Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2024 i The Great Outdoors

SARAH HOBBS’ story (or at least this retelling) begins at Black Rocks, a gritstone outcrop just outside the Peak District. The site of some extreme climbing routes, it was a stone’s throw from Sarah’s childhood home, and she spent many hours here scrambling and exploring. Adventures with family to the Lakes (at 10 weeks old the deep snow of Latrigg left Sarah forever changed, according to her mother) and Powys (walking amongst hedgerows with her Welsh-speaking granddad, who carried bracken to keep the flies away) define these formative chapters. Sarah’s first hill memory is of climbing Cat Bells and throwing pebbles towards the chimneys of Little Town – an eight-year-old inspired by Beatrix Potter’s Mrs Tiggywinkle – just to see if they reached. “They didn’t,” she confirmed, adding, “It’s interesting…

AS I WRITE THIS, the first six months of 2024 have each set new temperature records. We’ve all seen the impact on British mountains: extreme storms and flooding, wildfires, reduced snow cover, and species such as ptarmigan struggling to adapt. Abroad, glaciers are melting at an astounding rate. It can be tempting to declare defeat, and assume that individual action is pointless. But, much as we must continue to pressure governments and businesses to clean up their acts – and to demand changes across society, there’s value in taking positive action, in making steps towards a survivable future. So what can we do? INTENTIONAL KIT CHOICES Every product has a footprint: in carbon, water, energy and raw materials. It’s also important to consider its lifespan, ease of repair, and whether…

EACH YEAR, our team does hundreds of hours of field testing in all weathers and seasons, across Britain and further afield. From this, we draw up a shortlist, which leads to more discussion and deliberation. Trust is key to the entire process: we only award in categories where we identify a clear candidate, and all our tests are conducted 100% independently. So, without further ado, we present The Great Outdoors’ pick of the crop for 2024. We’ve narrowed it down to a selection of over 30 superb products in 16 categories. These awards recognise the best outdoor equipment available, all thoroughly tested by our team of expert gear testers in the hills and wild places from the Scottish Highlands to Dartmoor. We’ve also awarded brands pushing innovation and sustainability, brands…

TESTING CONDITIONS Kirsty is just over 5ft tall, so having a short or petite mat works well for her. She sleeps cool, so looks for a higher R-value for more insulation from the ground. She tested these mats whilst camping in the Scottish Highlands through a cool and wet spring and summer. All weights are from Kirsty’s own scales. BEST IN TEST Mountain Equipment Mirrostat 7.0 £200 535g (Regular) weight, warmth price, pump sack shape Type: air Materials: recycled 20D plain-weave polyester, TPU lamination, Mylar reflective film Dimensions: 190x51cm (Regular) Thickness: 9cm Rating: 4.5 R-value Sizes: Regular, Long Men’s version?: unisex mountain-equipment.co.uk The Mirrostat is Mountain Equipment’s top-end mat for warmth and weight, and it really packs a punch for the size and weight. This is the only model in…

21km/13 miles/8-10 hours* Ascent 904m/2966ft GOING TO Glen Spean but turning your back on Ben Nevis, the Aonachs and the Grey Corries might sound odd, but bear with me. Looking north instead, the Creag Meagaidh range, where the highest summits are, is more akin to the Cairngorms, with a plateau and cliff-ringed corries. North and west of Meagaidh, the landscape is notable for its sheer size and emptiness. The long, narrow road up Glen Roy lands you deep in these hills. The glen is famed for its ‘parallel roads’ – horizontal terraces on the hillsides that mark the old shorelines of ice-dammed lochs from the Pleistocene, the epoch of ice ages. This route is not especially long or strenuous but it does pass a fine bothy, Luib Chonnal, set in the…

19.3km/12 miles/6 hours* Ascent 676m/2218ft MOST CAREFUL plans work well; but changes on the ground can sometimes thwart, no matter how cunning and creative we may become. Climbing Cairnsmore of Carsphairn from Craigengillan demonstrates the point. There are good tracks through the Moorbrock estate and associated pine plantations, but miles of new deer fencing now block access from them to the mountains. Walking some of the fence line and using binoculars fail to find a way, but finally Clennoch Bothy can lift the spirits of the disheartened. First break through a flutter of birds attracted by well-placed feeders and open a cheery light blue door. Through the porch a bright, well-maintained dwelling with sleeping platforms for four awaits. There are chairs and a worktop for making a brew or more. Information…

23.8km/14.8 miles/2 days Ascent 1829m/6000ft I LOVE A LINEAR JOURNEY on foot, especially if it involves ridge-walking. Better still, throw in a night in a bothy and it’s a ‘micro-adventure’! This particular ‘Dubs Hut’ micro-adventure is brought to you courtesy of one of England’s finest bus routes: the seasonal 77/77A/77C. After catching the bus from Keswick to Buttermere, the High Stile range is approached via Scale Force and Lingcomb Edge – a less trodden route than the slog up past Bleaberry Tarn. Red Pike, High Stile, High Crag and Hay Stacks are the summits bagged after the moorland walk turns into a rockier hike. Your ‘bed’ for the night is in the old quarry hut, maintained by the MBA. Facilities include a non-leaky roof, a stove and a location unmatched by…

31km/19.2 miles/9.5 hours Ascent 892m/2926ft THE TINY GRWYNE FAWR Bothy is a former waterworks building that clings to a steep slope overlooking its namesake reservoir. The reservoir dam was completed in 1928 and hit the headlines again in 1998 when the young Princes William and Harry abseiled down its near-vertical sides without any safety gear. There’s a rumour that the bothy is haunted, but I’ve found only peace and the sound of the stream there and, apart from the odd joker, all the comments in the visitors’ book agree. The bothy, managed by the MBA (Mountain Bothies Association), feels remote but is less than 3 miles from the closest car park. It can get busy at weekends and only sleeps three, on the upper mezzanine floor, so take a bivvy…

Marek Bidwell’s debut article for TGO features a dramatic backpack across the Isle of Skye, where he woke to the Northern Lights on his final night (page 34). Marek lives in Newcastle, where he works as an environmental consultant and enjoys exploring Northumberland. This summer, he published his first book – Skye Line: Backpacking the Original Skye Trail. For his next adventure, he’s planning to walk from his home town of Nottingham back to Newcastle. Bethany Hughes has been writing, speaking and teaching about ‘Slow Travel’ for over 20 years and across 22,000 human-powered miles. Most recently, she created and led the Her Odyssey Expedition, a human-powered traverse of the Americas, connecting the story of the land and its inhabitants. Her article in this month’s magazine offers an overview of and…

I FIRST HEARD about Torridon’s Beinn Dearg during perhaps the last conversation I had with Brian Ripley, one of my earliest climbing mentors. Along with his elder brother, Alan, I couldn’t have chanced on better ones. I remember Brian’s languorous, considered style from days spent on the Chew Valley’s high-rimming fierce crags in the early 1960s. Alan and Brian – builders by trade – possessed an old grey Ford pickup, into the back of which a group of us were piled ready to explore places as far afield as Almscliff or The Roaches. Brian cajoled me up the exposed top section of The Helix on Harston Rock one Sunday between rain showers. The confidence he gave me, the way he imparted his own skill to an awkward 13-year-old, was exemplary.…

TESTING CONDITIONS David is quite short at 5ft 8in, and sleeps cold. He tested the mats over winter, spring and summer from glen bottom to mountain summit camps, all in Highland Scotland. He sometimes used the mats together and sometimes apart and always in different shelters, to help gauge form and function. Weights are from his own scales and include stuff sacks, inflation bags and repair kits. BEST IN TEST Rab Ionosphere 5 £170 633g (Regular) warmth, pack size none Type: air mat Materials: 20D recycled polyester outer fabric with internal TPU coating and fluorocarbon free DWR, and Stratus R 100% recycled polyester insulation 160gsm with TILT Dimensions: 183x51cm (Regular) Thickness: 8cm Rating: 4.8 R-value Sizes: Regular, Long Wide Women’s version?: unisex rab.equipment The Ionosphere 5 achieves the fine balance…

49.5km/30.8 miles/2-3 days Ascent 1148m/3766ft SCOTLAND is famous around the world for its wild camping, not least because we have the legal right to camp on uncultivated mountain land. But Scotland is also famous for its bothies, and combining the two can be a doubly rewarding way to enjoy the hills. This walk takes in most of the Affric-Kintail Way, a low-level multi-day hike in the West Highlands. It mostly follows good paths and old drove roads, making it a good introduction to long-distance walking in Scotland (it’s also waymarked). In addition to the bothy of Camban, it has something unique: the Glen Affric Youth Hostel, situated in the middle of the glen and far from any road. So if you’d rather book slightly more luxurious accommodation than the bothy –…

36.1km/22.4 miles/10 hours* Ascent 516m/1693ft RAE BURN and Meggat Water are sprightly streams that rush down from Eskdalemuir Forest, one through a wide open valley and the other crowded by the steeper flanking hills. They each offer alluring ways in and out of the trees. The forest itself offers plenty of open views and broadleaf trees to break up the evergreen curtain. Both streams run into the Esk eventually, which also starts life in the forest as the White and Black Esk, with the White Esk running through a particularly picturesque valley rich in archaeological remains from settlements and enclosures to forts and stone circles. Joining these three together makes for a long day out, but Greensykes Bothy is well placed to offer warm lodgings overnight. There are three tidy rooms,…

32km/20 miles/2 days Ascent 1148m/2766ft TO SAY THERE’S no bothy in the Peak District is technically correct. And yet, I’ve spent many comfy nights in a small stone structure nestled into an oyster-shaped Derbyshire clough with the often alcohol-fuelled accounts in the visitors’ book for company. If it looks, sounds and smells(!) like a bothy, does it a bothy make? The Mountain Bothies Association (MBA) says bothies – originally farm accommodation for itinerant workers – have evolved to be defined as “open shelters… where travellers might have need of four walls and a roof”. By that definition, this shooting cabin is a rare pearl of a bothy in the Midlands. “Most bothies are at least several hours’ walk from the public road,” the MBA adds. But Oyster Clough cabin is a…

REDWINGS AS THE AUTUMNAL months approach, you may think our upland areas will soon be free of birdsong. But now’s the time to welcome winter migrants such as the redwing (Turdus iliacus) to our shores. These small but mighty thrushes endure a journey across to North Sea to escape their frozen lands of Russia, Scandinavia and Iceland. Migrating through the long, dark nights, many won’t survive – but those that do will be counted as the UK’s smallest true thrush. If you should catch a glimpse of them during the daylight upon their arrival – as early as September – you’ll be able to distinguish them from song thrushes by a cream stripe above each eye. Watch them in flight, and you’ll see below each wing the red patch for…

I HAVE HOPE; let’s start there. This is different to optimism, and this distinction is key to where I am at with politics. My hope sits outside of manifestos, glossy promises and target-driven nature restoration. Optimism is simply reading the words “Labour will expand nature-rich habitats such as wetlands, peat bogs and forests…” and thinking, ‘Great, job done!’ Optimism is ignoring the nagging doubt; it’s celebrating promises without action because the reality is too hard to process. Hope, on the other hand, is what happens when you deeply engage with the reality of our human lives, how they are lived alongside nature, and how that nature is faring. Some of the biggest parts of me are those labelled Naturalist and Ornithologist, so talk of ‘wetlands and peat bogs’ turn my…

Our walks this month 1 Carn Dearg via Luib Chonnal Bothy West Highlands 2 Affric-Kintail Way West Highlands  3 Ben Alder Cottage Central Highlands 4 Clennoch Bothy & Moorbrock Hill Southern Uplands  5 Greensykes Bothy Dumfries & Galloway 6 Branstree via Mosedale Cottage Lake District 7 Dubs Hut overnighter Lake District 8 Kinder Scout via Oyster Clough cabin Peak District 9 Dulyn Bothy Eryri/Snowdonia 10 Waun Fach via Grwyne Fawr Bothy Black Mountains Some might find the obsession with bothies – four-walled structures erected and maintained for the purpose of simple shelter – counterintuitive as we venture out of doors to be at one with nature. But, as we head into the seasons of shorter days and wilder weather, bothies become a haven: a source of warmth and conviviality. So, this month our experts…

35.2km/21.9 miles/2 days Ascent 421m/1381ft I REMEMBER the first time I ever heard about Ben Alder Cottage, the bothy at the foot of (you’ve guessed it) Ben Alder. “It’s haunted, you know,” my friend told me. I had to check it out – and I found it an unusually welcoming bothy. Every time I’ve been back, that impression has been reinforced. I’ve caught sight of no ghosts yet. In fact, the two famously gruesome tales associated with the Cottage have been debunked. The usual approach to Ben Alder Cottage is from the south via Bridge of Ericht, but I planned a much more adventurous approach starting from Rannoch Station and taking in the wild Coire Eigheach. Bealach Leathann, and a very rough descent to the east, provides access to the lake…

20.9km/13 miles/8 hours Ascent 1188m/3898ft THE BOTHY EXPERIENCE is far from luxurious – more akin to “camping without a tent” as the MBA puts it – but staying in these historic buildings can really enhance your adventures. There are four such bothies in the Lakes, and Mosedale Cottage near Haweswater Reservoir is perhaps the quietest and remotest. Nestled in the uninhabited Mosedale valley, this whitewashed shelter’s exact history is not entirely clear. It may have some links to the disused slate quarry next to Great Grain Gill, and it has been used a farmstead building and shepherd’s cottage. It certainly has a wonderfully off-grid, back-of-beyond aura. Staying in the bothy is the perfect way to break up this route, which bags four Wainwrights – Selside Pike, Branstree, Tarn Crag and Grey…

9.3km/5.8 miles/3-4 hours Ascent 327m/1072ft LLYN DULYN, a modest corrie lake situated in the lee of Foel Grach, is at its best first thing in the morning, when light hits from the east. Once the sun has passed its zenith the lofty cliffs of Craig y Dulyn cast shadows over the deep waters, giving them an inky hue. This phenomenon is undoubtedly the origin of the name Llyn Dulyn, which translates to ‘black lake.’ Down the centuries the lake has become associated with tales of magic. A large rock known as the ‘Red Altar’ was once connected to the shore by a stone causeway. It was said that should anyone cast water over the altar the weather would make an abrupt turn for the worse; a not uncommon happening in North…