A video look at what's in my daypack

 

Twenty years ago today I began the GR20 in Corsica

 

The terrain gets tough

Midday on June 26, 2005 and I set off on the GR20 long-distance path in Corsica with Cameron McNeish. It was a mistake. Not hiking the GR20 or being with Cameron. The noon start. Straight from the Scottish Highlands we felt the heat instantly. The sun was blazing down from an unreal blue sky. From the little town of Calenzana the trail climbed through sun burnt fields towards distant mountains. There was little shade. We'd soon drunk all our water. The first spring was incredibly welcome.

The trail starts.

We did acclimatise, eventually. But a predawn or evening start would have been sensible. So would starting at the southern end of the trail. By starting in the north we had the steepest, toughest sections first. I'd never been on a waymarked trail with so much exposure and scrambling. Overall it was a wonderful trip though.

Welcome shade! There wasn't enough.

These pictures were all taken on that first day. I used a 6 megapixel Canon EOS 300D DSLR with a Canon EF-S 18-55mm lens, my first digital camera setup.

Looking back to Calenzana.

Water, delicious water!

Goats, trees, mountains. 

First camp.

Video of a walk over Geal-charn Mor earlier this month

 

A little video from the Outdoor Trade Show

 A short video from OTS, to go along with my last post.

Thoughts & pictures from this year's Outdoor Trade Show in Liverpool

 

Last week I was down south in Liverpool for the annual Outdoor Trade Show. I've been attending such shows for many decades in many places and after a while they all blend together, the venues interchangeable - cavernous, echoing, harshly lit, windowless  halls populated by a myriad stands promoting outdoor gear of every sort. The ambience is about as far away from the actual outdoors as you can get. I do enjoy them though!

Indoors

The Exhibition Centre in Liverpool is my favourite of all those venues. Not because it's different in itself. It isn't, but because you can walk outside and there's the river Mersey, the smell of the sea, the sound of gulls, a touch of nature. 

Outdoors

Whilst looking at new items is why I'm there it's meeting people that's the heart of the show. Many I only meet here though I'm in contact with them regularly. There are other writers, photographers, reviewers, as well as the PR people (and I do have friends amongst the latter). There are always new people to meet too and this year I had chats with YouTuber Fellmandave who has an interesting look at the show on his channel, and Sarah Williams of the Tough Girl Podcast, who has an amazing list of outdoor adventures to her name. 

I was also please to meet Steph Wetherell (@steph_wetherell) for the first time, as she's one of the TGO gear reviewing team who I've corresponded with and co-written articles with but had never actually met. Also there from TGO were editor David Lintern, who I'd travelled down with on the long train journey from the Cairngorms, and Neil Tillott, who I'd met at previous shows and who deals with marketing and advertising.

Familiar names

I also mustn't forget a guy I ended up sitting next to at the OTS social on the second evening who turned out to not only be a fellow Nordic skier but also to have attended the same much-missed Telemark Ski  weekends organised by Braemar Mountain Sports many years ago. We spent some time happily reminiscing. I can't however remember his name (it was after a long day,  the event was noisy, and I might have had a few beers but that's still no excuse) nor can I find his contact details. I'm sure we exchanged these!

Vango's big orange pyramid dominated the show. I used it to orientate myself!

Most of my time was spent looking at gear though. I'll be testing some of the new stuff for The Great Outdoors in future months (and writing an overview of the show - online now) and also for this blog and my YouTube channel. For now here's some pictures and words on a few of the products. Note that some of this gear won't be available until next year. 

New to the show were Nortent, whose original Vern 1 I tested last year (see this video). The current version is a quite different design however.

Also new to the show was Mont Adventure Equipment from Australia (not France, as I wrongly assumed) who showed some products that look ideal for UK conditions - tents with tough materials (25,000mm hydrostatic head!) and long high performance waterproof jackets.

Long jackets!

Vango showed a very familiar tent, a Force Ten Classic. Except this new version is made from ultralight materials and weighs just 2.5kg.

MSR are also lightening the weight of some of their tents with new materials. The Hubba Hubba NX is now the Hubba Hubba HD 1 and is now a bit roomier as well as lighter.

Terra Nova has an interesting new solo tent that pitches with trekking poles. It's a similar configuration to the Laser tent except that it has two porches and the ridge between the upright poles creates better headroom. It weighs 1.14kg.

Rab has a new construction method for sleeping bags that means they are warmer and lighter weight.

Rab also has a new 40-litre pack, the Syclon XP 40, made with recycled fabrics, fully taped seams, and a new carry system.

Gregory has new and redesigned packs again with construction and material changes leading to lower weights.

There was much now clothing at the show, including many waterproofs with replacement fabrics for Paclite, which is no longer available. One product that caught my eye was the new Paramo Velez Shorts with multiple pockets.

Escape!

Rainbows, trees, & clouds: a walk over Geal-charn Mor

Rainbow over Loch Alvie

I wasn’t expecting rainbows to dominate a walk over Geal-charn Mor in the Monadh Liath hills. I thought it would be Brew Dog’s disastrous ‘Lost Forest’ tree-planting exercise that has resulted in long deer fences across the hills and masses of the new trees dying (see this Parkswatch Scotland post) that occupied my thoughts. However the weather took control with a series of stunning rainbows, dark rain squalls racing across the sky and a fierce chilling wind. This was not flaming June!

Cairn Gorm & Cairn Lochan

The day began with a walk up the bulldozed track called the Burma Road. The lower forest was lush and green with the birches newly in leaf. As I left the trees I looked back over the woods to rain squalls streaking across the Cairngorms.

Old pines

Across the glen a few old pines graced the skyline on Creag Ghleannain. Below them I could just see many newly planted little trees. Brew Dog is in the process of replacing those that have died, completely unnecessarily as those old pines are a seed source. Reduce the deer numbers and the forest will return naturally. Further up the glen lines of vehicle tracks marked the slopes high up. I couldn’t see if the new trees here were dead or alive.

By the time I reached the top of the track the wind was strong enough and the showers prolonged enough for my waterproof jacket. I took the well-worn footpath up Geal-charn Mor. Despite recent rain the usually muddy sections were dry.

Geal-charn Mor

A low curving wall of stones around the summit trig point gave some protection from the wind. Sitting inside this for a snack and a drink I noticed a small patch of light quite a way below me. At first I thought it was a spot of sunlight though there was a strange hazy luminescent quality to it that didn’t seem right. Watching as it slowly grew I began to see colours appearing and I realised I was looking down on the gently curved top of a rainbow. I can’t remember seeing anything like this before.

Looking down on a raibow

I returned down the path that descends to follow the Caochan Ruadh burn. This is much pleasanter than the Burma Road, a real hill path not a wide bulldozed vehicle road. I passed through a gate in a long deer fence and soon saw masses of little trees poking through the heather, each in a cleared area of mineral soil. I wonder how many will survive.

Cotton grass with rainbow

A few springs were sluggishly spreading water over the ground in places but it was still mostly dry and there was no danger of wet feet. Damper areas were covered with cotton grass, the fluffy white flowers bobbing in the wind. Rain squalls blasted past in a rush of wind, rainbows came and went. I watched the clouds streaming over Braeriach as I headed down towards Loch Alvie.

Loch Alvie

The final rainbow was a double one, the inner ring startlingly bright. I walked towards it for what seemed like hours, entranced. Then it faded into rain as I finished the what had been a more glorious walk than expected in wet fields and woods.

It rained

A Look At The July Issue Of The Great Outdoors

The theme of the July issue of TGO is summer skills and adventure. In keeping with this Kirsty Pallas and I review three pairs of hiking sandals each. Also in the gear pages Lara Dunn and Peter Macfarlane review three day packs apiece, Steph Wetherell tries four pairs of trekking poles, and David Lintern tests the Cotopaxi Tarak 20L pack and Kapai 3L hip pack. 

Summer skills come courtesy of Glenmore Lodge with instructors giving advice on longer days out, navigating in remote areas with few footpaths, first time concerns about wild camping, and stepping up to scrambling higher grades.

In the main features five hillwalkers share the first experiences that shaped their relationship with the outdoors, Hanna Lindon takes her family wild camping on Dartmoor, and Terry Adby hikes the Kangchenjunga Circuit to mark the 70th anniversary of the first ascent.

In shorter pieces naturalist Nadia Shaikh wades into the shallows to look for caddisfly larvae, Lauris Prince (age 9) reviews Barbara Henderson's I Don't Do Mountains, adventurer Bex Band talks about her introduction to the outdoors and why having children shouldn't bar you from a life of adventure, Jim Perrin praises Shining Tor on Cheshire, and Juls Stodel answers a query about sharing a bivvy spot.  

The theme of Wild Walks is waterfalls. James Roddie visits the spectacular Falls of Glomach in the North-West Highlands. In the Lake District James Forrest goes to Spout Force via Lord's Seat, Vivienne Crow climbs Scafell via Cam Spout, and Norman Hadley goes up Bowfell via Hell Gill. Over in the Yorkshire Dales Ian Battersby visits Buckden Pike and Cauldron Falls plus Gordale Scar and Malham Cove. Finally, in Powys Roger Butler goes to Creigiau Pennant and Ffrwd Fawr.