The May issue of TGO is just out. My backpacking column is about the Arizona Trail, which I hiked ten years ago – I was in the Superstition Mountains on this date in 2000 – and which Colin Ibbotson is just setting out to hike (I had an email from him yesterday morning from Heathrow before his flight to Phoenix). The Arizona Trail was a marvellous walk and I’ll be interested to hear how Colin finds it. He’ll be travelling ultralight – which I definitely wasn’t – but water still weighs the same and much has to be carried at times. Modern technology that didn’t exist ten years ago (postcard were my main means of communication!) means he will be able to post blogs and even send back a track of his route. I hope to do something similar on a long walk later in the year. Colin’s hike can be followed here and the track here.
Elsewhere in TGO I’ve written a piece on navigation and reviewed 15 big packs, several of which would have cut the weight of my Arizona Trail load if they’d been available in 2000. There’s also a review of baby carriers by still relatively new father John Manning, kitting out kids by Ed Douglas, gear for hillwalking and via ferrata by Judy Armstrong who also has a piece on some new base layers with amazing claims, a look at how to deal with stinky synthetic base layers by Eddy Meecham (my answer is to wear merino wool instead), gear for trekking by Pete Royall, Cameron McNeish’s personal choice of backpacking gear, and an interview with the chief executive of the Outdoor Industries Association by Emily Rodway.
Away from gear Judy Armstrong describes a three day circuit in the Lake District, Ed Douglas looks at hillwalking with kids, Pete Royall treks in the Khumbu, Cameron McNeish links the Lairigs in the Cairngorms, Dave Willis tries out via ferrata in Corvara and Jim Perrin reflects on youth and maturity,
Photo info: In the Superstition Mountains on the Arizona Trail, April 3, 2000. The big pack is a Gregory Shasta. Ricoh RDC-5000 at 8mm, 1/250@ f6.7, tripod. JPEG in Lightroom 2.6
It's Friday, 2 April 2010 and the May edition of TGO is just out
ReplyDeleteWhat is it with magazines where they are a month ahead of reality?
Mike, I've wondered that for years! It seems that once one does it the others all follow so they don't seem out of date.
ReplyDeleteI once read an explanation of this practice (it was in a gardening magazine so the rationale might be different in other sectors). The idea, apparently, is that we read in one month and plan for the following one, so April's ideas become May's realities.
ReplyDeleteI'd already bought the magazine. I'm not so sure I bought the explanation.