Okay I admit it, I cheated at the fellsman this year. I didnt have a survival bag! In my defence they must have the most onerous kit check in the world - they even checked the studs on my walshes for excess wear and counted the number of safety pins in my first aid kit (they required me to carry four). I'd turned up with a survival blanket (one of the small silver jobs) which they didnt find acceptable which kind of left me in a dilemma at 8 am in Ingleton needing a survival bag. Luckily I borrowed and already well borrowed survival bag and managed to scrape a pass second time.

I'm all for kit checks but sometimes, just sometimes, they can be a bit OTT. And in the same way that the banning of using mobile phones while driving has massively increased the number of drivers texting while driving I sometimes wonder if by over kitting there will be an increased tendancy to cut corners?

By the way I kind of disagree with the word cheat; carrying or not carrying a pair of waterproofs isn't going to make a great deal of difference in the scheme of things and, should the weather change, might just make things a whole lot worse for the 'cheat'.