Advice
How to actually do it
One procedure per page, from the first move to the last, with the step that settles the outcome flagged as such — and the equipment a page takes for granted is linked because it takes it for granted, not because it pays. Where the answer depends on the ground you are on, the weather you meet or the limits a maker sets, the page says so and sends you to the manufacturer's instructions.
Getting started
What to buy first for a first night out, in what order, and what can wait until you know how often you will go.
- What to buy first for a first night out A first kit is usually bought in the wrong order, because the exciting items are not the ones that decide the night. This is the order that puts the money where the sleep is.
- The trial run at home before the first trip Every part of a new kit works in the listing photograph. The garden is where you find out which parts work for you, while a forgotten strap is still a five-minute problem rather than a wet one.
Measuring first
The measurements to take before ordering: your height against a bag length, your pole diameter, your canister thread.
- The four measurements that settle an order before you place it Sleeping kit is bought on photographs and returned on measurements. These four take a tape and twenty minutes, and between them they settle most of what is worth ordering.
- Measuring for spares that actually fit A spare part is bought on a dimension, never on a photograph. Five measurements cover almost every replacement in a camp kit, and four of them are taken with callipers rather than a tape.
Pitching
Guying out, pegging in soft or stony ground, and reading a pitch before you put anything down.
- Reading a pitch before you put anything down The shelter is the easy part. Almost everything that goes wrong on a night out was decided in the ten minutes before anything came out of the bag.
- Pitching on ground that will not take a peg Ground refuses a peg in four different ways, and each one wants a different answer. Working out which refusal you are looking at takes a minute and saves the evening.
Packing & weight
Where the grams actually are, what is worth carrying twice, and how makers count the weight they publish.
Water in the field
Carrying, filtering and storing — reported from what the makers state, with their instructions as the authority.
Buying
How to spend a budget so the money lands where it changes the night rather than on the label.
Safety & the rules
Where wild camping is allowed, fire and stove rules, and where this site stops and the manufacturer instructions begin.