New Pocket Mountains Guides Out

Seems like the trend towards light weight has spread to guidebooks as well with the excellent range of Pocket Mountains publications covering walking, cycling and wildlife esentials right across the UK - the latest titles from the publisher include The Yorkshire Dales walking guide, The West Highland Way and a volume covering easy walks on the Isle of Skye.

First off, the books do exactly what they say on the can being just under 4x6 inches and around 100 pages thick, or thin rather, about a quarter of an inch is typical. So yes, they fit nicely even into quite modest pockets.

All of which would be irrelevant if the books weren't up to much, but the good news is that they are, and then some. Take the new Dales guide by Dominic North, packed into its 96 odd pages are some 40 routes, each one complete with a neat diagramatic topio, which should allow you to translate the basics easily onto your map, a carefully chosen photo and stripped down detailed instructions.

The routes themselves are spread right across the area and broken down neatly into sub-regions and finally indexed by place name to help you out. Spot on.

The West Highland Way is a similar miniaturised masterpiece from outdoors journo Dan Bailey. It starts off with an excellent overview of the route, then breaks it down into stages complete with up to date camping, dining and accommodation information.

And then, as a massive bonus, the second part of the book covers 15 classic mountain walking routes that you could add on as options or come back for later again with diagramatic maps, evocative route descriptions and some lovely images that really make you yearn to be there. And predictably, the 40 Coast and Country Walks on Skye volume is more of the same, covering easier routes on the island.

What more can we say? It's as if someone's taken the very best walking guides and miniaturised them specially for you with tardis-like results - small on the outside, but packing a big punch on the pages. Thoroughly recommended.

The Dales and Skye volumes retail for £6.99 while the West Highland Way book is £7.99. More about the full range of Pocket Mountains books at www.pocketmountains.com