The second part of our review of the outdoor year as covered on OUTDOORSmagic, all the best news and features remembered as 2003 draws to a close...
Okay, this is part two of our quick run through 2003 on
OUTDOORSmagic, from July through to, erm, December, this is what
happened, allegedly :-)
Silly
season
July kicked off with the news that
Madonna's
back garden in Wiltshire isn't going to be designated as open
access land...
Extreme
sandwiching was a not very hilarious marketing wheeze by my mate,
Marmite, and yes, it was about as funny as it sounds, as was FHM's
sad article ridiculing climbers who'd died on Everest. One we'd
rather forget.
And July was also the month that a huge
rockfall incident on the Matterhorn, which stranded dozens of
climbers on the Hornli Ridge underlined the seriousness of the
situation in the Alps where the ice that bonds everything together is
melting like fondue under the impact of global warming.
Elsewhere, Nikolas van Hoogstraten launched an appeal against his
conviction for manslaughter and we descended on the outdoors trade
show at Friedrichshafen to bring you scoop news of all the new gear
for 2004. And wow, wasn't there a
lot of it...
Finally, Terra Nova launched what they claim is the world's
lightest two-skin tent... Nice.
Top Features Exclusive scoop news of the world's
lightest tent and OM member Bryan Crick's account of his
walk
from Lands End to John o'Groats.
August
was heatwave month, remember that? So hot that you barely wanted
to leave the fridge, let alone go walking or climbing. We were so
concerned that we brought you a load of
tips
on surviving hotness... Don't say we don't care. We also brought
you a special collection of
commemorative
tat from out old friends Frankly Minging including the naked
rambling plate... Ideal for covering up when things get a little warm
outside...
The identity of the Naked Rambler was uncovered
at last - how does someone so naked stay so secret eh? Steve Gough
was determined to fight for the right to, erm, ramble in the nude. We
say good luck to him and what a waste of public money the whole
charade has been eh?
New Zealand brand Macpac shocked us all with the news that they
were moving
production to Asia, though the result, they said, will be lower
prices and better developed products. Still a shame though.
Meanwhile, a British driver amused us all by copping
frostbite from the air con in his Jag in the midst of the hottest
weather for years. How we laughed... More tragic was the end of the
Ultrafleece
Mountain Jacket, an old fave discontinued by Mountain Equipment
in the face of falling sales.
Things went from bad to worse in the Alps as well, with the local
guides in Chamonix declaring Mont
Blanc closed due to lack of snow and acute danger from rockfall.
Bad news in Nepal too where the ceasefire between Maoists and
government ended.
Top Features Words and nice pics from the Arete
des Cosmiques above Chamonix plus our huge
round-up of new gear from the 2004 outdoors show in Germany.
Finally, check out our comprehensive guide to scrambling.
It was a
good start to
September for the Naked Rambler as some of the
charges against him were
dropped
and a west country caravan was totalled by a
falling
cow, which made us giggle - it's okay, no-one was hurt, even the
cow...
Meanwhile, Kiwi brand Fairydown got worldwide exposure after the
company revealed that the brand name wasn't
macho enough for the Australian market. Big girl's blouse Edmund
Hillary greeted the news with disgust, if Fairydown was good enough
for him, he reckoned, it was good enough for a bunch of Bruces.
We carried a scoop
review of the trailer for Touching The Void, which turned out to
be pretty prescient and the month ended with racist
graffiti on the summit shelter of Ben Nevis shocking climbers and
leading to a clean up by the Lochaber MRT and sparking a 172-posting
thread on the forum.
Top Features Alex Ford's transribed audio
diary was the warts and all story of his success on the Welsh
3000s route and well worth a browse, plus we brought you scoop first
pics of the colossal indoor climbing wall at Ratho...
Quite mad and quite stunning.
October
started with the OS offering
customised
maps via their web site, shame they cost 17 quid as the idea is a
nice one. The Naked Rambler was
arrested
again, just four hours after leaving court and a
mummified
foot found in Siberia was declared too small to belong to a yeti,
it was only a 36 whereas yetis have great big feet, it says here.
Meanwhile OM member Guy Newbold was busy up in Wasdale with the
launch of the spangly
Wasdale Web cam, which now has some of the clearest mountain pics
we've seen from any web cam, anywhere... And there's a new Scafell
cam on the way too. You read it first here folks. And that was
October really, one of those months...Oh, Hadrian's
Wall wasn't close for winter. So there you go.
Top Features Kinder
by the Edges, the classic Dark peak circuit described with lots
of piccies and our guide to the perfect
outdoors caff and some of your faves listed.
November
was a great month for OM editor Jon, who selflessly abandoned the
site for four weeks to go trekking in Nepal, thankfully things went
on thanks to the two Marias.
Lads' mag' FHM
agreed to apologuse after getting a kicking from the Press
Complaints Commission over a story, written by a Trail journalist,
which ridiculed climbers killed on Everest. Welsh
potato disease didn't lead to countryside closures and Scottish
rescue teams got a 400
per-cent funding boost.
Meanwhile, Ranulf Fiennes' wife apparently called
time on his extreme expeditions, though as we all know, that
didn't stop him running seven marathons in a week just months after
undergoing heart surgery...
Top Features Everything went cinematic in November, with
the first
UK review of the film of Touching the Void complete with stills
from the making. Nice... Plus how
to make your own mountain movie, direct from the Kendal. Mountain
Film Festival..
December
kicked off with the
announcement
that OM is now partners with TGO magazine and we'll be cooperating
both on and off line to our mutual benefit. Well that's the idea
anyway. Of course our last magazine partner closed down... Hmmm....
Hopefully we'll do better this time :-)
We gave away 25
free tickets to the Outdoor Adventure Show in February - click
the link on the tab at the top of the page if you want to know more
about this great event, which we are supporting.
The Independent auctioned the chance to go walkies
with Janet Street Porter, no, we didn't put in a bid... A
Scottish farmer painted
her sheep to confuse big cats, really she did.
And the rest is, erm, history, or December anyway, which you
should be able to remember.
Top Features Stunning
pics from the Annapurna Circuit in Nepal. Book your air ticket
now...
So much for 2003, all we can do now is wish you all the best
for a great 2004 and invite you to spend at least a bit of it with us
and out on the hills. Can't say fairer than that. Have a good one.
