We where told be the media and the met office that we would get snow but no one really believed that we would be hit has hard as what we where.
We just can’t cope with more than a cups worth of snow in the uk. The first day we had a little then second it really came down and on the back of the beast from the East was storm Emma that really helped put East Anglia out of action.
I finally found a day to head out and enjoy the white stuff covering the ground. I love the snow and the cold weather, I would love to live up North where proper winters stay for the whole winter.
So after offering two of my three days off to help at work as people couldn’t get into work to crew ambulances I decided to head out for the day with the hound.
I’d planned a 8km circular hike where I could stop off in some woods to have lunch.
I have cold weather gear but neve really needed to use it in the UK but today I decided to break out the Swedish Army Surplus cold weather mittens. I’ve had these for a while and I used to have a pair I used for snowboarding years ago so decided to give these ago.
These a not a light weight pair of mittens but they work well to keep the inner mittens dry and warm from the wind. With a good length they go half way up lower arm and have cord on them that goes around your wrists to secure them when you have to take them off to use your hands.
Anyway…
I had my day pack packed with my usual bits and headed off with my sticks through the snow.
Lunch was planned to be the left overs from last nights Barszcz (beetroot soup with wild mushroom ravioli).
https://www.vildmark.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/img_0364.mov
Now I was going to light my stove using a ferro rod but I had misplaced it so had to go old school and use a piece of flint and a steel striker I really was hoping this wouldn’t fail.
I was pretty impressed managed to get a coal in the char cloth first time and managed to get a flame in the Birch bark tinder easily.
Stove is a generic Chinese wood gas stove that I have really come to love as it packs down small and is really efficient but the only downfall is the need to keep topping it up with fuel regularly.
It was so quiet and peaceful no one was about. I collected some more Birch bark to replace the tinder I had used and sat and had my soup.
http://https://www.vildmark.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/img_0468.mov
Out of the two stoves I’ve been using recently I would say this I prefer as it is so efficient but the little bush box is really compact.
Within a day the snow had gone and I thought I would need to wait until this Christmas before I see it again when I plan to head up to Northern Sweden for a week.
