Today I am wearing a hat I was sent by a company called Fürst Design.
It’s called the Tatsu and it’s a super-warm down beanie which is currently keeping my head warm in the mountains of Serbia as we take a few days of skiing.
Read More
What if the outdoors is not the answer?
I struggle to enjoy myself. My anxiety turns my mind to thoughts of doom and my feelings of guilt prevent me from truly enjoying myself.
I am sure I am not alone. But, this doesn't happen in the outdoors. I don’t know why.
If it is something I am doing when I am paddling or walking or just sitting under a tree listening to the sounds of the forest I might be able to translate it to my every day life… but what if it isn’t? It definitely isn’t. Ah, there I go again.
Read More
Are the Northern Lights the top bucket list item? I failed to see them when in Iceland.
Why Bucket Lists are bad
Many of us are striving to “be something or someone”. Perhaps you would like to legitimately call yourself an “adventurer” and you are naturally looking for big things to do to demonstrate this to your peers and yourself. Perhaps your expectations are lower but, as in any walk of life, it can easily become second nature to compare yourself with others, with what they do and how you perceive them through their online personas and the achievements you hear about.
We make lists of goals, achievements or experiences we would like to tick off but what if we could gain more from looking backwards?
Read More
Gently Down the Stream - Sunday Packrafting
I don’t know anything about river management. However it is always frustrating how difficult it is to paddle for any distance on my local river; the Great Ouse.
I didn’t run into any other waterborne folk which adds its own kind of charm and what I lacked in speed I made up for in birdlife; six geese, five swans, four herons, three kingfishers, two cormorants and a partridge in a …
Read More
Gear Items for Review
One of the best things about having a blog is the occasional items I get for review. Why? Well, it’s simple.
If I were to go back and ask my 16 year-old self what the coolest possible thing that could happen in my life would be it would be that someone would send me some kit to “test” (albeit in the loosest sense of the term). So, there. It happened.
And here’s what’s coming up…
Read More
Kendal Mountain Festival 2019
I missed last year’s KMF but was lucky to find the time to go along this year, with my good friend Dan, so here are my highlights.
We ended up watching a few films which were very interesting but sitting in a comfy chair, in a dark room with a large coffee being whisked off to amazing places also meant we missed the Patagonia Adventure Activists session that we had paid for…
Read More
Reader Competition: Win a Map of the Best Hiking Trails
The PEEPS at Awesome Maps have given me an… uhm, Awesome Map to give away to readers of the Armchair Mountaineer blog. Yay, what could look better on your home office wall?
Awesome Maps offer a huge number of decorative maps such as the Hiking Map, Bucket List Map or the Climbing Map and they have been kind enough to offer one as a giveaway to readers of this blog…
Read More
An unpleasant night out.
I am guilty of writing about how wonderful my experiences are in nature. whether climbing a mountain or camping by my local river, time spent in the outdoors fuels me for the rest of my daily life, it is intrinsic to my mental and physical wellbeing. However, it is also fair to say that, although I may consider myself hardened to some of the discomforts I don’t always prefer them to the comforts of home.
A couple of weeks ago I went out for a 20km circular walk in my “local” hills, the Chilterns, with the intention of spending a peaceful night out on a hill, watching the stars and replenishing my mind and body as I often do.
Read More
All images copyright Kate Floyer
Changing Direction - A Guest Blog by Kate Floyer
Embarking on adventure can mean much more than Rafting down the Amazon or shouldering a backpack and wandering off into the wild.
I am now at another crossroads. I’m in a relationship with someone I want to share my life with; someone who isn’t from an overlanding background. I’ve travelled to lots of countries, but hardly spent anytime in my own…
Read More
Do you tell your children wild camping is illegal?
How do you tackle the tricky subject of telling your children that wild camping is (Largely) illegal even though you are doing it and encouraging them to do it?
“Can you keep it down a bit please? We can’t make as much noise as we want.”
“No, we have to wait a bit before pitching the tent.”
“Sorry, we can’t invite all your friends.”
“No, we can’t light a campfire this time.”
These are all things I have said to my seven year old and all have solicited the all too familiar reply of “Why?"
Read More
Cooking in the Wild
Cooking with wild thyme, wild garlic or flavoring with wild fennel or sprigs of juniper becomes a sort of spiritual experience which affects the perception of taste as much as the actual ingredients themselves.
As much as I love cooking in the comfort of home, where ingredients and gadgets are limitless, the primal simplicity of cooking over a fire (preferably in the wild) can feel like the absolute pinnacle for someone who enjoys nature and all it has to offer in sustenance both mental and physical.
Cooking outdoors celebrates a joyous lack of sophistication
Read More
Bivvying with a 7 year old
Last weekend I went out to the North Norfolk coast again, this time with Emma (with whom I had not been camping since the Snake Bite Adventure) and with a couple of friends of ours.
This microadventure gave Emma the chance to truly sleep under the stars for the first time. Last time we were out she was in the tent with her friend whilst I slept outside and having seen me just lying under a sleeping bag in the grass she absolutely loved the idea of doing away with the tent.
Read More
A Seasonal Timepiece: Guest Blog by Vicky Hunter
Nature’s gentle yet uncompromising movement is so deeply rooted in our existence and yet so often it is overlooked.
We lock ourselves up in brick houses, with concrete gardens, eating whatever we want, whenever we want from giant supermarket chains, and we lose touch with nature’s subliminary indicators of time. Sure, shop window displays, social media and the occasional bank holiday weekend help us tap into the yearly calendar, but with Easter eggs hitting the shops not long after New Year and Christmas advertising appearing before Halloween, our awareness of the passing of time becomes completely out of sync with nature’s clock.
Read More
ExplorersWeb: An Interview with Rowan White
I recently had the pleasure of speaking with Rowan White, owner of Explorers Web and we spoke about the thinking behind this community of adventurers as well as Rowan's life as an entrepreneur in the outdoor sector.
Explorersweb is the original climbing, exploration and adventure community. Reporting on polar, high-altitude and extreme-environment adventure news for over 15 years, ExWeb has a reputation for reporting the facts about the world of exploration and giving credit where credit is due. The founders, Tom and Tina Sjögren were the first couple to complete the Three Poles Challenge by climbing Mount Everest and skiing to both the North and South Poles. Having turned their focus to an expedition to Mars, they decided it was time to hand over ExWeb to a new custodian in November 2018.
Read More
An Attempt at Trail Running [Video]
For most of my life running (particularly across country) has been quite important. But since December of 2016, when I injured my left knee, I haven’t really run. Last week, I tried again... and made a video.
There is nothing like running on a trail, and for me it was always therapeutic.
I instantly forget stuff when I am running. I am totally absorbed.
Read More
I almost certainly looked nothing like this!
Why I started running (or how to get off school).
I was totally inspired this week by Emily Woodhouse (of Travelling Lines) and her lovely post about how she started running. it reminded me that I had also started by accident, or perhaps more accurately by slightly devious design.
First of all you should go and read Emily’s post here: I got of the bus and ran 5 miles home.
I was always a skinny lad who could run a bit and I enjoyed middle distance and cross-country events at school but I had never thought of doing it outside the frame of what was required within school.
Read More
The First Encounter With The AT - A Guest Post by Jessica "Snuggles" Rakestraw
We were so close to the Smoky Mountains! It was unplanned but those adventures are usually the best ones. This was only a brief visit before the actual start of our full journey North. My husband Darwin and I wanted to touch it, to feel this thing we had read about and researched for the last year. I felt almost a fraud to be traveling by car to this special spot. We were still several months early; I felt we had not earned the right to be here yet
Read More
Kinder Scout: The People's Mountain - A Review
Three months ago I was sent a copy of Kinder scout: The People's Mountain by Ed Douglas and John Beatty. Here is my misty-eyed review (finally).
I was 17, my parents were away and my friend Paul came to see me. We jumped on one, two, maybe three trains in order to get to Edale and then we walked around, through Upper Booth, along the Pennine Way to Jacobs Ladder and then rather aimlessly around the plateau.
From that day Kinder Scout came to have a special meaning to me. And, at the time, I knew nothing of its important history.
Read More
The Long Walk To Recovery - A Guest Post by Esther Nagle
I am so grateful for the discovery that I can enjoy walking so much. It is a great reminder that even the most terrible things in life can bring gifts. I have no idea if I would have ever got into walking had it not been for my brother’s death, there was certainly no indication of it. I think of it as the greatest gift he ever gave me. I still miss him lots, and wish I could have shared this with him, but can always thank him for this legacy that has enriched my life so very much.
Read More
Wild Night Out 2018: Snake Bite Adventure
What an exciting weekend! Saturday was the last day of 30 Days Wild and also Wild Night Out so we (Myself, Emma, her friend and her friend’s Dad) embarked on a wonderful micro adventure that ended up with a trip to A&E and a course of antibiotics...
We headed out around 5pm on Saturday. The idea was to have a paddle in the packraft, a splash in the river, a little barbecue and camp out in the wild.
It all went swimmingly. It has been a rich seam of good weather of late and we tapped into it - the girls really enjoying the cooling waters of the river and the generous warmth of the late afternoon sun to dry off as we lit the barbecue and opened a can of beer.
After eating we dragged our gear, using the packraft as a kind of pulk, to a secluded spot where we figured we could set up camp undisturbed. It was around 9 pm when we threw down our mats, and threw up the tent. The air was cool, but not cold. A heron flew overhead and we could hear its wings beat. It was as quiet as can be expected with a 6 and a 7 year old negotiating for more marsh mallows but it was idyllic to be outside, free of the usual digital distractions to which our children can be easily subjected.
Then... I stood on a snake.
Then, whilst wandering around the longer, uncut grass near the tent, it seems I stood on a snake. I felt a sharp pain and jerked my leg up. Two little holes on my ankle oozed a drop of blood. I wiped it off.
I thought I had seen the back end of a grass snake disappear but I was carrying my unpacked sleeping bag and I honestly didn’t really believe this could happen in Cambirdgeshire.
I thought no more of it and before long we were all lying down - children in the tent and grown-ups out under the stars. It was stinging and I joked with everyone that I had been bitten by a snake, but I didn’t really believe it myself. As I tried to rationalise it internally I wondered had my eyes deceived me? What else could it have been? There were no brambles or plants nearby. Nothing but grass.
The dark flick of a snake tail remained in my mind. Surely I hadn't actually been bitten by a snake? These things don't happen in the Cambridgeshire! But the summer sun was setting, shadows lengthening and my mind wandered.
I remembered encountering vipere (adders) when I was a child, in Italy. I was almost always with an adult as I recall and in any case I had been drilled as to what to do: cause vibration from a distance, remain still if it is close to you, don’t touch it or poke it, don’t step over it, even if it blocks your path.
They were beautiful creatures, occasionally quite large, with dark diamonds down their length. Fascinating to a child, because of their danger as well as their beauty.
But that was rural Italy. Most people in England have never seen a snake in the wild.
The next morning I lay in the silence of nature, next to my daughter. The early morning sun warmed our faces and she smiled silently at me - the smile of someone who has (for once) slept well in a tent. This incidentally is quite possibly a major turning point as getting a decent night’s sleep has been tricky for her in a tent, but more of that another time.
The bite marks were weeping and walking was painful.
I had forgotten about my snake encounter, until I moved my ankle and felt some pain. The marks were red but there was no swelling. It wasn’t until we had packed and started walking back to the car that it started to stiffen and the pain started rising.
By the time I had got home it was aching and slightly swollen. It was at this point that I began to accept what had happened. It abated after a rest in the afternoon but by the evening, having worked a few hours in the garden, it was throbbing, and sore.
My wife convinced me to go to A&E where they didn’t feel the infection was visible enough to prescribe antibiotics. By the next morning I knew I needed something more than a painkiller. I was confident there was no venom (even if it had been an adder I ought to have reacted by now, unless it was a dry bite) but my ankle was red and tender and although the swelling was still minimal, the bite marks were weeping and walking was painful.
I have never got an appointment so quickly in all my life. Perhaps it was from curiosity, rather than any real sense of urgency, but I must thank my local surgery for seeing me immediately and prescribing antibiotics instantly.
As I have mentioned before my wife has an irrational fear of snakes, so this is a particularly bizarre thing to happen in our household, especially only a week after Emma and I were looking at snakes in the local nature reserve. Four days have passed now and the antibiotics have kicked in and, whilst Emma and I have found it all to be a bit of an adventure, the chances of her mother ever spending a night out with us in the wild has receded further.
At least it's something to tell the grandchildren. Of course I may dress the story up by then...