Day Walks In The Lake District

Day Walks In The Lake District - Review

Price: £12. 95  (£10 introductory offer)

Weight: 201 grammes (134-page paperback)

Features:  134-page paperback guidebook with full colour photos and 1:25,000-scale OS mapping, 20 day routes in the Lakes.

What's It For?

Vertebrte Graphics have carved out a reputation primarily with a series of excellent mountain biking guidebooks, but this is their second walking guide - the first was Day Walks in the Peak District - see our review - and intended as a walking guide with a bit of a twist, many of the routes aren't the obvious classics, though they do include walks from main towns like Keswick and Ambleside, some classic scrambles and iconic peaks.

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The Techy Bits

One thing we really like about the V-Graphics guides is that they use 1:25,000 Ordnance Survey maps of the routes rather than stylised sketch maps. That means you can use them on the hill - in conjunction with a full-sized OS map obviously, and the intended route is clear and easily transferred onto a full map.

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How It Performed

We're big fans of the Vertebrate Graphics guides, both biking, climbing and the Peak District walking guide. They're really nicely produced with some great photos to give you a feel for the area, the mapping is clear and easy to understand because it's proper OS 1:25,000 stuff and the format is easy to use with an overall description of each route followed by concise, step-by-step directions.

The Lakes guide is spot on in these respects, just as we'd expect, but the real question we were asking ourselves was whether the guide could come up with anything fresh. There are plenty of guidebooks that simply rehash the classics, but add nothing new.

The signs were promising, the author is Stephen Goodwin, Alpine Journal editor, journo and Lakes local, so he should know the area backwards. The good news is that he seems to have succeeded. That's not to say that classic routes are avoided, Sharp and Striding Edges both get an airing for example, but while Helvellyn is ascended via Striding Edge, the route continues northwards from the summit, over Raise then back to Glenridding via Sticks Pass.

Blencathra is climbed from Mungrisdale with the option of Sharp Edge if you choose and Scafell Pike from Seathwaite at the head of Borrowdale rather than the more usual Wasdale approach.

So you're basically getting the classics but by routes less frequently walked, which we think can only be a good thing.

Verdict

Another excellent guidebook from Vertebrate Graphics with a killer combination of concise, well-written directions, real OS 1:25,000 mapping and routes that tackle classic features in a fresh way.

Buy if you want an inspirational Lakes walking guide that could take you up old friends in a new way.

Great mapping and photography, clear easy to follow instructions,  fresh routes.   Nothing really.

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V-Graphics web site

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