Our man Gear, Richard Gear, has been hard at work answering
your questions and painstakingly reproofing his mountaineering boots
with the finest organic Venezuelan bees' wax ....
So far Richard has manfully answered over 500 of your questions
and you can find all his past answers together with a search
mechanism at the Ask
Richard Gear section of the site.
Browse through his past answers or ask
a question of your own...
This week Richard answers questions about whether to use boots or
shoes in the Cairngorms, ponders the meaning of thin down on the
underside of a down sleeping bag and suggests some ways to keep
liquid, well, liquid when climbing in very low temperatures.
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Q: Boots or approach/trail shoes for the Cairngorms in
October?
A: Gear here, Richard 'Bootsy' Gear, fervent
follower of footwear fashion and fashionable follower of
fervour, ahem. More and more walkers are looking at lighter
weight shoes and mids as an alternative to traditional
mountain boots and asking this sort of question.
In fact there's no outright 'correct' answer. The idea
that walking in the mountains means you must have heavy,
stiff boots is increasingly outmoded
Full
Answer
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Q: Hi, sorry if you've had this before! Got a Mountain
Equipment Helium 600 down sleeping bag. I naturally expect
the bottom part to get compressed thin as I lie on it to
sleep but, last month in glorious sunshine in Greenland, I
noticed parts were almost transparent where there was little
down between the fabric layers. Bad news or perfectly
normal? Secondly, presumably condensation on it over night,
eg at contact points with the inner tent won't do any
lasting harm?
A: Gear here, Richard 'Compressed Bottom' Gear.
OK, first, it's completely normal for down on the underside
of sleeping bags to compress under your bodyweight and down,
in a compressed state, doesn't trap much air, so from that
point of view I wouldn't be too concerned even if there are
a few thin spots.
In fact some manufacturers produce bags without any
insulation in the base section to save weight. It's not
quite that simple though....
Full
Answer
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Q: I'm climbing Kilimanjaro in Feb 2008. What
water bottle/carrier system should I use for summit day to
ensure my water doesn't freeze?
A: The name is Gear, Richard 'Iced Water' Gear and
trust me, as a man who's had his hydration bladder
transformed into a giant ice popsicle, I understand your
concerns.
When things get really, really cold, it's hard to prevent
your water supplies from freezing, but there are a few
cunning ways of keeping the fluid flowing and minimising
performance deterioration from dehydration - as just 5
per-cent dehydration can cause a 30 per-cent fall-off in
performance, it's well worth getting it right. ... '
Full
Answer
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Richard Gear section of the site for a searchable archive of
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