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Although too early to start Kili training proper, the weather turned cold in mid January. Given that we had recently purchased a whole host of new equipment, we took advantage of a very cold Sunday morning with a very strong and biting north-easterly wind to go out to play in our new cold weather kit to see how it performed and to decide whether we had made the right choices. Temperatures were not hideously cold, though with the wind-chill we reckoned the effective temperature was between 8 and 10 degrees below zero. Apart from being nearly blown off our feet, virtually everything performed as expected and we were, if anything, too hot. This was actually quite comforting given that we will experience a far colder environment on the trek. One item - Barbara's balaclava - was however a little disappointing. It let the biting wind straight through resulting in a cold face and freezing cold ears. Barbara had selected the Berghaus offering whereas Gary had selected the Mountain Equipment version. There was no particular reasoning behind this - it just happened on the day - and although both look very similar Mountain Equipment's seems generally more wind proof and has an extra layer of wind proofing over the ears. The difference in performance is so great that we decided to simply replace Barbara's balaclava. Over a cup of nice hot cocoa in a small farm cafe at the end of the walk, which we were surprised was open in the middle of winter, we mulled over our experience and apart from the balaclava were pleased with our choices, or at least with those we were able to test on that cold morning.
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