A Look At The November Issue Of The Great Outdoors

In this issue I look at new items of gear that caught my eye at this year's Outdoor Trade Show. In reviews Kirsty Pallas and James Roddie each try out three pairs of hiking boots. In the Gear Opinion piece James Forrest gives a realistic assessment of waterproofs and what you can actually expect from them. Also on the always relevant matter of coping with rain Will Renwick describes how he deals with wet weather.

The main theme of the issue is bothies, which, of course, are good places to shelter from the rain. A long piece looks at the story of bothies and the sub-culture that goes with them through the eyes of those who know them best, including pieces from authors Kat Hill and John Burns, who have both written books on bothies.  And in her Uphill Struggles column Mountain Bothies Association trustee Juls Stodel gives advice on what to do about snorers.

The Wild Walks pages cover bothies too. In Scotland James Roddie visits the tiny Lairig Leachach bothy in the Grey Corries, Simon Stokes climbs Suilven via Suileag bothy, and Alex Roddie Ben Lomond via Rowchoish bothy. In the North Pennines Vivienne Crow visits Greg's Hut enroute to Cross Fell. Not far away in the Lake District Norman Hadley finds Mosedale Cottage a welcome overnight stop on a long walk on the Far Eastern Fells. In Eryri/Snowdonia Andrew Galloway finds refuge in Penrhos Isaf bothy deep in the woods of Coed-y-Brenin. Further south in Wales in the Cambrian Mountains Carys Rees stays in the Lluest-cwm-bach bothy in the Elan Valley.

This is also the annual TGO Challenge issue and there's a selection of stories from this year's event.

Away from bothies and rain Francesca Donovan and Stew Hume embark on a piecemeal approach to Glyndwr's Way in Mid Wales and David Myers has a winter walk on the GR131, which links all seven Canary Islands.

The opening spread is a splendid photo by Alan Novelli of Duncansby Head and Sea Stacks on the far north-east tip of the Scottish mainland.

In a moving piece RSPB Scotland's peatland project manager Sally Berry writes about the wildfire that devastated parts of the RSPB's Abernethy reserve in the summer and the incredible response of the local community.

In her nature column Nadia Shaikh falls for the tiny, cute but aggressive goldcrest.

Francesca Donovan reviews Alastair Humphrey's latest book Unwilded - Finding Our Way Back To Nature and finds it calming and inspiring.

Jim Perrin's Mountain Portrait is Win Hill in the Peak District which he says is the best sunset bivouac site in Britain.

Queues to reach the summit of Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon) were in the news again last summer. Carys Rees discusses this phenomenon with her mountain rescue and ultra-running colleague Rob Smith, who is also a professor of sociology.