Past generations of outdoor enthusiasts would probably scoff at the amount of kit we lug up hills today, but it all makes our lives easier and more importantly safer. Equipped with a GPS, map, crampons and a stove, you can pretty much cope with anything that great outdoors can throw at you!

 Navigation in any mountain area is crucial, knowing where you’re going and how long it might take is critical and especially so in winter, the days are shorter and the likelihood of adverse weather is increased. While there’s no substitute for an old fashioned map and compass, technology has graced us with some excellent gadgets to make navigation a little easier.

 Garmin GPSMAP 66i

The Garmin GPSMAP 66i is perhaps the best example of a handheld GPS device that we’ve used in years. Offering crystal clear mapping coupled with very accurate GPS means that the 66i can locate you down to a few metres in a flash; and thanks to Garmin’s TopoActive maps, maps of the entire world are in your pocket. The 66i really came into its own when navigating across open, featureless terrain and excelled itself when the mist came down and visibility was reduced to a couple of metres. Navigation isn’t the only thing the 66i smashes out of the park, thanks to Garmin’s InReach technology, it also can act as a satellite communicator to offer peace of mind when out in the wilderness. It is a pricy device, costing £550 but if your weekends are spent in the remotest corners of the country then this could be perfect for you.

 Paper maps still have their place however, and we’ve been using the Harvey Maps offerings on our adventures and actually prefer them to the traditional Ordinance Survey. Offering much more information useful to walkers such as fence lines, cliffs and even graded climbing routes, we’d much prefer to be navigating with a Harvey Map than anything else!

Read the full review of the Garmin GPSMAP 66I here.

 Poles

A pair of hiking poles can offer a bit of extra security when traversing uneven ground and take a bit of weight of your knees when descending. Generally hiking poles are made from either carbon fibre or aluminium, the former being much lighter but aluminium is much sturdier and more affordable. We put a good number of miles on the Cimalp Distance Carbon poles and felt we’d have been better off with a pair of alloy poles. The Distance Carbon’s weren’t particularly stiff because of their tightening system which allowed quite a lot of flex which didn’t instil much confidence when the terrain got gnarly.

Crampons

You might be thinking that crampons are a bit extreme but for exploring any areas covered in ice or snow, they’re essential. As soon as your boots don’t create ‘steps’ in the snow, its time for crampons. They look terrifying at first, but strapped to our boots we were able to walk almost normally over surfaces that would otherwise have had us looking like Bambi on ice. The Salewa Alpinist Combi are the lightest 12 point crampons on the market, pairing excellently with our Zamberlan boots and stayed securely attached through an entire day in the mountains.

 Gloves

Everyone knows that a pair of gloves are essential for when it gets cold, there’s nothing worse than having frozen hands while rummaging around in your backpack for something. Fortunately there’s a huge array to choose from.

 North Face Montana

Packed with tech, the North Face Montana glove kept our fingers toasty but also provided plenty of dexterity. The E Tip functionality means you can even use your touchscreen phone without having to remove them and the Futurelight insert keeps your hands from wet from both sweat and rain.

Extremities Meridian

Hailing from the UK, the Extremities Meridian glove is packed with Primaloft insulation and a sturdy leather palm to keep the weather at bay and keep your hands warm and dry. We loved the drawcord around the cuff to make a tight seal between glove and jacket to stop any unwelcomed drafts. The palms even have beefed up reinforcements in high friction areas to make sure you don’t wear through them when using poles or an ice axe.

 Primus Lite Plus

Nothing screams adventure like eating dehydrated food out of a pouch overlooking a stunning wintery vista. Luckily, Primus have the perfect stove to help whip up that…er, delicious? meal. The Lite Plus Stove System is a very compact system that packs down into the 0.5l pot and with the built in Piezo lighter, you don’t even need to remember matches to light the thing. The whole ensemble feels very secure as the pot locks onto the burner rather than balancing precariously and you can boil 0.5l of water in around 3 minutes. We noticed how quiet it was when lit, some stoves sound like a small jet engine, shattering the peace but not this one. Almost silent. We had to check on a few occasions that it was in fact lit it was so quiet. Just remember a spoon to eat your tasty packet food with, unlike us.

 You’ve got the kit, but now you need something to put it all in! Ask any keen outdoorsperson about their favourite rucksack and you’ll probably be met with ‘it depends on what I’m doing/how long I’m out for’. Not a very helpful answer but it is the truth; we’ve got packs for every eventuality, ranging from 5l bum bags to 65l monsters for those multi day adventures.

 The smart people over at Sierra Designs have clearly had this problem too, as they’ve designed the Flux Capacitor 40-60. A slight departure from the traditional looking pack, it’s essentially a duffle bag hung from an alloy frame with 6 compression straps across the front of it. The idea is that the pack can be cinched down to comfortably carry smaller loads for those days when you don’t need the everything and the kitchen sink but slacken off those straps and you’ve got a pack that if great for multi day epics. We love the concept, and the execution is superb; it’s insanely versatile and we found ourselves packing this bag more than any other we had with us. The carry harness is very comfortable, aided by the fact that the whole pack only weighs 1.19kg when empty which is almost half what others weight.

I also spent a while with the Heimplanet Monolith pack and unfortunately the same can’t be said here…On the plus side I love the look of this pack, the forest green is very attractive, and the array of attachment points dotted around the bag makes stashing oddly sized things (tripods, ice axes and crampons) a dream. I also appreciated the metal buckles and fixings meaning this pack will last for years.

However, this is regrettably where the praise ends. The Monolith really isn’t designed as a proper hiking pack; it’s heavy weighing in at 1.97kg, it doesn’t have anywhere to hold a hydration bladder or a hole for the pipe to run through and the fit wasn’t the greatest we’ve ever experienced. Having said all of this, it’s a perfect bag for those weekends away or when you don’t have a need for any technical features.