Highland Fling

25th April 2009 – Milngavie to Tyndrum / 53miles / 2500m Ascent

I first heard about the Highland Fling a few years ago when a couple of my parents friends ran it in preparation for a much longer run called the West Highland Way Race (95mls). Running the WHW Race is a fairly serious undertaking and as such the organisers are quite strict with the entry requirements. The Highland Fling or races of a similar distance are needed for your running CV before you can get in. So really it is stage one of a longer-term ambition I have…albeit a pretty stupid one.

I drove up to Milngavie just north of Glasgow on the Friday night and found a small campsite a few miles from the start. I spent an hour or so organising my clothing and food for the following day whilst I waited for my dad (my support person for the day) to arrive. A good nights sleep in my van ensued before waking at 5am and the process of eating as much as I could I begun. I headed over to the registration for a 7am start along with the other runners. Up until this year the event had quite a small following of around 70 runners but it has now been deemed tough enough to gain valuable entry points for a mega-tough race called the Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc (UTMB). This is one of Europe’s premier mountain running challenges and is very difficult to get an entry. This meant I was running with over 300+ other people setting off at different times which made for quite a competitive atmosphere.

Bankell Farm Campsite

Carrying only water and a few snacks I set off near the front with a plan of getting under 10hrs. The first leg was pretty straight forward and predominantly followed an old railway line going north. 12.19miles and 1hr 51mins later I went through the first checkpoint at Drymen bang on schedule. Switching water bottles with my dad I set off on leg two which continued north to the southern tip of Loch Lomond where the terrain turned to rough trails. Passing over Conic Hill and down to Balmaha (19.8mls / 3hr 3mins) I stopped for a quick bite to eat before pressing on to checkpoint two at Rowardennan. This was the start of the tougher sections going along the easterly side of Loch Lomond where climbing over boulders and tree roots ruined any hope of getting into a rhythm. At 27.2mls and 4hrs 29mins I was 1min ahead of schedule.

Meeting my dad at the van I switch to a short sleeve top to try and deal with the increasingly warm sun and ate and drank as much as I could in a 10min period. The next couple of stages continued along the side of the loch and I knew it would continue to be tough work underfoot. Hitting a drinks station at 34.3mls in 6hrs 5mins I was confident I could still hit the 10hr target despite losing 10mins on my schedule.

At around 38mls I had my first wobble of the day. Climbing yet another hill I started getting some double vision that signalled my dropping blood sugar levels. An elevenses bar later I was fine and kept pushing onto checkpoint three at Bein Glas just to the north of Loch Lomond. At 40.9mls in 7hrs 36mins I was now 6mins off schedule. Some of my mums homemade chicken noodle soup washed down some grapes (it seemed normal at the time) before I got going on the final section.

The route follows the West Highland Way - only 42mls left to do

I had only ran 2mls before the double vision came back with vengeance as my blood sugar plummeted. I had decided to ditch some ballast in the form of spare food so without much choice, and barely being able to keep my eyes open, I weaved side to side down the track and tried not to slow as I struggled away. Knowing my dad was going to pop up where the route passed under the main road less than a mile away kept me going and when he appear round the corner I knew I was back in business. I sat on a big boulder for 10mins with my eyes closed while shovelling food down my throat. Having done this to myself before I knew I would be fine and right enough I managed to get up and start running again.

The planned 10hrs was now impossible but I was now feeling really strong, still no signs of cramp, and the 10 or so people that passed me during my ‘moment’ were now targets. Climbing high into the hills above Crianlarich I managed to pick a few off before entering a difficult forest section before dropping down to the final flat 3m dash on gravel paths to the finish. I caught up with a few runners with 2mls to go, but most annoyingly, suddenly had no option but to stop for the toilet. Sorted out I chased after the group again, catching and overtaking them. I went through the finish line at Tyndrum in 10hrs 29mins 38secs in 76th place.

The final 10 yards

Other than a couple of blisters and stiff legs I don’t seem to have crippled myself too much. It seems ridiculous to think about running almost double the distance in the future but I thought that about a marathon the first time I did one. It has been great preparation for the forthcoming mountain marathon season and I am fired up for the LAMM in June. Richard is in the process of becoming a “human GPS” so we may be on for a good result.

In search of rain and customers

Its the Easter holidays. Its the Lake District. Plenty of people walking the fells and plenty of rain should not be too difficult to find............

An hour or so had passed, i'd wandered up the Band, around the Climbers Traverse and up and onto Bowfell. It was just after 11 and no sign of any fell walkers, in fact no sign of anyone. The forecast band of rain in the South of the park had not materialised, it was warm and humid.

Although I spend alot of time in the hills, once in a while it is good to spend some time observing what people are upto - you get much better first hand information on what people like to do, what they like to wear and so on. One of my main objectives had been to see what hardshell gear people wear, how many use or carry waterproof trousers etc. With no sign of moisture in the air, and none having fallen for the past week, it was looking like an increasingly futile exercise.

So where was everyone? Scafell Pike i thought, Englands highest mountain, surely there would be bands of people, from all walks of life, wandering up and down. Luckily I was not disappointed, as I passed Esk Hause, the crowds emerged.

A quick foray over to Scafell via Broad Stand* and it was back down towards Angle Tarn and Mickleden, a last chance to observe some of the day trippers wandering along the valley before heading home, my head afresh with thoughts and observations.

*no foot path exists between Scafell Pike and Scafell via Broad Stand. It is a difficult scamble / moderate rock climb!

Raindrops keep falling on my head

Not any more!

One of the least publicised additions to our Spring / Summer collection this year has been our new Pro Shell Cap. One of the first, if not the first 3 layer GORE-TEX Pro Shell Cap on the market.

Completely waterproof, breathable and with taped seams

The first time any of us had used one of these in anger was on last years storm lashed Original Mountain Marathon (formerly known as the KIMM). Keith and myself spent 6 hours in some of the most severe 'Summer' or 'Autumn' conditions I have ever experienced, with a delugue of rainfall and violent winds, whilst attempting to run over the usual featureless and demanding lakeland terrain.

Adjustable and elasticated rear cinch

So why bother? Well even when working hard, fell running etc, a waterproof hat like this is remarkably comfortable to wear, especially in the conditions when you would actually need one - funnily enough when its raining! It means that you can leave down a hood in all but really heavy rain or when conditions are unbelievably awful (see reports of OMM 2008!) they work surprisingly well in conjunction with a hood, given much greater frontal protection.

Offering good protection in sudden showers or when running etc

And even if you prefer your outdoor activities at a more sedate pace, it works really well in fleeting showers. Numerous times this April i've simply thrown on my cap rather than delve into my pack for my waterproof, knowing that it will have probably passed before i've done the zip up, with a softshell or similar this system can work really well.

The Pro Shell Cap is available in Blue, Black and Red, is in stores now and retails for around £25.00.

From Space Suits to softshell

Yesterday a collection of scientists, designers, students, journalists and outdoor brand owners converged in the leafy suburbs of Leeds for the 30th Survival conference.

Organised by the University of Leeds this conference brings together a collection of people associated in developing materials and finished products for extreme environments and focusses on presenting ideas, research and studies on everything from the application and evaluation of materials to laboratory and field trials of comfort management systems.

Photograph: NASA

As it was the 30th Anniversary the theme was about celebrating the past, present and the future. Dave Brook, recently retired director of the performance clothing research group gave an illuminating talk on the development of thermal testing from the late 70's onwards, a talk made all the more relevant by the fact that Mountain Equipment and its founder, Peter Hutchinson were instrumental in many of the technological developments and associated testing started by the University of Leeds that are now commmon-place in our industry. It also highlighted just how long we as a brand have supported independent scientific study to support field trials and evaluation.

But there was also a little more off the wall analysis also! I learnt more about the development of Space Suits than I ever realised there was to know - including the fact they would cost around $2 million each today(ouch!), some interesting studies on the problems with laboratory testing of sleeping bags vs field trials and some potentially exciting materials research on carbon fibre karabiners.

But there is a very serious point to all of this, and that is the joint roles of science and design in performance clothing and reinforced just how many products and materials we now and in the future will take for granted thanks to those humans operating at the edge of what is possible.

Challenge China – The End

We are on the last couple of garments on the final day of our SS2010 prototype development meetings out in China. Ten days, five factories, eight flights, and enough meals out to last me the rest of the year. Around 9000 miles not including the 6000 miles home, starting at midnight tonight. The most important thing is that the prototypes look great and we are on timetable.


The highlight of the trip has to be a slight diversion to the Great Wall and the Forbidden City in Beijing for a few hours with one of our factories. It was snowing quite a bit on the wall and around –5oC but that didn’t seem to put off the hundreds of people clambering up the steps to the nearest high point. It was amazingly dangerous near the top with every one of the polished angled steps a potential leg breaker. Our factory contact was particularly worried for our/his safety trying to force me to use the metal railings at every opportunity…he hadn’t heard of Inov-8’s. They would clean up with a Mudclaw stand next to the ticket booth (other extremely grippy shoes are available).

We get home on Wednesday morning and I move on to AW2010 design work.

Challenge China – Part 2

We are now on day four, factory number three, and fatigue is setting in.

We spent the first few days at our factory in Guangzhou looking at a dozen or so SS2010 prototypes. Twelve hours on both days followed by a meal out with the owners and then back to the hotel to write up comments and update diagrams. These are then sent back to the office in the UK so the team there can modify the specifications ASAP to be sent back out to the factory to get the process going again. Bedtime around 2am

We then flew up to Qingdao in the north of China arriving at out hotel at 3am due to late flights. Up at 6:30 for breakfast before heading to our factory about one hour away. A long day looking through another set of prototypes and production issues was followed by another meal out and yet more comments and diagram modifications. Again bed around 2am.

Today we were up at 6am before being picked up and driven to our Japanese owned factory slightly further north. There seems to be a lot of misconceptions about the factories out in China and this place certainly dispels any myths. The building has a NASA development centre feel about it with floors you could eat your dinner off and a super organised production line. However, it is the imported Japanese toilets complete with electronic heated seats and jet wash that takes the biscuit. Not to mention they have a better view out the windows than I do in Manchester!

Liskamm Pants & Nano Technology

This blog like so many others was partly inspired by a forum post I read on UKClimbing.Com in which someone was asking for opinions on our Liskamm Pant.

It was also inspired by the fact that on this forum post, the user asked if they were new to our range, and this struck a chord with me, for sometimes we have some very good products that seem to occasionally get sidelined behind our established big guns and seem to take years to get noticed by the outside world, often for no good reason. Well after 3 years hiding amongst the pages of our workbooks, lost in the alpine ether perhaps the time has come for this technical alpine pant to be shown to the outside world.

An early pair of Liskamm Pants on test in the Ecrins, France

3 years ago we started what has turned out to be a fairly seismic overhaul of our softshell legwear collection. Back then it was a collection of individually successful products but was a long way off from being a comprehensive range. The Liskamm Pant was to be the flagship of that work, a hard hitting alpine guides pant that would rise to the challenge of meeting head-on the growing number of lightweight softshell pants emerging out of the continental market.

Ideal for an Alpine climate

It was a major departure for us. It was the first of our pants to use a (then relatively unknown outside of continental Europe) Schoeller fabric. It was the first to be built around a slimmer, climbers orientated fit, it was one of the first pants to use Stealth technology that we had originally developed for our GORE-TEX clothing and it was the first pant we had developed that would require you to shell out well in excess of £100.00 in order to buy. In short it was a risk.

So what do you get for your hard earned money? In straightforward terms you get a pant that excels at technical mountaineering and rocky mountain scrambles, a pant that seemingly has the ability to look as good as new after 3 months of continuous wear and that is so comfortable you barely notice you're wearing them.

The Liskamm Pant is constructed from Schoeller, but no oridinary Schoeller. For those that dont know Schoeller is an innovative Swiss textiles company that amongst other things produce some excellent stretch fabrics. One of those fabrics is Dryskin, a fabric that is lightweight, is permanently elastic, has excellent moisture transfer properties, yet is able to dry quickly and is moisture and wind resistant on the outside. However in order to radically improve the performance of these pants, we have then specified an array of additional finishes which include: the addition of Cordura fibres to improve abrasion/rubbing resistance (thats the Extreme part), an additional surface coating to further improve water repellency (thats the 3xDRY part) and the application of a Nanosphere finish.

This is the really clever part, with particles so small that they are almost beyond microscopic that effectively means the fabric is self cleaning. Extremely fine particles that form the Nanosphere finish are applied are to the fibres, these particles then prevent dirt such as oil, dirt and dust adhering to the fibres by reducing the 'footprint' that these droplets have to sit on, so they simply wash off. It has the added benefit that it will also cause water droplets to do the same, radically improving water resistance. Its not a standard coating and so is exceptionally durable (and should withstand around 50-70 machine washes) and having been inspired by the study of plants, the process is ecologically sound and is Bluesign certified. It won't mean you'll never have to go near a washing machine ever again, but will certainly mean you'll have less excuse to sit around with a mug ot tea watching the machine go round and round on those, never meant to happen, rainy days in the Alps!

Comfortable even when hiding under rocks in the Alps

But its not just the fabric that has a specification even NASA would be proud of. The construction is equally as impressive.

You get crampon kick strips that are not just swathes of fabric sewn on top, but exceptionally durable Hypalon, the stuff that inshore dinghies are made out of, bonded seamlessly to the inside leg. It won't protect your inside leg from a fatigue induced direct strike from your front points but will happily fend off boot scuffs, sharp scree and the occasional crampon swipe on a weary descent.

Bonded and seamless Hypalon Kick Strips

You get Kevlar reinforced knee's, exceptionally durable and hard wearing , backed on the inside for next-to-skin comfort they can feel warmer than the rest of the pant on really hot days but more than compensate on technical and steep ground. You get a generously long zipped gusset on the lower leg giving you a slimmer fit for when more delicate footwork is required or lower volume boots are worn and we even give you a few pockets and brace attachment loops.

Kevlar reinforced knees and zipper gusset on lower leg

And all of this is put together using the principles of our Stealth Technology. In effect the desire to hide as much of the make-up, hide as much of the inner workings of the product as possible in to protect those working from the harsh elements of the outside world, to improve comfort and to improve aesthetics.

What you dont get is any colour other than Black.

So all of this is very nice in theory but does it make the blindest bit of difference in the real world? Well I have been using Liskamm Pants now for some 3 years. I 've worn them for ice climbing, for mountaineering and general scrambling everywhere from the Lake District to the Alps and I really dont have many complaints.

Liskamms at work in the cold gloom of a British Winter

They are extremely comfortable to wear on all but the hottest of afternoon glacial plods, they are slim without managing to make you look like an over athletic Italian Guido (some would say a look worth pursuing), they work with lightweight scrambling and alpine boots, they work with big mountaineering boots and more importantly they work as well in the unpredictable UK climate as well as the hopefully more predictable alpine one. I also saw a a pair that had been worn for 70 days on the trot, by a mountain guide in the Alps, and they still looked brand new.

Yes another, lighter colour would be nice (I hear another plea for more exciting to colours to be bought coming on!) for those sun soaked high alpine faces but I guess I can live with just Black for the time being, if nothing else it make thinking about what colour to wear infinitely less hassle.

Liskamm Pants retail for around £135.00 in the UK and are available in sizes 30-36 in both regular (31") and long (33") leg. Black is the only colour!

If you like the sound of these but want something perhaps more suited to general mountain use and scrambly hill walking you can now always choose the Combin Pant.