The February issue of The Great Outdoors: wild camps of 2015, TGO Gear Awards reviews, Creag Meagaidh

Camp above Loch Avon in the Cairngorms, October 2015

In the shops now, the February issue of The Great Outdoors has, unsurprisingly, a wintry theme. To that end I've described a snowy walk on Creag Meagaidh as my contribution to a feature on perfect winter hill walks that also has pieces from Alan Hinkes, Jim Perrin, David Lintern and others.

My backpacking column is a look back at my wild camps of last year - some of them quite wintry! In the gear pages I review the items that won TGO awards back in the autumn.

This issue has some great photography including a double page spread of dawn on a snowy Blencathra by Terry Abrham and some tremendous images by Alex Nail of a winter camp and traverse of An Teallach. There are also enticing pictures in Andrew Terrill's account of a winter trip in the Mount Evans Wilderness in Colorado.

Sticking with the winter theme Ronald Turnbull goes bivvying on the snowy Eskdale hills and Ed Byrne makes a December trip up Helvellyn with Fell Top Assessor Jon Bennett. The Hill Skills pages cover ice axe and crampon use in the company of Glenmore Lodge instructor Giles Trussell. And in gear Judy Armstrong reviews six women's down jackets.

Also in this issue Carey Davies ponders dry stone walls in the Lake District; Roger Smith asks what can be learnt from the recent destructive storms; Jim Perrin recommends Hilda Murrell's Nature Diaries and reviews Ed Douglas's Statement: The Ben Moon Story.