Backpacking Scotland – Dealing With the Wet and Cold (Photo Essay & Gear List)

Sounds like a walk in the park.

Article says, “On this trip, the weather was mostly cloudy, with winds gusting well over 20 miles per hour (37 mph was the maximum recorded) and rain on six days. Temperatures were moderate – in the fifties most days and thirty to fifty overnight “

Sounds like South West Tasmania, Australia, to me. Wet, damp, wet and wetter and that is just summer imagine what winter is like! I can’t wait to get to Scotland and explore the Munros

Frank, Good tip on the neoprene socks. I’ll have to try a pair. Are the neoprene socks breathable? I didn’t realize that. I thought since neoprene is closed cell foam that it wouldn’t be breathable. It is closed cell, isn’t it?, or is it open cell? Somehow, i got the idea that it was closed cell foam…oh well, i’m probably confused. Any help anyone?

These socks consist of a nylon jersey inner and outer shell, with neoprene sandwiched between. The neoprene has small holes punched in it for breathability. The nylon inner shell wicks moisture towards these holes where it can evaporate. Liquid moisture simply drains out. Of course, liquid moisture also drains in, so the socks aren’t nearly as warm as non-breathable neoprene. But once my legs and feet are warmed up, I have no problems walking around in slush at 30F with these socks.

All of my backpacking is done in the warmer months, where 20F is the minimum daytime temperature, and the typical temperature is typically short-sleeve weather. I usually go on long-distance hikes starting each spring and I don’t want to pack more than a single pair of footwear. My old approach was to start with waterproof boots, then discard these and buy some shoes or sandals on the road as the temperatures warmed up, but now I just start out with sandals and some neoprene socks in my pack in case of snow conditions.

The neoprene socks are pretty fragile, so if I’m expecting a lot of cold weather, I’ll pack several pairs to last me until the warm weather arrives. So far though, a single pair has been adequate per hiking season and I just discard the extras when warm weather arrives.

I should not that I’m quite comfortable walking with sandals and no socks at 40F. For most people, this may take some mental adjustment. I don’t think any major physical adjustment is necessary, given that our ancestors routinely walked barefoot at these temperatures and lower. In cool weather, I notice that I typically bundle up in my torso region and wear mittens even when everyone else is barehanded, probably because I’m compensating for the heat lost through bare feet in sandals.

Late-breaking update:

It seems campmor.com no longer sells these socks. They were made by Seirus. I see them in the Seirus.com catalog, but I don’t know any reseller who has them in stock. Lucky I still have 3 pair left. I guess I’ll have to be careful with these remaining pairs…

As for the Seirus storm socks, these have a W/B liner. When used with sandals, the socks soon develop holes. Water get in these, but then can’t get out, so these socks are worthless to me. The breathable neoprene socks don’t have this problem because they have little holes arlready punched in the neoprene. All the good products disappear and are replaced by sh*t.

Scottish winters feature a lot of transition temperatures and that means walking on ice and hard snow early in the day then sinking through later on (but without that sharp crust I encountered in Great Basin NP). There is also the issue of frozen scrag. Scrag is a mix of scree and crag. When it has a thin layer of hard snow over it, you need an axe and mountain boots. There have been times when I needed crampons for basic backpacking. Chris used to do a fair bit of cross country skiing in the Highlands. The snow conditions mean it’s never easy.

I’m intrigued by his 3 oz topo. British Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 maps are 40 km across. Crossing that, even if you are wandering, is easy in two days. I usually end up taking 4 maps for a trip to the Highlands. If it was available for the Mac, I’d get Memory Map or Tracklogs software and print off just the essential bits. Maybe then the topo map would come in at 3 ozs.

Frank,

Many thanks for the update. Since you recommend them so highly, I’ll have to get a pair and try them. Thanks again for taking the time to update us with this latest info.

Frank, thanks again. i’ll be sure to be careful of the size.