Where do you lie on the 'hardiness' scale below? I'll admit i need at least a 6 if i'm going to get a good night's sleep - though have been known to get away with a 2 on occasion (the single malt helps).

1 - Rock. Where there's no other option but to pitch on bare rock. The least comfortable of any method, plus the insecurity that you might tear the ground sheet at every turn. And did you tie the tent to enough rocks??? You'll need a really thick sleeping bag and/or a good dose of single malt to sleep through this one.

2 - Any other natural surface (bar water in the liquid state). For real hard core uber-lightweighters who scoff at the soft pansies who need a sleeping mat of any description, including No.3. Of course, you could be talking about compacted soil that's nearly as hard as rock, or knee deep heather. I'm not going to be too picky.

3 - Bubble wrap. You want to go really lightweight but don't want to risk going without a sleeping mat... Also useful for posting off those last minute Duran Duran memorabilia you've just sold on EBay.

4 - The Traditional Karrimat. Barely a molecule thick, this is a staple of DofE expeditions everywhere. Sometimes surprisingly heavy for what you get. Great for extending the height of your pack so it's well above head height, when a low, discreet pack just won't cut it. Doubles up as a sledge or a yoga mat. Arguably though as comfortable as a bag of spoons.

5 - The Thermarest and all it's copies... Alpkit do a decent, cheap self-inflating mat. Usually the next step from those who decide that No.4 isn't enough for them, and usually lasts one trip as it's strapped to the top of the pack and ends up snagging every barbed wire fence on the trip. Gives a good night's sleep if it doesn't move about too much during the night and you again end up on surface No.2 for 3 out of every 4 hours. Best use is for those who like to take inflatable companions with them on the hill, they can just shout, "Just inflating the Thermarest... Wink wink".

6 - The Down Mat... mmmmm... Exped do down mats like no other. As good as sleeping in a bed. Absolute luxury, and only a kilo. Might not want to get up in the morning though. They're also a faff to inflate, so after a hard day on the trail there's every chance that you'll be so tired after filling that you end up sleeping on No.2 anyway. If you're a restless sleeper, you'll possibly fall off as well. Can induce vertigo if you're used to sleeping on No.5 and means you're sleeping with the tent roof in your mouth for most of the night.

7 - A bed - bugger the camping. The YH might be a better bet if you want this sort of comfort.

I've noticed recently that a decent tech-t for walking will set you back a good twenty to thirty quid. All fine and dandy until you realise that our cousins in the running fraternity can get hold of similar tops for much less. Essentially, you need a wicking shirt - there's no rocket science or voodoo ceremonies - it's simple.

I've recently got some short sleeve New Balance tees for about a tenner that are a fine fit and have been on a few hill trips so far and performed fine. Funnily enough - my baselayer of choice is currently a winter weight Canterbury rugby compression top. It wicks, it keeps me warm and is a really good fit (unlike my Paramo cambia that is huge, even for an XL). It was only £15 on discount as well. Try and find a decent walking top on discount and you might get lucky. Running tops and other suitable sport tops always seem to be cheaper. I might have been luck over the last few weeks, and I'm also keen to keep as much overlap as possible between my walking and running gear, but it's got to be worth a punt.

Nokia N97 as an Outdoor Phone?
WILL ADD PHOTOS SOON
Features: 32GB storage, touch screen, built in GPS, slide out keyboard.
It arrived a few months back now, and I’ve had plenty of time to play with it. Ok, I admit that I missed the first few calls as I wasn’t sure how to answer it, but beyond that it’s pretty easy to use. It looks like a typical touch screen phone. You can easily customise the home screen with widgets such as Facebook, email, favourite contacts and so on. There’s not much choice yet, but this is certainly going to increase as this phone becomes more popular.

For a start there's decent video and photo quality, especially compared to the N95. The video quality is pretty amazing – playing back well in full screen on my netbook.

Battery life is now much better. I found that using Sports Tracker on my N95 would exhaust the batteries on one run! And I certainly can't run that far or fast. I can use the N97 all day on one charge, maybe browsing the web, making a few calls and using the GPS upwards of 2 hours depending how far I run. Using it lightly, I found the battery life good for about 2 days. I’m pretty impressed with this considering what’s been packed inside, and I’m sure with some fiddling around that battery life could be improved slightly (screen brightness). Some reviewers, even on the BBC, seem to claim the battery life is poor; but that's not been what I've found.

GPS speed is impressive, as opposed to the N95, and even picks up enough signals indoors. This means that the Sport Tracker running app work a dream. If you do any sort of outdoor sport then Sport Tracker is a free download from Nokia that allows you to track all your walks, runs, bike trips or whatever else you could apply it to. I found it tracked my stock run perfectly, where my Garmin GPS unit usually fails due to the tree coverage.

Nokia Maps has been useful on a few non-outdoorsy trips this summer, finding an Indian restaurant in Bridgnorth on foot and Stirling by car competently. It did try and re-route me to North Africa when I looked for an outdoor shop in Edinburgh (even on restarting!) It is also far from comprehensive when searching for local facilities, finding barely anything in Caernarfon. If you have the post code however, then you can use that to find your destination. That said, I’m making use of a free 30 day trial and would rather pay for a dedicated Sat Nav than this software; although the walking routing really was impressive. Google Maps is a free alternative that provides driving and walking directions, but only by a list of directions and a map rather than the more intuitive live map on the Nokia Maps. You can search for anything locally and it was pretty good, but like the Nokia offering, is still far from comprehensive. I can see this becoming a standard phone function in the next few years, most useful in the larger urban centres, but of limited use until there’s a proper database we can call upon.

GPS Viewranger works on the N97 and looks impressive. Viewranger and the N97 is definitely a killer combination – considering the GPS rarely worked on the N95. Being touch screen, you can scroll effortlessly through the maps and create routes much easier by tapping the waypoints in. If the phone was waterproof, it would double as a proper GPS, but it isn't and it's just not rugged enough to replace it outright.

Extras: Setting up the N97 as a modem is painless. I was online in seconds from my Samsung NC10, but then the performance depends on the signal strength in your area. There’s a built in FM transmitter so you can listen to tracks in the car, but whenever I used it I got an annoying beep every few seconds.

Some annoyances. While email was quick to set up, you can’t add a contact from a new email - something pretty fundamental if you ask me, or for that matter, by adding a new contact from a text message. On opening an html attachment in an email, you open the browser, but it’s not the full browser for some reason; bookmarks are missing. Overall, while I've found receiving email on the go has been a boon, the software is utter pants. Oh, and you’ve got to pay for Acrobat Reader – only a few quid, but annoying! Can be slow browsing the web, but this is probably down to the net speed than the phone.

Best features? 32gigabytes of storage means that you can put as much music as you’d need for a trip. It’s also large enough to store some video files, which you can download for free from iPlayer. There’s some half decent speakers built in, but you really need to listen on headphones for any real level of quality.
Some down sides? The overall build quality is good, but the battery cover is a little disappointing. It’s also a little awkward to remove, and suggests that it would not be wise to continually swap batteries. The silver button on the front! Why Nokia? Why? I’m not convinced either with the new charging socket – I don’t think that’ll survive the wear and tear over the next couple of years, but hopefully I’ll be wrong. Maybe once I stop trying to put it in upside down I might feel differently, but after three months I’m yet to figure up from down.

Another problem is the current lack of decent specific accessories. There are no decent cases available, and due to the annoying lock button on the side of the phone, it’s very difficult to unlock in a standard aquapack case as the plastic is thick, and while I can unlock it, it’s only going to be a matter of time before the case is holed. The arm band case from Aquapack though does the trick, but as the fit is snug and the plastic so grippy, it takes five minutes to get the phone in. Will post a review soon as I think that it’s becoming easier with age.

As an outdoor phone I’ve been more than impressed with the phone’s performance so far, but I’ve mainly tested it as a runner’s phone. I’ve recalled my letter to Santa asking for a Garmin Forerunner 305 now as this does mostly what I need. What will be an obstacle again is Nokia’s inability to market and support their technology in the way Apple can. There’s a Bluetooth heart rate monitor available by Polar, but only as a bundle with another Nokia, and not as a separate accessory. This is typical Nokia, great hardware but no follow through and support that you’d expect for what is arguably one of the most advanced smart phones yet.

Wild camping, I can watch a video or listen to music now, as well as the radio but at the risk of flattening the battery. Being a competent camera (for a phone) means further battery drain. So yes, it’s useful, but so damned useful that you’re likely to drain the battery before you need to make a call, so again a spare battery is essential for multiday trips. But I’ve used it for a few overnighters, listening to loads of music on the mp3, browsing the internet, couple of calls and a few videos and photos and still had enough battery to make and receive calls the following day.

Summary. A Smartphone that does it all, and much more if the software will be developed for it. Very expensive unless you pay £40 a month on a contract to receive it for free. Could be a tad faster and could do with being sturdier for outdoor use, but then it’s designed for mass market. Still waiting for the perfect outdoors mobile, but despite small niggles, this is a huge leap in the right direction. 9/10.

Ok, it seems that whatever those fine guys at Paramo decide to release, i buy. The trusty old cascada trousers, circa 1967, were now mostly hole and thread and both the pocket zips lost their effacy at around the same time at the Berlin Wall. They were also bulky, designed to be worn and never packed away. Added to this the fact that they did impart a slight air of MC hammer in the mid 90s, it was time for change. So when Paramo brought out the Velez Trousers that were not only lighter, less bulky and a better fit, but also a lot less navy blue and dragged my lower limbs into the twenty first century.

The first thing that strikes you about these trews has to be the lack of bulk. They arrived in a tiny package that, to my surprise, also contained both a Torres Smock and Trouser. Secondly, the fit. They fit. Like a normal pair of trousers. This is partly down to the fact that you can buy them in normal trouser-like waist sizes rather than the previous four sizes fit all with the bizzare choice of about ten different leg lengths. It's also because they're more tailored than some of the earlier offerings and as a result aren't at all baggy. Having lost some weight, with a bit more to go, I was glad to find that their sizing was on the small size with the 36" waist being about right but with plenty of room to grow out of.

When i first fondled these in the shop, I decided I didn't like the fabric one bit. What at first appears to be pertex, is their Analogy Light fabric. It felt even flimsier on the Velez Adventure Light and Quito jackets. On further reflection, I came to the conclusion that the original fabric was bombproof and that the lightweight stuff has to be as durable as your common or garden membrane waterproofs, so took the plunge. While I can't vouch for durability until I've used them for a good few months, preferably after a few week-enders and a week long trip to the wilds. To be fair though, there's different types of fabric on different parts of the garment depending on where you're going to need it most. If this means the weight and bulk is reduced, then i welcome it.

Another advantage of these trousers that's going to be difficult to evaluate till the spring is that they should be OK for all year round use. I can imagine using these on Yr Wyddfa on a wet summer's day, especially on the last three summers. I'm hoping to try them out for some trail running over the winter and see how they fare.

Summary.
What's good - Light (around 400g), well fitting Paramo waterproofs that don't show a hint of navy. Practical to carry on multiple day trips, which is a first for Paramo.
What's bad - Expensive (£137) and possibly not as durable as you'd expect from Paramo.
Proper Pics to Follow......

Yes, you might well have thought so! With all the demands of summer, a new fitness regime and everything else that's been vying for attention - it does appear that the site on the whole's been a bit neglected...

That and the fact it's warmer now than the summer, meaning no snow yet. That hasn't stopped me ordering some winter gear ready for the season (somewhere between Feb 24th and Mar 5th i reckon). Mainly for some winter camping trips coming up i've decided to go all Paramo Torres for warmth, including the trews.

Then there's the Velez Adventure Trousers, they'll be useful if this weather continues and have been bought for a Knoydart trip next year. I'm not convinced the fabric is tough enough - it feels like lightweight pertex, hopefully on the parts that receive least abrasion. Going to see how they cope before i invest in the lightweight Velez Adventure Light Smock, or the Quito Jacket (which comes in either puke Yellow or Pus Green, or maybe it's the other way around?!).

Added to this is a Golite Pinnacle pack, as the Villain is just not big enough for a 5 day wilderness trip. It'll receive it's first outing in November, when i can finally find space to take my beloved down mat on a camp.

Though that said, I might still be too busy to write in here as I'm actually out doing the stuff rather than writing about stuff I'd like to buy and things I'd like to do...