Innholdsfortegnelse for August 2024 i Trail

TRAIL 100 WILD SLEEPS THIS MONTH Sgurr Fhuaran The Saddle Ladhar Bheinn Sgurr na Ciche TRAIL 100 BIVVY COUNT: 96/100 If you want to know where your heart lies, notice your thoughts. Today I’m thinking this is an amazing mountain. I wasn’t thinking that on the 2-hour vertical climb up from the Glen Shiel Battlefield. The ascent is so steep I adopted the Himalayan technique of taking a step then breathing twice before the next step. But now I have set my tent up on the bealach and am making my way unburdened along the finest ridge in the UK. The Five Sisters of Kintail is a magical winding path, nice and thin with steepness all around but never feeling dangerous. I’m heading for the highest point, SGURR FHUARAN, and…

Alpine Forget-Me-Not (Myosotis alpestris) At sea-level, the Forget-Me-Not is a common little flower sweeping across the ground in a tide of pale blue (above left). The alpine species looks very similar, forming a blue haze over cliffs and ledges from June to July. Moss Campion (Silene acaulis) As you might guess from the name, this pretty little plant grows in dense mossy-looking mats or cushions only about 5cm high. From May-June it blooms with masses of pink five-petalled flowers (above right). Snow Gentian (Gentiana nivalis) The snow gentian’s small brilliant blue flowers only open when the sun comes out and the temperature hits 10˚C or warmer. If you are very lucky, and the sun comes out on a cool day, you can see them appear within the hour. Dwarf Willow (Salix herbacea) Reaching a…

■ ASK AN ANIMAL PINE MARTEN Q You’re great at climbing. Can you give me some advice? A Sure! First, you should evolve some semi-retractable claws. They’re great for digging into tree bark and securing your prey. Second, get a long bushy tail to help keep your balance. Third, sharpen up your reactions so that you can land on your feet after a 20m fall. That’s how we do it anyway, and it’s a pretty good way to catch squirrels and birds and find eggs. Annoyingly, red squirrels are often too swift to catch easily. Greys are easier though! ■ GOOD HABITS Check your tent vents to avoid condensation inside the tent. Get into the habit of adjusting them to keep air flowing and the inner dry. ■ PUB QUIZ…

Danner’s new Crag Rat Evo has confused me. ‘Crag rat’ is a metonym for a climber. But these are clearly not climbing shoes. Then there’s the boot the Evo evolved from. The original Crag Rat USA is a high-ankled boot of the traditional leather variety, one that looks as at home hunting, logging, or even motorcycle-riding as it is trekking. The new Evo is almost as far removed from that version as it is from a sock-tight climbing shoe. But the most confusing element is working out exactly what type of boot it is and what it’s for. Its profile is that of a typical mid-ankled hiking boot. It’s protected by a significant rubber rand and, perhaps most strikingly, features an obvious crampon attachment welt at the heel. Reading the…

SIX OF THE BEST FIELD TEST YOUR TESTERS Only the most committed ultralight backpacker would head for the hills without packing a stove. Because when you’re tired and hungry after a long day’s hiking, there’s nothing like a welcome brew and a hot meal. And as anyone who has tackled a longdistance trail will know, food becomes an all-important element of any big walk. It is vital fuel for the body, of course, but it’s also far more than that. Thinking about food becomes a welcome distraction from aches and pains, a source of motivation and a great comfort. The latest backpacking stoves are lightweight, compact and easy to use. Featuring a single burner head powered by a small gas canister, they typically fold down or pack away very efficiently…

Lightweight protection The North Face Women’s Frontier Futurelight £360 Waterproof jackets fall into two camps: cheap crisp packets which make you sweat, or expensive crisp packets that don’t. The Frontier Futurelight lightweight waterproof jacket from The North Face fits into the latter category. It compresses down to half the size of a Nalgene bottle, and keeps you dry both inside and out, but for a fairly hefty price (although we recently spotted it on the TNF website with a sizeable 30% discount at £252). The Frontier Futurelight is remarkably waterproof for something that weighs just 295g, which is about the weight of a three-week-old kitten, for reference. In your pack, it stashes away into its own pocket, barely taking up any room. Yet it does the job fantastically when you…

In terms of the sheer scale of Scotland and its scope for adventure, there’s no equivalent in the UK for walkers and mountaineers. You could spend your whole life walking only here and never fully know it all, in its entirety. I’m very lucky that I’ve experienced a bit of it, mostly while writing routes for you lovely people, and to be honest, it’s easy to become a little dismissive of the ‘Tourist Path’ up Ben Nevis, or as those who are more familiar with it than me call it, ‘The Ben’. Let’s be fair though – it is the biggest mountain in the whole of the country, it’s not exactly ugly to look at and as a starting point for exploring this beautiful country you could do a lot…

LING-DISTANCE TRAILS The West Highland Way (WHW) is one of the finest, if not the finest, of Britain’s long-distance paths. It passes through six separate mountain ranges, from the tall cone of Ben Lomond and the crag towers of grim Glen Coe, to the seductive Mamores. It runs from Scotland’s largest city, alongside her longest loch, by way of the biggest and bleakest patch of peaty moorland, to the foot of her highest mountain, paralleled in its path by (as it happens) the Highlands’ second busiest main road and also the West Highland Railway. Lure of the mountains The comfortable gravel path, the wellplaced waymarks and cosy bunkhouses, the cheerful evening singer doing Loch Lomond’s ‘bonnie banks’: do these really compensate for not going up any of those mountains? Not…

WELCOME You could, if weather and decency allowed it, hike naked. People do; 21 June is unofficial (nobody’s going to rubber stamp it) ‘Naked Hiking Day’. If it’s warm and dry enough there’s really no need for all that cumbersome clothing, is there? Except, that is, when it comes to your feet. With your soles unprotected there’s a limit to where you can go. Man-made paths and softly grassed ground will be about it, and even then there’s still the chance of injury or standing in something ‘unpleasant’. So even naked hikers need good footwear. They need boots and shoes and socks to support their ankles and protect their soles and provide comfort. Over the following pages we’ve curated a collection of our favourite pieces of footwear that we’re happy…

ERYRI (SNOWDONIA) Rhinog Fawr The Rhinogydd range represents some of the roughest mountain territory in north Wales. Of the two peaks that give the range its name, Rhinog Fawr (720m) is the biggest, outsizing sibling Rhinog Fach (712m) by just 8m, or a little under four Richard Osmans. It’s not the summit of the Rhinogydd though. That accolade goes to Y Llethr (756m). In fact, Rhinog Fawr isn’t even the second highest; Diffwys (750m) is runner-up in the height stakes. But, proving that size isn’t everything, Rhinog Fawr outperforms both of those higher peaks in terms of location and aesthetics. It’s not the easiest peak to reach, with its heather-covered rock and steep upper slopes requiring an element of rugged determination to breach. The ‘easiest’ route is via the ancient…

Beinn Tarsuinn Fisherfield Forest “This is me on Beinn Tarsuinn, one of the Fisherfield peaks in north-west Scotland. Fisherfield is also known as The Great Wilderness and it certainly felt like it! A’ Mhaighdean (possibly the remotest Munro in the land) is just by my right ear.” Iain Harris THIS MONTH'S WINNER Striding Edge Lake District “I managed to get my nieces and nephew – (from left to right) Emerald, Jenin and Assad – up Helvellyn via Striding Edge. Considering they are aged 6, 4 and 7, that’s motivation for anyone. They also love the mag and are currently picking out new walks to do.” Barry Helliwell Cat Bells Lake District “This is me and my fiancée Rebecca on a recent walk up to the summit of Cat Bells with…

24-HOUR ADVENTURE Mountain: Rhinog Fach, Eryri (Snowdonia) Wild camp: Llyn Hywel If time is short you can sneak in a quick evening wild camp, and then bag a remote mountain from the banks of this upland llyn. Camping under Rhinog Fach, the llyn provides a wonderful backdrop for a quick hit of mountain adventure. From the summit, its westerly position provides fantastic views of Eryri and out to sea. MOUNTAIN CLASSIC Mountain: Helvellyn, Lake District Wild camp: Red Tarn Route: Striding Edge and Swirral Edge Probably best avoided at peak times, this classic scramble around Helvellyn’s edges can be combined with a wild camp at Red Tarn for an adventure that ticks all the boxes. Camping gives you a chance to immerse yourself in this wonderful place, and an opportunity…

HOT TOPIC Just outside the boundary of the Lake District National Park, to the east of Blencathra, is a 2.1km² patch of open access moorland that you can’t get to. On all sides it is surrounded by private land with not a single footpath or bridleway connecting it. A little way north, there’s another, about 1.5km² in size, with scattered woodland and open heath. There are an estimated 2500 of these so-called access islands across England -places where you have the legal right to wander, picnic and run but no way to get there without trespassing. “This is a conservative estimate,” says Lewis Winks from the Right to Roam campaign who carried out the research. “We only included areas which are more than 15m from any public right of way.…

TRAIL MAGAZINE 1 Lake District CIRCULAR WALK If you’re not careful, hiking up Ullscarf in the Central Fells can be a tedious proposition – a featureless slog over grassy pastures with gentle gradients and boggy ground. Guidebook writer Alfred Wainwright was rather scathing of the fell’s upper reaches, labelling them “quite featureless and inexpressibly dreary” and a “cheerless place, even in sunshine”. Many are tempted, therefore, to blast up and down Ullscarf as quickly as possible, or to tag it on (without much thought) to a longer peak-bagging route. But to really get the best out of Ullscarf, there are two interesting routes you can take. One involves a loop from Rosthwaite via the delightful Greenup Gill and idyllic Watendlath Tarn – a circular walk that delivers some Borrowdale magic, even…

The Peak District is hardly full of pointy peaks. In fact it contains one of our flattest mountains, Kinder Scout, which at 636m only just qualifies for a mountain. So, what is the ‘point’ (see what I did there?) of climbing one of our smallest, flattest mountains? Here’s three. First point – it is one of the most accessible mountains in Britain. Second, it has some exciting clough scrambles. Third, it contains a multitude of gritstone edges that provide continuous views for miles around. So, it is little surprise that this route takes in all three points in climbing this peak. We scramble up Grindsbrook Clough to traverse the southern edges, then in an unusual twist cross the plateau to the northern side to take in the more remote northern…

TRAIL MAGAZINE Northern Highlands ULTIMATE WEEKEND ▲ 3-DAY ROUTE Situated in the heart of Sutherland, the isolated massifs of Ben Klibreck and Ben Armine form natural ramparts rising to the west of the Flow Country – a vast waterlogged expanse that is Europe’s largest blanket bog; a seemingly empty area providing rich botanical and ornithological habitat that has survived the depredations of commercial forestry and proposed wind farm developments, and is now being considered as a potential UNESCO World Heritage site. There is a palpable sense of remoteness to this route even before the walk starts from the Crask Inn, a lonely outpost on a quiet single-track road. And the first day is essentially a long walk into the heart of this wild country. Big, expansive views across the Flow Country…

COLUMBIA PEAKFREAK II MID OUTDRY £125 SUPERB VALUE, COMFORT & TRACTION Recommended by: Chris Williams, LFTO.com senior writer There’s a lot to like about the Peakfreak II Mid, hence its popularity, especially in the US with its love affair with lightweight hiking boots. First, of course, is the price, being noticeably lower than the other rivals here. But it’s not like it’s a huge downgrade in performance. We found the Peakfreak II Mid OutDry has excellent comfort (with a slightly wider fit than many European rivals) and impressive traction even in the wet. We particularly liked the squidgy midsole for shorter and faster walks. Columbia’s proprietary waterproof lining (OutDry) is also very reliable, and is bonded directly to the upper, which makes the boot more breathable than many waterproof rivals.…

JACK WOLFSKIN VOJO 3 TEXAPORE MID £120 OUT OF THE BOX COMFORT Recommended by: Chris Williams, LFTO.com senior writer There are cheaper versions of this type of boot, but the Vojo 3 Texapore Mid is one of the best and worth the extra. Not only does it outperform much of its competition, it’s also made by a brand with a more proactive approach towards sustainability than most. Out of the box comfort is immediate – we found there’s no breakin time needed. It’s got plenty of flex and enough ankle support for most hill walks. The outsole has a varied and aggressive lug pattern that performs reasonably well when the terrain becomes more challenging, while Jack Wolfskin’s Texapore waterproof membrane is reliably waterproof and reasonably breathable. SALOMON ELIXIR ACTIV GTX…

ROOM WITH A VIEW STAFFIN CARAVAN & CAMPING SITE, SKYE The Isle of Skye is a mountain lover’s paradise, with plenty to choose from when it comes to rooms with a view. But we stumbled across this lovely little campsite in Staffin -perfectly situated with a grandstand view of the spectacular Trotternish Ridge area of Skye. With everything from hardstanding electric pitches to grass tent areas, and a couple of cottages to rent, it’s a lovely site that has retained its small campsite charm, with all the facilities you need and none you don’t. And as well as the Trotternish Ridge and the Quiraing nearby, you can see dinosaur footprints at the beach, or jump on a ferry to the Scottish islands from Uig just 20 minutes away. staffincampsite.co.uk HIKES…

The words were carved in Swedish into a smooth white boulder, flecked with grey crystals. “Insatsen söker oss inte vi insatsen.” Midday, late summer, high on a mountainside in the Arctic Circle. Hot sunlight baked the tundra and wrung sweat from my face, while a sharp breeze quickly dried it to salt. I used my phone to translate the inscription: “The achievement seeks us, not we the achievement.” Which seemed very apt, as it felt like a decent achievement to have reached this spot, after a 70km hike through Swedish Lapland. But this was not my goal. I had kit on my back to last three weeks as I followed the Kungsleden – The King’s Trail – for another 390km south through Swedish Lapland. Around me, the terrain showed the…

[HOW TO] TAKE GREAT PHOTOS ON YOUR PHONE Experienced photographer Ben Weeks shares his best advice on getting those exhilarating mountain shots. DO check your phone's settings. The default for photos may not produce the highest quality images. Get the best out of your phone’s sensor by selecting the highest resolution. DO experiment with different modes – such as portrait, night modes, or HDR – and try other functions such as adjusting the brightness slider to see what effects these have on the image. DO get the best angle. Get down low or hold your phone above your head for a different view. If your phone camera has multiple lenses, try wider or more zoomed-in compositions. DO use the screen guides. Your phone screen can provide lots of info. Grid…

WHAT'S THE MOST USEFUL NAVIGATION TECHNIQUE YOU KNOW? MATT LE VOI WML, RCI & Director of Lakeland Mountain Guides lakelandmountainguides.co.uk The 'Tick-Off List'. This is simply what you’re expecting to happen when you're navigating from point A to point B. Creating a list in your head of any key features, directions or changes in slope all helps to not only build your confidence that you're going the way you intend, but it can quickly help you notice when you're not! It also reduces the amount of time you need to be staring at your map, meaning you can enjoy the views or the craic. JAMES FORREST Adventurer & author of Mountain Man jamesmforrest.co.uk Sorry to all the compass and map aficionados out there, but – in truth – the best…

KEEN Targhee IV Mid £140 KEEN is proud of its Portland origins, and of its Targhee. Rightly so – it’s been with the brand a while and is one of its most popular hiking boots. Now in its fourth incarnation, the latest Targhee makes use of KEEN. FUSION, an innovative new construction technique that fuses the upper and sole together without the use of glues for a more durable bond. Nike ACG Air Zoom Gaiadome GORE-TEX £205 More commonly associated with other sports, Nike does dip its toes into hiking. The Portland brand’s ACG (All Conditions Gear) label can be spotted on a range of rugged boots and shoes created for peak and path, rather than pitch and court. The Air Zoom Gaiadome Gore-Tex – which features Nike’s famous ‘Air’…

YOUR TESTERS Whether it’s your boyfriend, girlfriend, husband, wife, child, best friend or four-legged companion, there’s something special about sharing the good (and bad) times of a wild camp with a loved one. You will laugh together, despair together, support each other, share duties, split the weight of your camping kit across two pairs of shoulders, sleep under the same canvas, and so much more. It’s going to be a memory-forging, happiness-inducing expedition. But how do you choose the right two-person tent for your adventure? There’s so much to consider -weight, size, durability, features, comfort, and price – and balancing these competing priorities inevitably leads to compromise. For example, tents with a low-to-the-ground, aerodynamic profile will ‘shed’ wind better, but the most comfortable tents have roomy interiors with vertical walls…

This walk takes you into real trackless wilderness country and works a way around the summits of Great Shunner Fell (716m) and Lovely Seat (675m). Although not one of the famous Yorkshire Three Peaks, at 716m, Great Shunner Fell is actually the third highest of the Dales’ summits. Standing well apart from its neighbours the top offers impressive views to the Lakeland peaks and other North Pennine hills, as well as of the neighbouring dales of Swaledale and Wensleydale, both of which have their river sources on its flanks. Isolation means that it is often treated as a ‘there and back’ walk, but the return via Lovely Seat in wild moorland adds an element of adventure and challenge. The first five miles of the walk are relatively easy as we…

TRAIL MAGAZINE Lake District ULTIMATE WEEKEND ▲ 3-DAY ROUTE The north and eastern Lakeland fells hold some of the most visited and picturesque places in the busiest National Park of them all. A-lister mountains such as Skiddaw, Blencathra and Helvellyn are host to the holiday hoards. Many folk ascend these peaks separately during a daytrip and return to the tourists traps for the evening. But not on this route! We’ll turn the tide and complete a three-day long mountain traverse from Keswick to Grasmere, taking in some lesser-known faces of these fine mountains and fifteen Wainwrights. Our accommodation will be in Britain’s highest hostel, which is only accessible by foot with a high wild camp the following evening. Tempted? Then read on for one of the best walking adventures in the…

AKU ROCKET DFS GTX £215 INNOVATIVE LACING SYSTEM Recommended by: Matt Jones, Trail & LFTO.com gear reviewer Developed as a ‘fast hiking shoe’, the Rocket is packed with tech. Uppers are a combination of synthetic textiles, designed to offer durability and protection in a sleek package. The Dual Fit System (DFS) features two sets of laces: a primary set and a secondary ‘quicklace’ set, allowing you to quickly adjust the fit around the midfoot for increased precision on technical terrain. The outsole features Vibram’s Megagrip rubber compound and ‘Traction Lug’ technology. This consists of stacked 4mm lugs, each of which has a series of serrations in the form of tiny, moulded rubber teeth which, according to Vibram, can improve traction by up to 25%. LA SPORTIVA TX5 GTX £200 GREAT…

KEEN TARGHEE IV BOOT £150 FAMILIAR NAME, NEW DURABILITY Recommended by: Chris Williams, LFTO.com senior writer The Targhee name isn’t new, but this 4th generation is more durable and sustainable than ever. The sole is fixed using heat and pressure to create a bond that is stronger than, and negates the need for, glue and solvents. In addition, rather than EVA foam, the midsole is made from Luftcell which is more resistant to compression, while the KEEN.RUGGED outsole is more abrasion resistant than rubber. The leather comes from Leather Working Group gold-certified tanneries, the waterproofing is PFC-free, and even the anti-odour treatment is natural and safe for the environment. And of course you get KEEN’s iconic wide fit, with ample room for the foot to sit naturally. LA SPORTIVA ULTRA…