Winter climbing partners never move fast enough! From my perspective I have just completed a lightning fast accent on a thin runout smear of ice then undertook the cleaning of iced up cracks with poise and precision to build a structurally satisfying anchor. All this done in record breaking time. Why then, is my partner…
What are the Risks of Using a Portable Camping Stove? A portable camping stove is an essential item of outdoor equipment but there are very real risks involved in their use. All of us who have spent any time in the outdoors camping or on a bivvy will have their tales of near misses; They can…
Clothing and Equipment for Scottish Winter Walking and Mountaineering This is a up-dated version of a post on clothing and equipment for Scottish winter walking and mountaineering first published in 2017 and then again in 2020. The principles are the same but I have updated some of the items to reflect my current preferences. Boots…
Top Ten Gear and Equipment Reviews of 2022 We all love our outdoor gear and equipment; It keeps us warm, helps us enjoy the hills and mountains with increased safety and enables us to feed and fuel ourselves. Looking back through the stats these are our most popular kit blogs of the year and our…
Notebooks for Travel, Photography and Working in the Outdoors During a recent sort-out I found a holdall full of my various notebooks that I have been using over the last 30 odd years while working as a mountaineering and climbing instructor, photographer, photojournalist, artist and writer. Looking at the 100+ different volumes I realised that…
Alex’s Top 5 Best Items of Gear in 2022. It’s been a busy year of instruction here at Beyond the Edge. I’ve worked on Mountain Leader and Hill and Moorland Leader training and assessment courses. I’ve taught loads of rock climbing, including introduction and beginners courses as well as teaching lead climbing both trad and…
I’ve never really been that into knives and multitools. I own a few Opinels and have always taken my Opinel no8 (the outdoor knife) out with me as it’s light, small and because of its plastic handle needs less care than my wooden Opinels. So it was a little overwhelming to receive a Leatherman Signal…
Blue Ice Squirrel 22L I was in the market for a small rucksack to wear on multi-pitch climbs in the mountains that could also carry all my gear to the start of the route. I decided it needed to be in the low 20 litre size range, have a rope carrying system, helmet holder and…
We spend a lot of time using and wearing our different bits of outdoor gear, so we get pretty attached to them. We asked some of the Beyond the Edge team to share what their favourite bits of outdoor gear are and why. Perhaps there’s some Christmas gift inspiration in there somewhere? James: Mountain Equipment…
La Sportiva TX4 Review Approach shoes are part of the Outdoor Instructor uniform along with brightly coloured trousers, gilets and VW vans. I’ve worn, and worn through, half a dozen pairs of various sorts over the last decade, mostly to the point where they become more hole than shoe. For the less fashion conscious instructors…
Figure of Eight Knot with Follow Through In the late 80’s there was a fashion for poking and threading the tail of a Figure of Eight knot back through the body of the knot. It looked neat and myself and few other young climbers and instructors starting using this variation. Then word got around that…
The first thing I noticed about the Signal is how much the Leatherman designs have evolved since I bought my first one in the mid 1990’s. It was a Leatherman Mini Tool which I carried for Ice Climbing, Scottish winter and Alpine mountaineering and expeditions. It was small, very strong, simple, a bit crude but…