THE EIGERGet your hands on THAT north face

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THE EIGERGet your hands on THAT north face

BRITAIN’S BIGGEST & BEST-SELLING HILLWALKING MAG

DECEMBER 2012 £3.99 WWW.LIVEFORTHEOUTDOORS.COMWWW.LIVEFORTHEOUTDOORS.COM

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front cover final dec12.indd 1 22/10/2012 10:57

Hill skills rebooted 10Why now’s a great time to sign up for your ML

It’s Alpine Einstein! 12Famous physicist snapped on snowy slope Dream peak 14Great Gable, a Lakeland mountain that has it all: the looks, the famous friends, the history...

Behind the picture 16One of the oddests bods Britain’s ever spawned, Aleister Crowley was mad about mountains too

contents Where this month’s issue will take you...

How to keep cosy 54 Warding off winter chills when on the hill

Ask Trail 58 Keep warm SpeCIaL! Making sense of sleeping bag temperature ratings; looking after down; which tents are best for winter?

Trail talk 18 The world of hillwalking – according to you lot

Subscribe and get a gift! 30 Go camping? Fancy a Vango self-inflating mat? Sign up for Trail today and we’ll send you one!

Why we love... 146 ...hill legends (especially in the dark in a bothy)

Glen Lyon 20 Join Trail on a spectacular 2-day backpacking epic in Scotland’s ‘other’ great glen High Street déjà vu 32 Boldly going where we went just the day before, for a different angle on a Lake District classic The Eiger for everyone 44 It’s the mountaineering equivalent of stroking a tiger: touching rock royalty, without a rope

a dv e n t u r ess k i l l so u t t h e r e

p20

DECEMBEr 2012 Trail 9

To ScoTland, for a SpoT of (Glen) lyon TaminG.

Get comfy on a Vango self-inflating mat, when you subscribe to Trail – page 30.

Toadally in love with the Lakes, on High Street.p32

tom

ba

iley

y o u r t r a i l

‘a Golden eaGle drifTed over The rim of The corrie. aparT from our own, There waSn’T a SinGle booTprinT...’

to

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contents dec12 sw.indd 1 22/10/2012 11:10

G E A RGear news 62The must-have hill kit that’s coming soon

ME Bastion jacket 64Gore fabric + Mountain Equipment’s nous

3-4 season boots 68Footwear for all-year-round outdoors action

3-season boots 80Must-have gear for every UK hill-walker

Gaiters 92 The only thing between you and soggy socks

£100 boots for hillwalking – yes, they exist!

For all-year-round action get 3-4 season boots.

For all-year-round action get 3-4 season boots.

FREE INSIDE! 32-page gear supplement53 outdoor classics that re-wrote the rules

Where this month’s issue will take you...

Lake District 111Route 1 BlencathraUp via Sharp Edge, down via Hall’s Fell Ridge

Dartmoor 113Route 2 High WillhaysFind a different route onto Dartmoor’s highest

Snowdonia 115Route 3 SnowdonWalk two tracks that are popular for good reason

South Highlands 117Route 4 Ben LomondAn easily accessible (and most southerly) Munro

Lake District 119Route 5 Sail & Causey PikeBag a pleasing pair of Wainwrights, via High Moss

West Highlands 121Route 6 Glen GalmadaleA horseshoe of hills on the Morvern peninsula

Lakes 3000ers 125Route 7 SkiddawRoute 8 HelvellynRoute 9 Scafell Pike & ScafellVisit all four Lake District 3,000-footers (plus many other lesser fells) on a mega 3-day route

Brecon 131Route 10 Cwm Llwch HorseshoeRoute 11 Fan y BîgRoute 12 Craig Cerrig-gleisiad Fancy a long weekend outdoors in the Brecon Beacons? Good; we’ve three great walks for you!

Snowdonia 137Route 13 Cadair Idris via Cwm Cau Our Classic Route brings you face to face with Britain’s most perfect example of a glacial cirque. And that’s not the only reason to give this wonderful Welsh route a go...

R O U T ES

DECEMBER 2012 TRAIL 9

Classic Route

with 3D maps

p80

p68

A short walk in a long shadow: below the north face of the Eiger.

p44

TO

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EY

contents dec12 sw.indd 2 22/10/2012 11:11

T

16 Trail december 2012

MysTic, MadMan, MounTaineer

out there

december 2012 Trail 17

his is not a story often told. Those who remember the Cambridge-educated occultist Aleister Crowley usually recall rumours

of dark deeds and hushed scandal. But the man who called himself ‘The Great Beast 666’ lived many lives in his 72 years. The earliest of those was as a climber and mountaineer.

On expedition (see right) Crowley cut a strange figure. Bearded and with a eerily half-shadowed face it’s difficult to believe that he was just 27 years old. Even more striking than the intensity of his presence is his location. He is returning from the first recorded expedition to climb K2. This seldom-recognised feat saw his party reaching a height on the mountain unsurpassed for 36 years. It was no less than Crowley expected.

Born into a wealthy English family in 1875, the world was his for the taking. Occupying the gulf between Alpinism’s ‘Golden Age’ and the giant-slaying expeditions of the last century, he began climbing while young. Early challenges on the cliffs of Beachy Head saw Crowley establish dangerous first ascents on Etheldreda’s Pinnacle and Cuillin Crack. Neither was repeated for over 70 years. Both have now collapsed.

“Chalk is probably the most dangerous and difficult of all kinds of rock,” he would write. “Often one has to clear away an immense amount of debris in order to get any hold at all. Yet indiscretion in this operation might pull down a few hundred tons on one’s head… It is… a matter of the most exquisite judgment.”

He was also a regular on Lakeland climbs, boasting with conceit: “I… made the first solitary descent of the Ennerdale face of the Pillar Rock, a feat at that time considered theoretically impossible.” Notably, a route on legendary Lakeland spire Napes Needle is known as the Crowley Route, named after its first ascender. These are no mean feats.

It was not long before the Alps were calling. Before and throughout his career at Cambridge he would regularly head south to the mountains. But having arrived in Tyrol “with a deep reverence for the Alpine guide” his mood quickly soured. Perceived incompetence of the local climbers (“superstitious and ignorant peasants”, as he described them) disgusted him. He swiftly decided to teach himself to climb on snow, as he had done on rock.

Between 1894 and 1898, he chronicled several technical ice-climbs that would be considered challenging even today. One episode on the Vibes Séracs saw him balanced on his partner’s shoulders (in crampons, no less) in order to cut hand- and footholds in an overhanging ice wall. Once that was overcome the pair raced to the safety above before ice falls obliterated the path they had cut. With typical humility he declared himself a Wunderkind, possessed of an “original theory of mountaineering”. The Eiger, Jungfrau and Ortler (“It took me six and a half hours to reach the summit. My arrival created a profound sensation”) would all surrender to his skill.

He began to see himself in the same light as Alpine pioneer Albert Mummery, with whom he shared a correspondence. “I found that I could go pretty well anywhere without the least danger or difficulty,” he would later write, “whereas all the people I met were constantly on the brink of disaster. I began to think that solitary climbing was the safest form of the game.” To this end, he trained himself to solo-traverse glaciers, unroped, claiming his experience on chalk allowed him to effectively “estimate the breaking-strain of rotten material”. Amazingly, he survived a number of Alpine seasons this way.

“The ordinary way up any Swiss mountain is little more than a scramble,” he would declare, his confidence fed by a partnership with the equally talented and outspoken Oscar Eckenstein. In 1900 the two tackled

the Mexican peaks of Iztaccihuatl, Popocatepetl and Colima, the latter an active volcano on which their boots began to melt. Riding this wave of ambition two years later, the pair sought out K2 (or ‘Chogo Ri’ as they called it). Ascending via the north-east ridge the six-man team – their three tons of supplies carried by an army of porters – reached a height of 6525m (21,407ft) before a combination of sickness (malaria in Crowley’s case), poor weather, gunplay and lack of equipment drove them back.

Crowley was undeterred. He was, he claimed, immune to sunburn and had been untouched by altitude sickness, experiencing “no discomfort whatever” in the Himalayas. It was the apex of his climbing career. His fall was severe.

A ruinous attempt on Kanchenjunga in 1905, minus Eckenstein (who had developed serious reservations regarding Crowley’s temperament), eradicated his credibility as a mountaineer. The porters under his care were ill-equipped. One died. He physically threatened the others. There was a confrontation at 21,000ft, soon after which Swiss climber Alexis Pache and three porters were killed in a fall. Crowley, piqued at his loss of control, denied all responsibility. “The catastrophe was the direct result of mutinous disobedience to my orders,” he would later say. His reputation lay in tatters.

In the expedition’s aftermath Crowley devoted himself more and more to the arcane, carving a fiercely split reputation. Some saw him as a champion of spiritual and sexual liberation, others as a degraded eccentric of rare perversions. But whatever direction his life would take, he maintained his brutal self-confidence, saying of Mallory’s 1922 Everest attempt: “If I had been there the summit would have been reached and no one would have been killed.” Mountaineering was his first love, and remained a passion that he praised with his trademark blend of sensitivity and sadism. A climber, he wrote, needs “a high degree of spiritual development, a romantic temperament and a profound knowledge based on experience of mountain conditions”. “Insane impulses and hysterical errors,” he claimed “overwhelm the average man.” T

“The wickedest man in the world” perhaps, but Aleister Crowley was a passionate and persistent mountaineer too, as Trail reveals…

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‘They reached 6525m on K2 before malaria, poor weather, gunplay and lack of equipment drove them back...’

behind the pic dec12 swdasi.indd 1 22/10/2012 11:08

BEHIND THE PICTURE

16 TRAIL DECEMBER 2012 DECEMBER 2012 TRAIL 17

ORD

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Crowley on the Deosai Plateau in northern

Pakistan, following his 1902 attempt to climb

‘Chogo Ri’ (K2).

behind the pic dec12 swdasi.indd 2 22/10/2012 11:09

20 Trail december 2012 december 2012 Trail 21

Where? Glen Lyon, ScotlandWhat? A quiet Munro ridge epic

On Meall nan Tarmachan, and loving it! Beyond: Meall Garbh (left), Beinn nan Eachan and an already distant Meall Ghaordaidh. Lyon

new munro epic dec12 swsi.indd 1 22/10/2012 11:18

december 2012 Trail 21

Where? Glen Lyon, ScotlandWhat? A quiet Munro ridge epic

Words dan bailey PhotograPhs tom bailey

Some climb Ben Lawers; others tackle the Tarmachan Ridge. When it comes to Glen Lyon, Trail wanted more. Join us for a spectacular two-day traverse of Scotland’s ‘other’ great glen.

tamingLyon lyon

new munro epic dec12 swsi.indd 2 22/10/2012 11:18

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The self-infl ating Vango Ultralite Full Mat is 2.5cm thick and measures 183x51cm, yet it weighs just 710g (including stuff-sack) and packs down to 33x16cm. With its ripstop polyester

top, non-slip base and foam fi lling, it’ll keep you warm and comfy after a day on the hill. Repair kit included. and comfy after a day on the hill. Repair kit included.

subs vango mat dec12 swda.indd 2 22/10/2012 11:45

40 TRAIL DECEMBER 201232 TRAIL DECEMBER 2012 DECEMBER 2012 TRAIL 33

Where? Lake DistrictWhat? A mountain revisited

HIGH STREETWhy climbing a mountain twice in two days makes far more sense than it sounds...WORDS BEN WEEKS PHOTOGRAPHS TOM BAILEY

lakes high street dec12 swda.indd 1 22/10/2012 11:15

DECEMBER 2012 TRAIL 33

Where? Lake DistrictWhat? A mountain revisited

HIGH STREET

Descending the rounded nose of Gray Crag on

the western side of High Street.

Why climbing a mountain twice in two days makes far more sense than it sounds... Déjà vu

lakes high street dec12 swda.indd 2 22/10/2012 11:16

DECEMBER 2012 TRAIL 45

Where? What?Where? Switzerland

Walking the Eiger Trail

44 TRAIL DECEMBER 2012

eiger dec12 swda.indd 1 22/10/2012 11:13

DECEMBER 2012 TRAIL 45

A glimpse of the north face of the Eiger from the Eiger Trail.

You can get even closer than this...

WORDS AND PHOTOGRAPHS SIMON INGRAM

It may be the most infamous rock face in the world, but you don’t have to be a climber to get up close and personal with

the Eiger. Trail goes for a short walk in a long shadow.

EIGER FOR EVERYONE

THE

eiger dec12 swda.indd 2 22/10/2012 11:14

GEAR HALL OF FAMEGEAR HALL OF FAME

DEUTER

PARAMO

BERGHAUS

KARRIMOR

GRIVELTRANGIA TERRA NOVA SIGG

LOWE ALPINE

GARMIN

53 OUTDOOR CLASSICS THAT RE-WROTE THE RULES

gear cover.indd 1 22/10/2012 10:47

JETBOIL PCSIntegrating the pan and burner into one performance-orientated design can lead to more effi ciency, and Jetboil took this concept to new heights with its Personal Cooking System (PCS), which hit the UK in 2005 and has been extremely popular ever since. Jetboil has since developed many versions of the stove, including the superb Helios for group use.

www.jetboil.com

PETZL headtorches The Petzl company was created by French cave explorer Fernand Petzl in the mid-1970s. From 1981 the Petzl Zoom was the iconic headtorch for walkers and mountaineers. Petzl developed its fi rst LED headlamps in 2000 under the model name Tikka, and today Petzl continues to be the leading brand for hillwalkers, with its Myo (pictured) incarnations proving particularly popular.

www.petzl.comwww.petzl.com

KARRIMOR KSB In 1980 Karrimor launched the KSB (Karrimor

Sports Boot), the fi rst footwear to combine shock-absorbing Sorbothane material with a synthetic

upper and a new sole unit. The sole unit was made from nylon and PU (polyurethane), and it was bonded to the upper, rather than being stitched with heavy metal stiffening shanks. This made the KSB the pioneer of both fabric

boot construction and lightweight boot construction – an achievement whose signifi cance can’t be overemphasised.

It wasn’t waterproof, though, until a Gore-Tex lining was added in 1990.

Karrimor KSB boots continue to make great-value buys to this day.

www.karrimor.com

GEAR HALL OF FAME

A classic Petzl Myo 5 from 2003.

One of the UK’s � rst Jetboil PCS units, from 2004. Read a review of this particular stove on page 98.

A modern, eVent-lined Karrimor KSB boot.

DECEMBER 2012 TRAIL GEAR HALL OF FAME 2928 TRAIL GEAR HALL OF FAME DECEMBER 2012

TOP TENKIT

gear supp top 10 swdasi.indd 3 22/10/2012 10:55

CASCADE DESIGNS Therm-a-Rest The fi rst self-infl ating mat for backpackers was the Cascade Designs’ Therm-a-Rest, which appeared in 1978 – and today it remains the quintessential lightweight sleeping mattress for backpacking and wilderness camping. The mattress consists of an airtight nylon fabric envelope fi lled with a sheet of low-density, open-cell polyurethane foam and it’s infl ated by simply opening the valve to allow air to enter the fabric envelope. The latest version of the design is the Neo Air Xlite, which weighs just 350g.

www.cascadedesigns.com

GOLITE JamGoLite launched its fi rst products in 1999 and reinvented what it meant to have lightweight gear with its stripped-to-the-bone, no-nonsense range of rucksacks. The GoLite Jam soon became a classic lightweight pack; and while every brand is now making lightweight rucksacks, the GoLite Jam 35 remains a benchmark of the genre.

www.golite.com

POLARTEC � eece Polyester fl eece, developed by Malden Mills in the USA during the 1970s, fi rst appeared in 1980. Relatively smart compared to its predecessors, it was also warm and fast-drying. The new Polartec fl eece soon became an outdoor essential and it formed the insulating layer over a wicking base layer and under a waterproof layer. Patagonia had been promoting its own Synchilla fl eece (pictured) 18 months before Polartec was released and had already proved it was a success, so when Polartec emerged every brand in the outdoor market grabbed it with both hands. Today most clothing brands make some form of fl eece garment, and Polartec comes in a wide number of incarnations.

www.polartec.com; www.patagonia.com

GEAR HALL OF FAME

Synchilla by Patagonia: a highly

regarded pioneer of synthetic � eece.

Then and now: the classic Therm-a-Rest Ultralite and the radical Neo Air.

DECEMBER 2012 TRAIL GEAR HALL OF FAME 29

gear supp top 10 swdasi.indd 4 22/10/2012 10:55

68 TRAIL DECEMBER 2012 DECEMBER 2012 TRAIL 69

GROUP TEST

TEST GRAHAM THOMPSONOUTDOOR PHOTOGRAPHS TOM BAILEYSTUDIO PHOTOGRAPHS GRAHAM THOMPSON

3-4 SEASONBOOTS

WHAT WE TESTEDBerghaus TARAZED GTX £160Trezeta TOP EVO £160Alt-Berg MALLERSTANG £190Mammut APPALACHIAN GTX £200Lowa TICAM GTX £220Scarpa SL ACTIV £225The North Face VERTO S4K GTX £230La Sportiva TRANGO ALP GTX £250

3-4 season hooves can be used on winter snow as well as summer rock. But buying a boot for all seasons needs careful thought...

3-4 season boots dec12 swda.indd 1 22/10/2012 11:37

december 2012 Trail 69

3-4 season boots

3-4 season boots dec12 swda.indd 2 22/10/2012 11:38

138 TRAIL DECEMBER 2012

Distance 9.2km (5¾ miles)

Total ascent 970m

Time 4-5 hours

Start/� nish on the B4405 at SH729113

Terrain access track, steep woodland path, steep mountain side, craggy corrie, steep rocky path, narrow ridge, exposed col, and stony summit ridge

Maps OS Landranger (1:50,000) 124; OS Explorer (1:25,000) OL23; Harvey Superwalker (1:25,000) Snowdonia South; British Mountain Maps (1:40,000) Snowdonia South

Accommodation Kings (Dolgellau) Youth Hostel 0845 371 9327; Corris Youth Hostel 01654 761686

Tourist info Dolgellau (01341) 422888; Machynlleth (01654) 703675

Public transport Traveline (buses) 0871 200 2233; National Rail Enquires 08475 484950

Guidebooks Ridges of Snowdonia by Steve Ashton, pb Cicerone; The Classic Walks by Ken Wilson, pb Baton Wicks

Manchester

Middlesbrough

Kendal

Skipton

Sheffield

PeterboroughBirmingham

Derby

Betws-y-Coed

Pembroke

Brecon

Bristol

Plymouth

Poole

Bodmin

Minehead

BrightonSouthampton

Oxford

Berwick-upon-Tweed

Newcastle-upon-Tyne

EdinburghGlasgow

Aberdeen

Inverness

Fort William

Oban

MallaigInverie

Shiel Bridge

Ullapool

Braemar

Killarney

TraleeDingle

KenmareCork

Waterford

Dublin

Belfast

Londonderry

Donegal

Hay-on-Wye

Llangollen

IngletonBentham

Lancaster

Stranraer

Ballantrae

Ayr

Dumfries

Portree

MULL

ISLE OF SKYE

ISLE OF LEWIS

Lairg

Thurso

Invergarry

Aviemore

Newton Stewart

Jedburgh

Leeds

York

Northallerton

Barmouth

RhylConway

Cardigan

Aberystwyth

SwanseaCardiff

Gloucester

Exeter

ISLE OF ARRAN

JURA

ISLAY

HARRIS

Bodelwyddan

Liverpool

Carlisle

Penrith

Windermere

Keswick

DECEMBER 2012 TRAIL 139

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STRENUOUSNESSNAVIGATION

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Cadair Idris rises above Llynnau Cregennen.

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december 2012 Trail 139

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Moelfryn

MinfforddHotel

Minffordd

campsite

Minffordd Path

Nant C

adair

C A D A I R I D R I S

CraigCau

PencoedPillar

Craig CwmAmarch

Craig Llwyd

Moelfryn

MinfforddHotel

Minffordd

campsite

Minffordd Path

Nant Cadair

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SH729113 The start on the B4405 lies 200m

away from the 400-year-old Minffordd Hotel, which originally was a drovers’ inn. The initial part of the walk through the trees lulls you into a false sense of ease as it is very gentle, and this will soon be dispelled by the steep gradient that kicks in after a few hundred metres. After the trees the path continues steeply and swings around into the mouth of Cwm Cau.

SH719123 Cwm Cau is regarded as one of the

most important wild places in Wales, so much so that it was one of the first to be classified as a National Nature Reserve. It has also been described as the most perfect example of a glacial cirque in Britain. Cwm Cau is worth exploring, even doing a complete circuit of the llyn (lake) if you have time. It is also worth catching your breath as the ascent onto the ridge is steep and rough. From Cwm Cau the Minfford Path climbs a steep course onto the ridge on the south side of the cwm.

SH716119 The crest of the ridge up and around

Craig Cwm Amarch is pleasantly exposed on both sides, but the path is quite wide so it should not cause any problems if you don’t like drops.

SH710121 The path follows the crest of the

ridge and pops out onto a subsidiary summit that looks out over Craig Cau and Craig Cwm Amarch. This lofty perch is a fine spot to take a rest and appreciate Cadair Idris and its surrounding crags and corries. Craig Cau has a stunning array of big mountain-style rock-climbs; sadly though it is very much out of fashion and vegetation can be a problem. If you only attempt one route then it has to be Pencoed Pillar; it’s a magnificent 210m Severe route that would not be out of place in the Alps. Also within view is Taly-y-llyn, a famous trout fishing venue. If you fancy your chances, permits and boats are available from the Ty-n-y-cornel Hotel. A short descent north leads to an exposed col below the summit slopes of Cadair Idris.

SH709124 From the col the path makes a final

steep ascent onto the western shoulder of Cadair Idris’s summit ridge. As it reaches the ridge the path joins the Pony Path (bridleway) and follows it east to the summit.

SH711130 The summit is marked by a trig point

and summit hut. Huts in one form or another have occupied Cadair’s summit since the mid 1800s. The original was built to

Cadair idris (Penygadair) 893m/2,930ft

Mynydd Moel 863m/2,831ft

Cyfrwy 811m/2,661ft

Mynydd PenCoed 791m/2,595ft

the mountains

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sunrise at Llyn Cau.

Penygadair seen from Craig Cau.

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R13 classic route cadair dec12 swda.indd 3 22/10/2012 11:22