Bushwalking Magazines and Websites

[flatfoot]

I was in a newsagent on the weekend and picked up a copy of 'Great Walks'. I was happy with the content (and the special offer of an S2S folding bucket) so I subscribed.

What other bushwalking magazines do you read? How do you rate their content?

On a similar topic - what are your favourite bushwalking-related websites and why? (other than bushwalk.com )

[Drifting]

I used to go to the Practical Backpacking, a US site. Great forum. and lots of gear-based podcasts.

[Tony]

I read Wild and Backpacking Light (BPL) e-magazine.

I only read Wild for its trip reports and its reports on environmental issues, Wilds gear reports are nearly completely useless as it is obvious they are frightened to upset advertisers and they will not be negative about any piece of gear no mater how bad it is. The Wild gear reviews are only a list of what is available and should not be called gear reviews but a list of gear available in Australia. The only good part of the Wild gear reviews is they state the country of manufacture.

BPL has a good mix of trip reports, technical articles, backpacking related stories and gear reviews, in their gear reviews they are not frighten to be very critical of sub standard gear, in many cases these reviews have resulted in the gear being withdrawn or not released until problems are fixed or the gear has been redesigned. I have been a contributor to BPL with two technical articles co-written with Roger Caffin published on Alcohol stove fuels.

Tony

[Son of a Beach]

There's also a list of other useful websites listed on our Wiki here.

Any regular members should feel free to join the wiki editors group to add to that page (and any others on the wiki).

[flatfoot]

I read Wild and Backpacking Light (BPL) e-magazine.

I only read Wild for its trip reports and its reports on environmental issues, Wilds gear reports are nearly completely useless as it is obvious they are frightened to upset advertisers and they will not be negative about any piece of gear no mater how bad it is. The Wild gear reviews are only a list of what is available and should not be called gear reviews but a list of gear available in Australia. The only good part of the Wild gear reviews is they state the country of manufacture.

BPL has a good mix of trip reports, technical articles, backpacking related stories and gear reviews, in their gear reviews they are not frighten to be very critical of sub standard gear, in many cases these reviews have resulted in the gear being withdrawn or not released until problems are fixed or the gear has been redesigned. I have been a contributor to BPL with two technical articles co-written with Roger Caffin published on Alcohol stove fuels.

Tony

I remember pulling up pages from BPL when I was searching for reviews of specific gear. I think I will pay closer attention to it.

[johnw]

Magazines:

Wild - Trip reports, mix of other info and environmental issues. Generally good but I agree with Tony about the gear reviews. Just use them as a guide as to what's available. Half the time the reviewer hasn't even seen some of the gear and gives it a hypothetical rating from the specs.

Australian Geographic Outdoor - Used to be poorly edited at times (pre Aus Geo) but has improved in recent years IMO. Bushwalking seems to occupy a shrinking proportion of the magazine though as it spreads itself a bit thin over a wide range of interests/locations. Currently often has a theme approach for each issue. That can mean diluted relevance if, for example, you're a bushwalker with little interest in skiing and the theme is telemarking.

Sites:

This one of course.

As you're from Sydney I'll list some I often refer to for local/regional info, mainly for walk planning:

http://www.wildwalks.com/ Printable detailed walk notes and topo maps. Good range of walks with ratings.

http://ozultimate.com/bushwalking/ Printable walk notes and sketch maps. Excellent site of long standing.

http://users.speedlink.com.au/~cchafer/walks/walk%20index.html Track notes for Illawarra, Shoalhaven and Southern Highlands, with a birdwatching focus. Good for walk ideas in those areas.

http://www.pnc.com.au/~wells/ Bushwalking in the Upper Blue Mountains (track notes - an old site but still quite useful).

http://www.dingogap.net.au/index.html Photos and some interesting track notes/trip reports - Blue Mountains.

http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/NationalParks/FireClosure.aspx Track closure information. Also links to RFS site for scheduled burns etc.

http://www.bom.gov.au/weather/nsw/forecasts/map.shtml Most important - The Weather Forecasts.

http://www.bushwalking.org.au/FAQ/Roger Caffin's Bushwalking FAQ

http://www.backpackgeartest.org/Ongoing tests of a wide range of gear

[abowen]

Live for the outdoors is amagazine based walking site from the UK. Their gear reviews are not bad, albeit a slightly different mix of brands that we don't normally see in Australia. Some of the bigger better known brands are there.
If anyone is interested the web address is:
http://www.livefortheoutdoors.com/Gear-Reviews/
Cheers
Andrew

[whynotwalk]

"Wild", "Great Walks" and "Outdoor Australia" (is that now with Aus Geographic?) each have their strengths and weaknesses. Have also looked at "Outer Edge" but haven't got into it in depth.

The one that really gets me salivating though is New Zealand's "Wilderness" magazine. It's consistently good, and has heaps of walk reviews (mostly NZ of course) plus very useful regular features that are applicable everywhere (eg Food, Health & Fitness, Navigation). The relative strength of the Aussie dollar makes subscription quite reasonable, so I've been getting it for years now. Details at <https://www.wildernessmag.co.nz/>

The downside is that you'll want to cross the Tasman at very regular intervals

cheers

Peter

[Nick S]

I don't mind checking out http://www.summitpost.org for the articles and reports. It's mostly about mountains in the US though, but some are quite interesting as they get all philosophical.

[Steve]

Australian Geographic Outdoor is a really good mag.

[nickL]

BPL has become my go to website for reviews and discussion on all things light weight - things can get a bit radical on the site but this has really helped me to see all spectrums of lightweight back packing - also a great gateway to the small cottage industry makers of lightweight

also used this site which has a great matrix of different tents, bags etc so you can compare them
http://www.backpacking.net/index.html

check out calories occasionally on this site
http://www.calorieking.com/foods/

check up on andrew skurka on his website to follow his insanely long walks (currently around alaska)
http://www.andrewskurka.com/

have been a little disappointed with gear reviews on all magazines where they review things that weigh too much and i would never take on a walk (hence BPL) but i still enjoy wild for the trip reviews and rock (climbing mag)

[flatfoot]

I wonder how long it will take for aussie mags to be released in digital form for tablet devices?

I used to be a prolific consumer of magazines. I'd always hoard them and it would take me forever to throw them out. It would be much more convenient to be able to search through digital archives on my computer when looking for walk ideas.

[ozjolly]

I've subscribed to most over the years. But I realised that after a while you're really just paying for a few articles... the rest is generally advertising or politics. And most need to realise that just because you subscribe to their magazine doesn't mean you subscribe to their political viewpoint.