August TGO: 50-60 litre packs, Hilleberg Anjan and photographic thoughts.

Ready to photograph the sunset on Ben Nevis

The August issue of TGO is out now. My contributions are a test report on fourteen 50-60 litre size packs, a first look at the new Hilleberg Anjan tent and some thoughts on photography and memories in my backpacking column.

By coincidence my photography thoughts appear in the same issue as a truly stand-out photo essay from Glyn Davies called Sculpting the Light that features some outstanding images of Snowdonia from his latest book, Welsh Light.

Elsewhere in the magazine two long challenge walks are described, both of which I happen to have done. The first is Ramsey’s Round over 23 Munros including Ben Nevis, the Mamores and the Grey Corries. Fell runners do this 56 mile jaunt in less than 24 hours. In the trip described here Ian Battersby takes four days, which was my time as well. Whether one day or four it’s well worth doing. In my view it’s one of the best mountain backpacking trips in Britain. The second challenge walk is the Lakes 3,000-footers, a 45 mile trip that I did many years ago in my fell running days in a little under 14 hours. Roy Clayton takes a few attempts and a little longer and describes well what it feels like to undertake such a long day.

Strenuous exercise of a different sort is undertaken by Ed Byrne as he tries his hand at path maintenance on the Pennine Way in the Peak District. Also in the magazine are a profile of Everest climber Bonita Norris; thoughts on recent extremes of weather in the UK from Roger Smith; Jim Perrin on the wonderful poetry of Norman MacCaig; useful information on walking and camping with children, tick bites and grouse-shooting; and Jamie Whittle on the pleasures of walking by moonlight. In the gear pages Judy Armstrong reviews women’s base layers, Cameron McNeish likes the Mizuno Wave Strider GTX trail shoes and Daniel Neilson is eventually impressed by the Marmot Vapor Trail Hoody softshell.