Preparations for the Cape Wrath Trail
The time has come to talk a little about my plans for this summer. It’s been ten years since my first long-distance walk in the mountains — a hundred and sixty miles through the Lake District in May 2005 — so I thought it was only appropriate to do something special
Lightweight stoves for backpacking — the alcohol option
Like many a backpacker, I started my outdoor apprenticeship with a classic stove: the Trangia. These stoves run on methylated spirits (denatured alcohol) and include several nesting pots with an integrated pot stand and windshield system. The Trangia system is very reliable and safe when used correctly, but it has
A Tour of Kinder Scout
I’ve made some changes to my backpacking gear this year. Old, heavy items have been replaced by lighter alternatives, and I’ve stopped carrying quite a few things that I never really used or needed. The overall result is a significantly lighter load that makes mountain travel far more
Book review: Moonwalker by Alan Rowan
Moonwalker: Adventures of a midnight mountaineerby Alan Rowan Walking the Munros. This is a time-honoured subject for hillwalking books, and it might be thought that nothing new can be contributed to the topic. Search for books on the Munros and you’ll find everything from detailed guides to memoirs. However,
Character focus: Josette Barbier
Painting: William-Adolphe Bouguereau, “Reverie sur le seuil” This is the first in a series of articles highlighting characters from my second Alpine Dawn novel, The Invisible Path. Don’t forget to sign up to my mailing list for advance notice of publication! Two kinds of characters inhabit my novels: those
Inov-8 Roclite 295 trail shoes — first impressions
I don’t often review outdoor gear on this blog, but in light of the new ‘words – mountains – imagination’ tagline I am going to be broadening my horizons a little. I hope my readers who are into the great outdoors find these articles interesting. Since childhood, I’ve mainly worn
Ditching the infinity machine — five months later
Chris Townsend has written a very interesting response to this article. I urge you to check it out. In October 2014, I wrote about how I felt taking my smartphone with me into the hills was spoiling my enjoyment of being in the wild. The resulting article struck a chord;
Alpine Dawn II — a teaser
As many of you know, I am currently writing the much-delayed second volume to my Alpine Dawn series. The first volume, The Atholl Expedition, is currently available on Kindle and in paperback. I hope to release the second, The Invisible Path, this year. Here’s a portion of a scene
The 2015 site refresh — words, mountains, imagination
This website has been through a number of incarnations since it was first established on the 21st of March 2007. It completely changed direction exactly three years ago, when I reforged my old walking and climbing blog into a website suitable for an author. The last major redesign occurred in
The Grand Route Forbes — a long-distance hike in the Alps
Regular followers of this blog will be aware that I admire the writings of James Forbes, a Scottish geologist best known for his pioneering studies on the glaciers of the Alps. I have written before about the long foot journey he conducted in 1842, and I’ve even followed the