Its a couple of weeks short of two years since I got my hands in the condition above. That was when I got frostbite running in Germany and they were pretty sore for some time until the skin came off and then I lost my finger nails.
I was only about 10% of the way there yesterday on the top of Slieau Ruy. I got to the point where I couldn't move the camera shutter with my gloves on so I took them off - and fairly soon after I couldn't do much again. The top of my "shutter" finger is still numb, although as I am managing to type what you see here I am obviously not at death's door!
I lost my heat fairly quickly yesterday despite having six layers on my top half, partly because I got warm walking uphill for a couple of miles to get to my spot, secondly because I fell over on the way and so had damp clothes and thirdly because my hands go white at the best of times.
Apart from having a laugh at my own expense, the reason for writing this is just to emphasise the need to ensure that, when going on the fells, you not only follow the organisers instructions but you treat their safety requirements as a minimum.
A twisted ankle in freezing conditions and you would loose your heat a lot quicker than I did and have far fewer layers to protect you. After I deserted Ben Corkhill at the top of the mountain I jogged down and was able to generate some warmth of my own in the process. With a twisted ankle you wouldn't have that most natural of remedies available to you.
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