My Favourite Camps of 2024
Yesterday I read Chris Townsend’s review of his favourite camps in 2024, and it prompted me to do the same. January didn't start very well for me as I was trying to recover from a chronic back issue in time for a trip in February. Thankfully an intense course of traction with my local physio had me back to match fitness to ski across the Finnmark plateau during the first week of February.
Camp on day two on the Finnmark Plateau. We pitched a little before Lesjavri, a large (13km long) frozen lake.
For the Finnmark trip I was joined by Dan Jones, the business development manager at Valley and Peak. Dan had managed to loan a Hilleberg Keron 4 GT Military tent, which was fantastically spacious and robust, but far too heavy and unwieldy for our needs. Packing the huge amount of material away each morning was a tough job. I would take a three person Hilleberg Keron or Nammatj for an arctic sledding trip, but given that I own neither of these, I tend to rent or loan whatever works.
By far the best camp of that trip was day four. Dan Jones is pictured after a long day crossing the final part of the plateau. We descended back through the timberline and spent the night just off the shore of a lake.
What made the camp on day four particularly special were the pastel coloured skies that we were treated to at sundown. Despite it being quite a cold evening (somewhere in the late minus 20’s), I spent some time with the big camera, albeit without much foreground interest to work with.
Looking back toward the higher ground of the plateau on the horizon.
I didn’t spend another night under canvas in February, and it wasn’t until mid March that I hit the hills again. As we live on the outskirts of Leicester, the Peak District are the closest mountains, and where I spend most of my time walking. I’ve spent many days hiking in Edale, but had never done the Edale skyline, which is a 32km loop starting and ending in Hope. It takes in the summits of Brown Knoll, Mam Tor, Back Tor, Lose Hill, and Win Hill. I hiked this solo over two damp days, with rain at the end of the first day, and early on the second. I was treated to brighter conditions on day two and even enjoyed the final stretch despite the usual crowds over Mam Tor and beyond.
I camped near Crowden Towers on the skyline route. The Alpkit Soloist was the tent of choice as it’s lightweight and surprisingly sturdy. I’ve since sold it on as it has a very small porch area which I find restrictive when you are tent bound in poor weather.
A couple of weeks later I headed back to the Peak District for a short solo 11km walk starting and finishing in Hayfield, which was a new one to me. I started very late in the day from Hayfield in strong wind and rain and pitched up just down from Kinderlow end. It took quite a while to find a suitable spot though as the grasses are quite dense in this area. The next day I made a beeline over to the intriguingly named Mount Famine, which is quite a striking hill by Peak District standards.
Camped near Kinderlow end. I used the Lanshan 2, a very spacious trekking pole tent I bought second hand for the Arctic Circle Trail in 2023.
I returned to the Peak District a week later to walk up Kinder downfall on my 38th birthday with a mate, but that was only a one day affair. In April I travelled to Nepal for work, so the next time up in the hills was in early May with Dan Jones. I contemplated the Rhinogs or some of other lesser known part of Eryri National Park, but neither of us had visited Cadair Idris in a long time, so we plumped for that. We planned to camp somewhere down from the summit, but as the weather turned out to be unseasonably good, we pitched up less than 50m from the top. We took the Minffordd Path up, looping back down to total around 10km with plenty of ascent/descent.
This was without doubt my favourite camp of 2024. I used the MSR Hubba Hubba Bikepack 1, which I reviewed for Outdoor Journal.
After dinner Dan and I spent most of the evening taking photographs. I think that is the Irish Sea on the horizon, far left.
Following this superb camp, motivation was high to get back out, but it wasn’t until late June that I was next able to (although my partner and I did manage some day walking in the Lake District later in May). This time I was joined by Tony Hobbs, who is a long-time wild camper and YouTuber. Tony made the journey up from his home near Bristol with his dog Lassie, and I planned a 16km loop in the moors above Laybower Reservoir.
Tony Hobbs and his hound taking in the views near the Salt Cellar.
We made good time though, so I extended the walk to camp just down from High Stones at the far end of Derwent Reservoir. In the end we covered around 25-30km over the two days, which was pretty good going as Lassie is fairly old. Tony made a few videos of our camp and the kit we used, which you can find here.
We spent an age trying to find a level pitch. In the end we camped on a dry and flat Peat hag. This was the first night out in a newly acquired Terra Nova Southern Cross 1. Annoyingly our cat has since left claw holes in the inner tent!
July and August were largely spent on house and garden chores, as well as a holiday to Tunisia. My next camp was a roadside affair with Dan Jones. We were both keen to get out around our busy lives, so we had a late evening yomp along Stanage Edge on the final day of August. We found a pitch just out of sight of the main path.
A bright evening gave way to mist and rain in the evening and next morning.
September saw no camping, as I was back in the gym training for next years Arctic sledding trip. I started October with another walk in the Edale area. This time I hiked a circuit of Edale Moor, taking in Madwoman’s Stones and Blackden Edge, which were both new to me. I pitched up about 100m away from the Seal Stones at the top end of Blackden Moor. This back side of Edale Moor is quite desolate, and I only saw one other person. The next day I enjoyed amazing sunshine on the descent to Edale, and stopped to lie on the rocks near Nether Tor for what felt like an eternity. Twenty minutes or a thousand years, it was hard to tell the difference.
Through some idiocy I only managed to pack three tent pegs, so used rocks and trekking poles to secure my MSR Hubba Hubba Bikepack 1.
That was to be my last camp of the year as the day job really picked up the pace in the closing months, and the weather was quite poor on my free days. I had hoped to camp at least once a month, but perhaps that will have to wait for another year. Next year seems unlikely with work and family commitments, but I do have a 12 day trip to Finland in March to balance the scales. I hope you enjoyed getting out under canvas as much as I did in 2024. I’ve found writing this brief review quite comforting as it forced me to reflect on how lucky I’ve been to get out under the stars so frequently compared to most of the population.
