The Great Outdoors

TGO Magazine is your essential guide to hillwalking and backpacking in the UK and overseas. Get out more! We provide all the inspiration you need to plan your next trip, plus expert reviews and tips. The Great Outdoors is for anyone who loves walking in the hills, mountains and wild places. With information on the latest gear, in-depth features and stunning photography, The Great Outdoors will help you access the high peaks and long trails of Britain and beyond. Our enhanced digital addition includes even more great photos and interactive content.

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The Great Outdoors

Almanac • OCTOBER 8 in the mountains

Glen Affric, West Highlands

THE PTARMIGAN • From season to season, the ptarmigan’s clever camouflage is perfect cover for the mountains – observes an awestruck Nadia Shaikh

Readers’ page • Share your views, your experiences and your favourite photos tgo.ed@kelsey.co.uk

Upland: A Journey through Time and the Hills

ANDREW WANG fell runner, community organiser & campaigner • Andrew Wang grew up running in the hills of the Lakes and the Peak District. Since founding the grassroots organisation ESEA Outdoors UK, he has been vocal on the topics of diversity, access to the outdoors and nature connection – and the crucial links that exist between them

HEREFORDSHIRE BEACON • Jim Perrin recalls a short season picking apples below a serpentine ridge squeezed between rivers

Glyndŵr’s Way • Glyndŵr’s Way is an ideal national trail on which to dip your toe into the magic of long-distance walking. Francesca Donovan is your guide to exploring the magic and mythology of Mid-Wales, bookended by the mountains of Eryri and Bannau Brycheiniog

TAKE THE GREAT OUTDOORS EVERYWHERE!

MYTHICAL MOUNTAINS • Weather deities, magical portals, earth-moving giants and haunted valleys – Britain’s mountains are humming with myth, magic and mystery. Hanna Lindon explores upland legends from around the country

FANTASTIC BEASTS (AND WHERE TO FIND THEM)

THE CUILLIN FOR MORTALS • The Cuillin Ridge is often regarded as Britain’s most sustained and technical mountaineering excursion. Co-editor David Lintern attempted a ‘walker’s traverse’ of this infamous challenge, supporting a friend’s Munro round. In an environment now largely professionalised, theirs was an adventure by amateurs in the classic sense

TIPS FOR TACKLING THE RIDGE WITH FRIENDS • It’s physically strenuous but much more about endurance. There’s something approaching 3500m of vertical. So, it’s hard and you need to be fit, but it’s not impossible.

TALL TALES IN WALES • Poet, lecturer and Mountain Leader Emily Zobel Marshall returns home for an epic adventure over the Welsh 3000s – the highest and most multi-storied mountains of Eryri

WATER COURSES • Piteälven, one of Sweden’s great rivers, has carved out 400km of sweeping landscape through Swedish Lapland by sheer brute force. In following these watercourses, Mark Waring learns lessons in fully appreciating this remote and seldom-visited wild land from the Norwegian border high in the Scandinavian mountains to the Baltic Sea

SKILLS: THINK LIKE AN ARCHAEOLOGIST • Having the skills to interpret historical features in the landscape can add an extra layer of interest to your walks. Here’s what to look out for…

6 STROLLS THROUGH HISTORY • Take a walk in the past at these upland archaeology hot spots…

GEAR • In this gear special, we share news from the world of outdoor kit, and recognise the best gear and brands in our annual awards

GEAR OF THE YEAR AWARDS 2025 • All killer, no filler! Co-editor David Lintern introduces this year’s best of the best

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