The Great Outdoors March 2023

THE ALPS HAVE ALWAYS loomed large over the European imagination. Until the late 18th Century, the upper reaches of this range were a source of fear and mystery, strongholds of intractable wildness in the heart of a crowded continent. Perceptions changed with the growth of urbanisation and the aesthetic influence of the Romantic movement, leaving us with the Alps we know today: the exemplar of sublime mountain beauty. In western minds, the Alps have always been a metaphor; as our perceptions of them shift, so does our understanding of mountains in general, and what they mean to us. The allure of the Alps is made up of many different elements, but a key one has always been the glaciers: the likes of the Aletsch, the Gorner and the Mer de Glace…

Sue Fletcher is an award-winning novelist. She writes contemporary and historical fiction and her articles have appeared in The Independent and The Sunday Times. Her passion for remote landscapes and the natural world heavily informs her writing. Having lived in both the Scottish Highlands and rural Northumberland, she now lives in Warwickshire. She goes bivvying in Lakeland on page 26. Charlie Jarvis is a writer based between Edinburgh and Milan and a first-time contributor to The Great Outdoors. His work covers the environment, culture, and politics, and the unexpected ways these interact, even in the mountains. He’s happiest waking up on Scottish mountaintops, or stopping in a roadside cafe for a pre-hike breakfast. Read about his traverse of the wildest part of the Alps on page 54. Fiona Russell is better known…

HEATHER MACKINS, 36, has trekked the Cumbria Way, South Downs Way, Cotswold Way and Tour du Mont Blanc, solo. She ventured to Everest Base Camp with a group and hiked the Great Glen Way with two friends, as well as walking the West Highland Way–twice–with her sister. But, as she told TGO, her most memorable long-distance trail is the Cape Wrath Trail (CWT): “I held the Cape Wrath Trail in such high regard and had wanted to hike it for years before plucking up the courage to do so!” The CWT is considered the toughest long-distance walk in the UK, passing through beautiful and remote areas of the Highlands, including Knoydart, Fisherfield, Torridon and Assynt. Indeed, after “eight days of biblical rain”, Heather was forced off the trail at the halfway…

Postal address The Editor, The Great Outdoors, Kelsey Publishing Ltd, The Granary, Downs Court, Yalding Hill, Yalding, Kent ME18 6AL. Please include a phone number and postal address. The power of bothies In the January 2023 issue of The Great Outdoors, Dan Aspel and David Lintern discovered how the humble Scottish bothy can rescue adventures in the least inspiring forecasts in ‘Winter Days, Bothy Nights’. It turns out, the piece was more inspiring than the forecast for one reader. Bill King, a mountain leader who was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease, wrote to us to explain how much it meant to him. As an ML working mainly in North Wales I was devastated when I was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease on the 8th January 2007. You don’t forget dates like that! Amazingly,…

David Isherwood (Facebook) “His bit of Dartmoor is not very accessible to the public, something to do with his closing car parks making access a long hike. Other complaints include erosion along well-trodden tracks, which funnily enough seem to be made by farm vehicles. Photos of said erosion showed what looked like the sort of damage you get from the Hunt, not the dogwalkers and hikers that used to walk from one of the car parks they have closed.” Steve Brown (Facebook) “Litter is definitely a big problem but not really aware of this area so won’t comment further. There is certainly a lot of empty plastic bottles and food packaging left around Cannock Chase area where I walk a lot locally.” Daz Whittington (Facebook) “I’ve personally been walking public access paths locally for over…

“I couldn’t think of a better way to celebrate my 26th birthday than to tick Crib Goch off (this has been on my bucket list for a while).”“A wonderful day on Creise and Meall a’Bhùiridh (Glencoe).”“They don’t say the west coast is the best coast for no reason. We had such a great day hiking up around Stac Pollaidh, taking in the views and enjoying family time. We had to bail before the summit as the winds were too much for little miss, but it was a great hike nonetheless.”“I like to spend my free weekends climbing in North Wales when the weather warms up. This photo was taken in celebration of climbing a very exposed route. I had to give myself a pep talk with each move I took.…