From: Dom Twist (thazar@globalnet.co.uk)
Date: Mon 02 Oct 2000 - 23:56:40 EEST
Oliver thinks I need a lesson in geography:-
>I live in a city (Winnipeg) that's south of Moscow and Reykjavik
- -......... -40 Celsius in the winter without the windchill (with the
windchill -40 is
>a lot more common). A great deal of this province (and in fact this
>country) is south of the Arctic Circle and a lot of it gets that cold in
the
>winter.
My -40 night was one of exceptional cold for the area I'll grant you....but
I was camped up in a thick sheltering forest which streched down to a sea
loch and was low in altitude. The Valley Glen Etive in the Western Highlands
abuts Gen Coe and was quite thicky populated untill the clearences.
However that wasnt the extreme's I was talking about...THOSE are up on Ben
Nevis and more Particularly the Cairngorm Plateau. The 'Gorms are VERY a
hostile place...I came close to not ever walking backout of them last Feb,
dressed in full modern mountaineering kit. Yet Before the Clearences
highlanders traveled them and even farmed cattle up on the plat'. Their
Bothies and shelters are still there....and memories of nights spent under
the shelter stone with a full blizzard howling outside are ones that I'll
take to my grave..and into any Sartarite campaign. The conditions found in
these high mountainious areas of Scotland are simmilar to the lower
Himalayas...and I say that having spent 6months working in the Mountains of
India/Nepal. Conditions of mixed ice and rock found on Ben Nevis for example
are allmost identical to those found in the 'Rock Belt' of Everest. This
according to some Polish Mountaineer friends of mine who had sumitted
Everest before going climbing with me Scotland (meslf never did anything
more than look at Everest from the Basecamp......and weeze from thin air).
Now I'm not saying that nowhere else is as cold or colder...I'm not. But
with the Wind coming in off the Atlantic with nothing to break it but
America Scotland's High Hills can be some of bleakest places on earth. These
areas are quite small in comparison to areas in other places. (This is due
to the Gulf Stream, if you go have a look at the actual latitude of Scotland
or Norway for that matter it should be a heck of a lot colder than it is,
Moscow is actualy on a simmilar lat to parts of Scotland and I think South
of the bits I'm discussing). Actualy speaking as someone who's preference in
times to go camping in Scotland is in the middle of Winter, freezing cold
and snow is much easier to deal with than near freezing or actual freezing
rain. If you have good clothing and plenty of food. Certainly the footing is
easier as all the bogs freeze up....
My point was not that Highlanders lived in the Coldest place on earth...they
obviously dont...but it's a lot colder than people were giving them credit
for!
>You have to admire the First Nations of this country because most of them
spent the winter in those sorts of temperatures in tents! (Of course the
>Inuit spent the winter in igloos).
A lot of Modern Artic/Mountaineering gear is based on Native American
clothing...just a lot lighter.
DomT
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