A Look At The October Issue Of The Great Outdoors

This issue sees the annual Gear Of The Year Awards, selected from twelve months of gear that impressed TGO's team of experts, including myself. I put together this year's feature and have been convinced to buy at least two of the winners!

The main features see experts looking at the future and predicting what's in store for hillwalkers (I hope some of  them are correct and some aren't!); Alastair MacDonald Jackson explores the little-known hills of Galloway; Alex Roddie goes hiking in the Austrian Alps; and Willem Vandoorne spends time alone in grizzly bear country in Kluane National Park in the Yukon.

In the Skills section psychologist Ian Taylor looks at the science of motivation.

The issue opens with a splendid photograph of Sass de Putia in the Dolomites by Judith Niederwanger and Alexander Pichler. Nadia Shaikh is awestruck by dolphins. Jonathan Caswell speaks to Mike Park, former chief executive of Mountain Rescue England and Wales, and his successor, Andy Buchan, about their stories and their thoughts for the future. Jim Perrin's Mountain Portrait looks at Rhobell Fawr in North Wales. Trail of the Month is Raad ny Foillan - the Way of the Gull - on the Isle of Man, described by Francesca Donovan. In her Uphill Struggles column Juls Stodel advises a new dad on the protocol of bothying with a baby.

Wild Walks covers seven routes to hills that involve woodlands. James Roddie climbs through Caledonian pine forest above Loch Maree to Meall a' Ghiubhais in Torridon. In the Cairngorms Roger Butler walks from Glenmore to Bynack More, a route sadly closed at the time writing due to the damaging wildfire this summer. In the Southern Uplands Ian Battersby takes the Southern Upland Way through woods to Well Hill.  Vivienne Crow goes through the vast Kielder Forest to Deadwater Fell and Peel Fell in Northumberland. In the Lake District James Forrest climbs Walla Crag via Borrowdale's Atlantic oakwoods. Andrew Galloway is on the same hill as Jim Perrin in his Mountain Portrait, climbing through woods from Coed-y-Brenin to Rhobell Fawr. In Bannau Brycheiniog/Brecon Beacons Carys Rees goes up Fan y Big and Waun Rydd from Talybont Forest.