Snailwalkers

I know you come here for the very best in health and fitness advice so this week I address the important, and urgent, question everyone is asking as they prepare for this adventure : Just how much trailmix should one pack for 100Km of hiking ? You know the stuff. Peanuts, almonds, raisins, some miscellanous fruity bits [...]

Attempting to completely disorientate Simon and his Gore-Tex acquiring frenzy, this weekend’s hike was in gloriously clear weather. Takao san guchi by train from Shinjuku in central Tokyo, and in less than than an hour, you’re in mountain-ville. Six of us set off up the 稲荷コース ( Inari-mountain course ) from the station, towards Mount [...]

Found a couple more shots, both taken at the highest point on the CP1 – CP2 route. We sat down for a minute or two, no longer as it was freezing and getting dark. Not many photos on this last part of the day as my fingers were frozen and working the camera was hard. [...]

Whipped these up for some fun

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After the near-death experience from stupidity exposure earlier this week, I gave in and bought some proper clothes. Well, a proper Gore Tex jacket. Bewildering choice so I decided the only thing to do was rate the various brands on how light, expensive, garish and ridiculously named they were, and the winner on all four [...]

Date : February 11th 2010

Who : Paul M and Simon

Where : Odawara to CP2

Conditions : Cold, Rain, Fog

Report : Fairly challenging, fairly miserable but character building slog through the rain and fog to CP2. Simon was testing his new boots, GPS watch and Gore Tex stuff. I was trying to remember the trail, and largely [...]

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. Attributed to many but let’s claim it for Jorge Agustín Nicolás Ruiz de Santayana y Borrás, or just plain old George Santayana. Writer, philosopher, traveller, Cambridge student and Harvard lecturer, counting among his students T.S. Eliot ( famously an anagram of “Toilets” ) and Gertrude [...]

Decided to attack my illotibial band with this foam roller thing :

Alright, not the most exciting purchase of all time. This is the thing they used at the physio when I was getting my IB stretched. Hurts like being hit by a car – something I have some experience of – but supposedly helps. One [...]

So last time I did this, I had broken my foot and still had illiotibial band syndrome, a long name for a simple condition someone once described as like having a craft knife roughly inserted into the side of your knee. Not an ideal starting point for a 100Km mountain jaunt but fortes fortuna adiuvat and all [...]