Destinations

Partly for my New Years Eve hike up Snowdon, and partly just for general winter and early spring hiking, I decided I needed a slightly more serious jacket than the Arc’Teryx Atom Lt which, though certainly very practical and warm, isn’t designed to keep you warm when standing still on a day with temperatures getting anywhere close to 0°C. Actually deciding …

At the weekend I was fortunate enough to spend a day in the Brecon Beacons with Jake Thompsett of JT Expeditions, doing a hiking and navigation workshop. Although I’ve been taught traditional map and compass navigation, and had to do a reasonable amount of it at one stage, in practice I mostly use a GPS and so I was concerned …

In a couple of posts last year, mainly my weekly roundups (which I’m not doing anymore, but more on that another time) I referenced some tragic accidents that happened to individuals seemingly experienced and well-equipped to do what they were doing (mainly hiking or scuba diving). Accidents like this are always informative because, as someone who hikes and scuba dives, …

When I was young, I was too busy, now I am old, I am too tired. I had that quote written down in my notebook for ages. It’s from the film The Way, which I wrote a little about here, and it obviously had enough of an impact that I wrote it down when I was watching the film. It’s …

As those of you who follow me on twitter may be aware, I have recently moved house and, while unpacking, have been going through a load of boxes that had largely not been touched since I left school ten years ago. One of the more interesting items I found was something I had forgotten even existed. You see, some time in, …

Last week I finally had a go at something I’ve been interested in for a while – Ice Climbing. If ice climbing seems relatively inaccessible, particularly in the UK, that’s generally true but surprisingly few people seem to know that there is in fact an indoor ice climbing wall at the Ellis Brigham store in Covent Garden, and apparently another …

In 2013 I was lucky enough to spend two days with some Indian friends at the Allahabad Kumbh Mela, a mass Hindu pilgrimage to bathe in the meeting point of the Ganges, the Yamuna and the Sarasvati rivers. It takes place only every twelve years and the event is one of the biggest, if not the biggest, gatherings of people …

Last summer I decided to hike over Pen y Fan with my brother and a friend, starting from the nearby train station in Merthyr Tydfil and ending in Brecon, where there is a bus back to Merthyr Tydfil. Although this is actually a perfectly achievable one-day hike, we wanted to extend it with some other walks and camp for a …

Here are three films about people hiking three of the world’s great long distance trails. While some of the films are better than others, you’d have to be made of stone for them not to make your heart beat a little faster at the thought of packing your backpack and hitting the open road for a few months… The Way …

Yesterday, as it was beautiful and sunny and it’s a while since I’ve done a big run, I did a 15 mile trail run in the South Downs. A big part of planning a trail run is figuring out a route that runs between two train stations, but is still attractive and interesting to run along. I’ve been a fan …