Gone swimmin’
Five amazing days, hard frosts and snow, blue skies and spindrift. Running low on food and gas, I was making my way cross country to Alt Sheicheachan when I came to the Gleann Mhairc burn, frozen and covered with snow at 650m. Tested it with the pole, seemed OK. One step, two steps - suddenly I was falling through ice, sharp-edged floes scissoring up around me like something out of a Hollywood movie. I hit the water and, taken off balance by my pack, fell sideways, submerged apart from my head and right torso. “Fuck! FUCK!” The cold was extraordinary. I floundered to the far bank and belly-flopped up onto the snow. Shitfire, this was a potential disaster. Miles from anywhere, subzero conditions: hypothermia, just add water.
Dumping the pack I stripped off my gloves and started ripping through my kit looking for dry clothes when, suddenly….I realised I wasn’t cold. After that first instant of numbing shock, all those fancy, expensive fabrics started doing their thing, keeping me warm and pumping water away from my skin. Honourable mention has to go to the Buffalo Mountain Shirt which drained almost instantly and kept me comfortable. The new Montane Extreme mitts stayed warm even though saturated (the moisture that got driven out through the shell froze into sheets of ice and flaked off). My legs, in Icebreaker merino longjohns and Haglofs trousers remained perfectly bearable, drying out quickly as I walked. The only items that could’ve done with being changed were my socks, but the spare set was buried in my pack somewhere (lesson learned). I just tipped the water out of my boots and gave the socks a good wringing, reluctant to hang around too long. I couldn’t get my gaiters back on properly as they’d already frozen solid, but by draping them loosely round my calves, body heat was sufficient to thaw them out and I refitted them later.
I have to say it’s very reassuring that all this kit actually does what it’s supposed to - particularly after spending last week reading a book detailing Highland hill tragedies where many walkers and climbers died prior to the 1970s simply because their clothing was inadequate.
