A Look At The June Issue Of The Great Outdoors

 

The June issue of The Great Outdoors, out now, has my account of a trip to An Teallach to see how the It's Up To Us path repair programme was going and to try my hand at a little of the work. The piece is illustrated with some excellent photos by James Roddie. It's sponsored by Keela, who provide the clothing for Cairngorm Wilderness Contracts, the company doing the path repair, and I wore some Keela clothing I like and had already reviewed - the Pinnacle Jacket and the Scuffer trousers. 

In the gear section I review the Berghaus 3D Freeflow 30+5L pack, the Patagonia Nano-Air Light Vest, and eight apps for navigation, weather forecasting, and photography. Lara Dunn and Alex Roddie review four lightweight waterproof jackets each and Fiona Russell and Pete Macfarlane review the same number of trail shoes.

The theme of this issue is the mountains and landscape of Wales and the opening spread is a dramatic photo by Kat Lawman of Y Lliwedd from Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon) above a sea of clouds. In the main feature six more photographers who live and work in the Welsh mountains describe their love of the landscape and show some favourite photographs. 

Jim Perrin looks at Pen Pumlumon Arwystli in the Cambrian Mountains in his Mountain Portrait. Crickhowell to the south of the Black Mountains features in the Your Weekend In .. pages. Creator of the Month filmmaker and storyteller Emma Crome describes her filmmaking and the importance of her move to Wales. In the Opinion piece Sara Huws looks at the history of the relationship between locals and visitors in the Welsh mountains. And Francesca Donovan reviews Emma C Marshall's Wild Swimming Walks: Eryri/Snowdonia.

Away from Wales former editor Carey Davies returns to the magazine for a celebration of the Langdale Horseshoe in the Lake District while Peter Elia goes much further afield to explore the Caucasus Mountains in Azerbaijan. In the Skills section Alex Roddie gives advice on dealing with midges. In her Notes from the Edge about her walk round the coastline of Britain Emma Schroeder describes what she ate and the importance of her stove and cooking set-up. 

Wales appears again in the Wild Walks pages with five of the ten routes there, all with the theme of water. In Eryri/Snowdonia Andrew Galloway visits lakes and waterfalls in the Gwydir Forest and crosses a river twice on a walk in the Dyffryn Ardudwy valley and up Moelfre, whilst Ian Battersby does a round of the lakes of Cadair Idris. In Powys Roger Butler visits the Pistyll Rhaeadr waterfall and walks over the Berwyn hills whilst in Bannau Brycheiniog/Brecon Beacons Fiona Barltrop goes round the Waterfall Country near Ystradfellte.

The water theme continues with the two walks in Scotland and three in the Lake District. Ian Battersby has a coastal walk on Muckle Roe in Shetland. Alex Roddie visits the loch that gives the mountain Lochnagar its name. Vivienne Crow finds a hidden waterfall, Holme Force, in the Loweswater Fells and visits Styhead Tarn and Sprinkling Tarn. And Norman Hadley walks along the top of the Wast Water Screes and then back along the bottom, right next to the lake itself.