It’s been a while.

This blog isn’t dead, just slowing down somewhat as I attempt to juggle the time demands of walking and writing about walking. It’s a tough balancing act – get it wrong and I spend every waking moment sitting in front of the computer with no time to actually get out and do the things that I need to write about. Fortunately living in Edinburgh means I’m within easy reach of a whole variety of different outdoor playgrounds, with no need to plan trips weeks in advance – just walk/cycle out the front door to reach the sea at Portobello and Granton, the Pentland and Lammermuir hills and a host of interesting cycle paths, islands and rivers. I’m far enough north that buses and trains to the Highlands are reasonably priced, and diesel hasn’t yet got to the stage where a quick jaunt to somewhere remote is unaffordable.

So. Progress.

My Pocket Mountains guide to walking on Arran is due for publication in May sometime (fingers crossed), and I’ve begun work on both the Ayrshire and Orkney books that will follow over the next year or so.

As well as researching and writing routes for Walkhighlands I’ve been working on a series of gear reviews over the last few months – there isn’t a particularly lightweight bias to these due to the wide ranging experience and desires of the target audience, but they’re a lot of fun and I have a worrying amount of editorial freedom.

The lack of posts on this blog is a direct result of my blogging activity for Outdoor Enthusiast magazine. Again, a totally different audience and specification, but it’s ticking along nicely and I get to play with video and have ‘Editor’ on my CV. I also get another load of gear to play with – this time across the whole spectrum of outdoor activities ranging from skiwear to cycling to diving.

At the end of the month I hope to get away to backpack the Cape Wrath Trail – not an ideal time of the year but hopefully before the midges come out in force and ruin things. After chatting to Midge Forecaster General Colin I reckon they’ll be out in early May given the mild winter.

I plan to do a lot more cycling over the summer months as I research my Orkney walking guide – the inter-island ferries are very expensive for vehicles but free for bikes, especially folding bikes like my Airnimal Joey Sport (Tramplite Edition). My little yacht is sitting on the quayside at Granton awaiting a lift-in at the end of April – the sailing in the Forth isn’t quite as scenic as the Clyde, but with the harbour just up the road I think quantity will make up for quality.

Oh, and I’m doing the odd bit of engineering in order to pay the larger bills – pretending to know something about electricity and microgeneration but really just being good at Google. Joking, joking….

The original programme was about one hour long featuring four different people/groups but I’ve edited it to just under 10 minutes by cutting out everyone that isn’t me….

If you can’t get BBC Alba on your TV it’ll be on iPlayer until my unwitting Clarkson-esque comments get it pulled, so catch it while you can.

“With the current worldwide population shift towards an urbanised existence, the benefits of getting back in touch with the natural landscape and the lure of these wild remote places has never been greater. For many, living there has become a regular way of life, far from the comforts of modern living.

We meet a young family who spend each summer on the isolated island of Mingulay; an aspiring wildlife photographer and travel writer in remote Knoydart; a city-based guidebook writer who’s aim is to get people out to the wild places (that’s me); two Skye sisters who have set up a wilderness boot camp; and some of the Stornoway Kayak Club as they explore the rugged Lewis coastline and camp out on one of its many offshore islands.”

There’s a short trailer here, in which I feature for the first couple of seconds under my nice yellow MSR tarp. Oh, and I’ve got no idea how to watch it from abroad either….

“My Wild Land” – Wild Land News Autumn 2011

Contemplating 24 hours of Cairngorm berry lectures with a cubic metre of cake

Things I’ve been doing in September

I’ve been following with interest the peculiar outdoor blogger infighting which seems to have fizzled out along with the equally peculiar heatwave. I’ve received numerous emails and messages from people seemingly taking sides and attempting some kind of inquisition to out those that don’t conform to some quite fluid unwritten rules. Amongst the noise there were some comments and views that helped me to shape the first gear reviews on Walkhighlands where I’m lucky enough to have a certain amount of flexibility and editorial control. The nature of the site allows me to cherry-pick items from manufacturers that don’t always feature in the mainstream outdoor press for whatever reason, and it appears that some (thankfully very few) of the larger distributors and PR companies just don’t seem interested in a purely digital medium. There are some familiar brands in there – the likes of Rab, Montane and Berghaus contrasted against Chocolate Fish Merino and Finisterre plus a few lesser-known European brands that have supplied some interesting stuff.

Rather than offering the familiar scoring system the reviews will be closer to a ‘state of the market’ overview where the reader can benefit from something they generally can’t experience – my access to lots and lots of the latest kit. In each category – October features hats & gloves and winter daypacks for example- I’ll be looking at up to ten different models with a range of price tags and features. I’ve had the stuff for a while now and I’ve used it outdoors (there are incriminating photos on at least two Facebook profiles…) so I have a good idea of how it performs and any interesting (or annoying) features. I’d love to spend a long time with each item before writing the piece, but that’s just not feasible. For one item that’s unlikely to change specification over the course of a year that’d be great – but ten winter daypacks? Not going to happen. By the time I’ve finished it’ll be summer and somewhat irrelevant. Bloggers can (and do) take on that responsibility and I’ll continue to offer than kind of thing on here – a place where a snow-shovel review in June won’t cause the editor to alter my medication.

I spent an enjoyable weekend in the Cairngorms with three guys that I’ve walked with plenty of times before, just not all at the same time. This was predominantly a pleasure trip including beer and a debrief of Colin‘s Colorado Trail experiences, but with varying fitness levels and mountain experience they were also superb guinea pigs to help consolidate the skills acquired on my recent Mountain Leader Training course! I was testing a few items for upcoming reviews as well as providing a couple of items for others to look at – I figured that the Cairngorm plateau would provide a decent dose of heavy weather and it didn’t disappoint. As well as some more ‘traditional’ items I was testing a prototype Trailstar inner from OookWorks and the three Trailstars formed a superb MLD marketing shot beneath Shelter Stone crag by Loch A’an. You can find photos from the trip in Tookie‘s Flickr set here and Steve‘s Facebook album here (you’ll probably need a Facebook account).

I went to the Outdoor Trade Show in Stoneleigh, Warkwickshire which necessitated a long train journey and dodgy hotel but was rewarded with some lovely meetings with lovely people that I’d only ever spoken to online. I left with a selection of energy bars and cosmetics as well as a slight case of gear overload and some slightly negative vibes from distributors and retailers starting to worry a bit. Exciting gear for next year? Paramo’s revamped female range looks very nice – there’s tapering and all sorts going on. The Torres Core and Sleeves package is entirely mental but worryingly logical, and the Torres insulated trousers seem to have slipped under my radar. I like the look of the new lighter Vango tents – I’ll have one of those to play with when they’re out – as well as the Force 10 down/synthetic mix sleeping bags. Granite Gear packs have been picked up in the UK by distributor 9Point9 to complement their Big Agnes lines, and rebadged variations on the GoSystem Fly/Ti seemed to be on every stand.

Around the same time I confirmed my appointment as Web Editor for Outdoor Enthusiast Magazine, a quarterly multi-sport magazine available primarily in outdoor retailers. I’ve been working on content for a sparkly new website due to go live pretty soon which aims to fill the gap between issues of the print magazine. I’ll be offering outdoor news snippets, more gear reviews and the odd video in an attempt to engage with a very mixed audience that participates in a wide range of outdoor activities. I told them I’m allergic to horses.

I’ve just finished choosing the photos for my Arran guidebook as well as making the more menial decisions on things like chapters and captions, but I was pretty excited to get my first glimpse of the cover – a beautiful illustration by the awesome Vicki Gausden. I’ll upload it when I get clearance. A few additions and quite a bit of editing and preamble and it’ll be good to go.

Now we’re into October I might even get out for a walk  - I’ll be the one trying to use eight rucksacks at once.