WalkLakes Blog

I've mentioned this here before but it never does any harm to mention it again.

If you get into trouble in the hills and need to contact the emergency services for help then sometimes you can find yourself in the situation where you can just about get a signal but it's not enough to make a call. That's where emergencySMS comes in.  read more ...

Over on the UK Hill Walking web site you can read a very recent post My Scrambling Fall by Lyndon Marquis. Lyndon was scrambling on Cam Crag Ridge in Langstrath and unfortunately he had a fall of 30-40m down a rock studded slope.  read more ...

I've mentioned this here before but with the fellwalking season now going into overdrive with a lot of new walkers out and about it seemed like a good time to mention it again.  read more ...

This summer has seen a monumental shift in my walking footwear. I have recently discovered the joys of approach shoes.  read more ...

The Ordnance Survey have put online eight excellent videos on YouTube presented by TV presenter, adventurer and OS champion Steve Backshall which take you through the basics of how to read an OS map and how to use a compass. Here they are.  read more ...

Everybody remembers their first waterproof jacket don't they? Especially if you were growing up in the 1970s, it was likely to have been a cagoule - a smock like thing, or if you were posh a jacket with a full length zip and a flap across the back to let some of the sweat out. What we remember was how we sweated at the slightest exertion. A few decades on, we now have jackets made with magical fabrics that let sweat through one way, but not rain the other. Back in the '70s there were waterproof and breathable fabrics but they were rare and hugely expensive. Ventile was such a thing, a war-time invention of a tight weave of very fine cotton whose fibres expanded when damp to effectively seal out water. It was made into aircrew immersion suits, or taken on Arctic expeditions. It's a lovely fabric but heavy.  read more ...