For better or worse, the Internet has changed all our lives. Dan Bailey talks to John D. Burns about the influence the influence social media has had on how we relate to the outdoors. Dan is the editor of UKHillwalking and Gear editor for the site, the biggest on line network for climbers and hillwalkers in the UK. A service that has had more influence than any other on the outdoor community in Britain. He talks about the changes he has seen and what an increasingly digitalised future might mean.
Dan Bailey
Dan joined UKClimbing Limited as the part-time editor of UKHillwalking in 2011. His role became full-time in May 2016 when he took on the role of Gear Editor for both UKC and UKH. Dan discovered a love for the hills on family holidays to North Wales, allegedly making it up Cadair Idris at three-and-a-bit (he has to take his parents’ word for that), and never really looking back.
Day walks expanded into backpacking trips, and gradual progress through the classic scrambles led inevitably to climbing, for which he has endless enthusiasm but practically no talent. His passion for all things mountainous has led him from the Andes to Africa, the Pyrenees to the North Pennines; a cynic might point out that although he took nothing but photographs, he’s sure as hell left a big carbon footprint. But Dan is usually to be found at home in Scotland, enjoying the world-class mountains and seascapes on his doorstep. Dan is the author of several guidebooks including Great Mountain Days in Scotland, Scotland’s Mountain Ridges, The Ridges of England, Wales and Ireland and West Highland Way.
