One of the people I was hoping to interview, at the Outdoor Show, was Graham Thompson – GT – who is the gear guru at Trail magazine. Graham has been voted one Voted “among the 10 most influential people in the outdoor industry” by OCC Magazine. Sadly, I didn’t manage to catch Graham for an interview but we did have a good chat at the Harvey Maps birthday party and, of course, we had a chat about gear. But, before we go on, I should mention that we were hoping to talk about one of Graham’s passions, walking with dogs; I know more than a few people around these parts who would be interested in this. Maybe a walking with dogs feature would make a good podcast. Anyhow, back to gear.

I should explain upfront, for international readers, that there are two hill walking magazines in the UK, TGO (The Great Outdoors) – which is mentioned often around here, and Trail magazine. As you might imagine there is quite a bit of healthy competition between the two. Over the last year or so TGO has begun to differentiate itself by focusing on lightweight backpacking and hiking. While TGO is likely to recommend lightweight gear, in its gear tests, Trail more often features on more mainstream products, which tend to be heavier. So, it was quite interesting talking to Graham about going lightweight.

Graham made what I thought were some very significant points. Graham himself is quite happy with lightweight hiking and has done Scottish Munro trips with a total backpacking weight of no more than 8 kilograms. But, he reckoned, we should be more upfront in acknowledging that there are real skills in going lightweight. You have to know what you are doing to use this gear with confidence.

What worried Graham was that a concentration on lightweight gear might put off newcomers to hill walking. Trail sees one of its main objectives as encouraging people out into the hills more regularly and, perhaps, this explains why it is more important to feature the kind of kit that you would expect to see in a High Street store. As lightweight gear becomes more available I guess it will feature more often.

I was quite pleased to hear this commitment to supporting and encouraging the novice hill walker. And I’m struck by Graham’s comments about the skills needed in using lightweight gear. When I started this blog I wrote, more often, about the difference in using the lightweight gear that I was experimenting with, but maybe I’ve let that slip a little recently.

Anyhow, he’s an interesting guy Graham and if I get get a podcast interview with him I will. Anyone interested in walking with dogs?