There are other, more achievable challenges suitable for families and others new to walking.
For the ‘Peak Bagging: County Tops Challenge’, Outdooractive, Europe’s largest digital outdoor tourism platform, has identified the highest place in each county, together with a range of walks of different levels of difficulty for everyone to enjoy. People can find their nearest peak and then ‘bag’ more as they explore the country. Take a look at your local walks at: https://bit.ly/3aqayDd.
Sarah Beckworth of Outdooractive explains: “Peak bagging is a fantastic pastime and great way to discover more of the country and set yourself a challenge. For each historic county we have identified a selection of walks that can take you to the summit (or near to it if it’s on private land). Simply download the app to become part of the Outdooractive community, register for the challenge and follow the route using your phone as a sat-nav.”
The Peak Bagging: County Tops Challenge is supported with prizes by the outdoor brand Vango. The company was established in the West of Scotland and has a strong reputation for lightweight hiking tents and high-performance equipment. Over the last few years, it has seen increasing interest from newbies that want easy to put up, weatherproof tents. Its inflatable AirBeam technology has removed the need for complicated poles and reduced the time for setup. The new Earth Collection features tents, sleeping bags and rucksacks made of recycled single-use plastics – over 8m plastics bottles in the 2022 range!
Andrea Rennie, Marketing Manager for Vango, said: “Many people have camped here for the first time this summer and perhaps seen parts of the country they hadn’t explored before. The mountains are an exciting ambition, but there are many places closer to home that offer an enjoyable day out. By teaming up with Outdooractive we hope to make it easy to find great places to walk and offering a challenge makes it more fun”
To encourage more people to get outdoors, Vango is offering a chance to enter into a draw to win a prize bundle from its Earth Collection which includes a Vango trekking tent, sleeping bag and mat and an Ultralite Cook Kit and Wrath rucksack to help them on their future adventures.
Sarah continues: “There are a choice of walks for each peak, graded by difficulty, with information about accessibility. It is easy to record your route as you walk so you can see how far you have walked, height gained, and time taken – and of course log your adventure in this challenge.”
*Note: the highest place in Wicklow is Lugnaquilla at 925m.
