Do not wear combats in the hill, as ex RAF mountain rescuer, they are incredibly difficult to spot if your the one looking for people wearing them.

Norgie's are crap too, unless you like wearing something that hold all the moisture, and will lead to hypothermia in colder conditions, in general don't wear cotton at all if possible.

I wear montane trousers, cost me £50, but hardwearing, windproof and very quickdrying, helly hansen top, windproof top and salomon boots.

In my hillbag i carry goretex jacket, as said before they don't keep you dry if it's pouring it down! Also carry an old buffalo jacket and trousers, with a bivi bag, incase i have to spend a night in the hills or i meet someone in trouble.

I also carry cylumes, readily available from your friendly QM's! and a good first aid kit.

If you want decent kit your gonna have to put your hand in your pocket i'm afraid Fella ! I like to use this saying "If You Buy Sh*te You Buy Twice"
The Civvi's you are encountering on your Walk's may look like they've just fell off a Catwalk but you can Bett your last Sheckle that they are Warm and Comfortable,and in most case's Dry ! So go on treat yourself,and get away from that "Compo" from the Last of the Summer Wine Look...

I always find that green wellies and speedos do the job

Also join the BMC - the British Mountaineering Council. Not least because lots of shops (Snow & Rock for example) give discounts to members. They also provide very cheap insurance (very important if you're walking/climbing in the Alps) and do lots of good work with respect to paths and access rights etc.

www.thebmc.co.uk/

You can get some good decent gear here mate and it's quite cheap.

www.gooutdoors.co.uk/

buy cheap, buy twice.

a cheap baselayer, whether that be a cotton t-shirt or a polybollox 'wicking' top, will ruin your day. you'll be wet, smelly, cold and you'll feel like tracy emins armpit.

go Merino. expensive - £30 a shot - but it can be worn indefinately.

cheap midlayer, go outdoors are flogging half-zipped 100wt fleeces for £7. bargain.

a Paramo Feura windproof is the ultimate outerlayer - simply wash it in nikwax waterproffing agent and you have a very comfortable, wind proof, waterproof and extremely breathable top for £35 on fleabay. should you wish you could push the boat out and buy a £15 pac-a-mac as well.

£20 pair of craghopper 'kiwi' UNLINED trousers from TK Max and a pair of £20 waterproof overtrousers and you're sorted. kind of.

you'll then need (utterly essential in winter) hat, gloves, headover/neckwarmer, plus spares, maps/compass, plus spares, a headtorch (Alpkit.com do them for £5, fantastic kit) a bivi bag/bothy bag incase you get benighted/injured/lost/fancy eating your lunch out of the sleet and driving rain, snickers bars, and decent boots.

decent boots will cost you at minimum £80. rather more likely is £120. Gore-tex boots are Satan's instrument of doom, don't buy them.

have fun, it seems a bit steep (ha ha!), but its honestly worth it.

a bivi bag will set you back a fair bit, i suggest one of these:

they are sort of like a big plastic bag. iv forgotten the name, but they conserve like 98% of your body heat. cost about a fiver, most mountaineering shops sell them.

you can get variations to hold up to about 8 people. if your not planning to spend time overnight, taking that will be fine. most are orange on the outside,

see here for example.
www.survival-school.or...oductID=71

weighs like 100g, and if things go tits up, all you need to do is crawl under a rock, and get inside. probably would be fairly miserable, but would keep you alive and stave off hyperthermia.

also, a nice knife. iv got a 5 inch blade frosts mora knife, got it off ebay brand new for about a tenner, and its bloody good.

if you are doing anything involving ropes, you MUST keep a knife on you that is easy to get at.

waterproof some matchs by dipping the head in melted wax. you can drop them in water, pick off the wax and they will still light.

i also second the advice to learn to climb. alot of routes up mountains, via passes and such, will be fairly easy scrambles, meaning you dont need ropes and climbing gear. a few hours on a wall, and some confidence will be enough to talk basic traverses and such.

Jesus, steady on guys, I'm going for a bimble in the Derbyshire Dales not doing the Arctic and Mountain Warfare Cadre course!

Thanks for the ideas though, got some good ideas for outer water and windproof wear......that Nikwax stuff looks useful as well - why didn't they have that in the 80's, would of been great on the old combat jackets rather than wearing the crisp packet waterproofs.

As for emergency kit I always take a Torch (LED wind up), Mobile phone, map and compass, spare clothing, hot flask and some food. All in ziplock bags where appropriate.

I do have a bivvy bag (Big green one, even got the green sleeping bag to go with it. ) but feel that its a bit overboard for the Dales.

Right, Mountain Warehouse here I come.......

buffalo shirt off ebay thats your top sorted ronhills hat gloves
paramo if you can afford it though

Just an opinion, but Lifa vests and similar eat my shoulders if I'm carrying any weight. Anything man made and essentially knitted plastic isn't going to be cummfy if it is rammed into you. And they're dear. And a little tear really expands...

Dont forget a whistle !

Well Mountain Warehouse was interesting, got some nice fleece at excellent prices as well as a waterproof so I'm sorted for the top, still wondering about the legs though, I want something light,windproof and warm but not actually waterproof as I find that I sweat really bad with waterproof bottoms, any ideas?

I just realised that I forgot to look at the daysacks and wooly hats. that always happens when I go shopping, I have the urge to grab what I need and get back ASAP often forgetting half the stuff I needed. Been shopping with the wife too often I think.

Why's everyone gone off cotton all of a sudden? It used to be a damn sight better than man made fibers.

Don't bother buying another if it feels comfy on your back as very few daysacks are totally waterproof. There are too many seams and zips etc for them to keep it totally dry inside. You're better off buying getting some waterproof liners (ortlieb) or getting a waterproof cover for your rucksack. Or for the cheapo/day in the dales version get a thick black bin bag, and use that as your rucksack liner.

It's not a case of going off cotton, it's just that there are better materials for the job. If one was being really spanky I'd say ditch the man-made base layers and thermals and get yourself some merino wool ones, or silk ones. They really are fandabbydozy, and don't end up making you whiff after a hard session. Well not that I ever do, since I am a laaaady and all

Also I know you're only planning a day trip out my lurve but I'd strongly recommend an orange bivi bag/survial bag (think that was what you were talking about christheclimber). They normallly cost about 3 quid and are basically a big plastic orange sleeping bag type thing. They weigh nothing in your pack but are so worth having on you 'just in case'.

Regarding the trousers - go on, slip on those ronnies.....dare you

Craghopper's are good, bought both lined and unlined a couple of weeks ago for walking in Snowdonia. They have to be the best trousers I've ever bought. Dried out quickly after rain, lined pair kept me very warm, fantastic fit and good value for money.

Bought them reduced at Rock Bottom.

On the one I have even the material lets water in nevermind the seams and zips! However, it is very comfy and I always have everything in bags anyway so depending on the price of new ones I may get a cover and/or spray wax it instead.


Well, I've always found cotton to be fine for me and I really don't care if I smell afterwards as I'm usually stinking, wet through and covered in mud anyway.


To be honest I was thinking of throwing the Bivvy bag in the daysack over the winter, I think I will just to be safe.


I've managed to keep the WRAF wife out of them for 14 years so I'm not going to start now!

I'll stick to the stockings and suspenders thanks......

Is that you on the left with your bitches? Go on tell the truth your a rambler not a hillwalker!

with that budget - best you get yourself down to TK Maxx - you can get a really decent ski / winter jacket for £40.00

loads to try

I wish I was dressed as well as that lot! I dream of that kind of classy apparrel!

No, if I was in that photo I'd be the one looking like the man from 'George' with the leaky daysack.

actually, ski and winter jackets tend to have less then desirable waterproofing in my experience, especially at that price. a decent arctic outer will set you bag a lot, and simply, you need an expensive one for arctic conditions.

however, a cheap winter jacket is designed to protect you from wind and snow and cold. in heavy rain you can expect it to penetrate. the lining will get wet, and there goes your heat retention quality.

a cheap jacket should not have a lining, the problem is, they are cheap for a reason. they dont spend the money on top notch lining filling, which will be unaffected by being wet. they wont spend the money taping the seams and all the modern jazz.

it fill be fine if your on a piste in a sunny day, or in light snow, but heavy rain, that we get in the winter here will most likely get you wet.

if the coat is lined, and gets wet, your going to be miserable for the whole trip. the lining is fixed to the coat, so you have no choice. if you get, as a few people have said, a waterproof more like a mac in a pac, which is just a windproof & waterproof outershell, with no lining, you can shake the water off it, stick it in a plastic bag with a hole in, and use it as your pillow, and it will be dry as a bone nearly.

i personally think you should never have a layer that does two jobs.
it either keeps you warm, or dry, not both.
i can take off my waterproof if its not needed, but still keep all my layers.
and if im hot, and my jacket also insulates, i then have to take off one big layer, and ill lose a large amount of heat, probably meaning ill be either too hot or too cold.

mountaineering and hill walking has some of the most useless crap around. you can buy 30 pound waterproof trousers and find they protect about as well as a teabag.

the people who work at the national mountain training centre in snowdonia, get all gucci kit for free. they each wear in the region of £1000 of kit each, not including anything in their bag. even this gear doesnt stop them getting wet when god pisses on you, so dont believe for a second a £50 imitation of an expensive brand will be a bargain.