in mind.