Innholdsfortegnelse for March 2024 i The Great Outdoors

“IT IS SO EASY to forget the outdoors is everywhere,” says Sarah Irving, a Stockport-based freelance travel writer and cat-sitter. As ‘The Urban Wanderer’, Sarah is an advocate for environmental and walking initiatives. Her curiosity and drive to explore help her make the most of small-scale adventures outdoors wherever she is – rather than wishing she was somewhere else. Growing up on the Wirral, Sarah spent more time on country paths and beaches than in cities. She loved hillwalking with the Brownies and Guides, but this was put on pause after a fall in her early twenties caused a long-term knee injury. Sarah would walk with crutches or a stick over ten years. By now, Sarah had moved to Manchester for university and adored “exploring anonymously” in the big city.…

LETTHE SCOTTISH CROSSBILL (Loxia scotica) brighten up your winter! A hardy bird, it uses its unusual and powerful bill, which is crossed at the tip, to extract seeds from conifer cones. Due to these feeding patterns, the estimated 6800 breeding pairs of Scottish Crossbills are amongst the earliest birds to start breeding in Britain. Tough enough to nest high in the trees and hatch chicks as early as February and March, these birds breed at any time during the winter months – and have been known to all year round – to take advantage of the new crop of pine cones. The male’s distinctive brick-red plumage contrasts with the female’s yellow-green colouring. Noisy family groups can be heard – and may be seen in March before the leaves return –…

Published by Polygon Books, £10.99, paperback THEY SAY YOU SHOULDN’T meet your heroes. But what if you had the chance to follow in their footsteps? This is what Merryn Glover set out to do in The Hidden Fires: retrace Nan Shepherd’s journey into the Cairngorms as documented in The Living Mountain. Prior to reading I wondered how a retelling – refracted through all its modern-day realities – could compare with the romance and rose-tinted experiences of yore. Well, the resulting book – an homage to Shepherd peppered with ecological updates, sociopolitical interpretations, corrections of half-truths and reframings to include previously omitted stories – is not only beautiful but perhaps even more important for modern-day hillwalkers. Merryn Glover feels “an eternal beginner” in the mountains. Likewise, Shepherd did not claim to…

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF when you think about Saudi Arabia? It is somewhere I have always wanted to go, having been raised on books like Arabian Sands – Wilfred Thesiger’s epic about crossing the Empty Quarter. I was put off by the difficulty of getting a visitor visa, the thought of not being able to drive or travel without a male companion from my family and an impression of paternalistic authority. Whilst it’s true that Saudi Arabia remains politically and socially ‘complicated’ (an absolute monarchy rather than a democracy), the country has been engaged in cultural reform in recent years and many traditional restrictions have been relaxed. I got my visa online, booked a flight and set off. If I am honest, I still felt a little apprehensive about…

11.1km/6.9 miles/5-6 hours Ascent 929m/3048ft Alex Roddie enjoys Quinag’s charismatic peaks, even in iffy weather Quinag is one of those famous, charismatic mountains that many of us are probably holding back until conditions are just right. But I think there’s something to be said for getting out on the hill no matter what the weather. Within reason, of course. A mountain in low cloud and rain has an austere grandeur of its own, and sometimes what the eye doesn’t see the mind can conjure just as vividly. Quinag’s three Corbetts – Spidean Coinich, Sail Ghorm and Sail Gharbh – are suspended above the boggy Assynt backcountry by a web of rocky ridges involving some light scrambling and exposed situations. Although undeniably spectacular in clear conditions, it’s still more than worthwhile even…

14.7km/9.1 miles/5.5-6 hours Ascent 1050m/3444ft Vivienne Crow strides out on Fairfield’s alternative round We’ve all heard of the Fairfield Round, haven’t we? But did you know that there’s another horseshoe that takes in Fairfield? Instead of using Ambleside as its base and approaching the 873m summit from the south, this one starts from Patterdale. It then heads south-west, climbing St Sunday Crag and Cofa Pike on the way up, briefly coinciding with the more popular round as far as Hart Crag and then descending via the long, bumpy ridge of Hartsop above How. I love this round. I love the views across to the Helvellyn range from St Sunday Crag; I love the sometimes airy feel of the ridge linking St Sunday with Fairfield; I love peering down on the hidden…

15.2km/9.4 miles/6 hours Ascent 943m/3094ft This secret route brings out the best of eastern Dodds, says James Forrest At the north end of the Helvellyn massif, wedged between Thirlmere and Ullswater and bounded by the valleys of St John’s in the Vale, Threlkeld and Matterdale, lies a group of fells known as the Dodds. Sometimes unjustly labelled as boring, this high plateau should not be dismissed. Whilst the eastern aspect is all grassy shoulders and rolling terrain, from the west there is drama to be found in Castle Rock, Clough Head’s crags and – best of all – this secret ascent. Fisher’s Wife’s Rake is a rough, steep, exciting climb. The Fisher family of St John’s in the Vale burnt peat to keep warm in the 1800s. Mr Fisher’s job was…

27km/16.7 miles/8-8.5 hours Ascent 1088m/3570ft Fiona Barltrop strides out along the ridges of the Black Mountains For those unfamiliar with Bannau Brycheiniog (as we are now urged to call the Brecon Beacons), a few words of explanation. The National Park comprises four separate ranges, from west to east: the Black Mountain (singular), Fforest Fawr, central Beacons and Black Mountains (plural). Just to confuse matters more, there’s also a peak – really a point along a ridge – in the Black Mountains called Black Mountain, and another called Black Hill. Unlike the central Beacons, where you’ll rarely have the likes of Pen y Fan et al to yourself, the long ridges of the Black Mountains afford plenty of space and scope for solitude. Horseshoe-type routes are the usual thing here. It’s…

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Nadir Khan has been an adventure sports photographer since his university days in Glasgow. Author of Extreme Scotland and co-author of Extreme Lakeland – an extract from which you can read on page 44 – he has shot for major brands over the past ten years as well as being involved in directing and producing a number of promotional films. He lives in Edinburgh and is currently getting to grips with the tricky sport of wingfoiling. Hanna Lindon is a freelance outdoors journalist based in the South Downs. Nowadays she does much of her adventuring with two small kids in tow, which is both a hindrance and a delight. She ended last year with a walking holiday in Mallorca’s Serra de Tramuntana mountain range, and began this one by walking the…

Share your views, your experiences and your favourite photos tgo.ed@kelsey.co.uk Postal address The Editor, The Great Outdoors, Kelsey Publishing Ltd, The Granary, Downs Court, Yalding Hill, Yalding, Kent ME18 6AL. Please include a phone number and postal address. Bothies and burgeoning friendships We love hearing about how new readers stumble upon The Great Outdoors. Here, a very welcome newcomer explains how her fascination with bothy life led her to a great read – Juls Stodel’s profound recollection of her Big Bothy Walk to every one of the bothies cared for by the Mountain Bothies Association – within these pages. Following on from my own first bothy experience at Maol-bhuidhe when I was walking the Cape Wrath Trail earlier this year, Juls Stodel’s Big Bothy Walk became my absolute favourite adventure…

WE’VE ALL BEEN THERE. Your popularity is rock bottom. Everything you touch turns to shit. Your pal calls round, invites you out to take your mind off it all. “Take this,” they say, handing you a small roll of paper that suspiciously resembles a civil service memorandum. “It’ll make you feel better.” You feel a strange, rushing sensation. “Access reform,” you think. “I’ve got it!” Bold, visionary ideas race through your cortex, like salmon chasing eels. Then, you awake, temples throbbing. A notebook full of meaningless scribbles and bad poetry lies next to you, and a press conference you announced at 3am is going live in the next ten minutes. I imagine this was the scene when, last January, the then Environment Secretary Thérèse Coffey announced the government’s long-awaited proposals…

“It remained inviolable, taciturn, evil. It glowered darkly on the dawn; it came through the snow like jagged bones through flesh; before its hardness even the venturesome cranberries were discouraged. For miles around in the plains, the valleys, the mountain dwellings it was feared. It drew the thunder, people said. Storms broke round it suddenly out of a clear sky; it seemed almost as if it created storm. No one cared to cross the range after dark – when the black grouse laughed sardonically and the cry of a passing curlew shivered like broken glass.” Mary Webb, The Golden Arrow THE LONG RIDGE of The Stiperstones, from Heath Mynd to Pontesbury, is capped and crested along its most dramatic section by shattered tors of quartzite, black-crannied blocks and shards lying…

GETTING THERE There are several flights per day from London to Riyadh and from there you can take an internal flight to AlUla or you can fly to Hail and hire a car. Car hire is readily available and the roads are excellent, although the traffic in the big cities is serious! VISA You apply for your visa online and it comes within hours. It costs around £110, which includes insurance and is valid for a year: visa.visitsaudi.com HOTELS Hotels in AlUla start from around £75 per night, and if you want to splash the cash there are some amazing resorts like Banyan Tree. CLOTHING The rules have relaxed but modest dress is still important. Alice suggests that women wear a loose headscarf (it is not obligatory) and maxi dresses,…

Sprayway provides recycled warmth with new fleece jacket Sprayway’s latest fleece jacket – the Corran Thermal Mountain Hoody – uses the company’s own CoreC 250 soft high pile fleece, which is very warm and breathable and has excellent wicking properties. Grid fleece panels on the sides, cuffs and hood reduce the bulk and aid moisture wicking. All the fabrics are made from recycled polyester. The jacket has hand and chest pockets and thumbholes on the cuffs. The Corran weighs 455g (size L). ■ RRP: £90 sprayway.com Ultralight titanium gear offered by new brand SilverAnt New company SilverAnt specialises in durable and affordable titanium products. All the items are repairable so you can mend them instead of replacing them. SilverAnt also recycles all possible waste at its own manufacturing facility. Y-Shaped…

13.4km/8.3 miles/6 hours 1269m/4163ft Ian Battersby brings famed mountains into sharp focus The elevated land of legendary Bidean nam Bian spreads south-west over mammoth lumps and bumps, but these are soon detached by incising glens and gaps and we enter a land less travelled. The last mountain to attain Munro status here is Beinn Sgulaird, isolated on three sides by Glens Creran, Ure and Etive, but dropping a lovely curling, rippling ridge down to sylvan shores. The ridge makes an ideal lofty promenade to the summit, with exemplar panoramas emerging as height is gained. First seen is the Isle of Mull, beyond Loch Creran and cut off from the mainland by the Firth of Lorn. Glen Creran then opens wide, leading the eye north way past the Ballachulish Hills to…

12.1km/7.5 miles/4-5 hours Ascent 712m/2336ft The Fusedale Round is a brilliant high-level loop, says James Forrest “To walk upon these fells, to tramp the ridges, to look from their tops across miles of glorious country, is constant delight.” So wrote Alfred Wainwright in 1957 about his time exploring the Far Eastern Fells. One can only presume that he had in mind routes like this one, a high-level horseshoe ridgewalk that delivers some true Ullswater magic. After all, old Alf loved this area, describing Ullswater as “that loveliest of lakes, curving gracefully into the far distance”. Fusedale has a remote feel to it – quiet, understated and hidden. Yet this valley offers a delightful horseshoe ridgewalk. The Fusedale Round bags five Wainwrights – Steel Knotts (Pikeawassa), Wether Hill, Loadpot Hill, Arthur’s Pike…

13.2km/8.2 miles/4-5 hours Ascent 550m/1800ft Ian Battersby steps through a doorway to a deserted dale and ridge Bretherdale sits where the Lake District meets the Yorkshire Dales, and its high ground gazes into both National Parks. A gritty, lonely lane shadows a beck hemmed in by bushes, trees and wildflowers, as unseen fish ring placid pools between crazy loops of beck beneath the buzz of dippers and high haunting buzzard cries. Steep slopes swing down from patchwork pastures, huddled trees and bracken buffeted by breeze from the tops. The far side of the Whinash ridge dives into a southern valley that gives Borrowdale Edge its name, an alluring viewpoint for the twisting dale and carved combes opposite. After a short climb to a modest summit, the ridge undulates gently over grassy…

FEBRUARY 2024 COVER STORY Make 2024 your best year ever INSIDE Keep your health & spirits high, walk the Galmadale Round, kit that won't quit, Eryri, Nepal JANUARY 2024 COVER STORY Make your winter hiking heaven INSIDE Discover Britain’s bothies, cook better backpacking grub, sleeping bags & gloves, Malham DECEMBER 2023 COVER STORY Winter Skills & Gear Guide INSIDE Avalanche avoidance, crampons & ice axes, Beinn Alligin, night hiking, British Columbia NOVEMBER 2023 COVER STORY Six of the best bucket list treks INSIDE Walk across Scotland, autumn routes, sleep better in camp, insulated jackets, Aviemore OCTOBER 2023 COVER STORY Routes combining hills & water INSIDE Skye scramble, Austria, waterproof jackets, spooky walks, secrets to staying dry, Keswick SEPTEMBER 2023 COVER STORY Boost your mountain skills INSIDE Skye, 3-season boots, Mountain…

RECOMMENDED Durston X-Mid 1 Solid Price: $280, or £230 plus import tax = £309 825g without extra guys, 974g with, + pegs 130g versatility, weight, space side entry design can let rain into the inner Pitching: as a unit, or outer-first Flysheet: 20D Sil/PE polyester, 3500mm HH Inner: 15D ripstop nylon in white, mesh panels Groundsheet: 20D Sil/PE polyester 3500mm HH Poles: uses trekking poles Pegs: 4 x 6in (8.5 g each) and 4 x 7in (12 g each) Porches: 2 Inner dimensions (WxLxH): 81x230x117cm durstongear.com Durston’s X-Mid shelters have quickly become a firm favourite in the lightweight backpacking world. Is the hype justified, asks David Lintern? The X-Mid uses an offset design, with the inner sitting at an angle to the fly, which maximises living space exceptionally well. It’s…

10 varied routes in Scotland, England and Wales Mountains offer us the chance to enjoy the high life whilst keeping two feet – mostly – on terra firma. Nowhere is this freedom better felt than on lofty ridge walks, along weather-sharpened edges, rambling the rounds or at the heights of Britain’s finest horseshoes. Here are 10 routes along which you can look down and almost feel as though you’re flying, compiled and mapped by our hillwalking experts. Just remember to keep your feet on the ground! Our walks this month 1 Quinag Assynt 3 Glas Maol & Creag Leacach Glen Isla 2 Beinn Sgulaird West Highlands 8 Whinash from Bretherdale Lake District 4 Deepdale Horseshoe Lake District 6 Gatesgarthdale Round Lake District 5 Fusedale Round Lake District 7 Dodds Round Lake District…

21.2km/13.2 miles/6-8 hours Ascent 1209m/3967ft Alex Roddie stretches his legs on three fine peaks in The Mounth The concept of ‘boring’ hills rubs me up the wrong way. In some circles, that reputation has become attached to The Mounth – the vast region of mountains south of the Cairngorms. But there are some superb mountains tucked away in The Mounth, and this route is one of the most adventurous. Some of the easiest Munros to climb can be reached from the Cairnwell Pass. East of this, Glen Isla carves deep into the mountains, providing access to several Munros and Corbetts. This circuit visits two Munros – Glas Maol (1068m) and Creag Leacach (987m) – as well as the Corbett Monamenach (807m). Although there is plenty of smooth, gentle, rolling terrain…

15.6km/9.7 miles/6-7 hours Ascent 1226m/4021ft Vivienne Crow joins the tops together for a western wander This route might not be on any lists of classic Lakeland rounds, but it takes in the ridges on both sides of Gatesgarthdale, so I reckon it qualifies. Horseshoe or not, it’s a cracking walk. So, Gatesgarthdale? Well, that’s the rugged little side valley you drive through on descending from Honister Pass to Buttermere. As impressive as it looks from the road, it’s far better when seen from the fells… First tackle Fleetwith Edge, a series of rocky steps broken by easier, grassy interludes on a shoulder rising almost directly from Buttermere’s shores. Continue along the northern edge of Fleetwith Pike, high above the via ferrata, before dropping to Honister Pass. Hitting a road halfway through…

32km/20 miles/9-10 hours Ascent 1096m/3596ft Francesca Donovan guides you on a fine Peak day challenge THE EDALE SKYLINE is the most fun you can have in the Peak District on two feet. That is, if you find admiring sweeping views across the most popular (read: best) hillwalking territory in our first national park fun. This route, which skirts the edges above the entire Edale valley, is a well-loved trail run; but it can be squeezed into a day of walking too. There’s only one sustained ascent and the rest of the walk involves staying high for many undulating miles. It’s well worth the effort. On the Edale skyline, you’ll bag five trig points, enjoy views over the Ladybower Reservoir, encounter fascinating gritstone formations at the edges of the Kinder plateau, and…