Since the middle of December, the hills and mountains of Scotland have been covered, to varying degrees, in snow but before that, in November you might recall it was just very wet and very windy. In the middle of what was probably the wettest and windiest weekend of them all we headed up to Loch Tulla with the intention of climbing Stob Gabhar. Strong winds and swollen rivers put paid to that plan but the weekend was salvaged with a trek along the stretch of the West Highland Way running north towards Kingshouse. It rained...alot but in between the extremely heavy showers we enjoyed the desolation of Rannoch Moor and glimpses of peaks that we'll save for another day.
Overnight camp at Loch Tulla- not raining yet
The rain clouds headed our way from the south with the wide-ranging view giving us plenty of warning of when to don waterproof overtrousers. We've used this next photo in our window display cards this March taken high up on the moor looking back towards Bridge of Orchy
Out & About Equipment we used
- Sigg sport top drinks bottle £13
- Marmot Pre-cip Full Zip waterproof trousers £65
- Trangia 25-2 stove £70
Sigg Sports top Bottle £13
The oldest Sigg bottle we possess and still regularly use has a printed design on it celebrating the New Millennium but we bet there are plenty of older ones out there, every dent and scratch a memory of past adventures shared with an aluminium bottle. On this trip we took a 0.6L bottle, branded with the Sigg logo and with the latest drink-through top. We still have a limited number of these bottles available in our Peebles branch at £13
Marmot Precip Full-zip rainpants £65
These got a real work-out during this walk and performed brilliantly. Overtrousers are an often over-looked piece of kit, probably because no-one really likes wearing them- but I loved wearing these! The full-zip side panels on these trousers make them a doddle to put on, no complicated one-legged balancing acts required, and also mean that the trousers can have a fitted shape. There's no excess material flapping around your ankles and they stay put round your waist- no gradual heading south over the course of the walk. The lightweight Precip fabric was waterproof and breathable and the trousers easily packed away in a rucksack during the (brief) interludes from the rain.
Trangia 25-2 £70
Another much-loved piece of kit that we've owned for fifteen years our Trangia 25-2 was waiting for us back at base, ready to heat up a meal. We've added a gas burner adaptor to ours but still regularly use the meths burner that's integral to the Trangi concept.
