Find below our complete guide to outdoor skills, well almost complete! We’re in the process of organising the content into more coherent sections.
YES! Despite our innate nature, Mud and Routes are becoming more organised!
As a starter for 10, here’s our Complete Introduction to Map Reading and Navigation Online Course.
A waist-pack might seem too small to use for a proper walk, but it can be done easily enough if you’re strict with your kit. You can also wild camp with one, but more on that later (much later). For the recent warm weather, this is what was in our 6 litre waist-pack, and it all […]
The Beast’s Tip of the Week – Walks with Waistpacks Read More »
The weather is getting cooler, wetter and breezier already, so it’s time to prepare yourself to make the most of the coming autumn with our tips. 1 – Make sure your kit’s all proofed and up to scratch. Get your boots overhauled and proof your waterproofs in order to keep yourself dry. Do this before
Preparing for Autumn Walks Read More »
We all need a good kick up the backside every now and then, and outdoor apathy can strike at any time and any one of us. So here’s some ideas to get you out there, doing something a little different perhaps, but out there none the less. Camp differently – Why not bivvy, tarp or
Inspiration For Walking – Bigger, Better, Brighter Read More »
Not something you want to be reading over the weekend sports supplement, but neither is it something you want sprung on you on your long Sunday Run. Bleeding nipples, while it sounds like a trendy cocktail (probably with grenadine somewhere in the recipe) is a real problem once you start running beyond a certain distance.
Banish Runner’s Nipple Chafage Read More »
The conventional wisdom is that the best way to get fit for walking the hills, is by walking the hills. However, there are some positive steps we can take during the week without resorting to the gym (unless you insist!) as well as while we’re on the walk in order to make those hard earned
Faster, Fitter, Further – Improving Hill Walking Fitness Read More »
Here’s my Essential Trail Running Gear List – though there’s a few bits of kit on there that I know some people wouldn’t bother with. 1 – Decent shoes – Grip and comfort are top of the list. Waterproof trail runners are a bit pointless, and I prefer waterproof socks if I think they’ll help. If
The Essential Summer Trail Running Gear List Read More »
On a recent wild camp, we decided to see if these 24 hour ration packs are any good or are you better off avoiding them altogether. We went for this one by Evaq8 that cost around £16 with postage. What’s in it? The ration pack arrived in a tidy brown box and contained a generous selection
MRE 24 Hour Ration Pack Review Read More »
With the wild camping season kicking off, unless you’re into winter wild camping, there’s always more options than just your common or garden gas canister or petrol pressure stoves, depending on the kind of camping you plan on doing, and where you plan on doing it. Here’s a run down of the fun alternatives, Although
5 Things – Alternative Camping Cookers Read More »
I’ve had the Snow Peak Titanium Mug for years. It was an expensive bit of kit when I bought it, anything up to seven years ago, and it’s a little bit cheaper now. What can you say about a mug? Not a lot usually. It’s a metal cylinder, closed off at one end to keep what you
Classic Kit – Snow Peak Titanium Mug Long Term Review Read More »
I’ve usually got a sweet tooth on a wild camp, and while instant custard with a lump of chocolate might be OK, you might want more variety on a longer trip. These dehydrated puddings by Trek’n Eat provide a choice of four puddings; Caramel-Amaretto, Blueberry Fruit Soup which sounded too healthy for us and the
Trek’n Eat – Dehydrated Chocolate Mousse and Vanilla Rice Pudding Review Read More »
The Primus Eta Lite Camping Stove with Coffee Press is an all in one stove featuring a high efficiency Laminar Flow Burner Technology, with its own piezo electric ignition, and a 500ml pot complete with cosy and plastic lid. Once assembled, it’s rather tall but there’s a foot support supplied that attaches to the gas
Primus ETA Lite Camping Stove with Coffee Press Review Read More »
Often seen on the hill, much more often clacking down the street in Ambleside or Betws y Coed, how useful are they? Well they’ve certainly got more uses than just Nordic walking. 1 – As walking poles. They provide extra support and take the stress off the legs which can protect the knees. This is also
Five Things What Use Are Walking Poles? Read More »
If you’ve got a wood burning stove then here’s some ideas of how to get it lit. Tinder is basically anything that will catch fire – either with a match, lighter or ideally with a fire steel (though some definitions state that it has to be with a spark – if it needs a match
Five Things – Tinder For Real Fires Read More »
If you’ve read our recent review of alternative stoves, here are some ideas of what you can actually burn in those stoves. It should go without saying that you should only collect materials that is already dead – even if gorse and heather are removed by landowners occasionally. Also, avoid any treated wood – this
Five Things – Fuels for Wood Burning Camping Stoves Read More »
We love our little Garmin 110 GPS watch. So much in fact that it’s recently clocked 4000km of use, but not before the strap gave in. Unfortunately, the strap is non-replaceable, with the only option being a £60 refurb from Garmin, which was a figure we were not willing to pay out of principle for
The Beast’s Tip of the Week – Repairing a Garmin 110 Watch Strap Read More »
These can be so handy on a hot day, no need to stop to take a drink, but they get scummy and manky without proper care. There’s a few really simple things you can do to keep yours clean and mould free. These tips work for drinks bottles, as well as hydration pouches and collapsable
The Beast’s Tip of the Week – Hydration Bladder Care Read More »
The Esbit Pocket Mini Folding Stove is a tiny cooking solution that really does fit in a pocket, fuel and all. It’s aluminium, and light at 92g without fuel and folds to hold your pot securely in various positions so you can use anything from a metal mug up to a 1 litre pot on this
Esbit Pocket Mini Folding Stove Review Read More »
This is as gimmicky a product as you can get we reckon, but good for a laugh on a wild camp at least so we took the punt and gave it a taste test on last weekend’s wild camp. Astronaut Ice cream is apparently real freeze dried ice cream that you simply eat as is
Astronaut Ice Cream Review Read More »
There’s always a competition for the lightest, cheapest and smallest – but as the saying goes you can choose 2 out of the 3. Well the Esbit Ultraligh Titanium stove, in our opinion provides all three of these, but does that make this the ultimate ultralight wild camping stove? The stove is manufactured from titanium
Esbit Ultralight Titanium Stove Review Read More »
On long trips in the wild, I really miss bread. While baking your own is one option, or taking pita bread if it remains fresh. Another is to use these shelf stable (aka does not need refrigeration) breads initially developed for the US military. Thankfully you can buy them on-line, e.g. evaQ8. They come as
Bridgford Shelf Stable Bread Review Read More »
Chafing fuels are cheap tins of ethanol gel that are used for keeping food warm during buffets and the like. They were so cheap to buy at not much more than a pound each by the dozen or so, or only a £5 for three when you don’t, this was something we had to try out. We
Chafing Fuel as a Camping Stove Review Read More »
Whilst looking for an inexpensive wild camping cooker and exploring different fuel options, we found these Swiss Army solid fuel ethanol stoves. For around £7, you get the stove and fuel to last around 2 hours, which has the potential to be both cheap to buy and cheaper to run. You even get some free matches, but
M1 Swiss Solid Fuel Gel Camping Stove Review Read More »
It’s taken us a while to get hold of a set of these Orikaso Folding Dinner Set, mainly as they were just too expensive for what you got. Finding them for under three quid online, we decided to give them a go as that works out even cheaper than budget bowls and cups by the
Orikaso Folding Dinner Set Review Read More »
We’ve all see those impressive shots of the Milky Way with a suitably spectacular foreground and probably wished you could take a similar photo. We decided to see how difficult it really was, and provide some tips that we found useful. I set off originally, with an ancient Fuji Finepix 9600 Bridge Camera that I’d
Some Snowdonia Astrophotography Read More »
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