A lot of people have been asking what Meru was like, and that are there any specific tips that I'd give. Most of the obvious tips, are well, obvious, so I thought I'd give a list of things I feel are either just important, or a little less obvious:
- Spend as much as you can afford on climbing kit
– good kit will make you climb considerably more comfortable on the mountainside, whether that is keeping you drier, warmer, less sweaty, or more importantly weighing less in your pack. Certainly there are ways to save a lot of money, but one of the first things to be sacrificed at the altar of cost is weight, and let me tell you there is a significant difference in a 3kg sleeping bag and a 1.5kg sleeping bag when you’ve been carrying a 17kg pack all day.
- Bring an extra pair of light shoes, sandals, trainers, pumps, Crocs
- anything which is not your walking boots – you’ll want them off as soon as you hit your camp, and won’t want to see them again until you really have to fore morning, and vitally it gives them a chance to air and dry before you start off the following morning making the next day’s hike much more bearable
- But make sure that you bring ones you like the taste of. I was flagging as I approached the peak of Meru, but it was energy bars which kept me going, and the fact that I had brought ones I actually liked, made eating them all the more pleasurable. On a similar note, bring hard-boiled sweets, simply something to suck, give you a little boost, and keeps the taste of dust from your mouth
- Backups, backups of all sorts, extra batteries, extra film or memory cards,
- If you can even bring an extra camera do so. I carried two cameras with me at all times, one in my pack, and one in my pocket. It’s a trip of a life time and you don’t want to miss that unique summit shot.
– On the lower reaches the jungle can swarm with bugs, be it at the camp, or just hiking along the route, there will be a constant buzz. Make sure that you get the 95% DEET, but remember that it is in a metal container for a reason, it has a tendency to dissolve plastic, such as laptops and waterproof jackets, so make sure it only goes on your skin and rub it in well!
- Don’t over pack on things you don’t need
- Do you really need that extra, extra backup t-shirt? Plan for as long as you need, Meru is only 3 days, one pair of good quality, fast drying, walking trousers will do you fine. I used Rohan Uplanders for my trip, and have always said that if you want a pair of trousers to bash around in all day, in the heat and the cold and be comfortable in both, you’ll be hard pressed to find better.
– These are an absolute life saver – use to try and wipe the grim from your face several hours into your hike and also invaluable when it comes to toilet stops on the mountainside
– Yes you’ll need them, they are not their just to keep the sun out of your eyes, but also help greatly when you’re tramping through the dust, and vital for keeping snow blindness at bay when you get near the top – also you just look cooler!
– This is pretty much the same advice as the glasses, immensely useful in a variety of situations. I had one round my neck to keep the sun off during the day, great for keeping out the chills at night. Use it to keep the sweat out of your eyes, and the dust out of your mouth. If there is one thing that will come in handy time and again on the Mountain, this is it
- Water tablets, or if you can afford it, a filter bottle
- There aren’t many places to fill your bottle from streams on the mountain, so the water you get is rain water collected at the huts, yes it might have been boiled before your given it, but it’s still murky, hence if you can stretch to a filter bottle, do so - your taste buds will thank you.
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