Remote terrain doesn’t have to be the top of a mountain. Anywhere that an ambulance crew would have to walk more than five or ten minutes from the road might actually mean that a mountain rescue team would be required to get you to safety. It is not unrealistic that you might have to wait 1-2 hours for a rescue even if you are 20 minutes run from a road. If you are in the higher hills 3-4 hours would not be uncommon. 

Think about what you carry on your back and what would happen if you had to sit out on the hill for 4 hours! 

To save you trying this experiment for yourself, we have done it for you! Three runners went up a hill with different levels of equipment, sat down and waited to see who got cold quickest! 

One runner had nothing but the windshirt on his back, one had kit similar to the minimum requirements for a hill race and one was fully equipped for a mountain run. 

 
Hopefully you can see from this demonstration the importance of the choices you make about the kit you carry. We aren’t suggesting that you need to carry huge amounts of heavy equipment. A pack weighing less than a litre of water will save your life in most summer conditions in the UK hills. 

Essential items:

Waterproof jacket (with taped or welded seams and a hood)
Waterproof trousers (with taped or welded seams)

Spare* synthetic insulated upper layer - *We recommend carrying approximately 300g of synthetically insulated upper layers.

Hat and gloves suitable for the weather conditions

Headlamp

Survival bag or Blizzard bag/jacket 

Whistle

Compass

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