I’d toyed with the idea of a buff years ago and I began to recall my original thoughts on the standard one: the appeal resurfaced but for protective summer use the advantage of a peak would be lost. Then I discovered the Visor Buff: a standard buff with a built-in neoprene peak.
An article in TGO magazine on summer walking hats prompted us to reappraise our summer headwear, which was past its best to say the least and never was entirely satisfactory. In the midsummer months we had been using standard Nike baseball-style caps for the strongest sunshine. They were satisfactory to cover our heads and they had good peaks to protect the upper part of our faces from direct sun, but they offered no protection for the ears or back of the neck, which seem to have become more susceptible to burning on recent trips despite our efforts with sun cream.
The caps had no chinstrap or other means of securing them properly either, which was not a problem most days but the manufacturers seem to think that blustery winds never occur in summer. Last year after a windy hot sunny day in the Cairngorms and nearly losing the cap, I resorted that evening to improvising a chinstrap in the tent, boring two rough holes in the cap and threading them with a length of Dyneema cord that I always carry. I really don’t like hats at all!.
The first use of the Visor Buff on my Northern Hirnants backpack was a great success. It had a very light and airy feel, and best of all I wasn’t wearing a bloody hat.
I’ve added a short piece here in the Gear & Tech section of the main site.
I’ll still appreciate my Lowe Alpine Mountain Cap in winter but Visor Buffs rule in summer now!.
I’m off this week for the promised bit of summer, Visor Buff at the ready…

Apologies to addicts of GPS/PDA/Smartphone mapping if this is obvious or old hat, but I was able to help a correspondent of mine recently in a quite unexpected way (I don’t own any GPS or mobile mapping devices at all but I’m really into mapping on a PC). It may be interesting to others in the same predicament.

A circuit of the hills of the upper Wye Valley between the Pumlumon range and the Elan Valley, taking in a total of nine new 500m tops.
A new southern approach to the Arenigs range, exploring five new Dewey 500m tops and including a circuit around Waun y Griafolen, the huge shallow expanse of very rough wet moorland that lies at the heart of the region. The route also visits the two old favourites of Dduallt and Rhobell Fawr, the two Nuttall mountains of the southern quarter, and passes close to three other Dewey tops that we have climbed before but omitted on this circuit.
A circuit of the fells around Malham Tarn and Littondale, formed from a group of six new Dewey 500m hills and completed by traversing several of the familiar mountains of the area.
A solo circuit around the central region of the Cheviot hills, based on a framework of ten new Dewey 500m hills and including five of the six Nuttall mountains of the region en route. The route covers a variety of terrain and scenery with expansive heather moors, coarse moorland grasses, the steeply incised valleys of the Usway Burn and River Alwin and the wide hill-lined College Valley and Coquetdale. Some parts of the moor are naturally boggy but their sting was drawn by the recent lack of significant rain: easy dry crossings all the way this time.
Alright, people have hinted long enough about my persistence with imperial units in the trip and route stats. I’m sure I’m not alone in thinking that hills and mountains lose something when expressed in metres and it’s not just that the numbers are smaller, it’s something intangible but of a curious appeal when thinking about them. Distances in kilometres don’t convey much to me either in raw form, fortunately I can do an instant mental calculation to get a mileage that means something.
A grand tour of the listed tops of Dartmoor:- a second visit to the two Nuttall mountains of the region and thirteen new 500m+ Dewey tops, including two of the small group that top 600m.