Top Five Scandinavian Gear Picks

Scandinavian Outdoor Academy - Top Kit Picks

We sent our man Keith Ruffles off to Sweden for an arctic adventure last month. You can read the full story with images, but as a follow-up, we asked him to nominate - in no particular order - his top picks from the kit provided by the brands supporting the event. This is what he came up - unfortunately he didn't get to keep the gear...

Keith's Top Five

There’s no question that the conditions in Sweden were tough – pradoxically not because of the cold but quite simply because it was too warm. Temperatures hovering around 0°C made for slushy, wet going and some particularly challenging trekking in conditions not that far away from typically British damp cold winter days

The great thing about Scandinavian manufacturers is that they really do have the perfect outdoor playground in which to really put their gear through its paces. The poor conditions served to really bring this home, with all of the products we tested coping well.

I also realised pretty quickly how using the gear incorrectly – wearing too many layers when walking for example – can quickly turn an enjoyable experience into a miserable one. It really was an excellent introduction into adapting to and coping with winter conditions – no matter how warm and wet they may be!

All in all, it was a jolly good thing that we were kitted out with some of the best gear Scandinavia can offer – here are five of the best…