A Look At The September Issue Of The Great Outdoors

 The September issue of The Great Outdoors is out now. I only have one piece in this issue, a review of a good pair of boots, the Danner Mountain 600 Leaf GTX. Also in the gear pages there's a review of the Ombraz Viale sunglasses by Francesca Donovan and comparative reviews of six family tents by John Manning and three hiking shirts each by Lucy Wallace and Peter Macfarlane. 

The main features in this issue have the theme of adventuring in good company. Five outdoor lovers describe what's special about sharing their passion in a piece introduced by David Lintern; photographer and access activist Fern Leigh Albert documents the wild camping campaign on Dartmoor; Andy Wasley, normally a solo hiker, walks Grindelwald's Swiss Alpine Trails with six strangers; and Hanna Lindon takes her family on a walk round the Cirque de Gavarnie in the Pyrenees. 

In shorter pieces sound artist and filmmaker Dan Fox is Creator of the Month; Francesca Donovan reviews Helen Mort's Ethel: the biography of countryside pioneer Ethel Haythornthwaite; in the Opinion column Mary-Ann Ochota says this Everest season shows we must meet mountains without ego; Jim Perrin recalls a visit to The Burren in the west of Ireland for his Mountain Portrait; Vivienne Crow looks at Sedbergh as a base for a weekend; ranger Ingrina Shieh gives a guide to multi-day hiking for beginners; and Emma Schroeder returns to her birthplace, the Isle of Wight, after her walk round the coast of Britain.

Wild Walks this issue has a scrambling theme. In the Scottish Highlands Ian Battersby climbs Suilven and scrambles to its lower peak Meall Meadhonach, Alex Roddie tackes the Horns of Alligin on a traverse of Beinn Alligin and scrambles up the NE ridge of Sgor an Lochain Uaine in the Cairngorms. In the Lake District Vivienne Crow climbs High Stile direct from Buttermere, Norman Hadley says Eagle Crag above Borrowdale makes a gentle introduction to scrambling and describes the much more serious Pinnacle Ridge on St Sunday Crag, Ian Battersby does the classic round of Helvellyn's Striding and Swirral Edges, and Rich Hartfield undertakes three scrambles on an ascent of Great Blake Rigg in the Duddon Valley. And finally in Eryri/Snowdonia Andrew Galloway goes up Bristly Ridge to Glyder Fach and Roger Butler climbs the rocky spur of Daear Dhu to Moel Siabod.