How to Lose a Paddle at 818 Metres

The rock looked friendly. That’s usually the problem.

I’d set up on the Hunsrückhöhenweg summit with the paddle clipped to the outside of the pack — a habit I’ve kept for years because it means CW starts fifteen seconds after the wire is in the tree. The paddle was on a carabiner. The carabiner was on a daisy chain. The daisy chain was on a rock.

The rock, as it turned out, was more of a ledge than a rock. And the ledge had a slope. And the slope had an edge, beyond which was a short drop into a thicket of juniper that the guidebooks describe as “character-forming”.

What I found

• The paddle.
• Eventually.
• Somewhat worse for wear.
• Three branches of juniper in my gloves.

What I changed

Two things:

1. The paddle now lives inside a dry-bag inside the pack. Slower deploy, but the paddle doesn’t go anywhere on its own.
2. The daisy chain got demoted. It’s fine for a water bottle. It is not fine for a precision instrument with a 2 mm contact spacing.

The paddle works. The alignment is a shade off. The next outing will be its shakedown.

73 de DO9PSE