Hillwalk Scotland

Bargain Outdoor Clothing

If anyone is looking for some new gear, I suggest you head down to your nearest Blacks store asap. They've got a very good sale on - lots of high quality stuff and up to 70% off in some instances. I just bought a Berghaus Atlas Windstopper fleece reduced from £120 to £38 and a nifty Columbia Half-Zip fleece sweater for £10 reduced from £25. Excellent value. Mind you, I hadn't gone out with the intention of buying anything. So did I save £97 or simply spend £48 I didn't need to???

Hillwalking Videos

More and more hillwalking videos are finding their way onto the internet and the magazine Trail now has a dedicated section on You Tube. The videos are a mixed bag of fitness training and gear guides and are produced in a very basic, tongue in cheek manner. You can view all eleven videos here. They have made the code available so that others can embed the videos on their sites. So here is a guide to the Petzel e+LITE headtorch which they are offering free with a magazine subscription.

Excellent Customer Service at Cotswold in Glasgow

I'd like to publicly thank the staff at    in Partick, Glasgow. My Suunto Observer watch with altimeter and compass went a bit flakey a few weeks ago. They arranged for the repair and when it came back it seemed fine. However after a couple of weeks it went on the blink again and I feared the worst for it. I took it back to Cotswald and with absolutely no prompting they offered me a brand new watch! I gratefully accepted and they have one very satisfied customer who will use their store again.

Good Value Outdoor Gear in Canada

OK, most of my readers aren't hopping on the next flight to Canada but if you are take an empty suitcase and a credit card with you. With the level of the exchange rate and intense competition between outdoor stores there are fantastic bargains to be had.

Sunday was the first chance I'd had to wear some of the outdoor clothing I'd bought on my recent trip to the Rockies and I was very pleased with my purchases. In both Calgary and Vancouver there is a fantastic range of outdoor stores, similarly in the bigger towns in the Rockies such as Banff and Jasper. All of the big brand names are available and for visiting British tourists prices work out at about half of what we'd pay here plus you can reclaim the sales tax when you leave. Mind you a lot of the big name brands are pretty overpriced to begin with even if they are good quality.

However on the second last day of my recent holiday a Canadian relative pointed me towards the Mountain Equipment Co-op in Calgary. This turned out to be a large shop full of all sorts of outdoor gear at absolutely tremendous prices. Very little of the clothing was from the top names, but the selection and the quality was fantastic and the prices were astonishing. I ended up buying quite a lot.

The co-operative sells exclusively to members but you can get a lifetime membership for a measly $5. The following is some of the blurb from their website.

Mountain Equipment Co-op was conceived in 1971 within the cozy confines of a storm-battered tent.

While enduring a savage mountain storm, a small group of students agreed they needed a place to buy gear not carried by conventional retailers – avalanche transceivers, ice axes, rope... the works.

Today, MEC is Canada’s largest supplier of quality outdoor equipment. With more than two million members in 192 countries, we’re a vibrant retail co-operative. We have stores across Canada, as well as a comprehensive web store and phone/mail order service.

Because they only set out to cover costs rather than make a profit the prices are fantastic - factor in the favourable exchange rate and for visitors it represents great value. If you're visiting Canada make a point of going as they have stores in all the major cities. Their web store also has details of international shipping and that too looks good value, even with the shipping costs.