Hello fellow hillwalkers, mountaineers, bushcraft and survival practitioners, hunters, gatherers and everyone else who has found their way here.

“Because you found your way here, you you can find your way anywhere!”

That’s right.  When I started North Ridge Adventure I wanted everyone to find their confidence - at map reading, mountain walking, survival & bushcraft.. I still do and you will find, with North Ridge Adventure, we make it our business to make learning EASY. Let’s face it - we did it, so it’s fair to assume everyone else can do it too -  and have some fun along the way!

I hope everyone will like our approach, and value our blend of real world experience and easy-going instruction - experience shows it is equally appreciated by all ages - from teens to grey-hairs, beginners to professionals, men and women alike. We firmly believe that actions speak louder than words and that it’s better to have mastered one good technique than know the theory of 10.

We can use this blog to develop some shared resources and a community of like minded folks - the sort who will give it a go, keep smiling and who really want to DO something. It is an attitude thing, and just because you may not have all the skills you want yet, we all started somewhere, right? As we build the blog, I’ll be posting articles on all sorts of (hopefully) interesting stuff, on training, skills and equipment - all with the aim of encouraging folks to start making life even more of an adventure.

Everyone is welcome to post, comment etc but keep it nice please. Call back often, and do check out www.northridgeadventure.co.uk and let me know what you think.

Dunc. (the much loved owner of NorthRidge Neb - who really does exist)

Daily Mirror Article 9 July

Everyone is talking about this at the moment, and you can find every opinion on the case, Mr Moat, and the Police on pretty much any blog you care to look at.

I thought North Ridge Adventure customers might be interested in the article here http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2010/07/09/moat-may-last-weeks-in-the-wild-115875-22399658/

I was phoned up by the Mirror for a perspective on how someone could survive in the outdoors without kit - let me be clear I have no connection with the ongoing investigation and the comments were purely a general idea of what might be possible…at the time there was a lot of talk of Moat being a keen outdoorsman and a skilled angler.

The article has unfortunately been cut right down from the 600-odd words it was originally. Nothing wrong with a bit of sensationalism I suppose but the key context missing from the article is that although these survival skills are real, and possible, catching fish, rabbits or anything else without equipment requires total concentration….and I would suggest that with half the Police force looking for you that might not be priority number 1. Additionaly - do you fancy eating raw fish/ rabbit? I’m not sure I’d be lighting a fire either….

The hawthorn piece is right enough, and having eaten plenty of them (as snacks mainly) I’d be interested if anyone actaully knows what nutritional value they have?

In the meantime here are some other interesting benefits from eating hawthorn: (from www.balancing-energy.com)

Hawthorn Leaves
- antispasmodic, cardiac, sedative, vasodilator. Hawthorn normalizes blood pressure by regulating heart action; extended use will usually lower blood pressure. It is good for heart muscle weakened by age, for inflammation of the heart muscle (myocarditis), for arteriosclerosis, and for nervous heart problems

and on nettles (from www.eatweeds.co.uk)…..

Source: Nutritional Herbology: Mark Pedersen

See - you probably could last a few weeks on these - chuck in a few dandelions (whole plant) for salad and starch, dig up a few worms, tadpoles or tad-frogs at this time of year and you’d be well sorted.

In due course it will be interesting to see how the gentleman in question actually has been surviving as it could make a valuable case study for those interested in basic outdoor living…. I for one will be impressed if he really has been living ‘off the land’ for all this time.

 Updated 12th July to say I guess we will never know, but it looks more like a case of Urban Survival as opposed to wilderness…rather than speculate further on this case I will upload a proper article on the subject later on.

Hi everyone,

welcome back to Neb’s blog after quite a long spell off - we’re gonna fix that now and make a committment to monthly updates as a start. Hey I guess many of us experienced tumultuous times in 2009 but hopefully we’re on the up again - it certainly seemed so at the Ordnance Survey Outdoor Show last weekend (This is the UK’s largest outdoor show, held in Birmingham England)!

As part of the Wilderness Camp, organised by Bushcraft and Survival Magazine, the show was manic on the Staurday and Sunday, so much so that it was difficult to grab a bite to eat even!

Some of the highlights from the North Ridge stand were:

Launching the UKs first Survival Instructor certificate

(Yes there are in-house courses available, and also some bushcraft courses but not like this one!) This course will run, for people with existing outdoor experience over a full year, allowing plenty of time for consolidation plus plenty of exposure to the good old British weather - with modules in England, South Wales, Snowdonia and the Scottish Highlands we’re pretty much guaranteed to get it all!

Key to the Instructor course, will be the establishment of a new hierarchy of needs as framework to what we do, and all decision making as part of a group - obviously whilst retaining flexibility. As they say - no plan survives contact with enemy! For a civilian course it’s also going to have some interesting content on the subject of hostile environments when we may not want to be ‘rescued’ by the first people to happen along - how can we evade and if necessary protect ourselves and groups?

Another unique element to this course will be our ability to train candidates in a variety of operating environments - not only will all the usual woodland based skills and drills be covered (and some not-so-usual ones also) but we will be fully exposing candidates to the rigours of mountain survival - what does it mean, how does it feel etc.. part of this phase will be dealing with steep ground (use of ropes and improvised equipment for climbing, rapelling and other techniques) and water - river crossings, flotation methods and the like..

 We have quite a network of instructors whom we will be inviting as guests at various times throughout the course - one guy I want to introduce you to is Perry McGee, 

Perry Mcgee

 who is a highly knowledgeable survival instructor and tracking expert in his own right, as well as being son of the (late) Eddie McGee. If you don’t know who he is please Google him and keep your eyes out for The Tracking Handbook which he will be releasing soon….

Also a huge draw at the show - the announcement of our next race. This one is styled on the ‘Long Drag’ the famous SAS endurance march in the Brecon Beacons which has been written about so much…hitting the spot with a full 70 Kilometres (half distance option) the competitors will need to carry a 40lb bergen over those rolling green hills - to all those folks who said ‘that’s not very heavy’, I look forwards to receiving your entry form….take it from me, everyone who completes this event inside the 20hours will have achieved something spectacular for themselves. Of course a race like this wouldn’t be complete without those old warhorses who simply don’t know what quit means…some of our contestants will KNOW they can do it, just a bit slower these days!! Entry for this can be done at www.runnersworld.co.uk as well as www.northridgeadventure.co.uk and for serving military please deduct 50% from the Bimble price (maybe donate the balance to H4H or RBL?)

Here I am at the end of the show, still smiling after 3 days of non-stop talking! One of the best things about exhibiting here is all the people you meet - some serious about training, looking to book courses, others just wanting a casual chat as part of their show tour, and many junior one-day outdoor folks, stopping by with their folks. I lost count of the fires we let the kids spark up over the weekend but every one was accompanied by big grins and I bet there’s back gardens all over being used for camp-fire lighting over this Easter holiday!

Watch this space for updates - I’ve got gear reviews and training plans to share and look forwards to your comments and feedback, as always…

till next time…

Ever wondered just how much adventure you could enjoy?

Lots of people like the idea of adventuring, but are a bit unsure of their ability to cope - whether that be fitness, equipment or any of the little doubts we all sometimes suffer from…

Well, I’ve just got back from the Brecon Beacons National Park where one very happy customer, Matt, has just spent 4 days with us discovering exactly how to escape the office! Here’s a picture of him watching the last rays from over 2000 feet on a high mountain ridge where we spent our second night bivvying.

Good night Sun

Bivvying is the act of sleeping out without a tent or shelter, other than simple equipment such as a basha or bivvy bag (basically a body-bag made from breathable goretex), so the experience of being close to nature is second to none!

When it rains, you really feel grateful for that thin piece of fabric, and you learn quickly how to operate without moving around too much. Far from being uncomfortable, many people absolutely relish the experience, and discovering just how self-reliant they really can be.

There’s an old Army saying that ‘any fool can be uncomfortable’ and we take great pleasure in teaching our customers all the little ‘tricks of the trade’ so they can enjoy these wonderful outdoor experiences whilst keeping warm and dry (well most of the time anyway!)

If you want to give it a go for yourself then you can buy a basha, 5 or 6 bungees, a few tent pegs and a bit of para cord and away you go - trial and error is a great way to learn - keep it realistic and you should have  lot of fun! Of course we would be more than happy to fast-track you towards bivvy ninja-ness on one of our courses, and who knows, you could find yourself watching the sun set from a mountain top, a million miles from anywhere!

Details:

For those who are interested in the technical details of bivvying, this one was quite interesting in that we had effectively one sleeping above and one, below ground. Matt was using a Terra Nova single hooped bivvy of Flo-goretex, obviously above ground, whilst Duncan was inhabiting a shallow sink-hole with a standard British Army basha stretched horizontally across it.

Above and below..

What made this interesing was the relative advantages/ disadvantages of these approaches. Above ground bivvy tent - dry (ie not somewhere that will flood), easy but exposed to wind and somwhat restrictive vs. sink hole could (will) flood in heavy rain, acts as a cold air trap, but completely out of the wind and much more room to move around in.

So what was the result of the experiment? Below ground seemed to be the winner as Duncan (&Neb) reported being warm all night (this despite the aforementioned cold air issue) whereas Matt reported being cooler than comfortable.

Inconclusive? Yes, clearly this is no basis for making decisions about kit, but interesting nontheless. Which would I choose if forced to decide? Pure guaranteed survival purposes, take the bivvy tent - get in and stay in! For all round fun, flexibility and developing skills, go with the basha (but be ready for potential consequences)!

Sleeping on a mountain top - it’s the way to go..

This is information regarding the article published below in the Sun about Bob Spour and SAS Survival

Many of you will know that I was asked by SAS Survival (website unavailable) to run HILL and ENDURANCE courses (those that teach map reading, mountain skills and promote physical resolve, fitness and mental strength) and that I had done so on a number of occasions. Recently I have redesigned these courses in order to make them more accessible to a wider audience of people and they will continue to be available from North Ridge Adventure.

Recently I was caught up in the investigation by ARRSE (ARmy Rumour SErvice) which led to this story http://www.arrse.co.uk/Forums/viewtopic/t=48629/postdays=0/postorder=asc/start=11320.html and as you would expect,  was quickly validated by those who needed to know. Enough said - it’s old news and boring…

North Ridge Adventure trades on our reputation for excellence, and our ability to deliver quality, exciting and motivating courses to a wide range of folks.

What you get with North Ridge Adventure is 100% accurate, authentic and within our areas of knowledge.

**Accordingly, we will be delivering the ‘Fan Dance’ and ‘Ultimate Endurance’ courses as planned**

UPDATE SPRING 2010 - this event is now being run under the title ‘BEACONS BIMBLE’ - see website or www.runnersworld.co.uk for details. Entry cost is only £70 and half price for serving military who want to give it a go.

Now, before you read the article, and make your own judgements, I have to say - and no doubt I’ll be criticised for saying this : Bob Spour has been a charismatic, inspiring and prolific teacher in the realms of human confidence and ambition and furthermore he has helped many people on their personal journeys. I know for a fact that he provided training free of charge to students who couldn’t afford it. The truth of the matter - you decide…

Here is the article - http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/campaigns/our_boys/2445041/TVs-SAS-hero-Bob-Spour-is-a-fraud.html

Stay safe

Duncan.

All this weather is great for plant growth, so why not get out and do some foraging? Staples of the moment that everyone can collect easily and safely, are STINGING NETTLES, Jack-by-the-Hedge, and fresh HAWTHORNE leaves. All of these are easy and very edible, in fact tasty…..

On the 1st ever USP (Ultimate Self Protection) Trainers camp, I was asked to do a bit on outdoor living so I decided it would be fun to combine a firelighting lesson with a bit of foraging, to demonstrate just how easy some of this stuff is. There was a large group of martial artists on this course and they had been working pretty hard - what better way to restore the old energy levels than a nice warming fire, and a couple of handfuls of WILTED nettles. Some weren’t so keen on the idea but afterwards everyone agreed they were just as good as any other vegetable. Me I love spinach and other veggies, so I’m pretty keen.

If you want to know how to wilt your nettles, the best way is this:

Cut the nettles (wear gloves) a handsbreadth longer than the newer shoots at the top of the plant- so about 8inches, and you’ll eat about 4/5 inches worth of leaves. Then you just need to gently pass the nettles through the flames until all of the stinging hairs have been burned off (a good indicator is when the edges of the leaves start to go black and charred). Now simply strip off the charred leaves and eat them - should taste sort of nutty. Throw the stalks away, or use them to make a Ray Mears style rope bridge, as you prefer
Also springing up everywhere is COW PARSLEY, although really for use as a herb rather than a vegetable or salad leaf, you might question whether its worth the risk of confusing it with HEMLOCK (which will kill you). 

Dandelions are another tasty salad and you should ensure you find ones that haven’t been contaminated by dogs.
On the funghi front, St Georges Mushroom (Galocybe gambosa) and MORELS (Morchella esculenta) both fruit at this time of year (April, May) which is really unusual - If you’re lucky enough to find one good luck to you but remember CAUTION REQUIRED cannot be overstated with mushrooms. Garlic butter always goes well with fresh mushrooms (sauteed/fried in it) so I wonder what Jack-by-hedge leaves (mildly garlicky) infused in a little Virgin olive Oil would be like instead. If you try it let me know! 

If you want to give it a go, these suggestions are a great and safe way to start but  REMEMBER, peanuts are edible but to some people cause highly allergic reactions, so with every new food, just try a little bit 1st time, ie 1 or 2 leaves only and DO NOT FEED TO KIDS.

Good luck and have fun with it

A friend of mine has been training for a half marathon, using an extremely detailed and scientific training plan. It seems to be working as her times get faster and faster, so I asked her what it was about a training plan that she liked? “It gives me focus” she said “so all I have to do is run!”

Many people ask me for training plans for the various endurance events we run at North Ridge Adventure, whether it’s for the Sleepwalker Night Race, the Welsh 3000s, or one of the military style challenge events such as the Fan Dance or Ultimate Endurance - Long Drag, so what I thought I’d start to do is to publish some training advice on this blog to give everyone who wants it a good heads-up on the training required.

Now before all the sports scientists get to grips with what I’m going to give you, let me just say that if anyone wants a BESPOKE training plan, then contact us and we’ll get that sorted out PDQ through Cathy , our fitness advisor. She’s the one with the Sports Science degree and the wall full of trophies! Having said that though, the rest of us have more than a passing interest in fitness and performance so as long as you don’t automatically believe everything we say, and use the advice as a general indicator which may or may not be suitable for you, then we’ll be good to go!

If it seems unusual to be advising against believing everything we/I say, then let me explain…

1st - we’re not out to make any money from giving out training advice - if it encourages people to come on a course, and because they turn up fit and ready, they have a great time and tell all their friends how much fun it was….that’s what we want.

2nd - everyone is different and it is IMPOSSIBLE to give specific detailed advice without meeting the person. Let me give you an example from my old climbing club..

We were sitting around in the bar one evening, after training on the local climbing wall, and big Charles (a caver - I know its wrong but its true) was telling someone about another lad’s Everest training which included walking up and down steep hills with 2 big paving slabs on an old frame rucksac! A fairly new recruit, who was a fit guy and well into the gym, took exception to this and was explaining how wrong this training method was, and why…to which he eventually got the response “well how may f****** 8000ers have you climbed then?” The point is, if it works for someone, it works, but it might not be for you - but it could give you a good idea for adapting to your own circumstances?

On similar note, when I ran the West Highland Way, I did so with a pulled hamstring - reason being my domestic situation meant I couldn’t train in the week so what I did instead was run 15 to 25 miles off road, virtually every Saturday for 5 months! Try find that one at www.runnersworld.co.uk (and while you’re there have a look at the Sleepwalker Night Race - it’s open for entries now)

I imagine most folks will find their own happy medium, involving a sensible bit of structure and hopefully, a bit of good old grit - at the end of the day it’s as important to train your head as your body, but we’ll discuss more of that later!

Dunc

www.justgiving.com/paulross2

Just a quick post here to let you know of a charity march being organised by the Argylls (my Dad’s old regiment).
The march is being done from Inverness, Northwards to Bettyhill on the far Northern coast of Scotland.

The event is going to be attempted by 10 members of the regiment and it will be 112 miles, to be completed in 3 days whilst carrying a 55lb bergen - this is a good effort in anyone’s book and goes back to what charity fundraising should (IMO) be all about ie. actually putting yourself out on behalf of your chosen charity.
Some members of NRA may travel up to show support however the best way to show support for Help For Heroes is to make a donation which you can do at the link above - of course through the Just Giving site, your details are 100% secure and you can even add gift aid to allow the charity to claim back tax on your donation.

What are we doing for H4H? Well we are hosting the Sleepwalker Night Race again (entries at www.runnerworld.co.uk/events), which will split the monies raised between H4H and the Mountain Resucue,

We’re also donating 10% of sales of the brand new:

LIFESAVER BOTTLES - portable water filter/purifiers

We had the adjacent stand at the recent Ordnance Survey Outdoor Show and the inventor of Lifesaver Bottles told me the 1st shipment of these had just gone out to the Army. We expect these to fly off the shelves because they will allow all outdoors people to be assured of clean safe drinking water, and plenty of it - the filters last a minimum of 4000 litres - that’s 4 Tonnes of water!

If anyone is booked on one of our courses, or enquires through the blog or ARRSE we’ll do you a 10% discount and H4H still get their bit!

Please do consider giving what you can afford to Paul’s page (top) as every bit helps!

Have you ever wondered what is the best clothing to spend your hard earned dosh on?

 Me too, and I was talking with some folks last week who also had some questions about clothing systems for our various courses - they are coming on the Ultimate Endurance events later in the year but it’s just as appropriate for any outdoor activities. I thought this article published on Buffalo’s site might start to answer some questions and particularly the difference between dynamic and static activities regarding your own body’s heat output and the ability to deal with rain.

You will see what I think of fibre pile, particularly buffalo as you read the article - as one of the original users when Hamish Hamilton invented the system I’ve had time to appraise it properly. Anecdotally, many of my findings are supported by other long term users who appreciate that NOTHING will keep you 100% comfy all the time. For winter wear it sure comes close though!

Email from Duncan Clark, 21st August 2008

Title: A Little Balance

Dear Buffalo,
Whilst I am a great fan of your gear, and have used it pretty much from the start, I have been reading your stories and think they could do with a little balance so that new users can make a proper informed choice.

Many years ago, I used to organise a mini adventure race for our climbing club, and one January tested Buffalo gear ‘to the max’ by swimming across a plunge pool to retrieve a Tyrolean, then heading up Moel Siabod in the snow and ice! People were quite rightly amazed that I didn’t immediately die of hypothermia.

In the Army, I remember being similarly impressed during a particularly unpleasant wet and muddy OP we were mounting once - everyone had the old ‘58 pattern bags except one lad who had the brand new Superbag and who volunteered to leave it in the OP - what a hero - instead of the cold wet nylon, smeared with clay and grit from everyone’s boots, I got a soft warm, deliciously comfy bag with armholes (liner removed)! Result!

As you can tell, I have been well impressed by the performance of Buffalo gear, however there is another side (there always is)…

If you get an unexpectedly warm day (or night) you will melt in it! Yes, it wicks away the sweat but you cant afford to lose sweat at that rate when working hard for extended periods - what this means is that you almost need to carry a thermal and windshirt at times when there is a warm weather risk.

I’ve one other experience I wanted to share because people should know the full story regarding specialist clothing systems. Once I was involved in a search for 2 missing climbers which took place after a wet bivvi (no problem there) and went on for about 10 hours of driving rain and wind round the back of Y Llewydd in Snowdonia. To start with, I was fine in fact better than my mate who was wearing full waterproof jacket and saloppettes however after several hours there were more and more trickles of water running around inside my 3-piece suit, which also wasn’t really a problem because I was staying warm enough anyway.

Where the problem started was when we were forced to become stationary for some time (about 3 hours) with little shelter - my mate was able to deal with this with relative ease, being protected by a barrier, however I started to become wetter and colder as time went on. Luckily the 2 were found before anything worse happened but there you go….

In summary - fantastic and durable kit - and great at what it does best.

Kind regards
Duncan Clark
www.NorthRidgeAdventure.co.uk

Buffalo’s Reply

Dear Duncan

Thank you very much for taking the time to write this email to us. I will put it on the web site today. It is very important to have a balanced view of our equipment on the site so everybody can see what it can and, just as importantly, cannot do.

To comment on some of the points you made, I agree about the need to take ‘warm weather’ clothing when you are out as well as cold weather. It might be cold at the start of the day where a Buffalo Shirt is perfect, but by lunch time, the temperature could have risen  by 10 degrees or more and a Thermal and Windshirt is perfect, or even an ActiveLite Shirt (!). Getting too hot can sometimes be very unpleasant and without enough water dangerous.

As for your cold, wet experience on Llewydd, we do try and recommend that some form of ‘movement’ will be required to keep you warm in times when you are stationary; star jumps for example should do the trick every so often.

One of the reasons for getting cold was that you started to get very wet with cold water. The ‘pushing’ process of moisture from your body to the outer layers of the 3 piece suit (Shirt, Salopettes and Jacket) would have stopped because there was no heat to do the work and no heat to ‘warm’ the water up when it came in contact with your skin. This is where some form of vigorous exercise does the job and helps keeps you warm. Another way is to put the trusty Windshirt over the top of what you are wearing just as the rain starts. This, though not waterproof, can act as small water barrier and just delay the time it takes for the water to get in and the chilling process to start. (Exercise will still be required though, as above). If a ‘Waterproof’ is put over the top and not breathable, any moisture that is ‘pushed’ out though the Buffalo Clothing will be trapped behind the waterproof and end of making you colder than before. Of course, keeping your head and hands warm in this type of situation is vital, and a DP Hood on your head can help, and Mitts will help keep your hands a little warmer. The other answer, of course, is to try and find a little shelter!

As for the plunge pool, I did something similar a few years ago to test a new shirt, because loads of other people had done it and I thought that I should really know what it was like. Mine was on a very snowy day on Bleaklow! 20 minutes later we stopped on top for lunch and I was fine!

I hope this has answered some of the points you made. I will add this reply to your email on the web site so new users can see how we ‘try’ and address some of the issues you raised.

Again, thank you for taking the time to make these comments. It is always good to hear that we are still making great kit, in the UK, and that we have not given in and gone down the fashion line that so many brands have done before us, and lost their actual reason for making clothing in the first place.

Regards

Adam Thomas

Sales and Marketing Manager

Buffalo Systems Ltd

Canal-side start to SW08

I realise that many people like the Sleepwalker route, from the extremely generous feedback we received. Thank you..

The question I have been asked at the moment is: how many (like GRUBBY) think its too easy, and want to race in  Sleepwalker Steep, or  Sleepwalker Plus?, EXTREME SLEEPWALKER?!? -  with harder navigation (think KIMM/OMM B class but at night, MORE CLIMB, more OBJECTIVE DANGER, and little chance of being assisted until the next day if you were to have a problem?

This is what I originally wanted to do, but got talked out of. There are some major hurdles to cross, not least with the risk assessment of CBMRT so people need to let me know. It may anyway not happen till 2010 but we can at least guage the interest. Maybe a good way to filter entries would be by prior experience of KIMM/OMM or ‘A’ class fell Races, or even some of the Ultras which go through the night?

Cheers all.