Measured second impressions

Used the Alpkit Gamma a few more times now. Still impressed. [first impressions here]

Did a night run with a few of the Helsby lot and a couple of fell runners. The torch stood up well in comparison to more expensive competition — I never really felt like I was being outshone by the others. I'm well used to the phenomena on night rides where your (previously adequate) 15W halogen is reduced to a brown smudge of light by all the super-bright HID users. Thankfully that wasn't an issue. It was fine on more technical terrain, but wouldn't really be up to a fast, technical descent. More light would be good, but more light costs £40+. We were out for around 90-mins in the end, so I'm sure any shortcoming would have made themselves felt.

Still on the first set of batteries after around 6-hours total, although I'm a habitual battery-miser, switching off or to low power whenever possible, so I suspect there's plenty more to come.

The button sequences make more sense when you get used to the two separate cycles of Big LED (high, low, flashing) and Small LED (white, green, red, flashing red) with a long press to switch between the two. If you switch it off on Big, it comes back on in the Big cycle, and vice versa) ...you can see why I was confused now. Good stuff.

Parbold Hill

Cracking run out over Parbold Hill 6.75M on Saturday. Sort of a longer version of the Harrock Hill race series from last year. Another 'fell race lite', with somewhere around 800-1000' of climbing.

Good turnout for a local-ish event, although this one comes with a decent history — this was the 38th event. Not too muddy all things considered. Vaulting straw bales towards the end (over the wire fence) added a bit of thrill on tired legs. Enjoyed the singletrack and rougher stuff, the long road climb was nothing short of a nuisance.

134/456, 53'35". Working hard, but there's probably a bit more to come.

Thanks to Mark Sanderson for the great pic.

Kinder surprise

Long run up from Hayfield, past the reservoir, up William Clough and then along the edge of the Kinder plateau. It's been a long time since I've been up there and damn, it was good.

I'd spotted a similar run on Rich's blog last week (close enough to just borrow his tracklog thing), and was just the kick I needed to get out there.

After finally getting up on the plateau (and yes it did involve slightly too much walking) the territory is pretty wearing. Barren, wind-stripped gritstone boulders, the feet never fall in the same place twice and a missed step could easily have consequences. That and running into the late afternoon sun, conscious of time passing, added just the right amount of spice. The Walshes worked admirably. Finished up with a little extra climb up Coldwell Clough and back to Hayfield. Splendid.

Gullible first impressions

One less reason to shop. The Alpkit internet retailer appeared on my radar last year with some good products, keen prices and an enthusiastic user base. I spotted them after vaguely looking for a bouldering mat — there's seemed to be the right price for the features offered (you know when you look at something and you just know it's not "worth" the asking price: the big names want £150 for what seems to be a pretty simple, lo-tech product).

So anyway, the light. The LED revolution has given the outdoorsy light market a proper kick up the arse in the last year or two, performance finally catching up with potential. This little thing is massively featured, seems decently put together and pumps out a good, if not quite blinding, amount of light. For any price, it's promising. For £12.50, the Alpkit Gamma is stunning value.

First requirement was a lamp I could use for running at night, and this did the job admirably. Enough light from the main (single Watt) beam for running along familiar forest tracks without compromising speed. The secondary 5mm LED is great for unlit roads and there's all sorts of quirky 'special forces' features for night vision and stuff, to do with green and red LEDs and reading orange contours on the map. Further tests will prove if it holds up on fast descents, more rocks and roots, and unfamiliar ground.

I have no doubt it will be more than up to the job of getting off the hill with an over-optimistic finish time and general camping duties.

The thing sits pretty comfortably on the head, with a lightweight 3xAAA battery pack on the rear. Beam adjustment is positive and it's not a nuisance to wear even bouncing around offroad. The buttons are fine to use with a lightweight liner glove, the only thing I can fault it for at this early stage is the slightly idiosyncratic button sequences for going through the (many) features. Nice one Alpkit.