A look at the Spring Issue of The Great Outdoors

 
The  latest issue of The Great Outdoors is out now. In it I review three tarps from Kelty, Hilleberg and Alpkit, plus the Osprey Talon Pro pack and The North Face L3 50/50 down jacket. I also have a look at what's happening to ViewRanger and consider how to pitch a tent in cold and hostile weather.

Elsewhere in the gear pages Judy Armstrong and David Lintern each review five pairs of three-season boots.

In the main features Nicola Hardy walks 325 kilometres from her Sheffield birthplace to her new home in Cumbria, Craig Weldon argues for taking the 'wrong' way up hills, Alex Roddie finds solitude on a December backpack through Knoydart, and Faraz Shibli undertakes a 1000-mile camel assisted trek across the Gobi Desert.

Also in this issue James Forrest gives some good tips for avoiding crowds in the hills, Hanna Lindon looks at the exciting possibility of lynx being reintroduced to Scotland and talks to Boardman-Tasker winner Jessica Lee about nature writing, Alex Roddie asks if outdoor culture has become too detached from nature, Sue Oxley and Ali Ogden start planning a backpacking trip, Jim Perrin praises the magnificent Buachaille Etive Mor, and Plas y Brenin instructor Brad Reed gives his tips for beginner hillwalkers. 

As well as excellent reading the magazine is full of mouth-watering photographs. I especially like the one of Alex Roddie in his brightly lit tent on a dark Knoydart night - it really captures the peace of a night out in the wilds and makes me look forward to being able to do that again soon. The image of the vast sand dunes of the Gobi Desert with a tiny figure walking along the crest of one of them also drew my attention and made me long for a desert trip.