A SmartWool beanie

Santa’s little helpers are checking their stock, and the reindeer are consulting their GPSs to make sure they know their way.

So what goodies can we buy, or ask for, to fill our Christmas stockings and help us and our loved ones enjoy the great outdoors even more?

How about a layer of comfort an extra measure of style with accessories from SmartWool?

The company’s neck gaiters and scarves come in a variety of colours and patterns matching up with SmartWool tops and bottoms or in contrasting colors and have a double layer interlock for maximum warmth. All its beanies are made from 100 per cent merino wool and there is a big selection of styles, colours and patterns.

Prices range from £9.95 to £39.95 and the accessories are available from outdoor retailers nationwide. More details on the SmartWool website.

And if you want to add some style to your footwear, the SmartWool Park Artist collection, designed by professional snowboarder, photographer, film-maker and music producer Jeff Cormack, will turn a few heads on the hills.

The range features merino wool designs manufactured to keep feet warm, dry and odour-free with the company’s 4-degree Fit System, WoW (wool on wool) Technology and natural antimicrobial properties of the natural material.

Chris Townsend's Scotland

Also available is the PhD collection, aimed principally at snowsports enthusiasts, the range includes PhD Ski Ultra Light, PhD Ski Racer, PhD Ski Light, PhD Ski Medium, PhD Snowboard Ultra Light, PhD Snowboard Light and PhD Snowboard Medium. There are also two designs for Nordic skiers: PhD Nordic Light and PhD Nordic Medium.

How about a good read? Cicerone publishes a huge range of outdoor guides and one of the best received this year is Chris Townsend’s Scotland, the writer’s magnum opus covering Scotland’s wild landscapes from the rolling hills of the Southern Uplands to the Cuillin on Skye and the steep castellated rock peaks of Torridon.

Scotland (£25) has area-by-area descriptions of the country’s mountains from south to north to help the hillwalker, mountaineer and ski-tourer plan his or her trips into the uplands.

Unjustifiable Risk is Simon Thompson’s charting of the social, economic and cultural conditions that gave rise to the sport of mountain climbing.

Today’s climbers would be instantly recognisable to their Victorian predecessors, with their desire to escape from the crowded complexity of urban life, and willingness to take potentially unjustifiable risks in pursuit of beauty, adventure and self-fulfilment. Unjustifiable Risk is priced £20.

Great Mountain Days in the Lake District (£17.95) is Mark Richards’s guidebook of 50 walks on the high fells of the Lake District, graded to suit the moderately adventurous walker looking for undiscovered areas and for the less experienced walker starting out on the fells.

Soto's Muka Stove

SOTO’s Muka stove is described as the world’s first non-priming liquid fuel stove, which the Japanese company, whose name translates as outdoors, says does away with cumbersome preheating and endless maintenance before and after use. The stove weighs in at 320g without the fuel bottle, which is sold separately. Probably a gift for a very special friend at £170.

The Compact Lantern, at £71, has a refillable tank and can be used with the specified mantle without, like a candle and it has a foldable stabiliser and comes with its own case. It weighs 225g and has 1.4 hours of burn time with the mantle and up to two hours as a candle.

The Vango Flask and Mug Set (£15) combines a 500ml flask with a robust steel body and a stainless steel double-walled mug with a plastic inner, with lid and handle.

Taking up very little room and weighing just 20g including its button-type batteries, the Mammut Burny is a safety lamp that should find its way into hillgoers’ packs all year round.

The lamp’s two white LEDs have a maximum range of 12m and it also features one red super-bright LED, making the user visible for up to 500m.

Mammut says the Burny can be attached to any surface using a clip or a rubber band, making it ideal as a universal light source. From a flashing red rear light when biking, a reference point on your backpack on ski tours, to a continuous light for a quick glance at the map.

A double-click function prevents the Burny from being accidentally switched on.

The Vango flask and mug

The £15 Burny will give a 30 degree beam is designed to give an emergency light. It is not designed to be used as a sole torch for planned night navigation. There are more details on the Mammut website.

Most of us now carry technology into the great outdoors in the shape of smartphones, MP3 players and other electronic equipment.

Protecting it while out in the harsh outdoor environment is important and Kathmandu has a range of pouches to keep your cherished, and sometimes vital, smartphone protected.

The Kathmandu pouches are weather-resistant and large enough to be used with most popular smartphones.

The Neoprene Digi Pouch, at £12.99 is made from water-resistant fabric, has a hard shell for extra protection and its jersey-lined enclosure has an envelope-style closure and patterned exterior.

The Digi Memory Foam Case, costing £14.99, has extra protection for gadgets, again with a weather-resistant neoprene outer fabric, but with memory foam inner that moulds to the shape of the object inside for shock absorbance and to protect from wear and tear, and has a zip for security.

Mammut's Burny lamps

And for coffee lovers who insist on quality on camp, there’s the Coffee Plunger, at £19.99, which combines a cafetière and insulated mug, allowing fresh coffee while under canvas.

The Everest walking pole from Fizan has three telescopic sections and weighs just 220g.

It also features an ergonomic EVA Grip handle with neoprene strap, the result of research and development from the company that was the first to produce aluminium ski poles rather than the then traditional steel or bamboo.

The lightweight aluminium alloy pole is robust enough to use in ski touring and mountaineering but is also ideal for expedition trekking and hillwalking.

The Kathmandu Digi Pouch

It also comes complete with a selection of three baskets – one for big powder conditions, one for normal snow and ice conditions and one for trekking, making it suitable for all types of winter and summer terrain.

Fizan says its patented Flexy Locking System gives a variety of benefits, being safe and durable, lighter and more balanced during use and better protected then an external locking system.

The company also says it conforms to all EU legislation with regard to production processes and is environmentally aware, using only recyclable materials and uses a photovoltaic system for 60 per cent of its power source.

The Everest pole retails at £75 each. More details are on the distributor Allcord’s website.

Helly Hansen’s Powerstretch Gloves (£15) are handy stretch fleece gloves made using 100 pre cent Polartec fleece.

The gloves are fashionable enough for everyday wear around town, while professional, durable manufacturing offers more than enough protection to withstand romantic rambles in the great outdoors.

The Fizan Everest pole

For outdoors loving youngsters, the Kozi Kidz collection offers practical but fun, bright accessories, from Rain and Snow Ball Mitts at £9.80 to Sou’westers at £12.

Research shows that children actually want to spend their time playing outdoors and the extended Christmas holidays is ideal for spending some quality time together getting out and about.

You can keep kids keep as warm as toast with Vasa Thermals at £25 per set, which can be worn as base layers for an extra layer of warmth when temperatures really drop or as cosy pyjamas to snuggle up by the fire on cold winter nights.

Helly Hansen's Powerstretch Gloves

Vaude’s Bobby wash bag means kids can bring their favourite bath-time essentials from home, and the handy hook means they can hang it up in the shower for easy access.

Available in Red/Mandarin Print, Brown/Chute Green, Brown/Pink, Marine/Blue, Red/Honey or Marine/Skyline print, the bags are priced at £11.

The Charlie sleeping bag is perfect for babies and toddlers with a cosy inner lining and warm synthetic fill.

The versatile, pushchair-compatible bag has a zip down the middle meaning it can also be opened out to be used as a blanket or play area for your child.

The Kozi Kidz thermals

The easy-to-wash bag comes with its own stuffsack, and packs neatly away for easy transport and storage. Available in Chute Green or Muddy and priced at £60.

And don’t forget, for an ideal present for the outdoors fan, grough offers its amazing value mapping and route planning system grough route, available online 365 days a year.

grough route offers Ordnance Survey mapping of the whole of Great Britain for just £2 a month, with 1:25,000, 1:50,000 and 1:250,000 maps to enable you to plan your walking, biking and mountaineering trips.

The Vaude Charlie

Combined with its customisable planning system, with more than a thousand user-generated routes in all the country’s popular outdoors areas, grough route allows subscribers to print their own personalised maps, complete with routes marked, plus route cards detailing grid references, and an import and export facility for GPX files for most hand-held GPS units.

Available in subscriptions from one month to 12 months, grough route’s servers are in action every day, including Christmas Day, for new and present subscribers.