LIwybr Llechi Eryri

7 Dec

I really needed a hill walking break from caring duties so I purchased two days and nights of live-in respite care for my wife. I’m still easing my way back into hill walking and so I decided to keep things simple and relaxed.

The two main things that I wanted to accomplish were to walk a section of the Slate Trail (LIwybr Llechi Eryri) and to field test some gear: A new Hilleberg tent, the Enigma down sleeping quilt from the American company, Enlightened Equipment, and a made-to-measure 40L Pulse rucksack from Atom Packs.

The weather was typical for North Wales in early December: non-stop rain and cool, touching 0C at night.

I decided not to wild camp, so booked a place at a campsite, arriving just as it was beginning to get dark. The camp-site field lay next to a fast flowing river which had flooded its banks. I knocked on the farmhouse door and registered with the farmer. “It’ll be a very wet night’, he said. ‘There’s no-one else here, so you can choose any spot’. “I'll take the higher ground’, I said, ‘as I can see that the river has flooded. You can see the tide mark across the field’.

I had my strongest one-person tent with me, a new, still unused, Hilleberg Soulo (Black version with 10mm poles). The rain was lashing down as I took the tent out of the car boot, leaving Badger in the passenger seat, out of the rain. And here is a situation where you are thankful that the tent flysheet can be pitched before the inner tent, keeping the interior dry.

Then, a mini-disaster. One of the tent poles broke as I was securing it into one of the re-enforced guides. I was astounded, as I had not applied much pressure and I was certain that I had erected the tent in precisely the way recommended by Hilleberg. I had practiced putting it up in my garden half a dozen times, so was quite familiar with it. The tent comes with a repair sleeve which you can fit over the break and secure it with tape. But I didn’t fancy doing that in the hard rain. I had brought a second tent with me, the Hilleberg Allak 2, a two-person tent. So I decided to dismantle the Soulo and put up the Allak. 15 minutes later, the tent was up. In a way, having a breakage in a camp-site is a good thing as you learn from the experience without the complications that would have arisen if I had been wild camping at the top of a hill. Of the dozen or so tents that I have owned over the years, I have never had a breakage.

The Hilleberg Allak 2. A roomy tent. Not the best pitching result, I grant you, but it was dark and raining by the time that I got it up. You can see how saturated the ground is.

I don’t use footprints with my tents as footprints add to weight and bulk. I do use my Fjellduken tarp as an extra tent base layer. It is strong, light and has a thermal reflective layer. Also, it is multi-functional, as an emergency shelter, as a cape, as a water carrier, as camouflage, as a hammock and so on. One of my favourite bits of kit.

The Jerven Fjellduken opened up. It has so many uses, one being an extra base layer for a tent.

Leading up to the trip, I had taught my dog to sleep in the Jerven Fjellduken insulated dog bed.

Badger asleep on his bed in the tent, next to me. He is also wearing a dog coat to keep the worst of the rain off him.

So, the Allak is a very good tent. I expect the Soulo is too, but the pole break is a bit of a concern, mainly because I don’t know what I did wrong.

I have never slept in a backpacking quilt before, only sleeping bags. The logic of a quilt is that it saves weight and space without compromising on insulation. The idea is that when you sleep in a sleeping bag, the bag insulation underneath you isn’t functional, as it’s compressed by your own weight. So why not save on the weight of that part of the bag by using a quilt? The quilt is strapped onto the sleeping pad, so that it remains anchored when you turn in your sleep.

Enlightened Equipment’s Enigma quilt. Regular, but narrow sizing. It has a sewn-closed footbox, so feet stay warm. There are no zips, which are often the weak points of many sleeping bags. The straps are detachable, but I leave them on so that they don’t get forgotten. The opening down the quilt faces the sleeping pad and is attached with the straps.

To scale against my boot. The quilt weighs 615 grams or 22 ounces and packs right down.

My Enigma down quilt is rated at -1C, but I did feel chilly at about 2 am, despite wearing top and bottom thermals. The temperature inside the tent was c. + 2C. But that’s not a problem. Everything has its limitations; the important thing is to find out what those limitations are so that you can work around them. I could have worn an extra layer or I could have used an overbag (but that defeats the point of having a lighter quilt). A silk inner lining bag would have worked given that they weigh almost nothing. I concluded that the quilt was perfect for 3 season use and that a silk inner would have worked at +2C. I was pleased with it.

Finally, the Pulse rucksack. I have two Atom rucksacks, the 40L Pulse and the 60L Prospector. They are ultralight. My Pulse weighs 700g. I use the 40L for all day hikes, as I can cinch it down, it being a top loader without a top flap compartment.

The rucksacks were made to fit me - and I have found that makes a very big difference. I have probably had 15 or so rucksacks over the 50 years of hill walking and none have fitted me well. I just accepted it as a fact. Wearing these two Atom rucksacks has shown me how important a good back fit is to your ability to carry a load all day or over many days.

The Snowdonia Slate Trail (LIwybr Llechi Eryri) a circular 83 mile trail through some of the most beautiful landscape in the UK.

The section that I did was Betws y Coed to Capel Curig. It was very wet, with many of the paths running as streams, but hugely enjoyable. I didn’t see one other person. Here are a few pictures: