Main image: Dartmoor is the centre of many mini mountain milestones | Credit: Hanna Lindon and Guy Prince
We all need space to explore – and to play and to fail – without the restrictions of an increasingly transactional world. First experiences and major mountain milestones can be fragile, warranting structure and support. Yet, we do ourselves any favours in Britain – outdoor education and facilities are starved of funding, but we’re quick to blame kids for screen addiction and our outdoor media still focuses on the child-free. By contrast, in Sweden, home of friluftsliv (‘open air living’) and allmansrätten (‘everyone’s right’ or the right to roam), outdoor culture features everyone from babies to OAPs. Even the ads!
This month especially, we’re all about making space for newcomers and families. In our lead feature, we’re reminded of how transformational a first hill walk, camp, overseas adventure or wildlife encounter can be, for ourselves and others. Deputy editor Hanna Lindon writes with passion and humour about her family’s first backpack across the currently contested ground of Dartmoor and Bex Band of how parenting changed her perspective on the making of an outdoors for all. Plus, support and advice comes from Scotland’s national outdoor training centre, Glenmore Lodge. Their experts are on hand to guide and reassure curious first timers about navigation, camping, scrambling and more. Summer is the best time to give new things a try… or to remind ourselves of the joyful basics. As supposed grown ups, we can attest to the fact that every day is still a school day. Long may it remain so.
Highlights of this issue:
- Five walkers and campers recall the mountain milestones that shaped their relationship with the outdoors
- In celebration of Dartmoor and all it represents to newcomers, Hanna Lindon and family go wild (camping)
- Fiona Chappell of Glenmore Lodge shares her expert tips to have your most adventurous summer yet
- Terry Adby takes a lesser-known trek to Kangchenjunga, 70 year after it first ascent
- Bex Band, founder of Love Her Wild, gets real about finding family freedom outdoors
- In our new nature column, Nadia Shaikh is on the lookout for the Caddisfly
- Cool down and splash about on waterfall walks picked by our experts
PLUS: Jim Perrin paints a portrait of Shining Tor; honest and trusted reviews of the best hiking packs and sandals and trekking poles; the latest news from the mountains, outdoor walking festivals we rate; and our reviews of new outdoor books to inspire.
Stories to inspire your own mountain milestones:
Seeing the light: First hillwalk, first wild camp, first cloud inversion… there are some experiences that you remember for the rest of your life. We asked five hillwalkers to share the moments that shaped their relationship with the outdoors.
“What makes a vivid memory? Scientists will tell you it’s mainly down to novelty – one study found that 73 per cent of our strongest memories are either first-time experiences or unique events. That might explain why outdoors milestones often stick in our minds so clearly, but it doesn’t quite capture the blink-and-pinch-yourself amazingness of swimming in a tarn, seeing a cloud inversion, watching the sunrise from a summit or sleeping on a hillside for the very first time. Perhaps that’s because mountains, more than any other environment on earth, are places of epiphany. There’s a reason why writers from Wordsworth to Mary Shelley drew inspiration from the high places; why so many temples and ancient sacred monuments are on peaks and ridges; why some of the greatest philosophers have also been great walkers. Nowhere else does the magnificence of nature and existence strike you with so much intensity. Here, five people whose lives have been shaped by the outdoors share their memories of pivotal first encounters. From the transformative power of a Torridon sunset to an unforgettable teenage trek, they all share a sense of wonder, joy and awakening…”
Freedom of the moors: The legal right to wild camp on Dartmoor has been the gateway to a lifetime of adventure for the generations of young people. As that right hangs in the balance, Hanna Lindon takes advantage of its protection on a multi-day moorland adventure with her family.
“As our first day of backpacking on Dartmoor drew to a close, I’d never felt more grateful to have the legal protection of those access rights. It’s not so bad wild camping in the teeth of landowner disapproval if you’re experienced and alone. You can pitch up after dark, leave at dawn, and take a fairly relaxed attitude to the prospect of eviction. But things are a bit different when you’re carrying enough gear for a small army and the kids need to be in bed by eight. We had reached a little pool on the boundary of Harford and Ugborough moors; the remnant of a 19th-century clay works. A punishing evening wind was lashing the moorland grasses, and the pool’s sunken banks were the only protection we were likely to get. So we chose a spot a little closer to the water than the National Park guideline-makers might have liked and started setting up camp. The small one was face down in a sleeping bag and singing a muffled song about banging in tent pegs when a chap drove by on a quad bike to check the local sheep. So much for being discreet. But he just gave us an unsmiling nod and drove on. Then both kids ditched their boots and started haring around the pool like someone had just replaced their batteries…”
Moving mountains: The Himalayas are changing but it’s not all about earthquakes and queues on Everest. Terry Adby is blown away by the incredible Kangchenjunga Circuit, trekked to mark the 70th anniversary of the first British ascent
“Awe-struck, dumbstruck, immobile. I’ve never felt so moved by a mountain before. Kanchenjunga (8586m), king of the eastern Himalayas, rock God to Sikkim’s Lepcha people. Its ‘Five Great Treasuries of the Snow’ store spiritual nourishment for humanity, they say, and its positivity descends from the heights, into people and objects below. From where I’m standing, at Oktang (4730m) in eastern Nepal, surveying the route where George Band and Joe Brown first climbed the world’s third-highest mountain 70 years ago, I’m getting positive vibes aplenty. Kanchenjunga has inspired people of different times, places and cultures to acts of devotion, obsession or achievement. Doug Scott, who made the first oxygen-free ascent in 1979 via the north-west ridge, called it ‘The Himalayan Giant’ – ‘most impressive’, ‘most religious’, ‘most avalanche-active’ and ‘most affected by the monsoon’ of all 8000-metre peaks. More ‘dominant’, according to Scott, than K2 or Everest, Kanch’ is just 25 metres lower than K2 and boasts not one but four 8000-metre summits…”
Step up for summer: Summer is a good time to push your comfort zone – so here’s how to up your game, according to the experts at Glenmore Lodge.
“Summertime, and the adventure comes easy. Or so one might think. Longer days and settled weather are a draw into our high places and natural spaces – a heady mix of warm breezes, suncream, refreshing waters, and sweeping views. With the absence of Winter’s bite, it’s perhaps hard to believe that Scottish Mountain Rescue Teams’ busiest month in 2024 was July. But 70% of all 350 mountaineering incidents involving Scottish Mountain Rescue Teams in 2024 were summer hillwalking incidents. Most incidents recorded throughout the year occurred during fine weather. International Mountain Leader Fiona Chappell has been guiding groups into the Cairngorms for nearly two decades. In this summer skills special, she outlines what she has come to understand about our ever-fickle summers in the mountains during her time as a Glenmore Lodge Instructor delivering Hill and Mountain Skills courses throughout the warmer months. Summer walking isn’t without its risk; but master these skills and you’ll be rewarded…”
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