-30 litres for summer walking and closer to 40-45 litres for climbing or winter mountain use, where you'll be toting more kit. Bear in mind that the manufacturers' measurements vary, so a 30 litre Super Dooper Extreme might

axecomfortably. In contrast, with well-fitting gloves, it's possible -with practice - to do pretty much anything you can manage with barehands, though not as easy.In our experience, mountaineering well into the sub-zeros, glovesare still better for active use

of the trouserleg down around the top of the boot, less important if you're goingto wear gaiters, but a really useful feature if you don't. Internalankle gaiters and arguably better for skiing that walking orclimbing, but some mountaineers like them and it gives you

is that you can use the sameshell mitt or glove with a number of liners to give differentproperties. Maybe a thin baselayer glove on mild days, a stickymidweight fleece glove for ice-climbing or mountaineering or a thickinsulated fleece glove for really cold

across too, as if climbing. Ifthey restrict your movement, don't buy 'em.Zippety ZipInan ideal world you want to be able to don or remove shell trouserswithout removing your boots. This is even more important if you needto use crampons or skis, since

handy, but bear inmind that for any sort of mountaineering, a wider pack may get in theway and scrape on rock. For general backpacking though, they'regreat.Many packs now have built-in hydration system pockets andoutlets - they're fine at the start

These are fitted to the feet using a strange vacuum bead based moulding process. The idea is that the foot is moulded in an ideal position which the insoles than help to maintain when walking. The company's background is in skiing, where

Boot, meet crampon, crampon meet boot... A marriage made inheaven, yes if you follow the OUTDOORSmagic crampon buyers' guide aswe rake our sharp front points through the murky complications ofmetal spikiness. Now if only we could have something