Have map, will walk

Went gear shopping over the weekend and bought some new kit to play with as I eagerly await the end of the hayfever season…

HiTech scrambling boots

My choice was between a pair of Regatta boots and the HiTech ones – now HiTech are like your cheap and cheerfuls but in this case they were so much more comfortable than the Regattas; possibly because I’m not used to the way hiking boots feel but one thing I’ve learned through my rockclimbing phase was that you’ve got to choose comfort over performance when you’re starting out on a new activity. Gonna ease my way into walking gently so any advanced performance will be totally lost on me anyway.

Waterproofing care spray for aforementioned boots

My new HiTech boots have a waterproof inner layer but I want to make sure my feet stay dry. I bought some Granger’s Superpruf for £6.99 – for that price it had better be more than fancy PVA glue solution. I’ll test it on my boots and if I’m happy I’ll give my backpack a spray too.

220ml butane/propane gas canister

I bought this far in preparation for a new stove I’m looking to buy next payday, the Optimus Crux Lite. It got through to the final shortlist on Trail magazine’s stove test, costs on average £40 and weighs a puny 72g. Roughgear.co.uk gave me some stellar gear advice and they sell the Optimus Crux Lite for £35. Being a gear junkie I decided I need one. Hmm… a £15 stove might be a better first stove investment since cutting my pack weight isn’t top of my list at the moment.

A tip from a newbie like myself who has just done his research on stoves… there are 2 canister fittings, EN417 Lindel which is a threaded valve, and CampingGaz which is smooth. Check the stove you’re thinking on buying for compatibility – EN417 is by far more common and personally I like the added security of screwing my stove firmly onto my gas canister.

Compass

Standard plastic rectangle compass with 1:25,000 and 1:50,000 scale rulers down the side (which fit perfectly with Ordnance Survey maps). All the important bits glow in the dark too.

OS Select map (1:25,000)

This is the one bit of kit I’m well pleased at – Ordnance Survey have a service called OS Select whereby you can center an OS map around whichever location you want. If I buy a standard map with all the nice walks nearby then my house is annoyingly just off the map… not anymore!

I asked them to put my house in the bottom right corner of the map so now I’ve got everything Northwest of my HQ. I reckon this would make a really good present for someone who is into walking; the map even comes in a presentation box that fits onto your bookcase.

I spent hours pouring over the map and trying to dig up my old training on 6-figure grid references. There’s so many routes I want to try around my area like Burrs Country Park, Peel Tower on Holcombe Moor, and Wayoh Resevoir. I’ll post some Google Earth KMZ files when I get chance.