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Choosing a hiking boot (otherwise known as 3 season walking boot) isn't rocket science. It only appears so when you submerge yourself in the scientific literature put our by the manufacturers and when you suspend common sense whilst reading the anal prose oozing from the outdoor gear review Mafia - which I suppose includes me, sometimes.

So let's keep this simple, shall we? Like really, really simple. Here's the five essential things you need to know about hiking boots.

Sweet Sole Music

The sole unit has one job to perform; to keep you up on your feet and off your arse. Think of the sole unit on a hiking boot as you would the tire on a 4*4 car. If you're going off road then you need a deep tread pattern to provide grip and that tread pattern also needs to be designed for self cleaning. If the tread clogs up you may as well be driving on F1 slicks.

It's the same with boots; the tread gives you grip and the tread pattern needs be self cleaning. The only other thing you need consider is consistency of the rubber compound, which is always going to be a compromise between hard and durable or softer with more grip on rock. Somewhere between the two is best and your local gear shop should be able to advise on that. If they can't take your custom and money elsewhere.

If you're travelling to cold counties, high mountain ranges or just nipping out for a pint of milk in a UK winter nothing will keep you warmer than an insulated jacket. These duvets with sleeves  are your top line of defence when the mercury plummets.

In use insulated jackets are very warm and unless you're a high altitude mountaineer or polar explorer you'll soon be overheating if you wear one when active, especially so if you're carrying a big rucksack. However, there are exceptions, more notably with ultra lightweight jackets, but even then you'd have to be out in seriously cold conditions or feel the cold more than most in order not to build up an uncomfortable head of steam.

Where these jackets excel is in the warmth they provide when you're stationary or performing low activity winter sports. For example: taking a rest stop when hiking, hanging out at overnight camps, playing cards in chilly Alpine refuges or strolling to the pub through the icy blasts of a UK winter. Put simply, they keep you warm at rest.

I moved house last month which meant confronting the piles of junk that had built up in the garage over the past decade. Whilst sifting through the debris I came across an old via ferrata lanyard that I'd not used for about four or so years. With a group trip planned later in the year, the inevitable question was asked - 'is it safe'?

The more I researched the safety and inspection standards for via ferrata kit...otherwise known as energy absorbing lanyards for connecting a body harness to an anchorage point... the more concerned I became about the equipment I'd used in the past, and in particular some of the via ferrata rental kits I'd worn without question or inspection whilst out in the Alps.

It's well known fact that the super lightweight backpacking tribe get bigger kicks from cutting handles off toothbrushes in garden sheds than they do from hiking in the hills. In their frenzied, fetish like quest to reduce the weight carried on their backs these guys (they're always guys, bearded guys) will go to extreme lengths to shave off a photon here and a proton there.

So, other than growing a mass of facial hair, just how do you join the lightweight clan? Here's Adventure Travel's top five weight saving tips to get you on the inside track to the nearest garden shed...