The Great Outdoors July issue

The July issue of The Great Outdoors is out now. I review nine 20-40 litre packs, three canister stoves, and the Merrell MTL Long Sky trail shoes.

With the summer holidays coming up the theme of this issue is outdoor activities with children. It's a long time since this was relevant to me but I do remember some wonderful camps and hillwalks. For those with young families now Hanna Lindon gives some great advice. And outdoor instructor Mikaela Toczek describes how she kept up her outdoor activities while pregnant. There's a list of ten hills suitable for kids too.

Away from families there's an excerpt about the Arrochar Alps from Patrick Baker's excellent new book The Unremembered Places (which I reviewed here) and Peter Elia describes being on Mount Kenya as lockdown began. 

The issue opens with a superb dawn photograph of the Assynt landscape by James Roddie taken on Stac Pollaidh.There's a piece on staying coronavirus-safe when walking. The Great Outdoors Book Club discusses Dan Richards' Outpost: A Journey to the Wild Ends of the Earth. Roger Smith has been reading too and rediscovers Highland Tours by James Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd. TGO Challenge organisers Sue Oxley and Ali Ogden tell the story of this year's Virtual Challenge. For his Mountain Portrait Jim Perrin praises Y Berwyn in Wales.