Nutrition and health on the hill

 Major Cynic , find out about and get some low GI foodstuffs into your cupboards (there are probably plenty there already .Remember that with something like a choc bar ,you may get a hit of energy ,but that will be followed with an over -reaction .Give your pancreas a break and take stuff on the hill that releases it's energy slowly ,and move away from sweet processed bars .The sweetest thing you would want to be taking in is a digestive or two .Apples and bananas come in thier own wrappers .

 I understand that you all got off the hill safely after a day of adventure ,and that is the best outcome that you could have expected .

 Don't forget to learn about low GI  (glycaemic index ) foods

  Jim

Jim, thanks for the tip. I like bananas  As I said the condition has only recently been diagnosed and it will be monitored over the next few months or more to see if it improves and if not how it can be brought under control. One thing I have found over the past two months is that I like oats which is probably just as well. 

As for the experience of the walk I accept that mistakes were made. My friend Dave who has an ice axe and knows how to use it didn't take it on the walk. As he said afterwards, if he'd taken it he could have cut footsteps across the snow fields and made things so much easier for both of us. My main mistake was letting us push on for so long without a rest to restore energy and consider our position. I also feel I deferred a little too much to my partner and I had to argue my case to give up and turn back. That can be a difficult one, arguing one's postion with someone who has more experience than you and who you're inclined to respect and therefore follow. 

With regards to OPs obviously greater experience all I can say is that I don't see the point in learning how to use an ice axe for a once in a lifetime experience. My friend Dave has an ice axe but he's not used it in perhaps 15+ years. We don't normally get into the kind of conditions that warrant it and have no intention of doing so. But we still had microspikes and were most impressed at the grip and traction they provided on the ascent of Skiddaw. We had hoped to get up on to Helvellyn. We didn't because the first day's walk took too much out of us and we weren't fit enough. Even if we'd tried we'd have tried an ascent from the Thirlmere side of the mountain, possibly via Sticks Pass and the long climb up  along the ridge. There's no way I'd ever do Striding or Swirral edges under snow. Perhaps OP would say given the conditions up there we'd be unwise to try even an easy route but the photos put up on the LakeDistrict weatherline website make it so attractive.

But this is getting off topic and becoming something of an uncomfortable exmination and rehash of what went wrong that day. We know most of what went wrong.  Being a little stubborn we might go back and do the route again under MUCH better conditions with more daylight hours so we can take our time over the climb.  

I'd still like to thank all those who have posted ideas for what to take in the way of food and for a generally encouraging and positive response. 

Major Cynic  - given your diabetes situation, might be worth you checking out specialist sports drinks and bars like High5 - they have some clear advice for diabetics.

Don't worry too much about having a little bit more experience than you bargained for - next time you'll maybe recognise the wee flutter in your chest and stop rather than go on. Conditions recently have been untypical - Alan Hinkes had an ice-axe and crampons, not to mention sufficient ability and experience to have climbed all the 8000m peaks on the planet, yet he was avalanched in Borrowdale the other week. But, unlike you, he hasn't got the balls to post here and ask what he should have done differently!

Hey ALovesSupreme I'd heard of the accident but not that it was Alan Hinkes. You've just made my day!!!!

I do use sports drinks in the summer but in the cold weather I prefer a hot drink and I haven't found a sports drink that can be made hot. I think most sport drinks lose a lot of their nutritional value if they're made with hot water but hey if anyone can tell me differently.....     

Sorry! Not what you're thinking, though nimble fingers could no doubt be very helpful in doing up jackets quickly in a squall!

Spinning is group sessions on static bikes. But they're generally much higher spec than normal gym bikes, much more adjustable, you get an instructor putting you through different routines, usually to beat music (which helps for me, at least when he has the 'golden oldies' cd on ). You control the resistance so the difficulty of the session is under your own control. Fantastic work-out for quads, core stabilisers, and c-v work, general fitness and stamina.

I really hated the idea of group gym sessions, but also found the normal bikes in the gym uncomfortable (they're essentially designed for blokes with longer torsos than most women), but the sessions were a revelation and I try to go twice a week. It's really helped with ascents.

ALoveSupreme - what can I say but thanks a lot!

MK thanks. I'll look around at our local gyms. I think that could be just what I need, I think it might also help my wife out with her fitness problems.

> I think Captain Paranoia's definition of retreat/different route or when to carry snow tools is very diferent to mine. 

Okay, I'm happy to agree that the OP didn't retreat when he should have, but it seemed clear that he recognised that in his OP.  I didn't think there was any need to start berating him about failings that he already recognised.

Should I ever feel the need of guiding or instruction, I'll be looking elsewhere, I think...

Hi Captain

Thanks for having another look at the OP and seeing it differently, as my other posts have made clear, I appreciate honesty. 

I've had a look at it too and although his first post still didn't give me the impression that he'd recognised that they should have just turned back at the first sign that the route was iced up, I'm relieved by the honesty and clarity of thought in his subsequest posts.  I've definitely been in all the compromising situations he's described, friends, tools, conditions, dehydration.  I'm sorry I came across as 'berating', as I only want to be sure he'd come away from the situation having learnt the most important safety points I've learnt from those situations.  Please understand, I've been out a lot this season and seen too many MR recoveries or bad practice, I'd just come back from another alarming week on the fells in the Lakes on Fri when I first posted, I shouldn't have bothered posting. 

WTF...

Thanks for that Vangore Kate, I'm sure Major Cynic will find that usefull on the hill next time, maybe thats where he and all of us are going wrong..