As the British Mountaineering Council appoints its first hill-walking officer, it's your chance to ask those difficult questions.
Meet Carey Davies, the new hillwalking development officer at the BMC - we're off to see him and the rest of the team this Thursday and we'd like to know if you have any questions for Carey about the BMC and hill-walking and, in particular, where it's going. Just add ... Continue reading
Yep, it's time for an OutdoorsMagic Unilateral Declaration of Spring - shorts only from now on in...
That's 'International Shorts Day' in the much same way that the US has it's own World Series Baseball Championships by the way. Regardless of that, it's the time of year that I make a Unilateral Declaration of Spring, a declaration that has wide-ranging and momentous consequences because it means that from ... Continue reading
What happened to spring eh? One week later and we're basking in sub-zero temperatures and vicious wind chill...
What a difference a week makes eh? Seven days ago it was all blue skies, sunshine and a definite hint of spring warmth in the air. And now it's winter again. Well, that was the verdict of Harris, the world's most handsome Hungarian Vizla as he tried to burrow into my ... Continue reading
Best programme of mountain and adventure films I've seen for ages...
Spent a brilliant Saturday night at the Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour screening in Stockport along with over a thousand other folk at what was, apparently, a record-breaking screening for the UK leg of the tour.
I'm not great at watching wall-to-wall adventure films - you can only digest so many ... Continue reading
As part of this week's Merrell Chameleon 5 launch we spent some time on a simulated rescue mission with Edale MRT, here's what we learned.
When Merrell launched the newly revamped Chameleon 5 at the Moorland Discovery Centre in the Peak District this week, it was mildly reassuring to find the Edale Mountain Rescue Team in close attendance. I mean, what could possibly go wrong? New shoes, outdoors journalists, wet rock...
As it turned out, what ... Continue reading
Cracking short video that won Best Short Film at ShAFF 2013
I came across this slice of video brilliance when I was looking for trailer links for the feature about this year's Sheffield Adventure Film Festival winners - it's actually not a trailer, in fact it's the complete version - I think - of All.I.Can - Imagination which won the Best ... Continue reading
We hit Snowdonia and the Glyders compete with snow and Bolivian vistas...
So what did you get up to at the weekend? We did some checking: settled high pressure - check. Winter conditions with a dusting of fresh snow - check. Crampons, axes and summit Creme Eggs - check. Nostalgic destination in the form of the Ogwen Valley - check.
One of those days ... Continue reading
Good to see the outdoors world responding to sensationalist national media blatherings.
Here's the sadness of it - when winters are hard, tragically people die in the mountains. They die because it's colder, they die because snow is an intrinsically fluid and potentially hazardous medium and they die, sometimes, because all of us are human and we are fallible, we make mistakes.
And in ... Continue reading
There used to be 'fell running' and 'cross country', but now its all a blur of 'trail running' - what's going on, is trail running just fell running with more acceptable clothes?
Back when I were a youth, running off road was called 'cross country' - it was something you reluctantly did when proper sports pitches were so waterlogged that terrified groundsmen stood guard over them with shotguns.
You wore, well, whatever random trainers or rugby or football boots you happened to have and ... Continue reading
Crampons, axes, micro-crampons, studded ice tyres on your bike - it's all rather better than good.
Outside it's snowing gently. I am, according to various radar/satellite/cartoon maps somewhere right on the borders of Snowmageddon (© The Daily Express) and by early afternoon, OM HQ should be blanketed in, oh, several centimeters of snow.
And you know what, I have all the stoic self restraint of a small, over-excited ... Continue reading
