Equipment list

Packing today!
One of the hardest things to do on a trekking trip is to carry everything you need whilst keeping your pack at a manageable weight. There isn't a single correct answer either, because we are all able to put up with varying levels of discomfort and carry different weights of pack. Here is a list of what I’m taking with me with supporting comments:

Clothing
Foreign legion style lightweight hat - broad brimmed, kept off the sun and could be stuffed in the rucksack, not waterproof but had a gel panel along the brim which was very cooling
fleece hat –
Fleece buff- good fun and toasty warm
Gloves – Seal skinz gloves lightweight windstoppers, not used often but essential in the mountains
Base layer- Rohan, very lightweight and quick drying
Tri vest- weighs next to nothing
Thermal top- again lightweightFleece – lightweight version
Underpants – synthetic/wicking
Tri shorts- spare undies and v short shorts
Trekking trousers – Rohans as they were very quick drying. The legs zipped off to make shorts. Track bottoms- Thin and lightweightWaterproof trousers – hopefully rarely used on this trip, but essential in the mountains
Walking socks x 2 – 1 a pair of seal skins
Pertex windproof/water resistant shell
Gortex jacket - a bit old, heavy and not very waterproof
Boots - Scarpa SL's.
Sandals – Merrills, I’ve debated these as they’re quite heavy but they will allow me to walk easy sections in them

Camping
Tent – Terranova Laser,1 / 2 man 1.19 kg extra space for comfort as I find huts quite noisy.
Thermarest Ultralight- 0.5 kg, Sleeping Bag – Marmot Helium rep 900 - 0.8 kg
Stove – Primus Gravity MF2 a multifuel stove
Pans –1small aluminium trangia, pan, tin foil taken as a lid
.75l fuel bottleCup - plasticCutlery - plastic knife, fork and spoon combo gadget Small J cloth- Matches, Toilet Paper
Swiss army knife


Accessories
Wallet and money - I worked on about £10 a day when camping out, to £30 a day when in refugesPassportTravel tickets and insurance information - including useful phone numbers
Mobile Phone/PDA my contact with home and will hopefully work well
camera- 6m pixel, cheap and light, runs off 2 AA rechargeables via Solio
Solio charger- with some adapters to connect to the various devices
Garmin GPS – uses AA rechargeables as above
PDA- I ummed and aahed over this but it went so that Internet access is easier
Waterproof gadget container-Aqua pac.
Walking poles - Essential for me when carrying a heavy pack over rough ground
Ice axe – Eventually plumped for a Petzl Charlet Snowracer at only 340g
Crampons- Stubai treklite touring pro; with the axe above they weighs in at only 880g, but strictly snow only. Hopefully I can email them back part way through. There is snow above 2,500m at the moment and definitely on North facingcorries
Compass- took a silva as backup to the GPS
Heartrate/ Altimeter watch –
Sunglasses – bought in Pyrenees 4 years ago
Headtorch- Black diamond +spare battery and bulb
Water bottle - a 2 litre platypus with tube to allow drinking whilst walking
Maps – I had1:25000 versions of the GR5 route and 1:50000 versions of the Swiss sections. All of these were cut into sections
Guide books- As the 2 main guide books were written North to South and East to West I transcribed everything turning and saved it on the PDA. I also printed it out on lightweight paper. I also transcribed the Haut route guide purely for weight reasons.
French phrase books- Found the lightest I could and added specific Mountain terminology
Diary and pen- I had a small notebook and pen but hope to do most of the work on the PDACamera - ?Spare memory cards for phone and Camera SD 2gbs
Lightweight Tantrix set made from acetate sheet
Monoculars - Very small and light ones to spot the wildlife a must have.
Repair kit- needle thread, section of duck tape, Spare boot laces
Rucsac cover
Waterproof bags for sleeping bag/clothes/duvet jacket
Toiletries and First Aid
Small first aid kit - with all the usual basic items
Diarrhoea tablets
Water purification tablets – Chlorine/iodine tablets and neutralisersSuntan cream - factor 15Lipsalve - with sun block
Insect repellent - to keep the blighters offSoov cream - in case the blighters got past my defences
Compeed - plasters to prevent and protect blisters
Toothbrush and toothpaste - the smallest I could find
General purpose soap - bio-degradeable and used for everything. Face, hands, body, hair, clothes, pans...you name it
Small towel- from Car chamois leather
Contact lenses/ spares/ glasses/ solution

All that lot was packed into an Osprey 65 litre rucksack (2.1kg), weighing in at about 10kg without food and water.
Thanks again to Rob as it's his original list reworked!

4 days to go!

Had a far better cycle out to Masham than I expected today. Set of in intermittent rain but it perked up and I had a delicious bacon, mushroom and black pudding butty at the cafe in the square. Flew home with the wind behind me!
Which brings me to the point of todays entry. A good friend is cycling from Lands End to John O'Groats starting at the end of next week. His blog will be far more entertaining than mine so please check him out on..

http://bikelejog.blogspot.com/

The big cut up starts today. Whittling my maps down to a manageable amount whilst retaining enough data; a paper blizzard is in the offing!

Who is responsible?

4 years ago a man had a dream of walking across the pyrenees. I joined him for a short section of his walk. Amazed at his perseverance I vowed I would never do anything similar. How seeds are sown. His name is Rob. Follow the link to the site describing his adventure.
Rob Howard's Pyrenean Trek Homepage

The other side of the Alps

And above is the sight I'll be thinking of all the way... the castle at Sargans on the Litchenstein border.

1 Week to go

The Balloon event went off very well yesterday and the 'footprint' idea looks like it will be a success. A straight footprint track round the hall for the kids and an undulating track for myself. Judging from the response yesterday, when over 100 children put their hands up as having walked to school, I'm going to need my headstart.

I now have Nice beach (above) firmly in mind so here's where I'll be starting from..Look at the section of beach just above the main jetty; I'll be dipping my toes in the sea around lunchtime a week tomorrow. Then it's all uphill!

10 days to departure

10 days to go,
5 days to teach
Introducing WOW today; Walk to school On Wednesdays, Tieing it in with with the traverse. The children are going to be asked to beat my total each week by counting how many miles they walk on a wednesday. Hopefully I'll get beaten out of sight!
Radio York are coming in this wednesday to give coverage to WOW and our balloon CO2 extravaganza... plus my walk.
So little time, so much to do.

preparations continued

Things are starting to come together. Insurance arrived , plus my BMC reciprocal rights card without which staying in huts would get very expensive. I've got some more maps to pick up tomorrow, along with some more bits and pieces. I still need to finish off my base web site which will provide links to this blog and the Twitter site.
A nice touch at Riverside is that I will be able to tie in this walk with the WOW (Walk on Wednesdays) initiative. The children should be able to add up their walking miles per week and compare it with how many I've been able to do that week; class by class obviously.
26 days to go!