Broadly speaking Bags you can stretch out in are quite a rarity. But why? And why are we making them?

Taiga, Taiga, warm and light Mostly, we do down…but we do fleece too. And we don’t just use any old fleece, we use Taiga. But how different can fleece really be? Good question…

Down in history: PHD’s 2019 Let’s have a look at what we brought you in 2019…

The RAF: in for another pass John Cameron wanted to tell us about his trip to Nepal with the RAF Mountaineering Association. We keep telling you: we love hearing the stories and seeing the photos!

Well suited to a life of adventure When we say to keep in touch and tell us about your trips, we really mean it! And a lovely number of you lovely folks have told us lovely stories about our (we think) lovely Double Suit. Which is lovely…

Down clothing: not just for the extremes Hold onto your hats (and your jacket, trousers & socks, while you’re at it): we’re about to revolutionise your camping experience. In a good way. A nice, sensible revolution.

Big Lake, Small World Adventurers doing something adventurous? Maybe it’s not so big a coincidence after all… Photo: Sergey Pesterev/CC-BY SA 2.0

The view is well worth the climb Although we’d like to think of something intriguing to say here, all we can think is how cold his hands must be. Now that’s suffering for your art…

Come on and get down (most of the time) Should you turn your back on down bags for UK camping? It’s a (fairly) commonly held belief, but it’s not really true. Let us explain…

Put your back into it! The Spine Race, tracking north up through the Pennines – ‘the backbone of England’ covers 268 miles and lasts a week. Well, it used to. It’s still 268 miles, but it just got a lot quicker…

A really very remarkable lady Rosie Swale-Pope has just finished a run from Brighton to Berlin. But, as she once ran right around the world, that’s perhaps not all that surprising…

Peter Hutchinson: carrying on in his name. This has been mentioned elsewhere, but it’s an important story – perhaps the most important one we have – so we’ll mention it here too.

It goes OMM, and OMM, and OMM… The Original Mountain Marathon: testing mountain mettle since the 60s. OK, it doesn’t always look this lovely, but don’t be put off giving it a go! One of our number has done just that, more than once. Maybe you could too: you might be surprised…

Totting up the Differences Why temperatures mean different things to different people, why it’s important, and why it needn’t be confusing.

The achievement of a lifetime…and then again the following day! Having reached the summit of an 8000m peak, it’s not unheard of to want to do another. However, after climbing one, heading straight to the top of a second one the following day is rather more unusual!

Ventile’s coming home As we introduce our Ventile-shelled PHD Outwear collection, we thought we’d give you a bit of a rundown on what makes Ventile so special.

A Very Human Race Since ancient times, “The Silk Road” has been redolent of adventure… Seems it still is, as it happens.

Check, Check and Check Again How do we know our gear works in the places we say it will? The answer is as simple as you might think. We send it there.

Many Happy Returns! Surprise birthday parties are a thing, obviously, but surprise birthdays? Not so much. We managed it though.

When the going gets really tough When you need help in the mountains, you put your faith in the Rescue Teams. And who do they put their faith in?

Run Robert, Run Robert, Run, Run, Run What do you do when you’re stricken with ill health and bereavement? That’s right, you go and run the toughest races in the world.

You never know who you might find wandering around Stalybridge… Not best known for idling around and dodging a challenge, it’s not too surprising that Ben Fogle & Victoria Pendleton fancied a crack at Everest. Before that though, they had to make the perilous journey north to see us at PHD.

A Very Important Lady Margaret, the lady in charge of the PHD sewing room, has been with us since the very beginning. So if you’ve ever had anything to do with PHD gear, chances are you’ve had something to do with Margaret! Now she’s retiring, we hope you’ll all join us in saying goodbye and good luck.

Age is just a number When Roger Cook set out for Cho Oyu – the world's 6th highest mountain – a PHD Double Suit and Sleep System went with him: gear for every occasion without having to take different gear for every occasion. It’s all about the layers!

Horia Colibășanu and Peter Hámor’s Hornbein Couloir Attempt Given his impressive track record of oxygen-free ascents in the Himalayas, when Horia Colibăşanu contacted us about kit, we were intrigued as to what he was up to! He didn’t tell us exactly what he was intending, but this is what we found out…

PHD Custom Sizing Some people are size Medium, some are Large. But many are neither, and many are both! We’ve made custom size gear for years, by request, but now it’s started to make its way onto our main website.

Lightweight warmth where it really matters When Carl Alvey came back from guiding a 57-day ski expedition to the South Pole, he very kindly got in touch to tell us about the equipment he took with him.

Alex Pancoe on Vinson Although he’d spent a lot of time in the mountains skiing, it never occurred to Alex Pancoe to actually climb one until a trip to Africa inspired him to try Kilimanjaro. Thinking he’d bitten off more than he could chew, he trained as hard as he could and surprised himself by taking it in his stride…and so decided to climb more.

A tale of two Wafers We’ve heard from a couple of folks who’ve been off on very different trips, but both using our Wafer clothing, so we thought we’d let you know what they had to say about it.

So light it’s just not fair! 160km – 100 miles, if you prefer – in under a week is quite an undertaking. Even more so when you do it at altitude. Even more so when you consider that the height gain is upwards of 28,000m. So, it’s not really surprising that competitors in the Everest Trail Race like to keep the weight in their bags to a minimum!

First ascents in Kyrgyzstan’s Djenghi-Djer We were approached, a little while ago, by a chap called Will Rowland, who wanted to talk about sleeping bags. This stuck in our minds, thanks to an old family connection.

Fire & Ice: Back to the Icelandic Wilderness The Fire & Ice is one of the toughest races in the world (even the five-times winner of the Marathon des Sables reckons it’s tough). It takes in 250km of volcanic ash, glacial river crossings, barren rock, grassy meadows, and everything else the Icelandic terrain can possibly throw at you.

Bivouacs, a personal view We thought it would be interesting to hear what Peter Hutchinson, the founder of PHD, has to say about the freedom and the sense of adventure that come from the bivouac.

Any Good? Not Half We know why we think Half Bags are a good idea, but it’s always worth our while finding out what you guys think! We asked a load of our Half Bag devotees to tell us about them. Find out what they said.

A Suit Less Ordinary Right from the beginning, off-the-peg solutions have never really been our style. So, when Anja Blacha asked us for something for her Himalayan trip which she couldn’t get anywhere else, we were all ears. Find out more.

Jo Bradshaw: One step closer to the 7 Summits The Seven Summits: the highest peaks on each continent. Fewer than 500 people have climbed all of them and, of those, just 9 British women have managed it. Well, last month, with her success on Denali, Jo Bradshaw came a step closer to being the 10th.

Adele’s Dhaulagiri ascent breaks her own record Adele Pennington has just returned home after summiting Dhaulagiri, breaking the British Women’s record for 8000m ascents. And that record had been hers anyway!

Everest’s 1st Gigapixel Panorama? When it comes to down suits, Tim Mosedale is something of a connoisseur. After dozens of Himalayan expeditions (including five summits of Everest, two of which in one season) and over 50 previously unclimbed peaks in Greenland, you start to get an idea of what your gear needs to be able to do!