Outdoor walking wild camping and mountain biking articles, stories and news

Man who go 4×4 stuck on Snowdon was.. wait for it…. A Recovery truck driver…

Reality is stranger than fiction – from the BBC: An out-of-work vehicle recovery technician has been charged with dangerous driving after a 4×4 vehicle ended up near the summit of Snowdon. Initially Craig Williams, 39, from Gloucestershire, faced charges relating to driving on moorland or common land on 4 September. Note – “out-of-work vehicle recovery […]

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What does it take to become a Mountain Leader?

On the recent revamp of sister site Walk Eryri, like scouting around in the attic, we were covered in cobwebs, screaming in a girly manner at the spiders*, the dust allergy was flaring up and we found stuff we didn’t realise we had. So here’s a heads up to a series of articles that I

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Super Hill Foods 3 – The Humble Pork Pie

Much maligned by the healthy salad brigade, the humble pork pie is the king of the mountain packup. What else, bar solid lard, can pack so many calories into such a tidy savoury parcel? Available in many different varieties, the Melton Mowbray is certainly one of the kings of the pork pies, as are the many local

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Motorola Defy – waterproof / ciderproof test – The only way to kill off Angry Birds

You may or may not be interested to see us put the Motorola Defy through it’s paces below. In three months use, the phone’s been severely abused in use and has survived. Packed hastily into a windproof pocket and drenched in an hour’s torrential rain and survived. It’s even survived a few impromptu dunks as

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Lightweight Luxury Wild Camping? Wild Glamping?

You’ve read, possibly, out previous jaunts into the hills, and being staunch day walkers you’ve thought it not for you. The luxury of the b&b and the pub, a comfortable bed and a good night’s sleep are all you crave between your days of walking or biking. Well, we’re a soft bunch here really, and while

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More Mynydd Mawr Images – Wednesday Evening

Funnily enough, we went up Mynydd Mawr by this route the day it was published! Here are some further images of the walk.

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5 Things: Prepare for Snow!

You may think we’ve finally lost it but now’s the time to buy all the stuff you need for winter! Following the heavy snow last year, you may remember the difficulty in getting hold of those essential items that you didn’t think of until the white stuff had fallen! Here are some thing that you may need

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WIMM – Wearable Android Platform

WIMM Labs recently announced a multifunctional, wearable android device. Will this take over from your GPS watch and mp3 player soon? Following on from our review of android running apps, one of the issues we found was carrying the phone with you. This would be a much more elegant solution. It’s also water resistant, so along

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Karrimor – Bargain Running Gear?

Anyone who is older than the age of consent will probably have heard of the Karrimor brand. Erstwhile stalwart of the walking community, it went to the wall and was bought up by a larger company a few years back. Since then, it’s become a bit like the French Rugby Union Team, in that if

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Himalayan Guide visits the Lake District

Here’s a guest post by Matt from www.peakseekers.co.uk. If you want loads more routes from the Lakes to further afield (including Iceland!) then it’s well worth a visit. Last year we battled through dodgy stomachs, headaches and breathlessness to achieve our dreams of reaching Everest Base Camp. Along the way new friendships were made and

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5 things – Wild Camps for the Bank Holiday Weekend

You may just be tempted to defy the weather and get out this weekend on a wild camp. Here are some suggestions where to go or avoid. 1 – Wyddfa. It’s a bank holiday and a relatively small area. Probably not the place for a quiet wild camp. There are a few spots where you

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Golite Shangri-La 3 and Nest Review

The Golite Shangri-la tent is seriously cool. It doesn’t conform to your boring hoop, tunnel or ridge shape but instead takes on the tipi shape that makes you certain to stand out. Stand out further and buy the bamboo yellow instead of the usual green. Initially called the hex as it has six sides, the Golite

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Cadair Idris and Mynydd Moel from Llanfihangel-y-pennant

If you like to bag peaks then this epic trek up Cadair Idris, climbing all the main summits is definitely the way to do it. Llanfihangel-y-pennant is a tiny hamlet of a church, a house and a block of public toilets to service the small car park. It’s also the birthplace of Mari Jones who walked 26 barefoot miles, for

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Walk up Aran Fawddwy and Glasgwm from Cwm Cywarch

Aran Fawddwy is the highest mountain south of Snowdon and the highest summit in South Snowdonia, yet this is a largely ignored hill. It is barely 10m below the magic mark of 914m and often overlooked in favour of its less lofty, but more spectacular neighbour Cader Idris. Fortunately, this means that a walk up

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Bum Bag Challenge

If you’ve read the superlightweight article, then you’ll know that the next logical challenge is to go even lighter and with a smaller pack. The sea to summit was a hefty 20l in size, so we’re going way smaller. In fact, there are a number of high quality running bum bags that have a capacity

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The Superlighweight Challenge 2 – On the Hill

If you’ve read part one, then you’ll know that following on from the Wild Camp on a Budget challenge, we wanted a new one. This time, we decided to wild camp in proper mountains by using just the tiniest Sea to Summit 20 litre day pack. Now the first thing you quickly realise is that

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Berghaus Map Case Review

I’m usually torn when it comes to map cases. On some level, I think they’re useless and a waterproof map serves the purpose much better. On another, they work out cheaper if you need to buy loads of maps rather than just a couple. So when on home turf, I’m usually found with a waterproof

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Walk up Rhinog Fawr and Roman Steps from Cwm Bychan

Cwm Bychan is one of the more remote areas of Snowdonia. There’s just a narrow, unclassified road leading up to the cwm and no through route. In summer it’s a beautifully wooded valley, but today the lake was frozen over and the place felt like winter. There’s parking noted on the OS map, and it

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Superlightweight Challenge Video

This is our first, rather disasterous attempt at making a video… It seems that my camera takes great photos, useless at video and worse at audio. It didn’t help that it was getting late and we’d had a few in the pub before setting off and the wind just drowned out all the audio. That

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World’s Lightest day pack – Sea to Summit Ultra Sil Lightweight Day Pack Review

Ok, this is old news by now, but searching online for this piece of kit sees a few reviews that deride this as an impractical gimmick. Just search for the pack on Google Images and see how many people have actually taken a pic of this pack in the field! The nearest is on page

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Snowdon Wild Camp – Superlightweight challenge

Here’s just a few images to follow up from the Superlightweight Challenge. We managed to bivvy-tarp on the South Ridge of yr Wyddfa at just under 700m, just below the knoll of Allt Maenderyn and managed to fit plenty into the 20l pack including half a bottle of port. It wasn’t perfect weather, a bit

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My Garmin’s bit the dust

Do not follow any advice given in this article. It is for information only and you’ll be better off sending the watch back to Garmin! Well, not tonight, but last week. It decided that it initially didn’t want to talk to my PC, and who can blame it considering it’s still running Vista before switching

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The Superlightweight Challenge 1 – The Gear

Following on from wild camping on a budget, I was after a new challenge. Instead of the gear cost, this time I was going to be both limited in weight and have to make use of the world’s lightest day pack – Sea to Summit day pack to stow all the stuff in. So my mission, if

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Five Things – Free Running Apps for Android Part 2

The second Installment of the Free Android Running Apps.. (first one is here) Cardiotrainer – On opening you can start a schedule for a ‘week’ but not beyond that. Ideal if you’re doing a steady few runs every week and building a base, and so far the best scheduler (you can state the activity you

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