In an effort to stop the sleep of this blog, I’m going to start with some shorter posts and try to get back into the swing of things.
I think that one of the most important things when bikepacking, snow-racing, or being in the outdoors at all is to be mindful. Be mindful of your surroundings, and be mindful of your actions. Appreciate where you are and, at the same time, think about what you’re doing.
A very pedestrian example of this is to make stuffing your sleeping bag easier with a single knot:
Having an extra knot on the cord means that the toggle stops before the end of the cord. When you go to put the sleeping bag away, it’s much easier to grab the end of the cord with one hand in one hand and the toggle in the other.
That might seem like a pointless saving of a fraction of a second, but consider doing it at -30C on the Iditarod trail. If you’ve put this extra knot in, you can do it with your mitts on. If you haven’t, you’ll need to take your mitts off to be able to hold the end of the cord.
Simple. Free. Thinking about what you’re doing.
Ranulph Fiennes was on the telly the other day, he’d gotten frost bite from taking his gloves off for two minutes to fiddle with his ski bindings. He had an undiagnosed circulatory problem in one hand, so two minutes was all it took even though he felt warm. Anything to keeps your mits on has to be good!
Exactly… I did think of Fiennes when I was writing that. There are always some things you need full dexterity for, but reducing them means happier hands, less risk, and less time spent waiting for the feeling to come back.