Camping advice needed

RossG · 21 Jan 2008 at 21:43

I'm off for a long weekend camping and hiking up in Edale, the Penine way over the Easter weekend in March. Now this will be my first time going camping properly (last time I did it I was in the cub scouts). We have most of our equipment sorted out but I do need some advice on some othe stuff.
First of all, I'm not totally sure what the weather will be like when we get up there. I'm going to guess it'll be cold, windy and raining. Anyone been there or around there before at that type of year can confirm this?

At the moment, the equipment/clothing I need are a good water/windproof jacket, a decent fleece or similar to go underneath, some hiking socks, a half decent sleeping bag and some walking boots. Now I don't have loads of money at the moment so I'll need these items as cheap as possible while still being effective enough for the conditions. I'm assuming a t-shirt, fleece and a waterproof jacket will be enough for my upper body. For my lower body I was just going to wear some cheap jeans with waterproof trousers over the top?

Would be great if someone could advise me on the above

RossG · 21 Jan 2008 at 21:53

Well we have the tent, food, travel etc sorted out

RossG · 21 Jan 2008 at 23:14

Thanks for all the advice guys. What is so dangerous about wearing jeans then, out of curiousity?

RossG · 25 Mar 2008 at 10:32

Well I survived the trip and had a bloomin' great time

Now we are looking to go again, but this time in Snowdonia. Anybody know any good camp sites around there, preferabley one that allows fires? Must be within walking distance to all the best walks around there too.

And as for D.P saying that it probably wouldn't snow in Edale:

Thats the inside of our tent. We opened it up in the morning and it all fell in. We cleaned most of it out and put the kettle on for a cup of tea at 5:30AM. It was wonderful ^_^

RossG · 25 Mar 2008 at 11:17

Oh and also, I'll probably be buying my own tent for the next expedition. What are decent makes and what aren't?

RossG · 25 Mar 2008 at 20:21

The one we used in Edale was a Vango and it seemed to cope well. We had a lot of wind the first night. It flapped around a lot but wasn't damaged. It held up to 3 inches of snow without a problem either.
A theoretical budget for the tent would be around £250, though I don't know for sure if I will need it yet now. I'll look for one slightly nearer the time.

Also, I found the quickest way to dry the insides of your boots if they ever get wet - tea lights. The snow got in mine, but with a couple of tea lights in each boot for 5 minutes they were bone dry. Just make sure you keep an eye on them. A fellow camper tried it and his shoes started smoking