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About the author: I’m not a foot specialist or medical practitioner, but I have walked thousands of miles on some of the best hiking trails in the world, I know what works for me but we are all different – the aim of this article is to outline the choices you will be faced with when choosing your next hiking footwear, choices which you should make for yourself rather than accept what …

How do Scarpa describe their new Rush Trek GTX boot?RUSH TRK GTX is the new benchmark for all day long and short mountain hike. It is a boot made in the name of comfort with technologies that reduce foot fatigue during the hike. It represents a culmination of soft comfort, solid stability and a lightweight feel. Here’s a brief overview of the build and components used in the Rush Trek …

Rab kindly supplied a couple of their new jackets for me to test on my recent Knoydart trip. They sent an Arc jacket, which is a slimmed down version of their Firewall waterproof jacket, and the widely acclaimed Rab Kinetic Plus waterproof softshell. Continue reading to find out how I got on with both of the jackets. Rab Kinetic Plus Jacket Review When Rab announced the release of the Ki …

After walking Hadrian’s wall in 2019, I found that by day 4 my feet were crying out for something with more cushioning. My boots were soft and light but you could feel every lump and bump through the sole. We didn’t stock Hoka but the Hoka One One range seemed to offer the cushioning I wanted. I decided to buy a pair of Sky Toa Mid boots to wear on the 2019 TGO Challenge. I now wear Hok …

After a few months of using this anorak from Haglofs, I’ve been seriously impressed. It was my shell layer of choice on the TGO this year because it seemed to offer the perfect package for this event. It’s been stripped of unnecessary features and just retains those you really need to minimise weight and pack size. To keep weight low Haglofs opted for an anorak with a half zip rathe …

I’m a huge fan of  Mountain Equipment’s Comici pants. It was an easy decision to use them for the TGO Challenge because they tick every box as the perfect outdoor pants for everything other than winter conditions. The fit is superb and the fabric has plenty of stretch so you really don’t notice that you are wearing them. They are genuinely all day comfy. They have slim fitting legs w …

Planning the route was much harder than I had envisaged. There are so many possible places to start and amazing places to walk through. You have to be disciplined and accept that you can’t include all your bucket list routes in one Challenge (a good reason to come back year after year as many people seem to). In the end, I decided on starting in Mallaig and the ferry across to Inverie in Knoydart. …

There were 14 possible start points for the 2019 TGO dotted along the west coast of Scotland. Challengers can pick any one of these points to register at and start from. Challengers can then finish anywhere on the East Coast between Fraserburgh and Arbroath. For a successful crossing you had to reach the control in Montrose by the cut off time. Participants can plan their own route between their t …

Basic Gear Carried:  6779g/14lb 15.1oz and Discretionary Gear Carried: 460g/1lbs 0.2oz, Consumables:  4051g/8lbs 14.9oz, Gear worn about person: 1693g/3lbs 11.7oz, Gear Carried: 7.239kg/15lbs 15.8oz, Basic: 11.290kg/24lbs 14.9oz (with food and other consumables), Tent: Dan Durston X-Mid - 853g, Tent pegs - 120g, Sleepi …

Several of our customers had told me about the TGO Challenge and encouraged me to sign up. In the end I decided that I had to give it a go. In essence the TGO Challenge is a self supported crossing of Scotland over 2 weeks in May, from west coast to east coast. There were 14 possible start points on the west coast of Scotland and challengers can finish anywhere on the east coast between Frase …

Who are Hoka One One? The name Hoka One One is a New Zealand Maori phrase meaning Time to fly™. Hoka are comparatively new on the running scene and even newer entrants to the hiking market. They were founded in 2009 by two former Salomon employees who wanted to design a shoe that helped trail runners to go downhill faster. Having taken inspiration from developments in mountai …

It’s fair to say I’m a big fan of Leki poles and have mostly been using Leki Thermolite XL poles for the last couple of years. For the TGO Challenge I wanted lighter poles but still wanted them to be adjustable to pitch my tent and have a shorter pack size to stow them inside my pack for the train journey to and from Scotland. The Leki Black Series MVC poles ticked all of these boxes and L …