BOOTS & ROUTES

ICE AXE, TRAIL CRAMPONS, SOME SLINGS AND CARABINERS

 Plans for walking the HRP are more or less complete now. The trek will start from Hendaye on the 17th of June and, hopefully, I should be in Banyuls-sur-Mer by the end of July. It has been necessary to extend the duration limit on my holiday insurance and also raise the altitude limit to 3,500 metres.

Most of the necessary kit I already have, but I needed something for walking on snowy slopes so have bought myself some Hillsound Trail Crampons and a Grivel Haute Route ice axe. I also acquired some carabiners and a couple of Dyneema slings which might provide security on exposed sections of the walk or enable me to improvise a harness should I team up with others to do some glacier walking (climbing to the summit of Aneto, for instance). A few items of clothing are well past their best so these are being replaced along with my 5-year old Chlorine Sterilising Tablets, since I expect to be taking most of my water from streams.

Another item I have acquired is a pair of Sunglasses 'overglasses'. Basically they are roomy sunglasses that can fit over my regular glasses. I need my regular glasses on to read maps, but sunglasses are essential for sunny days, especially when walking on snow. Constantly swapping between different glasses is a real pain so I hope this will be a more convenient solution.

Whilst I have all the necessary Rando Editions maps for my trek, these weigh over a kilogramme. Fortunately friend Paul Bryant has a colour laser printer/copier which he has permitted me to use to copy the relevant sections from the maps, the resulting A4 sheets being much easier to handle on the hills and about a third of the weight.