A Look At The November Issue Of The Great Outdoors

 In the November issue of The Great Outdoors I review eight head torches and the Paramo Alta Trek trousers. Also in the gear pages Kirsty Pallas and James Roddie review four pairs of warm gloves each.

There's a Scottish theme to this issue as it's the annual TGO Challenge one with stories and pictures from this year's event. Alex Nail describes the many trips and false starts needed in the four years it took to compile his latest photographic book on the NW Highlands, The Great Wilderness (which I review here) in a photo essay packed with mouthwatering images. Also in the NW Highlands Gemma Smith explores Assynt and looks at the Gaelic placenames and the history of the area.

Away from Scotland, and indeed Britain, Rudolf Abraham walks across the Massif de Vercors in France and finds solitude, beauty and wildlife.

In the shorter pieces composer and violinist Lisa Robertson is Creator of the Month, Mary Ann-Ochota argues there is a place for music in the hills in the Opinion column, Jim Perrin looks at Mow Cop in Cheshire in his Mountain Portrait, James Roddie looks at Portree on the Isle of Skye as a base for a weekend, Maymana Arefin gives a beginner's guide to mushroom identification, and Emma Schroeder falls for autumn in her Notes From The Edge column. 

As the autumn colours develop in the woods Wild Walks concentrates on forests in this issue.In Scotland Craig Weldon explores the pines of Culbin Forest in Moray, Alex Roddie climbs little Creag Bheag above Kingussie through the woodlands on its flanks and also visits Loch an Eilein and Rothiemurchus Forest in the Cairngorms where he ascends another little hill, Ord Ban. In England Ian Battersby explores Kidland Forest and Bloodybush Edge in Northumberland, Vivienne Crow visits the fragments of temperate rainforest in Borrowdale and on Castle Crag in the Lake District, Norman Hadley doesn't find many trees on Ward's Stone and Grit Fell in the Forest of Bowland, and Fiona Barltrop enjoys the autumn colours on Alder Hill and Fritham Plain in the New Forest. In Wales Phillipa Cherryson does find trees on a walk over Ysgyryd Fach and Ysgyryd Fawr above Abergavenney in Monmouthshire, Roger Butler climbs Moel Hebog and descends into the jumble of Beddgelert Forest in Eryri/Snowdonia, and Ian Battersby visits Stackpole Woods and Stackpole Head in Pembrokeshire.