I’m a hopeless romantic, though I mean that in the sense that I am hopeless at being romantic. Not content with spending previous Valentines days ice climbing, and buying her discounted outdoor gear for birthdays and Christmases, I somehow managed to sneak the outdoors and a wild camping trip into my marriage proposal to my … More Great Nights in the Hills – Part 3, White Sands National Monument
Upon leaving the comfort of the fantastic Lazy Lizard hostel in Moab, the skies were darkening and extensive rain was forecast for the night. The wind was strengthening as we pitched our tent at our campsite, 6000 feet up on the Colorado Plateau in Canyonlands National Park. This tired tent hadn’t stood up well to … More Bad Nights in the Hills – Part 2, Willow Flat Campground, Canyonlands National Park, Utah
The lengthy gritstone escarpment of Derbyshire’s Stanage Edge has a special place in British climbing’s past and present. So revered as the hallowed rock of traditional climbing (i.e. no drilled bolts) that when a climber posted an April Fools’ prank picture of a bolt on the grit he received death threats from the climbing community. … More Great Nights in the Hills – Part 2, Stanage Edge
The Grand Canyon, Mount Rushmore, Yosemite, Manhattan: they’re all great places to visit, but they are the bread and butter of American road trips. How about spreading some fish paste, nutella and tabasco on that bread, and see the wacky things that are still capable of taking your breath away, just in a different way… … More A Dozen Bizarre Places to See in the USA
We pulled into the Cromlech boulders lay-by at about 1:30am. Somewhere to our right, through the mist and rain was the famous Dinas Cromlech walls, featuring some of the finest trad climbing in the UK. To the left was our route for the day, Parsley Fern gully up to Snowdon’s summit. We were disinclined to … More Bad Nights in the Hills – Part 1, Volkswagen Golf, Snowdonia
It was our second day on the Wainwright’s Coast to Coast walk and we were sampling some of England’s dreariest weather (simply known as “weather” in the Lake District). We’d spent the previous night sliding downhill in a pokey two-man tent perched on the flattest ground we could find, and by the time we reached … More Great Nights in the Hills – Part 1, YHA Black Sail
Fully expecting to suffer greatly going uphill and glide majestically going down, my latest trip cycling the legendary Alpine cols of the Tour de France yielded some surprises. The usual (unintentional) formula for my trips held true, where I return significantly more bruised having learnt some important lessons, but ultimately have a merry time. Expectations … More Tour de Bit of France
Aged ten, I went on a walk through the Essex countryside with my father that affectionately became known as “The Death Walk”. It achieved such status after being chased by a tractor down a narrow lane flanked by tall hedgerows, wandering into a ditch, falling foul of an electric fence, slipping numerous times on black … More Bear in Mind
London Outdoorsman 