A Look At The December Issue Of The Great Outdoors

The December issue of The Great Outdoors is out now and unsurprisingly it has a snowy theme including a big feature on winter skills by instructors from Glen More Lodge and an article by Anna Wells about her record-breaking winter round of the Munros. 

Photographer James Roddie recalls encounters with ptarmigan with some lovely photographs of this bird of the snows. 

Far from Britain Maria Philippa Rossi learns what it takes to become an Arctic Nature Guide on Svalbard.

In the gear pages Alex Roddie reviews ice axes and Peter Macfarlane looks at emergency kit. My only contribution to this issue is here, a review of the Montane Terra Pants. Steph Wetherall, who has just joined the reviewing team, reviews another pair of trousers, the Maier Sports Lulaka.

The issue opens with a lovely dawn photo of a snowy Pen Y Fan and Cribyn by Itay Kaplan. Creator of the Month is movement artist and bikepacking guide Ana Norrie-Toch. Francesca Donovan reviews Mountains Before Mountaineering: The Call of the Peaks Before the Modern Age by Dawn L. Hollis. In the Opinion piece Dr Rose O'Neill, Chief Executive of Campaign for National Parks, says it's time to put the 'national' back in our National Parks. Jim Perrin looks at the Carneddau in his Mountain Portrait. Your Weekend In... looks at Horton in Ribblesdale where Vivienne Crow says there's much to do as well as the Three Peaks. Finally Emma Schroeder remembers coping with last winter on her walk round Britain's coast.

Wild Walks becomes Snowy Walks this issue, including in some unusual places. Ian Battersby finds snow on Beinn Mhor on South Uist in the Outer Hebrides while Rich Hartfield makes a snowy ascent of Bla Bheinn on the Isle of Skye. In the Cairngorms Alex Roddie makes winter rounds of Beinn a' Bhuird and Ben Avon and the Ring of Tarff. Further west and south Rich Hartfield links four wintry peaks on a Glen Etive traverse. Down in England Vivienne Crow and Ian Battersby both enjoy walks in the Howgills and Vivienne Crow also climbs Great Ewe Fell in the Yorkshire Dales. In the Lake District Norman Hadley walks Fairfield's third horseshoe. Much further south Fiona Barltrop discovers snow on the South Downs.