Changing Weather and Safety on Scottish Mountains - The Merrick
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- čas přidán 10. 09. 2024
- I recently planned a trip to The Merrick in Dumfries and Galloway with a view to check out a feature and test some new equipment. The plan began to unravel when I set off later than planned and a tent fail meant that plans changed again when I was at the summit.
This was a great, unplanned, test which highlighted just how important that preparedness is on any hill or mountain trip and how important good equipment understanding is needed.
The trip has prepared me for the next time I tackle this hill in particular but also re-enforced the knowledge that I have for all future trips with similar conditions.
I hope that the video has taught you something or you have taken at least something from which will make your trips on the hills that little more enjoyable.
Until next time,
Do What You Love.
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Appreciate your honesty and its helpful for others to learn from.
Cheers Craig, I think it's good to share the poorer experiences rather than try to make out it's all perfect. Hopefully people do manage to get something from my wee outings, mainly enjoyment.
Thanks for your comment and the feedback is much appreciated.
ATB 👍🏼
Cant beat testing yourself and your kit. Some good tips there ;)
Cheers Sniper, it's always good to know what your kit is capable of and how to properly use it. It's also good to accept when a piece of kit is trash and needs dropped.
I hope you got something from it and hopefully my tips from experience along the way keep helping.
Enjoy hearing your reflections a couple of days after your hike, both the positive and negative thoughts about the overall experience. Think it's common to do a hike, make it back, and since you made it back in one piece you don't think too deeply about things you went through, lessons you can take from the trip, etc. It's a great practice to get into, so thanks for sharing that portion of what happened! Great video, cheers!
Hey TNE, I'm glad you liked that and my job here is done then. I think it's good, and important, to reflect on any trip because you'll no doubt get something from that. Be it seeing how a piece of kit didn't work well or that it worked better than expected and things like that.
Again, thanks for watching and I'm glad that you got something from this one.
Thanks for sharing. Nothing worse than being in a tent after a long day and being physically tired but unable to sleep.
Tell me about it. I've had my fair share of sleepless nights while being physically burst. Thankfully this is a relatively easy escape from the summit.
I've just watched your Nordisk Svalbard review and I would say that looks like a sturdier version of that damn Naturehike that I had. I don't think that would last at 9mph, let alone 90mph. It would be a flappy mess skirting across the skyline at that speed 😂
Thanks for watching and I hope to see you around.
Hello my friend,,,full support done👍
Thank you 👍
Good advice about knowing your “what ifs”..prevents the oh sh*t what nows
Hey Alex, it certainly is. If my Army days have taught me anything it's how to best be prepared and how to handle situations when things go south.
I like that "know your what ifs to prevent the oh s***s"
I'd never purposely place myself into a situation just to see what would happen but if something does arise it's good to know you've got tools in the bag to hopefully get out.
As always mate, thanks for watching and commenting 👍🏼
@@AScotsmanOutdoors I’m sure your experience is worth a lot for your trips. Shame the tent didn’t hold up. I was looking for a decent review of someone using one in Scottish weather and yours clearly exposed it a little bit to the reality. Cheers for your vids mate 👍🏻
Fair enjoyed that video, some delicious late light there as you were walking to the bottom of the Merrick before your climb into the darkness. Brilliant stuff!
Delicious light, now there's a description. It was astounding and really did hit "the golden hour" on the nose. I had a good few checks of it purely just to see it and don't think I've ever saw light like that. It was a shame it was behind me.
I'm glad you liked it and I appreciate the comment too.
Hi Mate, I really enjoyed this :)
Your sentiments re the tent are the exact same as mine with the Lanshan 2 prior to taking it to Arran. I had convinced myself after investing so much time and effort researching the thing that it would be the tent for me. Look how that panned out. It's hard to accept, but in the interest of experience and safety, you made the right choice in getting rid. It's amazing how such a failure can affect our trust in such an important piece of kit! This has been the main reason as to why I've put the Hexpeak through so much bad weather and testing prior to hitting the summits.
When you discuss your kit, the best bit of kit (in my opinion) is your obvious knowledge in navigation and hill safety. Yes, you might have the equipment that will keep you warm and dry etc, but your hill craft meant you got down safely and have the judgement to make important decisions (including the fact that you stressed so much about wee mistakes). Very well done and it's fantastic you're putting that out there for others to learn!
Seeing your route from Culsharg, it looks to me like you breenged right past your target on the ascent route, the last section with the dry stane wall prior to filming on the rigs leading to the summit ;) Take care sir!
Hi mate, I'm glad that you liked this one. I wasn't sure how it would be received (like I do with all my videos).
The tent is a sore point and why I'm so reluctant to settle on any one tent (albeit the Banshee is still pride of place because it's a budget beast). I really thought it would be decent, the Naturehike, but looking now I think it's really only good for extremely light wind conditions and definitely not one for changeable UK weather. It's also made me reluctant to touch another Naturehike tent too. I have looked into the HexPeak because that looked like a limpet on your comparison video. It was going nowhere!
They do say knowledge is power, and all that, but again I wouldn't class myself as any super map wizard. I do have a big interest in map reading and being able to properly use one is something I've always been keen to maintain (Is is sad that I enjoy just opening and reading a map for no reason? 🤷🏻♂️). The biggest thing for me is just knowing how to use the kit you have practically, especially safety kit.
I'm glad at least some of my 'knowledge' is creeping out and hopefully it will help someone in some way.
I reviewed the location of that feature you that know I'm talking about and did think I'd strutted past it in the gloom but by that point the summit was my goal. I'll definitely be back there looking for it, hopefully with a more successful outcome.
Thanks for the great comment and feedback mate, it means a lot and hopefully I'll catch you soon.
Nice one Bry. That was a good watch oan the big telly. Nae such thing as a wasted trip. All good experience. 👍 I've had a similar mindset on trips away. Soon as you start overthinking then it's hard to switch off. Anxiety kicks in big time.
Cheers Kev. I think I'm going to have to upgrade my resolution for the big TV watchers but good to hear it's looking okay.
You're right, there is never a day on the hills that you don't learn something or other, big or small.
The mind can be a pain sometimes and for me it's when I'm doing nothing. Anxiety sucks too 😂
Cheers for watching mate 👍🏼
We did the same thing up last year up Meall na Leitreach - had to quickly take the tent down before it got wrecked and get off the hill! - fortunately for us it was before we started filming stuff on youtube 🤣
Oh it's something that needs to be done if the conditions are not right. Don't have any shame in scarpering from a wild camp 😂
Wait until it happens now though, you'll have to capture it on film 👍🏼
Thanks for watching and here's hoping you don't ever have to scarper any time soon.
@@AScotsmanOutdoors Haha - I promise to make sure its on film next time!!!