Things I have learnt!

Better still charge the battery before you go

If wearing contact lenses a mirror can come in handy. Instead of carrying one, the mirror on a good compass is perfect and can be tilted in position for easy angle of view.

A down-side of always carrying a camera is that I now seem to go out with people who make a point of not bringing one if they're with me. Still, I at least get to photograph what I want.

It's all downhill once you get to the top.

As I always say to the party. "It's all downhill now, except for the up bits!"

Similar to that pmcke ... where you want to get to is always "about half an hour" still to go regardless of whether its half an hour, an hour or three!

ALWAYS tuck away the loops of your shoelaces underneath the taut parts of your shoelaces tightly and securely. ALWAYS take an emergency beacon. No, it is NOT too heavy or too expensive, even and especially if you are by yourself. If you can't buy one, hire one. ALWAYS carry a sharp knife readily accessible on your person that you can open with one hand. Where these lessons were lerned: Two steps away from a near vertical but very easy to climb ledge of about 5 metres that I had just climbed in the Grampians, in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of summer, absolutely being the only person crazy enough to even be there in those temperatures, one loop of one shoe suddenly caught a hook on the other shoe - resulting in me hopping a few steps forward to avoid falling on my face. The kangaroos may have laughed, I didn't find that very funny at all. If that would have happened a little earlier, it could have meant a serious fall, most likely serious to very serious injury, and waiting for my deadline to pass for the ranger to send the chopper - two days at that time. Also, a friend of mine nearly drowned while walking through a mid thigh deep river when her shoelace got caught under water and she fell, unable to get up as the water was washing over her slowly but with great power. Two people were needed to lift her up against the water pressure so she could breathe and then cut her shoelace. The moment she fell, she instantly knew what had happened, thought "$#8! My knife is in my backpack!" and tried to figure out if we would make it to her in time and if we would have a knife readily accessible. Cheers, Matt PS: I know I did not necessarily have to climb that ledge but could have chosen longer route that was a day longer, but I was already carrying four litres of water per day for five days. I also know that after a fall, I won't necessarily be able to activate my beacon. I choose to take calculated risks and be prepared; if I wanted to be 100% safe, I would stay at home - where I wouldn't be either, of course...

Leave the TP at home when there is snow.

Carry zinc oxide cream to treat the chafing from the above practice. And...don't leave your ice axe loop right where you are going to "go". If you dump on the axe loop and realize you left your toilet paper 200m away at camp, you can use the sling. Sigh...

Don't borrow Honora's ice axe.