I’ve used the more conventional Mountain King trekking poles before, but the Trail Blaze is something altogether different and exciting for lightweight aficionados. Mountain King Trail Blaze trekking poles Price: £79 (pair) Weight: 250g (pair) for 120cm length weight, packed size, colours, ease of maintenance non-adjustable strap Materials and Construction There’s no huge secret here – the Trail Blaze is  essentially a beefed-up tent pole with a handle and tip. Mountain King are based in Newcastle where they import the raw aluminium tube and carry out the rest of the manufacturing themselves – things like cutting, anodising and sticking the…

RRP: £367.20 Weight: 102g Batteries: 2 x AAA (supplied) Compact and lightweight with a full range of useful features. Expensive, and perhaps too many features for the casual user. “Oh yeah, it was easily blowing 100mph plus up there” The hillwalker’s equivalent of ‘the one that got away’, it’s actually really difficult to accurately judge windspeed, with wild exaggerations commonplace, particularly if you’ve had to retreat from the hill to the comfort of the pub. An anemometer removes the uncertainty (and is usually enlightening). “This sleeping bag is rubbish – it’s rated at -5ºC but I was shivering all night”…

In the last Gear Review of 2013, Phil takes a look at a selection of winter goodies to suit all stockings pockets. Edelrid Shark crampons £140 It’s often hard to distinguish between the racks of 12-point crampons on the outdoor shop shelves, but the Edelrid Shark offers something a bit different, effectively representing three crampons in one. The box contains three interchangeable bindings – soft, semi and full automatic – to accomodate boots ranging from flexible walking boots to stiff mountaineering monsters. It’s straight-forward to switch between the bindings with no tools required, though it’s rare that you’d need to…

Magellan eXplorist 610 GPSRRP £399 GPS devices appear to be the Marmite of outdoor equipment – their use scorned by some walkers who fear the loss of traditional map and compass skills, but adopted by many others as a great aid to navigation and safety (see our article on the dos and don’ts of gps navigation). The earliest units  had only very basic maps (some simply showed route lines) and were mostly used to get a current grid reference or to record tracks – but gradually GPS units have become much more sophisticated. Satmap made the first unit able to…

It rains in Scotland, so unless you fancy lugging around soggy sandwiches – and perhaps more worryingly insulating clothing – it’s necessary to take precautions against moisture ingress. Most rucksacks are made from water-resistant materials, but they don’t have sealed seams and have zips and other openings that can allow water in. Short of carrying one of the drysacks-with-straps designs like the Alpkit Gourdon, you’ll need to consider some kind of supplementary protection. Pack liners are basically big waterproof bags that are placed inside an empty rucksack before filling as normal. They can be as simple as a binbag with…

Trekking or walking poles have become ubiquitous in the British hills, deployed either singly or in pairs in the Nordic Walking style. I’m a confirmed double-pole user – coping with the cries of “Oi, where are your skis?” when walking through busy areas – and it appears that many other hillwalkers have discovered the benefits. The primary purpose of a pair of poles is to enable your arms to assist in propelling you upwards and along, as well as taking a load off your knees through use as a brake when descending. On flat terrain the benefits are less obvious –…

Inspired by the wholesome antics of such scallywags as the Famous Five, generations of children have badgered their parents for their very own pocketknife with which to whittle twigs and eat an apple really impressively. With knives carrying a stigma in modern society there are only really a few good reasons for carrying a blade of any kind, and there must be very few backpackers that don’t carry something sharp in their rucksack. Ignoring nostalgia the UK backpacker has little reason to carry some of the huge single-bladed implements available in certain outdoor shops, but the multitool certainly does have…