A few years ago Becca and I did our first mountain marathon together. We learned things and enjoyed it enough to do it again, and then again… Three years in and we may well have found the appropriate balance between challenge and enjoyment, but we still spent the journey home discussing successes, mistakes and what…
Choosing Gloves and Clothing for Scottish Winter Walking and Mountaineering As we head out into the hills this winter either for trekking, walking, mountaineering or climbing we need to make important decisions that will impact both our enjoyment and safety. We will check the weather and the avalanche forecast. We will prepare our maps and…
The clocks have gone back and suddenly the outdoors feels a little bit more intimidating. It’s colder, the winds bite more fiercely and of course it gets dark earlier and earlier as we approach the winter solstice. But with careful planning and packing we can continue to safely enjoy the moors, hills and mountains right…
Rab Evolute Hoody Review In my decades of climbing, walking and working in the outdoors I’ve been lucky enough to witness and also be part of a revolution in outdoor clothing and equipment. When I began climbing and mountaineering as a teenager the age of thick woolly jumpers, breeches and heavy cotton canvas smocks was…
Your meals and food on your Mountain Leader expeditions both for training and assessment expedition have a lot of boxes to tick: lightweight, portable, nutritious, easy to cook when the weather is poor and on a small stove, tasty and hopefully inspiring. Planning and preparing these meals is part of the process, and we really…
Outside Wins the Independent Retailer of the Year Award! Brilliant news from our favourite outdoor equipment shop; Outside in Hathersage has won two awards at the 2025 Outdoor Trade Show in Liverpool. They won the coveted UK Independent Retailer of the Year 2025 and the 2025 Independent Retailer of the Year for Central UK. We…
Hill and Mountain Flapjack There are certain well established cliches in the outdoor world: a camper will have a mug (or frying pan!) hanging off their rucksack. A walker shall have a flask. Another is that outdoor people ie walkers, mountaineers, climbers and campers shall eat flapjack. Yes it’s definitely a clique but that’s not…
Yes, another ‘warming up for climbing’ article. No, we’re not going to give you a prescriptive list of all the things you must absolutely do to warm up for the best climbing session ever, but hopefully you will finish reading this with a few ideas on what a climbing warm up might look like for…
PHD Wafer Down Jacket Review Review of the PHD Wafer Down Jacket. An amazingly light and warm down jacket made in the UK. Last year I consciously made an effort to reduce my pack weight while wild camping on Mountain Leader training and assessment courses. Just by trimming the weight of a few key items I…
Hati’s Top Five Items of Gear in 2024 Your gear reflects your year right? The main outdoor events of my year occurred within a 6 week period… a big walling trip in Utah was followed (immediately) by the OMM (Original Mountain Marathon) in the Highlands with a sport climbing trip to Kalymnos to recover from…
Alex’s Top 5 Best Items of Gear in 2024. This years equipment choices have been based around a winter road trip to Utah and Arizona in the USA and lots of Mountain Leader training and assessment courses. Cold and dry conditions in the American South West deserts and then the usual mixed weather in the…
Our equipment reviews and tests have always been a very popular feature of our website. Everyone loves outdoor kit and here at Beyond the Edge we are all secret gear freaks and we get very excited by a new bit of equipment to try out. Our instructing and coaching team use their kit in the worlds…
