Trails & Routes
Route cards are unfashionable and still the best planning tool
Writing the route down as legs, bearings and timings forces you to notice the parts you have not thought about.
Trails & Routes
Walking, trekking and the practicalities of getting somewhere on foot.
25 articles · updated August 11, 2026 · page 2 of 3
Trails & Routes
Walking with children in hills, at their pace and not yours
Children are not small adults on a hill, and the trips that work are structured around what actually motivates them.
Trails & Routes
Scrambling grades and the point where a walk becomes a climb
The grade boundaries are about consequence as much as difficulty, and the transition catches walkers out.
Trails & Routes
Bogs, tussocks and the ground that steals hours
Certain terrain reduces pace to a fraction of what the map suggests, and it is predictable from the map if you know what to look…
Trails & Routes
Navigating in whiteout, when the ground and sky are the same colour
In flat light and cloud on snow, there is no horizon and no depth perception, and the usual techniques stop working.
Trails & Routes
Contour lines are a picture of effort, not a picture of height
Everyone learns that contours join points of equal height. The useful skill is reading the gaps between them as gradient, shape and…
Trails & Routes
Why a walk always takes longer than the distance suggests
Map distance is the smallest part of the calculation. Climb, surface, stops and group size are what actually fill the day.
Trails & Routes
Wind is the hill hazard that earns the least respect
Rain gets the complaints and cold gets the warnings. Wind is what actually turns people around, and it does it faster than either.
Trails & Routes
Boulder fields and scree: moving over ground that moves back
Loose rock is the surface that turns a short distance into a long hour. Reading it is a skill, and so is deciding not to cross it.
Trails & Routes
The last hour of a walk is where navigation quietly goes wrong
Mistakes cluster at the end of the day, and not because the ground is harder. Tired decision-making has a recognisable shape.
Trails & Routes
Walking a familiar route backwards is not the same route
Reverse a walk you know well and the navigation, the gradients and even the view stop being familiar. It is the cheapest way to…
Trails & Routes
Forest is easy ground and difficult navigation
Nothing about walking in woodland is physically hard. Knowing where you are is another matter entirely, and the reasons are…