The Great Outdoors February Issue: mid-size packs, Yeti gaiters,Summiteer sleeping bag & winter skills

In the February issue of The Great Outdoors I review eleven 30-40 litre packs and the Summiteer Glow Worm 600 sleeping bag and write about Berghaus Yeti gaiters in the Classic gear section, for which I dug out my old very faded pair. Also in the gear pages is a discussion of socks by Outdoor Gear Coach.

Accompanying the magazine is a supplement on winter skills to which I've contributed my thoughts on what to wear and carry plus what to look for in ice axes and crampons. Also in the supplement Carey Davies goes on a winter skills course at Glenmore Lodge while Lodge instructors Giles Trussell, Jon Jones and Alan Halewood give advice on safe movement in the winter hills, ice axe and crampon use, and avalanche safety. There's also a cautionary tale of a stormy winter's day on the Black Mount by David Lintern and advice from Paul Besley, who suffered a serious accident when winter hillwalking in the Lake District.

David Lintern also has a piece in the magazine, an account of an Alpine mountaineering introductory course in the Spanish Sierra Nevada, and a fine and atmospheric photo taken on the snow-covered summit of Bynack More that shows the Cairngorms at their most wild and glorious. There are also equally fine wintry photo spreads of a rainbow over the Langdale Pikes from Blea Tarn by Dave Fieldhouse and Loch Achtriochtan in Glencoe by Graham Bradshaw. Elsewhere in the magazine there's an account of an icy round of the Snowdon Horseshoe by Dan Aspel; an exciting snowshoe and bothy trip over Carn Dearg and Sgor Gaibhre from Corrour station by Alex Roddie; a wander round a snowy High Cup Nick by Mark Sutcliffe; and a consideration of the Great Langdale hills in winter by Ronald Turnbull. All these articles are illustrated with wonderful mouth-watering photos.

Away from the snow and ice Ed Byrne canoes down the River Spey, an entertaining article containing the wonderfully understated 'our third capsize was more annoying'. Carey Davies enjoys woods rather than hills in his column; Roger Smith looks at the campaign to save the Scottish wildcat; and Jim Perrin describes Sherpa: The Memoir of Ang Tharkay.