 Last year for my stag do I wanted to do something a little different, and something my mates would remember for the rest of their lives. I decided to arrange a trip to walk up Scafell Pike. We camped at Wasdale Head, right next to the inn, and we had a blast on the walk up despite being able to see diddley squat for most of it. I think its fair to say we got the bug. Later in the year, we decided to try again, this time Snowdon, walking up Watkins and down on Pyg. This time we had an experienced walker with us, and we definitely saw the benefit of that especially with picking routes. Once again we could see diddley squat above a certain level (I felt kinda sorry for the folks who paid to come up on the train) but we had a fab time, and we want to do more. Most of us are pretty fit. I commute by bike about 20 miles a day - some of the others' levels of fitness vary slightly, but on the whole we're pretty healthy. Where should we go now - what tips do people have? We like the idea of hitting the peak of each country, but once we get to Europe that's going to get hard fast. We have no alpine training between us. So, what tips and advice can you offer a total newbie to hillwalking ? Any must do's or must not do's? Thanks in advance.
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 Hi Kai and welcome to the forum  . I think first thing would be to learn how to read a map and compass,start with the basic and then maybe go on a navigation course. Glad you got the bug and hope to see you here asking and answering questions in the future!  .
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Dont be ruled by what everone around you is telling you, enjoy yourself sensibly and make your own decisions on what works best for you. In terms of gear spend as much as you can afford! The outdoor world is one of the only markets where you 'get what you pay for' and this will stand you in good stead for years to come! Enjoy!
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 Welcome to the forum Kai. Not all advice on the forum is impartial though. Be careful if following links that folk post. Some are just disguised spam, directing you to their shop. If you click on someones 'forum posts', you often find they have a link to the same shop in every one of their posts.
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.JPG) 
mmm In my opinion there's a whole raft of overpriced badly(over) designed gear out there - I would agree with Lukes first sentence though.
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 get on a couple of courses (scrambling ,navigation etc) and remember ,only use qualified trainers .you wouldn't let a handyman service your boiler unless he was corgi registered would you . Best piece of advice ,don't let being lost take the fun out of not knowing where you are !
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Thanks for the welcome! Yes, I probably do need to brush up on my navigational skills. I was a scout, but often just went along for the ride and not getting involved in the hard work of map reading (camp skills were my forte). I need to correct that. Any big recommendations for courses? I presume that there are going to be some better than others and a few which are excellent.
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 Hi Kai, welcome to OM I was an almost complete newbie at outdoors stuff when I stumbled across this site nearly 4 years ago now  . I'd done some stuff as a teenager, but nothing in the 2 decades + since I'd gone off to college. I started walking on the mountains in organised groups, and quickly decided that wasn't my thing, which meant I had to learn to navigate properly. I did the bronze National Navigation Award Scheme, then did the training for the silver, but didn't bother with the assessment. The bronze was basically revision of what I'd learned in my teens, the silver took me further and got me walking on compass bearings, pacing, and other skills. You can get training courses all over the UK, but if you're planning to walk mainly on big hills / mountains it might be worth doing a course in that sort of terrain. Valuable training, but of course it's practice and regular use that really gets those skills into you. I also picked up lots of really valuable advice from OMers, both on this forum and on Meets where more practical skills could be observed and picked up. Of course Luke is right that you have to make your own decisions - you and your mates are responsible for your own safety - but there is a wealth of experience around that you can pick and choose from.
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So you class useful links on here as spam? Yes it is the shop where i work but if you want a cracking little 'bricks and mortar' genuine shop with all the advice you would ever need . . . if these links are unwelcome i will stop
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You made 3 posts on here Luke. Everyone was a link to your shop. I would say that was spam. How can a 'newbie' know if you are advising him for financial reasons or not? If you had given a link to the item on the items website, that would be a different matter. Or even if you stated that you had a financial interest in your links.
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Please do. Its irritating.
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Thanks again for the tips - Paddy that book is going on the Chrimbo wishlist! Luke, I'm new here too (obviously) so a word between us newbs - careful, or you'll hurt your Google pagerankings. To place well you need relevant keywords in natural language from external sources, as you are attempting to do. But too many which are unnatural (i.e., not relevant to the keyword used), or obviously spam (from the same poster within a forum, or from a low postcount member) can cause detrimental effect. Now, can someone pass me a stepladder? THis horse is rather high and I really should get off...
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Kai...never knew that about page rankings and stuff. Havent got a step ladder...but you can use my soapbox if you like
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