The Great Outdoors Challenge - New Website and Pictures

Camp in the Gaick Pass, 2008

That unique backpacking event The Great Outdoors Challenge has a new website with details of the 2016 Challenge, masses of information and lots of inspiring pictures.

I'll be doing my sixteenth crossing of the Scottish Highlands next year and I've been thinking back to the previous ones, right back to the first Challenge in 1980 in fact.  It really is a great event and one that has been important to me for over 35 years now, which I find somewhat astonishing.

I took photographs on all the Challenges but I haven't scanned any of the films used in pre-digital days (note to self - I must do so) so I can't post anything from the 1980s or 1990s. I changed to digital in 2004 since when I've done six Challenges. Photos from these have appeared in posts before but I've gathered some together here. On only one of these crossings did I have a companion and I always seem to choose routes that mean I rarely encounter other Challengers so there's rarely other people or other tents in my pictures. Most are of camp sites. For me, the camps are as important as the walking and it these pictures that bring back the strongest memories.

2004

Camp somewhere in the Central Highlands

On the edge of the hills, a day's walk from the East Coast.

2007

Camp in Glen Affric

Camp with another Challenger at White Bridge in the Cairngorms

2008

Camp on the summit of Ben Nevis

Beside Loch Treig

2009

Camp in the Western Highlands

Challenge tents on the camp site in Montrose on the east coast

2012

Snow on the Glen Affric hills

In Glen Feshie

2014

Tony Hobbs in Gleann Gaorsaic

Camp with Tony Hobbs in the Monadh Liath

The Great Outdoors October Issue out now: The Great Outdoors Challenge, big packs, Grisport trail shoes, Wild Camping book review

Camp on the 2009 The Great Outdoors Challenge

As always the October issue of The Great Outdoors is the Challenge issue and there's a nine-page section with accounts from this year's event plus of course the all important entry form. My backpacking column is about the Challenge too. I'll be doing my sixteenth next year.

There's much about Scotland elsewhere in this issue. Alex Roddie gives an excellent account of his Cape Wrath Trail walk, a tough walk made even tougher by June's stormy weather, while Ronald Turnbull recommends the Munro Tops in his usual entertaining style. Ed Byrne goes canyoning near Fort William and finds it more exciting than he expected. Roger Smith considers Glen Roy and the tangle of countryside designations in Scotland (NNR, SSSI, SAC, LNR etc) and calls for a simpler system (yes, please!). In The Hillwalkers' Library Jim Perrin praises Argyll: The Enduring Heartland by Marion Campbell.

Away from Scotland Will Renwick visits a collection of interesting little hills on the fringes of the Brecon Beacons; Craig Weldon goes farther afield to climb the hills of the Faroe Islands;  Karen Lloyd looks for golden eagles on the Riggindale Horseshoe in the Lake District; and Carey Davies does some serious scrambling on Milestone Buttress in Snowdonia. The Hill Skills section is a special on outdoor photography by Dougie Cunningham with some excellent advice. On the books page I review Stephen Neale's Wild Camping.

In the Almanac section there's a report on archaeological discoveries in the Peak District and an interview with UK Adventurer of the Year Ash Dykes plan to walk the length of Madagascar. This section also includes details of The Great Outdoors Awards - nominations for the reader awards are now open.

In the gear pages I review twelve 60+ litre packs and a nice pair of trail shoes from Grisport. With winter coming on Kirk Watson reviews reports on seven waterproofs suitable for severe weather.