t e r r y b n d

Crikey! The weather aint half been funny in recent months, eh? Only the other week it was windswept with snow in places and now it's like the height of summer!

I've just got back from a quick trip filming in the Peak District National Park where I enjoyed a wonderful balmy evening on Axe Edge Moor. I was there to hook up with Dean Read from Peak Routes who has volunteered to be a model in a series of videos I'm producing for Karrimor featuring new flagship products for 2012 (short clip of one above).

I've been using the Rab Ridge Master Bivi for a while - but I'm not talking about this today....

Despite how it may appear, I'm no 'gear freak' but I am fortunate enough to be involved in testing gear from a number of manufacturers. I don't always talk about it because...well, I'm no gear freak and I'd rather talk about my trips outdoors. Besides, often the gear I'll be playing with are prototypes but I may mention them or send a pic of them via my Twitter feed. After all I consider outdoor parallel to be a tools to a means.

The means to do my work and enjoy those camps out on the hills and moors.

At the end of the day, ignoring that bit of sentimentality and a romanticised version of the time I spend in the mire, winds and rain here's a quick look at some gear I've been using in recent weeks and months....

This scene as nice as it is didn't make the final cut in the video below. A camp in the Langdale Valley, Lake District.

The above picture says it all really. Taken from the flanks of Pike O Blisco last Saturday in the Lake District National Park it shows a scene I was filming of my friend using the Force Ten Helium 100 tent. Why?

Well, I'd been approached to produce a short promotional video featuring this new shelter from Vango/Force 10 and you can view the end result below.

Before hitting play, I'd like to forewarn some that it may not be to their taste. Yes, it's quick and pacey. Yes, the music may be a little dramatic. But that was all intentional. I wanted to create something uplifting and youthful for a modern audience. My intention was to put my stamp on it featuring dramatic and inspiring scenes of the Lakeland landscape. To inspire those new to outdoor activities and show what they can do in such places along with all the usual expected sequences one often sees with such videos.

Vango Force 10 Helium 100 tent - video coming soon.

Things may get a little quiet from me on here (again!) this month. It's really down to the fact I'm really quite busy with my work which involves me being away for quite some time.

Saying that I'm really excited about a couple of projects I'm working on to be completed by the end of this month. One of them is a commission to produce a promotional video for Vango featuring their Force 10 Helium tent. I'll be submitting a review of it in the next few weeks but I'll have to admit it's turned out to be a cracking affordable solo lightweight tent.

Even so, it's not without it's faults as with all tents/shelters but in the main I've been really impressed with it. It's certainly a shelter those who are new to outdoor pursuits and wish to take up camping out on the hills should consider.

Andrew takes in a fine view from Pen y Ghent.

I have to admit, it's been a while since I've been out backpacking without all the video gear I tend to lug about with me. And so it was an absolute pleasure to have spent a couple of days recently in the Yorkshire Dales National Park free and easy, light on foot and without a viewfinder in sight taking in all the delights this most wonderful and distinctive corners of England has to offer.

And with good company too in the shape of Martin from Summit and Valley and Andrew from The Journeyman Traveller.

Martin had essentially planned a route for us to walk the famous Yorkshire Three Peaks and camp out for a couple of nights on the hills. I've spent many happy hours in this area but peculiarly never set a single foot on Pen y Ghent. I've always preferred to look at this distinctive hill from afar and imagined it's summit views to be underwhelming and the ground underfoot to be bog and swamp. After all, it's gritstone flat top and sheer crumbling cliffs normally indicates a place more akin to a playground for pigs.

The Lantern Pike Inn, Little Hayfield

The Lantern Pike Inn - a pub, restaurant and B&B situated in Little Hayfield, on the A624 between Glossop and Chapel-en-le-Frith, has been an inn since 1851. The pub itself dates from the building of the turnpike from Old Glossop to Buxton in 1792.