If you like to run or walk with as little encumbrance as possible, a waist pack is just the ticket. However, they don’t have a load of room and you may not want to stash your waterproof on the top where it may well fall off. This handy little tip secures your jacket, and takes up no […]
The Beast’s Tip of the Week – Carrying a Jacket Securely with a Waist Pack Read More »
No, we’re not taking the pi** this week, seriously. When you’re navigating, and you want to point to a location on the map, be aware that your finger is somewhere in the region of 400m in width when you measure it relative to the map scale (1:25,000). That can lead to a huge discrepancy. One
The Beast’s Tip of the Week – Pointing to the Map Read More »
Fed up of that fusty and minging flask on a hill walk frosty morn? Get rid of the stink by adding a load of bicarb in it overnight. Not sure how much, just get a decent tablespoon’s worth in there and it’ll absorb any niffs that might be hanging about. Make sure you clean it
The Beast’s Tip of The Week – Sprucing up that Flask Read More »
This is a really quick tip to keep your hands warm by creating instant thumbloops when you’ve forgotten your gloves, or just plain can’t be bothered to get them out of the pack. You will need : One jacket with velcro adjusted cuff – basically almost any regular jacket that’s neither cheap or ultralight. All you need
The Beast’s Tip of The Week – Keep Your Hands Warm With Instant Thumbloops Read More »
It’s staggering how many people you see setting off from the usual trailheads dressed from head to toe in waterproof Gore-Tex, eVent or even Paramo. That’s fine during the typical wet weather that we get, but utterly inexplicable at most other times. They’ll usually plod onwards, trying to work out why they’re overheating and getting sweaty. Next
Why Windproofs are Essential for Hill Walking Read More »
If you do a lot of wild camping, then while specialist dehydrated meals might be convenient and light, it can work out extremely expensive. I tend to buy them for my main backpacking trips when I may need to carry five days’ food, but look our for some cheaper alternatives when I’m only out for
Five Things – No Nonsense Wild Camping Food Read More »
All waterproof kit eventually loses its water repellancy after enough use, usually failing on you during a wet and cold winter walk. Fortunately, they can usually be re-proofed if you know how. My Sealskinz All Season gloves, which are half leather and half fabric, didn’t perform particularly well on a wet January walk and so I
How to Proof Sealskinz Fabric and Leather Waterproof Walking Gloves Read More »
With the lower quality rags warning of a Siberian Winter, as they invariably do every winter, year in and year out, you’ll need to get properly kitted out for some winter running. Not because of their usually incorrect forecasting, but due to the solid science that the months of January and February are usually quite
Cold Weather Running Read More »
Here’s a few of the best Starting Out and Skills and Tips tutorial articles we’ve published over the last year or so. 1 – Wild Camping It may not have been a good year to start wild camping, but if anyone was inclined to do so then our Wild Camping tutorials would certainly have put them in the right direction.
Five Things – Starting Out Read More »
As we’ve now added a Skills and Tips section to the site, here are a selection of our best Gear Care articles from the 50 or so articles published so far. We’ve even managed to stick to the five things as mentioned in the title, sorry! 1 – Check your boots – There are a
Five Things – Gear Care Skills and Tips Read More »
If you’ve recently read the article on how to give your boots an overhaul, or the previous on waterproofing leather boots and own fabric boots, then you’ll need to proof them slightly differently. This should take about 10 mins, plus drying time and is well worth the effort if you want your boots to keep
How To Proof Goretex Fabric Boots Read More »
With tents becoming so lightweight, it seems perverse to go out into the wilds with what’s basically a waterproof sleeping bag cover and with barely any weight benefit. Most of the cheaper ex-army type of bivvy bags are actually heavier than your typical 1kg lightweight tent. So why bother? Reducing the experience down to the
The Beauty of Bivvying Read More »
You’ve already got into walking, wild camped a bit and know how to use a map and compass; you need another challenge. Walking one of the many long distance paths could be what you need this summer. Where to go? With so many options, this is probably the hardest part. You’ll nee to decide if
Your First Long Distance Footpath Read More »
Can I get kitted out and tackle Snowdon for under a £100 from the skin up? We take on the challenge – the only rules being that any thing I can’t buy can be made up from everyday clothing most people will have (e.g. pants) and that I’d be going as part of a group
Get Walking on a Budget – Under a Ton! Part 1 Read More »
If like me, you’d rather boil up some ‘wild raisins’ from next to the tent than suffer a brown liquid that purports to be ‘coffee’ from some sort of stick, then this might be an option. Rather than taking up any extra paraphenalia, all you need to make some almost proper Camping Coffee is a
How to Make Camping Coffee Read More »
If you’ve got a lightweight titanium pot or similar, then while they’re perfect for boiling water, if you try anything more adventurous you’ll soon find how easy they are to burn. I managed to carbonise popcorn on my MSR Titan Kettle, leaving it totally unusable. Soaking overnight in the sink didn’t have much of an effect,
Kit Care – Cleaning Your Titanium Pot Read More »
Why follow someone else’s idea when you can get out a set of maps and create your own?! We plan our Escape From Knoydart trip and show you how you can plan your own week long backpack. You’ll need: A week or so off work OS Maps at 1:25k and possibly 1:50k, or Harvey’s Mountain
How to plan your own Backpacking Trip Read More »
As Christmas draws ever nearer, like most of us, you’ll probably be over indulging on mince pies and spending the dark evenings lounging on the couch. However by the time New Year comes around you’ll be wishing you hadn’t eaten quite so many chocolates and making resolutions to lose the extra pounds and get fit!
Get Running For The New Year With Couch To 5K Read More »
This is probably one of the more daunting cleaning jobs, but not all that difficult if you’re prepared. It’s a good time of the year to get the spring/summer bag washed seeing as it’s not going to see much use for a good few months. Of course, it’s not the best time of year to
How to Clean and Reproof a Down Sleeping bag Read More »
So you’ve fancied submitting a route, or downloading one, but you’ve no clue what these mythical GPX files are that we’re on about. Basically a GPX file is a collection of information about a route that includes the location data, altitude and possibly time and heart rate information too. If you upload one of these, then it’ll
Everything you wanted to know about GPX but were afraid to ask…. Read More »
With Winter officially here and the clocks turned back to perpetual darkness for another five months, the only good thing we’ve got to look forward to is mountain biking on Snowdon and the possibility of loads of lovely snow. Before you get out there it might be worth watching the Snowdonia National Park’s video to brush
Diogelwch ar y Mynydd Amodau Gaeafaol- Mountain Safety – Winter Conditions Read More »
Setting out for a winter walk you’ll need to make sure you’re properly dressed, but if you’re not then you’re from as much risk from overheating as you are from the cold. You need to be comfortable.. This means that it’s no good whacking on that down jacket at the start of the walk, unless
Layering up for Winter Read More »
It’s getting that time of year when you need to give those long abused leather boots a make over. 1 – Clean ’em – Water works, though you can get some proprietary boot cleaners that work out a little expensive in the long term. Use a brush to clean out all the dirt from the seams. You
How To – Waterproof Leather Boots Read More »
If like me, you’re a little nervous with merino wool, here’s a brief run down of how to make sure it gets washed properly. 1 – Read the label! If it say’s anything different to us, then take the label’s advice over ours! 2 – Fill the sink with hand warm water. Don’t put water
How To – Wash Merino Wool Read More »
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