How was your walking over Easter?

Our product manager, Philippe Galland certainly caught the weather in the right mood when he ventured all the way up to Ullapool over the Easter weekend with his wife Clare.

You can see his photographs of the trip here on our flickr pages.

And remember if you've any outdoors photography you'd lie to share with us, please email them to Zoe, (zbrookes@pentland.com), and we'll showcase them for you alongside ours.

The Scottish Avalanche Information Service have a flickr photoset up here.

Their caption to the above shot:

"Mature cornice, Aonach Mor. Note: SAIS does not recommend standing on cornices. Do not try this at home."

We were really chuffed to discover this blog recently from an enthusiastic brasher wearer.

The more so when we read the posters comments about our boots.

The blog is called 'A walk to the bridge'. And it really conjures up an affection and appreciation of the countryside that only a walker could experience.

What's more it features some terrific 'seasonal' photography and insightful, first-hand observations of the natural world.

We also liked the reference to 'no such thing as bad weather, only inappropriate clothing', in this post.

(Where, we are delighted to report, the blogger, on listing the required kit for walking included: "...a pair of Brasher boots. These are essential. I wear mine every day and I treat them abysmally but they never complain and keep me warm and dry.")

There's also a further reference to: "and the abysmally treated Brasher boots that I wear most days." here.

(Bonus link: You can find a more fully illustrated version of the blog here.)

At brasher, we think walking often goes hand-in-hand with photography.

('Walking'/'Hand-in-hand'? oh dear.)

Anyhow, it's one of the reason we big fans of the online photo-sharing site flickr.

You can see our growing collection of shots on this fantastic web resource here:

However, for those readers new to flickr, we thought we might bring to your attention this lovely short film, from Seattle-based commoncraft, explaining just how flickr works and why it's such a great idea.

We love Flickr, and update our shots regularly.

Click the image below to see the latest photography from the brasherites.

We hope you enjoy our photosets and encourage you to send in any remotely 'brasherish' shots to us for inclusion too.

Please send them to Zoe.

In early November John Tremble, our National Account Manager, and Sales Rep, Bill Woodruff, spent a few exhilarating days honing their Mountain Leadership skills in the Lake Ogwen region of Snowdonia National Park,

Camping at Gwern Gaf Lichaf, they were following in the footsteps of Lord Hunt trained in the area before the first conquest of Mt Everest in 1953.

John and Bill's days in the mountains contribute to their qualification as recognised Mountain Leaders.

John and Bill took the time off work in a combination of holiday and company sponsored leave to help them develop their mountain skills.

Over 2 days our men of the mountains did 2 major climbs of over 3,000 ft: Y Garn from the North ridge route and back down through the famous 'Devils Kitchen' into Cwm Idwal, where a steady climb up into the mist at 2000 ft saw the temperature plummeted to below freezing and the chaps got a very creditable layer of frost covering on their fleeces !!

John log for the trip reveals, that they met 2 parties on the way up - including a school trip with some very cold kids.

The first day's 6 hour walk in total culminated with a stop off in the wonderful and most welcome, Lake Ogwen coffee shop for a warm-up and a thaw out!!

On the next day, a Friday John and Bill climbed Tryfan one of the most spectacular peaks in Snowdonia. Approaching from the campsite after a cold night in the valley.

Taking a circular route from the camp up towards the Glyder peaks, then up onto the south summit of Tryfan which changes the walk into a grade 1 scramble over shattered boulders, some of them huge; dumped by the ice as the glaciers retreated.

The weather throughout was challenging: Thursday very cold/wet especially in the mountain top area. Friday turned into a lovely cold but sunny day with clear skies on Tryfan but cloud over Y Garn to the North

Footnotes:
To compare boot properties in tough conditions, John used the Towa GTX on Thursday for Y Garn, and the Aso GTX on Friday for Tryfan. Bill put the Aso GTX through it's paces on both days.

All in all a great 2 days with a great environment to put our boots to the test with spectacular scenes too.

John found that the Towa very comfortable with great heel support and solid underfoot. No blisters and generally a good out of the box experience.
Commenting that the Aso is a heavier boot, but ideal for the tough scramble type walking encountered on Tryfan, with superb ankle support and a very solid sole unit. Reporting too that they handled the tough and rough rocky conditions very well.