Saturday 30 April 2016
The Great Outdoors Spring Issue
The Spring issue of The Great Outdoors is out now. (It sits between the May and June issues). My gear reviews cover 13 windproof tops and 11 pairs of walking trousers plus the Suunto Traverse GPS watch. In my backpacking column I look at when it's best to decide to retreat or take a lower route. And Out There, my latest book, is reviewed by Alex Roddie.
The theme of this issue is wild places and quite a few are covered from Scotland to Russia. Keith Fergus undertakes a high level two-day walk from Speyside to Deeside; Mark Gilligan photographs the Duddon Valley in the Lake District; Paul Beasley goes bog-trotting on Dartmoor; Rob Collister walks the Aran ridge in Snowdonia; Lenny Antonelli explores the Slievetooey coast of Donegal; and, wildest of all, Alec Forss traverses the Ural mountains on foot and packraft.
Also in this issue there's a superb double-page photo of Suilven by Alex Nail; Roger Smith reviews Terry Abraham's new film Life of a Mountain Blencathra; Robald Turnbull comes up with eight bits of the Lake District he likes least; Carey Davies praises paths; Roger Smith calls for joined-up thinking about the countryside; and Jim Perrin reviews The Mountains of Snowdonia in History, The Sciences, Literature and Sport by H.R.C.Carr & G.A.Lister.
Wednesday 27 April 2016
Nigor Wickiup 3 reviewed for The Great Outdoors
The Wickiup 3 in the Cairngorms, February 2016 |
GoLite's Shangri-La 3 pyramid tent has been a favourite of mine for many years, especially for winter camping. With the demise of GoLite a few years ago it vanished from the shops, a good design seemingly gone. Not for good though as Nigor soon came out with the very, very similar Wickiup 3, which has proved at least as good as the original. I've been using it for quite a while and have now reviewed it in my column on the The Great Outdoors website.
The Shangri-La 3 in the Cairngorms, February 2013 |
Tuesday 26 April 2016
Winter Returns
Here in Strathspey snow has been falling on and off for two days along with occasional heavy showers of hail. This evening the snow has become heavier and the land is turning white. Winter has returned.
The above photos all taken between 6 and 6.15pm.
Saturday 23 April 2016
Ten Of My Favourite Long Distance Walks In The Guardian
Makalu |
I've described ten favourite long-distance walks for The Guardian. The walks include Makalu Base Camp, the Scottish Watershed, and the GR20 in Corsica. You can read the piece here.
A splendid view on the GR20 |
View over Rannoch Moor from the Watershed |
Friday 22 April 2016
Such a silly thing to do ... and plans change
Strathspey & the Cairngorms, April 21 |
Crossing a road, thinking of the talk I’m to give that
evening, holding sandwiches and newspapers for the train journey to come.
Suddenly I’m falling, then landing hard, on hands and knees. In the middle of a
highway. With that thought I rise and stagger to safety. There’s a lot of blood
I notice. Both hands are bleeding. My pale trousers are stained red. I’m still
thinking of continuing my journey, giving my talk. I try and clean up in the
station toilet. I fail. Back at my car I’m still wondering how to catch the
train without getting too much blood on everything. A woman comes up to me. ‘Are
you ok?’. ‘Yes’, I respond automatically. She can see I’m not. ‘You need
stitches’, she says, ‘we can take you to the health centre’. I’m about to
refuse but the sight of my bleeding hands triggers something in my head and I
know she’s right. A man with her comments on the amount of blood. I think they
followed the trail of it from the station. A few minutes later I’m in a health centre
and being patched up by nurses and a doctor. I do need stitches and lots of
bandages on hands and knees. My rescuers have gone. I thanked them but never
got their names. They were local, from Forres, and very kind. I’m not sure what
I’d have done without them.
How did I fall? I don’t know. Maybe I tripped on something
or slipped on an oily patch. I have no memory of starting to fall, only of
falling. Such a silly thing to do I thought as I sat in the health centre being
repaired. Such a silly thing but it’s changed the next few weeks. Today I was
meant to be flying to Colorado for the ski tour with Igloo Ed. That’s not
possible now. I couldn’t grip a ski pole let alone shovel snow. My dressings
need changing every few days, the stitches need to come out sometime next week.
I’m on antibiotics in case of infection. Ten days in the mountains, any
mountains, is not an option.
View across Strathspey to the Hills of Cromdale, April 20 |
Back home I thought about coming to terms with the new
situation, about how to deal with it. I can’t change it. I have to accept it.
Look forward I think. The ski trip has gone now. A couple of local strolls to
look at the signs of spring and the distant snowy mountains and to enjoy the
sunshine eases any stress. My partner is wonderful, sympathetic and practical.
That helps greatly. The ski tour will be next year now. But the TGO Challenge
is in three weeks. That suddenly seems close. I need to have recovered by then.
Thursday 21 April 2016
John Muir Day 'Climb the mountains and get their good tidings'.
John Muir died 102 years ago today. I've written a piece about him and his legacy for The Scotsman.
Two years ago I wrote this for the 100th anniversary.
Here are a few of my favourite quotations from John Muir.
'Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves.'
'Keep close to Nature's heart... and break clear away, once in a while, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean.'
'This grand show is eternal. It is always sunrise somewhere; the dew is never all dried at once; a shower is forever falling; vapor ever rising. Eternal sunrise, eternal sunset, eternal dawn and gloaming, on seas and continents and islands, each in its turn, as the round earth rolls.'
'Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home; that wildness is a necessity; and that mountain parks and reservations are useful not only as fountains of timber and irrigating rivers, but as fountains of life.'
Saturday 16 April 2016
Ski tour & igloos in the Rockies postoned to next year
Update: I've had to cancel this trip due to some minor injuries sustained when I stumbled and fell over on a road. That'll teach me not to stay in the hills! I hope to be there next winter/spring.
The 'forthcoming venture' I mentioned in my last post is close. Soon I'll be heading for the Colorado Rockies for ski touring and igloo building in the Indian Peaks Wilderness with Igloo Ed.
Although I've walked through this wilderness area on the Continental Divide Trail (many, many years ago) I've never been there when the land is snow-covered. I remember it as a wonderful mountain land of sharp rocky peaks, beautiful lakes and magnificent forests. I'm look forward to seeing it under snow.
I haven't done a multi-day ski tour for several years. I'm excited!
When and if there are connections I'll be posting updates here and on Facebook and Twitter. There might be silence for a while though. The skiing and igloo building will come first.
The 'forthcoming venture' I mentioned in my last post is close. Soon I'll be heading for the Colorado Rockies for ski touring and igloo building in the Indian Peaks Wilderness with Igloo Ed.
Although I've walked through this wilderness area on the Continental Divide Trail (many, many years ago) I've never been there when the land is snow-covered. I remember it as a wonderful mountain land of sharp rocky peaks, beautiful lakes and magnificent forests. I'm look forward to seeing it under snow.
I haven't done a multi-day ski tour for several years. I'm excited!
When and if there are connections I'll be posting updates here and on Facebook and Twitter. There might be silence for a while though. The skiing and igloo building will come first.
Thursday 14 April 2016
The Pleasure of Maps
Studying some maps for forthcoming ventures - of which more in a forthcoming post - and feeling excited I remembered this piece which I wrote for The Great Outdoors last year. I love maps!
Backpackers can find many items of gear exciting – tents and
packs obviously but sometimes even utilitarian items like socks and base
layers. For me though nothing comes close to a map for real exhilaration. Only
a map can lead you through endless outdoor adventures both in reality and in
your mind as you trace possibilities over the surface – where does this valley
go, what’s over that pass, how easy is to climb that mountain? Journeys abound
when you study a map. Not just journeys either. I love looking for possible
camp sites – by that lake, on that col, maybe in that meadow. Sometimes the
journeys and campsites go out into the real world, though many more stay as
daydreams. And sometimes I find that going up that brush-choked valley was not
a good idea or that the boggy bug-infested shores of a lake don’t make for a
good camp site. Maps don’t tell you everything. Which is good. I don’t want my
trips to be too predictable. But maps do give ideas and plans and that’s what’s
exciting.
For the backpacker and walker the best maps are topographic
of course, ones that show the shape of the land with contour lines (for which
many thanks to mathematician Charles Hutton who came up with the idea on
Schiehallion in 1774). Once you can read contours the landscape can be easily
imagined in three dimensions and the shape of the hills and valleys visualised.
Routes can be planned taking into account the elevation gain as well as the
distance. Topographic maps are often beautiful as well with subtle shading and
rich colours. In this respect the old Ordnance Survey 1 inch to the mile
Tourist Maps are my favourites. Of modern maps the Harveys Mountain Maps are
very aesthetically pleasing.
Walkers often think that there’s only a few map scales of
use – 1:25,000, 1:40,000 and 1:25,000 – and when out in the wilds I think this
is correct (though I have use 1:250,000 and even 1:600,000 when that’s all that’s been available).
However for planning it’s often easier to see the whole of a walk on smaller
scale maps. I still use the long-out-of date 1:100,000 Bartholmew maps for
planning long walks in Scotland and recently I’ve been looking at some 1:250,000
Tom Harrison Recreation Maps of desert and mountain areas of the western USA
for a forthcoming venture. But once outdoors, whether the Scottish Highlands or
Death Valley, I want larger scale maps.
Of course these days maps are not just sheets of paper or
plastic but also exist in digital form for use on computers whether desktop or
phone. Maps in this form are very useful and I use them regularly. Instead of
counting kilometre squares and contour lines to find distance and elevation
gain I love just being able to draw my route and have the computer calculate
these for me. But I still much prefer map sheets for their size. When someone
invents a light compact rollout screen as big as an Ordnance Survey map I might
change my mind but until then a big sheet easily beats a small screen. With
maps spread out on the floor or the ground I can see the whole area and all the options. I
find it easier to daydream over a big map sheet too.
Maps aren’t just for future trips either. They can bring
back memories. Looking through my map collection for this piece I was
distracted by many reminiscences as maps I hadn’t seen for years appeared – a
stormy autumn traverse of the White Mountains of New Hampshire, leading a trek
to Everest Base Camp, climbing Glittertind in Norway on skis, building igloos
in Yellowstone National Park with Igloo Ed. Maps really are wonderful.
Tuesday 12 April 2016
Altra Lone Peak 2.0 shoes reviewed for The Great Outdoors
Recently I've been trying the Altra Lone Peak 2.0 trail shoes. I need to use them much more to come to a final conclusion about just how good they are but I've given my first impressions on The Great Outdoors website here.
Monday 11 April 2016
The Great Outdoors latest issue: going solo, night skies, & waterproof jackets.
The May issue of The Great Outdoors is in the shops now. My backpacking column is about night skies and in the Hill Skills section I've pieces about going solo and camping alone (with suggestions for four solo stoves). In the gear pages I review fourteen waterproof jackets that are new on the market plus the Rab Neutrino 800 sleeping bag.
The theme of this issue is the Lake District and there's a big feature on the 7 Wonders of the Lake District challenge walk by its creator Chris Wearne. Vivienne Crow explores the 'big hills up at the lake' that the children in Arthur Ransome's Swallows and Amazons see around Coniston Water. Further north in the Lake District Rich Baldwin takes his five-year old son on his first wild camping trip.
Away from the Lakes Will Renwick interviews Ash Dykes about his traverse of Madagascar; Alistair Young visits magnificent Bla Bheinn on Skye; Ed Byrne tries Nordic walking; Stephen Venables goes far afield to South Georgia; and Carey Davies walks in the Black Mountains of South Wales. In his column Roger Smith considers the crisis in dairy farming and how it could affect the countryside. Jim Perrin, in the Hillwalkers' Library, revisits a mountaineering classic, E.F.Norton's The Fight for Everest 1924, reminding me that I must read it again.
As well as my pieces the Hill Skill section has advice on going solo, route cards, electronic safety devices, and navigational skills. In the gear section Judy Armstrong reviews six pairs of women's trail shoes.
There's a couple of splendid double-page photographs at the front of the magazine too - an atmospheric image of dawn on Glyder Fach in Snowdonia by Helen Iles and a spectacular photo of the aurora from Beinn Alligin in Torridon by Graham Bradshaw.
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