Pennine Way 2017

A long held plan has been to backpack the Pennine Way in one trip. My first ever multi-day backpacks were over 1975, 1976 and 1977 when, with a friend, I did the PW. I described these in an earlier post.

Since then, I have covered sections of the PW but now I have a great opportunity coming up next week when I join Mike Menzel at Edale. He is currently walking from Lands End to John o'Groats and blogging at http://off4ahike.wordpress.com. I shall wait until he reaches Edale and we shall then set off together. I have just about everything packed/ready to pack. There are still a few decisions to make regarding kit. I had planned to use a Laser Competition 1 tent without the inner but I am now wavering and thinking I shall take the inner. It was fine last month for the few nights I had in the Peak District but I am now thinking of windy nights when I could get showered with condensation and my down quilt wouldn't like it. On the other hand, maybe I should take a bivy bag instead of the inner (an Alpkit Hunka). It's a little heavier than the inner but it would double up as an survival bag.

Food - I shall take five days of food and pick up a resupply parcel at Hawes. For the last week or so, I shall rely on buying food as I go. Food can be heavy, even though much of what I will be carrying has been dehydrated. My food bag for the first five days weighs 2.5kg and this is not insignificant. However, I will be eating the food I want and I know, largely, what has gone into it. My pack, including 500ml of meths, but minus food and water, will be just over 6kg or 13.5lb so that's not too bad. Given that there are shops regularly along the way, I could do it differently and maybe I should on a future trip. It really comes down to personal choice.

I've got some last minute tweaking to do!