Welcome to the award winning Mountainfeet!
We're a specialist mountain sports clothing and equipment shop with a keen interest in walking, climbing and running footwear together with the mechanics of the feet and lower limbs.

We think it's paramount that mountain enthusiasts understand the importance of foot health and choice of correctly sized and shaped footwear. We sell all manner of outdoor clothing and equipment but particularly specialise in footwear and expert fitting.

You'll probably find us in a crusading mood if you come into the shop – we've seen many pairs of feet that would have benefited from a service like ours 20 or 30 years ago. So we're very committed to making sure our customers take the best possible care of their feet during sport and educating them in some of the best ways of staying healthy and preserving lower limb function well into old age...

We have lately linked up with local podiatrists, Bob and Paul Tennant of Tennant Podiatry. Their practice is only 200 metres from our shop and they have a special interest in biomechanical analysis which compliments the work we do here.

Help for Heroes
Our service lads and lasses overseas deserve all the support we can give right now as they do a phenomenally difficult job a long way from home. Our good friend and Saddleworth Runner, Chris Maylor is raising funds for the Help for Heroes charity with a Three Peaks Challenge run in July with team mates Andy and Howard.

For details of this challenge and to donate to a very worthy cause, visit www.justgiving.com/adventurefundraising.

Chris's other endeavours with his Adventure Fundraising team members can be followed on www.adventurefundraising.moonfruit.com. We wish them all the best...

Achilles comes home...
Visitors to the shop might be forgiven for wondering what a tatty old tandem bicycle is doing hanging from our ceiling! But they need to look further than skin deep because Achilles is one of the most famous tandems in the world...

Featured in ITV's Take a Seat documentary and now in a book of the same name by Dominic Gill, he has covered well over 20,000 miles and has come to reside at the shop in his retirement. On the occasions he's missing, it could be that Si and the team are doing something mad involving him or lending him back to Dom for a nostalgic razz round the countryside.

He's just had a major overhaul and is in fantastic mechanical fettle but costmetically still looks like he's been almost the equivalent distance to the world's circumference!

Dove Stone
Many of you will have heard of the new partnership between United Utilities and the RSPB ( Royal Society for the Protection of Birds) to manage, maintain and develop Dove Stone. But what do you know of the plans? Follow the link above to their website to learn more about their vision for the future of this beautiful resource.

We at Mountainfeet are passionate and sympathetic users of Dove Stone and its surroundings. We feel we are representative of a multitude of outdoor enthusiasts and as such are engaging with the RSPB to learn more of their plans for the future.

At a recent meeting between Si and Roy Taylor, Peak District area Development Manager for the RSPB, Roy made it clear that the RSPB has no intention of restricting current legal activities and are committed to conservation and education within the site. One of the obvious immediate improvements is the removal of litter from the lakeside – regular collections will be a welcome feature from now on.

The long and short of it is that the RSPB are keen to work with responsible partners who have an interest in the area and that change where necessary will be gradual and sympathetic.

Let us know what you think – we'd be interested in your views and will feed any relevant concerns directly on to the RSPB. Let's make sure we all have a hand in shaping the future of our much loved outdoor resource...

Oldham's Retailer of the Year 2010
Once again, we're incredibly proud to have won the 2010 Retailer of the Year accolade from the One Oldham Business Awards panel. Since winning the 2009 Award, we have worked hard at adding to our expertise and extending our footwear inventory – particularly on the off road running side. We value our customers and endeavour to always treat them in the way we would like to be treated, with courtesy, respect and a bit of banter thrown in for good luck!

War on litter!
Litter, the great British Blight! Doesn't it get you really angry? The number of times we bring someone elses crap down off a hillside – bet you've done it yourself! And if you do see an offending person and challenge them then the usual response is to be told to **** off or worse...

It's good to read the following statement on the footer of some of Oldham Borough Council's emails... "We’re targeting the people that don’t respect our borough. Last year we investigated over 5,000 incidents of fly tipping, dog fouling, graffiti and littering. We issued over 350 enforcement notices, over 400 fixed penalties and prosecuted 65 people."

That's good to hear. Also great is that the RSPB are taking steps to tackle the littering and antisocial behaviour that sadly occurs at and around Dovestones.

Like us, you may wonder what you can do to help the situation. We found this excellent organisation whose website is well worth a visit. What about setting up a few local groups to keep the places we love to walk and climb rubbish free? Si is up for doing something around the Pule area...

Mountainfeet ski touring course
This years ski touring course was one of the best yet! Great weather, fantastic snow conditions and a brilliant and sociable group made for a really enjoyable week based mainly in and around La Clusaz in the Haute Savoie, French Alps. We skipped over to Val d'Isere for two days and overnighted in the Refuge de la Femma, located under a spectacular rock face and miles from civilisation – a first hut tour for several of the group.

Here's a photo of 3 members of the team grafting on a 700 metre climb in the Tarantaise before a sublime descent on the two day hut tour. The rest of the week we were returning to the luxury of Al and Ali's chalet!

What have the boys been up to?
Marcus is about to set off on a road trip to the Scottish Highlands on his beloved Triumph Trophy motorbike. He'll be toting bivvy gear and climbing kit too... Don Whillans would be proud of him!

Phil is well into studying for his podiatry degree! This is obviously of great benefit to the rest of us as Phil will be at the sharp end of the latest podiatric teaching and can pass on relevant information in our frequent discussions. Look for him playing the impoverished student card and hanging out at soup kitchens to get food!

Jane is well into her summer racing and training regime – she's also liasing with local off road running clubs as we have exciting developments ahead involving Inov8 and their 2010 running footwear range.

Si has been mountain and road biking plenty over the last couple of months but has also been sneaking a bit of running in as and when his knackered back allows. He's alternating between Inov8 Roclite 295's and La Sportiva Crosslite trail shoes – both great bits of kit but distinctly different in fit and feel.

He and Lizzie have also been getting to grips with their RS500 sailing dinghy at Bala. Sailing one of these well is a serious exercise in teamwork and can lead to heated exchanges! Luckily, they keep the arguments on the water and are getting pretty proficient despite some fairly colourful language flying about! Expect an article soon about the highs and lows of asymmetric sailing....

Tried and tested – new boots at Mountainfeet
Si was busy in the winter trying boots in our range. The boots that really impressed were the B2 rated Scarpa Charmoz for winter UK and summer Alpine mountaineering and the similar looking but B1 rated Scarpa Cristallo which is a superb technical walking and scrambling boot capable of taking a walking crampon. Both these boots are GoreTex lined and incredibly light and precise. Si has put many miles on both pairs and used the Charmoz's with the brilliant Grivel Air Tech crampon.

Make sure you don't confuse the new Cristallo with the old one pictured on the Scarpa website in red and yellow – they are out of date. The new model is the one pictured on the left here and suits a surprising number of foot shapes by using the cleverly designed FT last which gives technical fit yet brilliant comfort. Scarpa are advertising both the Cristallo and the Charmoz quite heavily and are expecting demand to be high.

Another very impressive newcomer is the Zamberlan Vioz Plus which is based on thestandard Vioz but beefs it up to 3/4 season capability by virtue of extra stiffness and a durable rand.

And of course, the ubiquitous Meindl Burma is still king of the hill for many and the core of our top end traditional leather trekking boots. Make sure that you take advantage of our comprehensive fitting service if buying boots from us – you will probably learn things you didn't know about you feet!

Paramo at Mountainfeet
We''ve always been impressed with the function and build of Paramo products but our guys have tended to use more traditional layering systems for their mountain activities.

But we recognised that there is a place for both types of systems in the shop and that Paramo has a very loyal and unswerving following, particularly amongst the walking club fraternity. We keep a small core line of product in stock now and can order lines to suit an individual customer. We particularly like the lightweight Quito jacket which will work well in both summer and winter for most activities and seems particularly good for mountain biking.

Inov-8 Off Road Centre
Inov-8 off road running and walking footwear has gone from strength to strength – you'll see a large percentage of fell and trail runners these days in Mudclaws, Roclites or similar. And their packs, socks and accessories continue to gain favour from the fast and light fraternity who value both function and form.

We've invested in several of their new line up of shoes and other products for 2010 and are excited by Inov-8's philosophy which is to design footwear around the natural function of the foot using their observations of biomechanical function. There are now options for everyone from the diehard club runner who wants the ultimate low profile sole unit to the fitness enthusiast progressing to trail running who needs more cushioning and heel/forefoot differential.

The range needs a level of understanding and explanation – we have most of the new styles already in store and we love talking about the benefits of each model!

Make sure we have a good look at your feet and running style if you visit the shop – we can often spot potential problems that could cause eventual injury and advise solutions that can keep you running more healthily.

Nuun tablets for athletes and travellers
Nuun tablets were designed, formulated and tested to keep you optimally hydrated, wherever you are. Nuun tablets come in a tough tube that is water resistant and perfect for carrying in a rucsac or jacket pocket. 1 tube = 6 litres, enough to get you through a couple of days adventure racing or a weeks travelling at least.

Nuun doesn't contain carbohydrate – it supplies the vital electrolytes to replenish the salts lost by the body in heat or exercise and leaves you free to carbo load as required using bars, bananas etc. A brilliant product that is being demanded by more and more of our walkers, runners and mountain bikers. And travellers should definitely carry a couple of packets – particularly if they're going to be in extreme heat.

High 5 and SIS in stock too!
We also have loads of High 5 and Science in Sport products to keep runners and walkers optimally fuelled through a long day of sport.

Why not go Geocaching...
As we supply more GPS units to walkers and climbers, some folk are struggling to get to grips with using the technology. Why not log onto the International Geocaching website and go and explore your locality in greater detail? You'll be amazed at what you find out and more than one of our customers have found themselves hooked after taking a casual look on the internet. We are fortunate to have loads of geocaches set up in the Pennines around Saddleworth and Marsden which allow you to plan a walk with an added twist of interest.

Click on the GPS image above - the link will show you the nearest geocaches to our shop – just put your own postcode in instead and get searching...

We've been testing the new Memory Map Adventurer 2800 which as far as we can tell is the cheapest fully functioning OS mapping based handheld GPS. It's a full solution for most UK users as it includes OS mapping for the UK National Park regions and can be easily and cheaply added to by acquiring more regional and even Alpine mapping.

Cap's Corner (alias the Dog Blog)
Cap's blog has been moved to it's own dedicated page! Just click the link on the left hand menu bar to see what he gets up to at home and in the shop!

But here's a picture of him chilling for you to be going on with!