So you're carrying winter basics already, but a few crucial spare bits could stop a minor mishap from becoming an epic.
This week's Monday Tip is all about Vital Spares – not the emergency winter kit you should be carrying, but some crucial back-up items that you may not have considered, but could save your bacon in a crisis.
We're going to assume that you already have the basics for winter mountain use like a survival bag or group emergency shelter, a head-torch, whistle, goggles maybe, possibly a mobile phone and so on, but you also need to do some contingency 'what if? ' thinking over what else you should be carrying.
Spare Map And Compass
Every spring, the snow melts in the north corries of the Cairngorms to reveal an interesting variety of dropped items, including a fair number of escaped maps - in high winds, wearing gloves, it's all too easy to let slip of a map and watch it loft off over the horizon.
Which is why you should always have at least one spare map of the requisite area in your group. That way you're not left map-less in a white-out if you do, unfortunately, let go of your only map.
Compasses are less easy to lose, but again, we'd suggest having a spare on hand just in case. Of course, if you navigate primarily using a GPS and are you own, this means carrying two maps as a contingency, but look at it this way, maps are light and compact and not having one to hand could kill you.
Talking Of GPS...
If your GPS unit uses replaceable batteries, consider carrying a couple of spares. Lithium cells are ideal, they're expensive, but work better than others in really cold conditions and can be left in your pack permanently.
If you carry rechargeables, make sure they're either freshly topped up or you have something like the Sanyo Eneloop batteries that hold charge over extended time periods.
Hats And Gloves
Winter hats and gloves are a no-brainer, but just consider the nightmare scenario of losing either in a Cairngorm hoolie. Without a hat you'll be losing body heat super fast, with possible hypothermia risk. And if you drop a glove in sub-zero conditions, your fingers will rapidly become useless to you and possibly even frost bitten.
We carry a spare of each, say, a fleece beanie and a pair of warm, but light mitts or gloves. The latter are also handy if your primary gloves get soaked. Lightweight pile/Pertex mitts are a good stand-by.
Extra Insulation
You should be carrying some sort of extra insulated clothing anyway – a spare fleece maybe or a lightweight synthetic top – but you should be aware that if you are forced to hole-up in a bivvy bag – or snow shelter for that matter – you may be out of the wind, but you won't be insulated, so think about whether your spare clothing will be sufficient to keep you warm-ish in this scenario. And if in doubt, upgrade for something warmer.
We're not suggesting you carry an expedition down bag or a really heavy-weight fleece, but if you're, say, just packing a microfleece, it's possibly worth going slightly warmer at the cost of a few hundred grammes of extra pack weight.
Last But Not Least
There's an old mountaineering saying that if you go out on the hill fully equipped for an emergency bivvy, then that's exactly what'll happen. But we're not suggesting you do that, just that a few, carefully-chosen spare bits could make the difference between a minor inconvenience and a winter mountain epic.
