Head For The Hills Festival This Weekend

A quick date for your diary - and yes, those are dates on the thumbnail, sorry - anyway, this coming weekend is Trail Magazine's epic Head For The Hills event near Ambleside.

You can look at it two ways - either it makes the Ambleside area a good place to avoid and makes North Wales look doubly attractive, or you could simply roll up and see what's going on at the new event.

According to the web site blurb, ' Head for the Hills is the definitive outdoors festival bringing you the very best in walks, gear, skills and adventure.' There's a mix of talks and events including a Regatta-sponsored walking programme of themed escorted and unescorted walks, so you could go on a scrambling walk, or a Dusk Walk or, well, you get the idea.

You'll also have the opportunity to try new activities like climbing and mountain biking in a controlled environment, learn new hill skills at a walking clinic, buy new kit from Cotswold and even consult the Gear Doctor aka Trail's Graham Thompson and Country Walking's Tom Hutton.

Last but by no means least, there are going to be celebrity appearances by the likes of Sir Chris Bonington, Simon Yates and Alan Hinkes. Actually we're not sure about the latter as right now, as far as we know, he's still out in Nepal having just climbed Kangchenjunga, however there will definitely be pre-recorded interview with Hinksey courtesy of a Trail journalist in Kathmandu.

Anyway, Head For The Hills is this weekend at Rydal near Ambleside. You can find full details at www.hfth.co.uk along with camping and reservation details.