MY FAVOURITE KIT
escaping from the Covid lockdown and an overwhelming feeling of being mentally burnt out. So she decided, with the loyal backing of her husband, to leave him and their young son and daughter behind and embark on the Coast to Coast, from St Bees in Cumbria to Robin Hood’ s Bay in Yorkshire, crossing the three Nationals Parks of the Lake District, the Yorkshire Dales and the North York Moors en route. She had no experience of long distance walking before, so it’ s fair to say she approached the walk with some trepidation, but as many have experienced before, found that she grew in strength and confidence as she went, despite suffering crippling bouts of tinnitus towards the end of the walk. But what was really different and unusual about Ashworth’ s journey, honestly, beautifully and often amusingly described, is that she kept in contact with a very dear friend every day along the way, through him leaving previously posted letters for her at her various B & B stopping points. Clive, her friend and neighbour, was dying from cancer, but the pair had built up a strong, purely platonic relationship, and his constant encouragement was to give her walk vital impetus.
In the news- Discovering Dartmoor
Check out member Julian Baird’ s You Tube channel where he has published a 5 part video series‘ Discovering Dartmoor’
youtube. com /@ jbairdexp & discoveringdartmoor. com
MY FAVOURITE KIT
Alf Alderson
BLACK DIAMOND AVALUNG PACK
In the news- Jon Sparks
Following his battle with cancer, Sir Chris Hoy is promoting a new cycle sportive event called Tour de 4, to show that people with cancer can still do amazing things, and to raise funds for cancer charities. Now living with his own diagnosis, Jon Sparks( OWPG’ s Substack editor) will be tackling the 37 mile blue route, further than he’ s ridden for some time.
He’ s created a GoFundMe page so please take a look if you’ d like to support both the fight against cancer and those living with it: https:// tinyurl. com / 54s49rz4
The coming ski season will be the twentieth in which I’ ve used my Black Diamond Avalung pack – so if nothing else, it has to be praised for endurance and longevity. Admittedly, there have been a number of repairs along the way, and parts of the pack are now held together with duct tape, but that also says a lot about it – if it wasn’ t a great piece of kit I would never have bothered with those repairs. I should perhaps explain the peculiar name of the pack before I extol its virtues; it incorporates a‘ breathing tube’, which without going into detail is designed to help you survive if caught in an avalanche. Just how effective this would actually be I’ m fortunately yet to find out( and I hope I never do), but that isn’ t really what I like so much about the pack. No, it’ s the simple yet effective design – there’ s one compartment for your avalanche safety gear, a second( with a hydration system sleeve) for the rest of your kit, and a zippered internal pocket for stuff like sunglasses, knife and suncream, along with external attachments for skis, poles, axe etc. – everything you need, and nowt you don’ t. I’ ve used the pack for everything from mornings thrashing around in fresh powder to hut-to-hut ski tours, and it fits so comfortably I don’ t even notice I’ m wearing it, although friends notice when I’ m not – last winter someone remarked on the fact that I was skiing without my pack one day, which is a measure of how much I actually use it. It’ s reaching the end of its life now, despite all my repairs, and it will be like saying goodbye to an old friend when I take it off for the last time – we’ ve had some great days together in mountains all over the world; I wonder if I can find another one of the same vintage on EBay? But even if I could, it wouldn’ t be the same as skiing with my faithful old friend.
What is your favourite piece of kit?
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