A Look At The August Issue Of The Great Outdoors

 

The Great Outdoors has a new look with a redesigned cover and logo. Carey Davies writes about the thinking behind this in his editorial New look, same values and says there a few more tweaks on the way. It's good to refresh the look of a magazine every so often and I think the new cover is excellent.

I have a variety of items in this issue - a comment piece on the need to defend wild camping, how to use smartphones for navigation in a section on navigation skills, and reviews of some new gear: Black Diamond's R series headlamps, Alpkit's Ranger Organic Ventile Jacket, and Columbia's OutDry Extreme Mesh waterproof jacket. Also in the gear section Fiona Russell and Peter Macfarlane review ten 3-season sleeping bags and Fiona Russell and David Lintern review a trio of sunglasses. 

As well as my piece the navigation section has Alex Roddie and three Plas y Brenin instructors - Helen Teasdale, Cath Wilson and Dave Evans - on the basics of map reading, compass fundamentals, and the skills of pacing and timing. Alex Roddie also has pieces on digital mapping and apps and GPS watches. 

In the main features Vivienne Crow finds solitude on a high-level linear walk on Helvellyn, Carey Davies goes for a wild camp in the Lake District with the 'Fell Foodie' Harrison Ward (there are recipes!), Stefan Durkacz backpacks Foinaven and Cranstackie in the far NW Highlands with photography by David Lintern, and Alex Toddie goes hut-to-hut trekking in the Tyrol in the Austrian Alps.

Also in this issue: a splendid opening spread of sunrise at Cwm Idwal in Snowdonia by Alan Novelli, mountaineering musician Ruth Boden as Creator of the Month, Cadair Berwyn in North Wales described by James Forrest as Route of the Month, an analysis of how the cost of living crisis affects outdoor expenses, a Q&A with Chinty Turnbull of the Buy Back Keswick campaign, reviews of Heather Dawe's Mountain Stories by Alex Roddie and Gail Muller's Unlost by Francesca Donovan, and a Mountain Portrait of Bidean nam Bian by Jim Perrin.

In Wild Walks Alan Rowan climbs Sron a' Choire Ghairbh and Meall na Teanga in the Central Highlands, Stefan Durkacz walks up Glen Feshie to Carn Dearg Mor in the Cairngorms, Francesca Donovan visits Three Shires Head in the Peak District and has a secluded dip, Sarah Stirling has a circular walk from St Davids in Pembrokeshire, and Vivienne Crow has a walk along the coast at Beachy Head and the Seven Sisters in Sussex.