TGO Challenge 2012 Preparation – My route is in!

Posted on by
6

Finally, my route is in! I submitted it last week actually and now it is with my vetter who has indicated that it will be back with me shortly, with comments. I hope the comments are to advise where I can get a nice cream tea from rather than to re-write half of my route! ;)

Route – a few details

  • I will start in Dornie on Friday the 11th May … and finish in St Cyrus on Thursday 24th May.
  • I will walk a total distance of 184 miles (at least ;) … with a total ascent of 9,096m.
  • The greatest ascent in one day is Day 2 at 1549m and the least ascent in one day is the last day from North Water Bridge to the coast at 164m
  • There will 13 nights under canvas (well, silnylon!) with no bothies or B&Bs.
  • The remotest, and highest, camp is Camp 5 on Carn Gearresith (GR NH 628115) at a height of 720m.

Thanks to everyone who has helped with my route, either directly through emails, phone calls and even twitter, or indirectly through me having read one of your TGO Challenge trip reports, it is very much appreciated.

tgoc-2012-route

Gear
I have bought a few more bits and pieces since my last post. The most interesting is perhaps The Pocket Stove Ti from backpackinglight.co.uk. I quite like using solid fuel tablets and I’m currently playing with meths stoves so this little stove could work out to be rather useful. Plus I can light a few twigs and have a camp fire too whilst trying not to set fire to the landscape! … but thankfully I don’t have a self destructing Jetboil Sol Ti !

Fitness
My fitness is improving, slowly, although I keep having problems with my knees. This is not a new issue but a lifelong problem. Aside from that I think I will be ready for the Challenge and in any case I am going to do it regardless :) so if I am seriously struggling I will just have to adjust my route a little to deal with it. The goal is to get to St Cyrus, to compete the Challenge, and have a thoroughly enjoyable time, and as determined as I am to follow the route I have planned (more or less), it will sensible to shorten the route slightly and make it to the finish if necessary.

Blog posts in this series:

  1. TGO Challenge 2012 Preparation – Part 1
  2. TGO Challenge 2012 Preparation – Only 120 days to go!
  3. TGO Challenge 2012 Preparation – Dornie start it is then!
  4. TGO Challenge 2012 Preparation – My route is in!

Photography Tip: Photographing snow

Posted on by
2

Do your snow photographs always look dull and grey rather than having lovely white snow?

The problem is the snow itself, it is confusing your camera! The camera tries it’s hardest to get the exposure of your photo correct but, on normal Auto mode, it cannot cope with the snow. It thinks the scene is too bright and tries to correct that by letting less light into the camera, you end up with grey snow and a dull scene.

Dull snow photo

The way to correct it is simple. We need to tell the camera to let more light in, onto the sensor, to make the snow look white. If you have a compact camera the chances are it has a whole bunch of modes, or scenes, that you remember seeing once but have never used; Baby, Portrait, Landscape etc, and there will be one called Snow! That’s it, choose the Snow mode and it will make the camera let more light in and you will have much better snow pictures. If you are using a DSLR then you need to use some exposure compensation to overexpose the image by at least +1 or +2 stops, depending on the amount of snow in the scene. This may involve pressing a button, or going into the menus, and setting the exposure compensation to +1 or +2 (or somewhere in-between). If you are not sure how to make the settings on your camera you need to consult the manaul!

Correctly exposed snow photo

Also, if your are using RAW of course, or you are comfortable editing your images, you can always make the adjustment in your favorite image editing software.

That’s all there is to it. The two images in this post illustrate the point. The first one looks dull and grey while the second one has some exposure compensation aplied to it to make the snow white, as it should be.

Have fun and enjoy the snow.

TGO Challenge 2012 Preparation – Dornie start it is then!

Posted on by
3

In the last week I have made a decision on my start location for my 2012 Challenge – I will be starting from Dornie!

Over the course of the last couple of months, since finding out that I have a place on the Challenge for 2012, I have been reading and absorbing loads of information about where I would like to walk and what I would like to see. I ended up sketching out a number of routes that I liked the look of and suppose ultimately are similar to those that other Challengers have walked in the past. I knew that I would be happy on any route really and actually choosing one would be a compromise.

I really fancied Torridon but it’s a long way up and I did not want to do a long route for my first Challenge (hopefully I will be allowed to do it again!). I’ll save Torridon for another time. Acharacle and Lochailort both appealed because I quite fancied going across the Grampians. I could have made a route, that I would be happy walking, from any start point!

In the end though I decided that I would head a bit further north and start at Dornie. After a short walk up the road I’ll be straight into the mountains on the track beside the River Glennan. I plan on doing the An Riabhachan ridge on day two followed by a couple of gentler days until I cross Loch Ness and then its up and over to get to Aviemore and across the Cairngorms [big grins]

So there we are. Dornie it is, the B&B is booked and I’m busy filling in the details of my proposed route. My excitement-ometer is off the scale and I can’t wait to get started :)  106 days to go!

Blog posts in this series:

  1. TGO Challenge 2012 Preparation – Part 1
  2. TGO Challenge 2012 Preparation – Only 120 days to go!
  3. TGO Challenge 2012 Preparation – Dornie start it is then!

TGO Challenge 2012 Preparation – Only 120 days to go!

Posted on by
4

I can’t believe it has been a month since my first post about my TGOC preparation! It is about time for an update. I titled this post ‘Only 120 days to go’ because there were 120s to go when I started writing it. Now, as I write this, it is down to 118 days but I’ll leave the title – it is a nice round number.

My partner asked me the other day if I found the thought of doing the Challenge daunting. I realised then that I didn’t. I did initially, a few months ago, but that has given way entirely to excitement. It is certainly going to be a challenge, both physically and mentally, and that is something I am looking forward to, but daunting it is not.

TGOC preparation has now become part of my life (and my family’s, oops! :). It slots in at any moment without me realising it. I have continued to read many blogs and trip reports of previous Challenges and of backpacking and walking in general. I have bought some new gear. I have chatted a lot on twitter which is not directly related to TGOC preparation but having recently made a whole new bunch of twitter friends I am entering into discussion and more easily following and learning about what is going on in the backpacking (and particularly lightweight backpacking) world.

Route
I have not made a lot of progress in actually having something to show for my route planning efforts. This is partly due to Christmas, where I have not had so much time, and to other things that I am involved with that have been taking some of my small amount of spare time. However, I have been constantly researching where I would like to walk and I have now got even more roughed out routes with even more possible permutations! One of the hardest things to do is to just pick one of the start points (I read this in someones blog too and apologies but I cannot find the url), something that needs to be done soon for me now and then the rest of the route will more easily fall into place. Some decisions will be made soon

Gear
I am kind of using the Challenge as an excuse to buy new gear but really I have had an interest in lightweight backpacking for sometime and it is nice to be back into looking at gear and what is available. I have just purchased a 900ml Evernew and 400ml Mug from BPL (very good service and super fast delivery). I have yet to get my hands on them as I had them delivered to my folks house and I have not been round to collect them but I should get them later today. I am excited about that, something my partner cannot understand :) I also purchased some of that super light windshield and some pot cosy material.

My current gear list gives me a base weight of just over 7Kg at the moment. I have a few more things to add to it I but I am quite happy with the weight at the moment. I have just read a review of a lightweight titanium gas stove at Going Lighter and it looks very interesting. Do I want to spen £30 to save 20g though? .. probably not, but you never know, and besides, I have not settled on my cook system yet but gas is looking favourable.

Fitness
I have been doing quite a bit of walking and leg strengthening. One of biggest challenges is going to be looking after my knees because I have always had problems, but I’m trying to do a variety of exercises that will help and I am also doing a lot of stretching. I need to get started on some yoga too which I think is really going to help. I’m some way off being able to walk of one day on the Challenge with a full pack at the moment but I’m confident that I will be fit enough for the Challenge. I was planning on walking in North Wales, with a wild camp, but I have yanked my knee a bit and will settle for a longer flat walk nearer home

Blog posts in this series:

  1. TGO Challenge 2012 Preparation – Part 1
  2. TGO Challenge 2012 Preparation – Only 120 days to go!
  3. TGO Challenge 2012 Preparation – Dornie start it is then!