A Look At The April Issue Of The Great Outdoors

The April issue of The Great Outdoors is out now. In it I have a trip and gear feature on a four day wet and windy Cairngorms trip last October plus a review of three men's daypacks. In the same piece Fiona Russell reviews three women's ones. Fiona also reviews four pairs of 3-season women's boots while Peter Macfarlane reviews four men's pairs. Elsewhere in the gear pages James Forrest gives advice on using personal locator beacons and satellite communicators and looks at five models.

The magazine opens with a wonderful photo of the last sunlight on the Scafells and the Wasdale screes by Ben Cannon. This picture was taken on a walk with TGO editor Carey Davies and in his feature on the venture Carey finds out if you can go for a walk in the Lakes and not pass a single other walker. 

Also in the big features Ryan Simpson describes the Mournes in Northern Ireland in an article packed with his superb photographs. Over in Wales Andrew Galloway explores the Carneddau in winter. Away from the hills ecologist Katy Ellis takes a long walk on the surprisingly wild coast of East Anglia. Far over the North Sea Jilly Sherlock describes a wonderful-sounding challenging ski tour in the Swedish Arctic. 

In shorter pieces campaigner Jon Moses looks at the Right to Roam movement in England in the aftermath of the Dartmoor willd camping affair and six outdoor enthusiasts share what Dartmoor means to them. Carey Davies looks at concerns raised over crowdsourced data used by popular hiking apps. Alex Roddie reviews Jenny Tough's Solo: What Running Across Mountains Taught Me About Life. In his Mountain Portrait Jim Perrin describes the Twelve Bens of Connemara. On her walk round the UK coast Emma Schroeder ponders the phenomena of 'desire paths'.

The Wild Walks pages sees Ian Battersby walking the chaotic coastline from Yesnaby Cliffs to Stromness on Orkney, Craig Weldon walking The Brack and Cnoc Coinnich in the Arrochar Alps, and Ronald Turnbull going from High Doat to Dale head in the Lake District. Also in the Lakes Norman Hadley ascends the SSW ridge of  Red Screes SSW, while over in the Pennines James Forrest explores Nine Standards Rigg. A little further south Vivienne Crow links Arant Haw and Winder in the Howgill Fells. In Wales Andrew Galloway walks to Carnedd y Filiast from Llyn Celyn and Roger Butler takes a rollercoaster route over Y Garth and Allt yDdinas in Powys. Down in southern England Fiona Barltrop hikes the Hampshire 'highlands' and over in Northern Ireland Peter Wilson does the Annalong Round in the Mourne mountains.