Found this, although it's written by someone in the States plenty of it is still very relevant.
1) Rest more than you think you need to.
2) Slowest person goes in front for safety.
3) Tautline hitches and cinch knots > truckers hitches
4) Roll your sleeping pad up along the inside of your pack for structure. If it's inflatable, fill it up after your pack is full and it will carry better. Bonus--it will look fuller so people won't ask you to carry more group gear.
5) Rain hats make rainy days more bearable than just using your hood
6) Rather than using multiple guylines and multiple stakes, re-tie your tent guylines so that one stake can be used for multiple guy points. If you have a tent that sets up externally, guy from the corner stake points to guylines higher up on the tent. (Clyde Soles taught me that little trick from a Rock and Ice article in '94 or something.)
7) River stones make for a really comfortable wipe. As a corollary, it's hard to bring too much toilet paper.
8) Mud is a sunscreen AND bug repellent and it makes you look like Arnie in Predator.
9) Instead of pumping at your water source, bring a water bag and pump in comfort in camp. Straddling a mosquito-infested trickle in a dark shady area out of the wind can get you skeeter bites on your bits and giblets. Which sucks. This is less of an issue now that I use a gravity filter.
10) Bad tasting water doesn't build character, it just makes you drink less. Carbon filters are a nice thing to have if you know you're gonna be drinking from stinky ponds.
11). Earplugs may eliminate all those wonderful night noises, but they also eliminate your snoring partner whose each noisy breath increases your urge to kill.
12). Your boots are probably heavier than they need to be.
13) Bear kills often reek. Bad smells in bear territory can mean bears are nearby.
14) Dandelions and cattails are totally edible.
15) If the snow is less than 8" deep just use MICROspikes and take the damn snowshoes off. They're not doing anything.
16) Gaiters are always worth it unless you're in sandals.
17) Amazingly, if you toughen up your ankles, Five Fingers are really, really awesome.
18) Always make sure your tent site doesn't have a hornets nest near it, isn't in a drainage ditch, and doesn't have widowmakers above it.
19) Piss bottle. Mark it clearly. Soooo nice to have.
20) No shoes in the tent.
21) Rolling your tent is way better for it than stuffing it. Anyone that tells you otherwise hasn't really done their homework. Technically, the same is true of sleeping bags, but I can't be bothered to roll my sleeping bag up.
22) A towel is useful even when going ultralight for wiping down condensation.
23) If you use a candle lantern in your tent, extend it from the tent ceiling with kevlar or technora cord until the roof no longer feels hot.
24) Headlamp + Nalgene = lantern.
25) Always have duct tape. Put it on your trekking poles. You don't need a lot.
26) Always have some tea or hot cocoa. Drinking hot liquids is amazing for keeping you warm, but hot plain water sucks.
27) Raw honey > energy gel packets
28) Group tarps are awesome. If it might rain, they're worth the weight.
29) Do not spray permethrin on your clothes inside the house if you have a cat. It's super toxic to them.
30) Never buy a tent with fiberglass poles unless you intend on breaking it and leaving it at a music festival.
31) If you only use down sleeping bags, make damn sure they stay dry, and have at least one synthetic insulating jacket. Revivex your down bags!
32) Every single bottle of nikwax is the same ingredient with different amounts of water diluting it. If you want to use Nikwax, get the stuff for cotton as it has the most active ingredient.
33) Learn the PCT bear bag technique. It's sweet.
34) You can never own too much paracord for around the house, and kernmantel accessory cord is even more betterer.
35) Learn how to sharpen your knives. A dull knife is not a knife.
36) Lithium batteries are lighter, work longer in the cold, and last 3x as long as alkaline. They also have a flatter decay curve so your flashlight will stay bright longer. Beware, though, because it means at the end of the battery life it'll just go dead. They may not work inside regulated headlamps unless otherwise indicated.
37) The cheap Atsko soap is the best soap to buy for your performance clothing.
38) A useful DWR coating on your jacket is more important than the brand of membrane. If your jacket has wetted out, it ain't breathing anymore.
39) The Mountaineering Handbook > Freedom of the Hills
40) Seam Grip protects your mittens from getting torn up.
41) Neoprene gloves are awesome for mild weather ice climbing and drytooling.
42) Grangers and Revivex outperform Nikwax and Tectron, ymmv.
43) Deet and contact lenses don't mix.
44) Hang line for drying clothes inside your tent and hanging up accessories.
45) If you store your tent wet a baby kitten dies. If you store MY tent wet, you die.
46) Sleeping bag liners and down sleeping bags are quite fond of one another. They extend the life of your bag considerably. Ideally you should never wash a down bag, but if you don't use a liner it's gonna get ripe. I prefer down bags made out of really dark materials with dark liners, so they dry faster in the sun. You should too.
47) Being able to set up a tent with the inside already suspended from the fly, or with external poles, is the greatest tent feature ever if it's pouring down rain.
48) If you like to keep stuff like knives, signal mirrors, flares, whistles, etc. in your PFD pocket, tether them all with 2mm cord. You WILL drop stuff eventually.
49) Stuff sacks are awesome. If you consistently use the same sizes for the same things, take a sharpie and write on the side of the stuff sack what's inside. I.E "Clothes", "Dirty Clothes", "Sleeping Bag/Pillow", "Food", "Insulating Clothes", "Rain Gear", "Inflatable Sheep", etc.
50) Nobody treats their leather boots frequently enough. If it doesn't bead up water you can treat it. Avoid anything with animal fats unless you have crazy hard leather like in a Limmer or a Scarpa Delta. If it gets scratched up and dirty, wash it, dry it, and treat it again. The original owner is no longer around to take care of the skin, so it's your job now.
51) that's enough for now. Oh wait, always have a whistle.
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Topic: Hiking and Camping Top Tips (Read 3000 times)