Ian Barton

This seems a fairly simple list of requirements. However, it seems almost impossible to buy a single compartment sac of around 50 litres without lots of permanently attached bits and pieces.

Finally I stumbled across an article about POD sacks. POD (Pete O'Donovan) started out making chalk bags in his house in Sheffield. He went on to make one of the first tear drop rucksacks, which had a zipped top. He has now sold the company, but the current owners still use him as a consultant. More importantly they produce a range of rucksacks, primarily aimed at alpinists, but which had all the features I wanted. They are not cheap, so I definitely wanted to see one and try it out before buying it. Luckily a short holiday in Keswick gave me the chance to try one out. It turned out that Needlesports in Keswick stock the POD range of sacs. I was fairly certain that I wanted the Black Ice . You can remove the waist belt if required and the hood is extensible to enable you to increase its capacity.

The sac's capacity is 50 litres with an extra 10 litres if you extend the hood. For most of the time 50 litres is quite enough, but with three children's gear to carry, the ability to increase the capacity was welcome.

I spent about half an hour in the shop trying the sac out, filled with varying numbers of ropes to check how it performed when carrying different weights. I was convinced that the Black Ice was even better than my old Karrimor Alpiniste and I ended up buying it.

I bought this stove from RvOps . It uses resealable gas canisters, which are attached to the stove by a length of flexible pipe. Together with a pre-heater this allows the stove to be used in very cold conditions by inverting the gas canister. I managed to use it on a recent trip when it was about -4C.

The legs fold in, making the stove compact to carry. Since the canister is separate to the stove, it has a low centre of gravity, which makes it harder to spill things! Included with the stove are a heat reflector and windshield. There is also a Piezo igniter, although I always carry a TurboFlame lighter too.

When packed down the whole stove will fir inside my cook set. There are smaller and lighter stoves, but I like the flexibility of having the gas canister not attached directly to the stove.

I have used Trangia's for many years. The stove comes with its own integrated cook set. Unlike most stoves, it actually works better if there is a breeze. I prefer it to a gas stove if I am actually cooking something, rather than just heating something up.

Its only disadvantages are slow time to boil water and in some places meths can be hard to obtain.

If I am using the Trangia, I don't need to take a separate set, as it's already part of the stove. For many years I have had an aluminium set, which I used with gas stoves. However, last year I saw an MSR Alpine Cookset in a sale at Field and Trek. This is quite a bit lighter than my aluminium set, but you have to be careful not to burn things as the pans are very thin. Note that unlike older sets the newer MSR sets do not have a raised section in the centre of the pan, which caused uneven heating.

If you have to pay full price (around £35) probably not worth it. Look out for them in a sale.

I still have my original Karrimor yellow mat, which I bought in the 1970's. Since then I have bought one of the Thermarest self inflatable mats, which I use when we go car camping. However, this is too bulky to carry on a rucksack. Now I am getting older the old yellow Karrimat seems to be getting more uncomfortable, so I wanted something lighter than my current Thermarest, but more comfortable than my Karrimat!

A year or so ago Thermarest announced a new type of mat called the Neoair . This is a sort of super sophisticated lilo - you have to inflate it. However, it's much more technical than the classic lilo. An internal reflective layer provides heat insulation from the ground and an internal baffle arrangement provides stability and comfort.

I was initially dubious, partly because of reports of problems with some early mats not remaining inflated. Apparently this was caused by a packing problem in early batches and has now been resolved. I recently decided to buy one to use when I am backpacking.

The mat packs down to the size of a one litre bottle and weighs about 260g. I bought the regular size (72"), rather than the small (42"), as I didn't want my legs dangling off the end.

I used it on my recent overnight trip on Moel Siabod. It was very comfortable, much more so than the standard Thermarest. Even though the outside temperature fell to -4C I didn't feel cold. In fact it was so comfortable that I am giving my original Thermarest to one of the children and I'll use the Neoair when we go car camping. The Neoair does feel somewhat fragile and it remains to be seen how well it performs long term.

My first sleeping bag was a Blacks Good Companion. This had a feather (not down) filling, weighed a ton and wasn't all that warm. I have memories of one New Year at Wasdale Head. It was sometime in the late 1970's and there was record snowfall and low temperatures. I was extremely cold, even when wearing all my clothes inside the bag. I remember we used to go to the toilets at frequent intervals, to warm our hands under the dryer.

After that trip I bought a Mountain Equipment Redline. This was filled with down and even at that time was expensive. However, it was a good investment, as I still have it. During that time it has been back to Rab a couple of times to be cleaned and to have a bit more down blown into it. Its disadvantages are that it is far too hot in Summer and as the outer isn't waterproof the down tends to get damp in UK conditions.

I have also had a couple of Mountain Equipment synthetic fill bags, which I used in summer. My current bag is a Mountain Equipment Dragon. However, it's now at least 10 years old and isn't really warm enough except on warm summer nights.

I am planning to buy a Rab Alpine 400 . This is filled with down and has a Pertex Quantum outer, which is almost completely waterproof and I hope will overcome the problem of the down getting damp. It may turn out to be too warm in summer, but if that's the case I can carry on using my old synthetic fill bag.

My first bivvy bag was one of those orange plastic sacks that you can buy from any outdoor shop. Apart from using it to sit on, I don't remember ever using it to sleep in. That was probably a good thing, as I would ended up getting soaking wet from condensation even if it didn't rain.

Sometime in the 1980's I bought a Wild Country Goretex bivvy bag. I don't know the exact model, but it has almost a full length zip and a large cowl. The full length zip means it is easy to get into, particularly if you are sitting on a ledge half way up a mountain. The cowl is large enough to store some gear and clothing if you are lying flat. If you are sat on a ledge in a snowstorm, it stops the snow drifting inside the bag.

I have used this bag extensively in the past for everything from sleeping in South Stack car park at Gogarth, to alpine bivvies. Even after more than 25 years it is still in good condition.

Now that I have three children, I wanted some sort of emergency shelter that would fit up to five of us. Looking around various outdoor websites, I learnt about Bothy Bags. I ended up buying a Terra Nova bag and you can't read my post about it here .

When I first started walking I bought a pair of Blacks Tweed breeches after several episodes of walking in wet jeans. I still have the breeches and they still fit me nearly 30 years later, although I no longer wear them!

At some point I bought a pair of Rohan Super Striders, which served me well for many years. As I became more interested in Winter climbing, I bought a pair of Rohan Super Salopettes. There is a photo of me on the kitchen wall wearing them in the Albert Premier hut in 1985. I actually wore these about 2 years ago (2008) on a North Wales Winter climb. Apart from the elastic shoulder straps perishing they were still fine. You can read about the history of Rohan here . There is a contribution from Sarah Howcroft the wife of Rohan's founder Paul. Although Rohan have been taken over and gone on to be a high street brand, in the beginning they were ahead of their time. I can remember visiting their shop in Long Preston on the way back to Sheffield from the Lakes. You can see a time line of their products here , which shows how many modern ideas were first seen in Rohan gear.

In the early 1990's I was lucky enough to be given a set of Buffalo gear by the proprietor Hamish Hamilton. For cold conditions, especially Scottish Winters, where conditons vary between rain and being blasted with powder snow in the same day, Buffalo is undoubtedly the best thing I have ever owned. On a Scottish winter route I would normally wear just the Mountain Shirt and salopettes. I have never felt cold in Buffalo gear and even though the gear itself gets wet, your skin is always kept dry by the wicking action. However, once the temperature gets above freezing I soon start to overheat in Buffalo clothing, even with all the venting zips open.

For every day use and walking in most seasons apart from winter, I tend to use Craghopper Kiwis. If you shop around you can buy them for about £25. They are quite windproof and dry very quickly when wet. However, they also get wet very easily. Brush against a bit of wet bracken and you will be soaked.

A few months ago I started researching the "perfect" mountain trousers. After researching for quite a while I decided on the Mammut Base Jump pants. Unfortunately, Mammut decided to refresh their range at this time and no one had any in stock in my size. When the new Base Jump range arrived, it was quite a bit more expensive than the already very expensive old range. However, this meant the Mammut Champ pants, which are the more expensive version of the Base Jump were now cheaper than the new Base Jumps.

I was very dubious about paying £116 for a pair of trousers, but eventually talked myself into it. As my wife will confirm, I almost never buy clothes, so I didn't feel too bad about spending the money.

I have now had them a couple of months and am very happy with them. They are very windproof and while the Schoeller fabric isn't completely water proof, in anything short of a torrential downpour water just beads up and runs off. Even though I have some waterproof over-trousers, I never wear them, so at least I should stay drier in the long run. The knees are articulated, which is good for scrambling and climbing. There is also a vent at bottom of the legs which allows the pants to be worn over climbing or skiing boots.

Unlike some trousers there are no vents. However, even though I tend to run hot when walking, my legs have never sweated while wearing them. I think that they are probably too warm for summer (if we have one). However, I still have my Craghopper Kiwis for warm weather.

I have still got my original wool Blacks balaclava, which I bought in the 1970's. It's still as itchy now as it was then, so I don't wear it anymore. My next bit of headgear was a Mountain Equipment fleecy balaclava. They used to make these out of offcuts from their other garments and if you lived near Glossop you could pop in and pick one up very cheaply. I still wear this - I probably bought it in the early 1980's.

I have very recently bought a Paramo baseball cap . Apart from making me look even more of a Wally than usual, the peak keeps the sun and rain out of my eyes. It is very waterproof and I can arrange the neck flap so the water runs down my outer layer, rather than down my neck. The neck flap can be folded inside for summer use, or left extended to prevent your neck getting sunburned.

Most of the time I wear some cheap Thinsulate gloves. I may need to buy a new pair, as the mice have chewed the fingers out. I still have and use a couple of pairs of Dachstein mitts. These are fantastic as they stay warm even when you get them full of snow.

In the 1980's I succumbed to the Gortex glove fashion. Unfortunately, I dropped one of them on an ascent of Western Gully on Black Ladders in North Wales. Luckily a few weeks later I found another Goretex glove somewhere else. Even more luckily it was the same hand as the one I had lost. The only problem is that it was a different colour to my original glove, so now I have a pair of gloves of different colours. Although they are quite good, they don't keep your hands as warm as Dachsteins once the pile inside gets wet from spindrift.

A couple of years a go my wife bought me a new pair of "modern" winter climbing gloves. These are supposed to be large size. They fit, albeit tightly, when my hands are warm. Now I have very slim fingers, but when my hands get cold and swell slightly I can hardly get the new gloves on. So I stick with the oddbin Goretex and my original Dachsteins!