OPINIONS YOU CAN TRUST

There’s a lot of very useful info about buying outdoor gear on the internet, but for every reliable article you’ll find about 1000 rubbish ones. Which is why we’re so proud to keep bashing out the Trail Gear Guide every year – 100 pages crammed with advice on the very best kit for hillwalkers of all ages and ability. If you read this magazine regularly you’ll probably recognise a few of the faces on this page, and we’d like to think you’ll trust their opinions too. We’ve been publishing Trail for over 30 years and many of us have been working here for a large chunk of those three decades, walking all over the UK hills and mountains in everything the weather can throw at us. We’re all very particular and shamelessly geeky about the kit we like to use (what walker isn’t it?), which means the products we choose to showcase in our annual gear bible are often the subject of fierce debate. Some of the kit in here is brand new, some of it we’ve been using for years, and all of it is excellent.

Tom Bailey

Trail’s photographer of more than 20 years has tested more mountain kit to destruction than he can remember.

Ben Weeks

Mountain Leader and Trail’s long-serving senior writer Ben is a huge fan of gnarly, rocky mountain routes.

James Forrest

Trail gear tester and peak-bagger who spends more time sleeping in the mountains than he does in his own house!

Matt Jones

One of our regular gear testers and a selfconfessed outdoor kit geek, Matt is based in Snowdonia.

Oli Reed

Trail’s editor is a lifelong walker and scrambler, who these days is often spotted on the hills with two noisy young boys in tow.

Sarah Ryan

Mountain Leader, outdoor writer and founder of The Wild Walk Home, Sarah’s turned her passion for wild places into a career.

Jenna Maryniak

Trail’s deputy editor is happiest when walking and camping in the Lake District with her dog.