YHAgroup.org.uk

In keeping up with what’s going on in YHA, one vital source is the press release page on their web site. It’s the official outlet for YHA-related news stories.

But there’s a problem: the only way to know when a new story has been posted is to go and visit that page. Every day you have to check on the off-chance that a new announcement might have been made (well, you do if you’re running a hostelling news web site!), and pretty unrewarding those visits can be when you remember that YHA went for six months last year without finding a single story worth remarking on.

How much simpler life would be if the press release page had an RSS feed. Then we could keep track of it using a feed reader alongside whatever other blogs and news sources we might follow.

Well, rather than wait for the upcoming YHA website redesign to (hopefully) fill this need, I decided to do something about it myself. I’ve written a program that regularly visits the YHA web site, scans it for new stories, and generates an RSS feed from what it sees. It also checks the special offers page, and makes a feed from that too. All you have to do is pipe them into your feed reader of choice (personally I use Google Reader) and you can be kept right up-to-date on every new development at Matlock. I’ve also built similar feeds to pick up news from the other UK hostelling organisations.

Here are the addresses to follow:

• YHA Press Releases Feed
• YHA Special Offers Feed
• SYHA News Feed
• HINI News Feed

These are pretty basic feeds: only the title of each story is shown, not the content, and the dates are either those given on the site (where there is one), or the date when my script first saw the story (where there isn’t). Note that the associations sometimes give a story a date that’s some days before (or even after) the date it appears on their website.

Feed readers aren’t the only place where RSS feeds can be useful. There are various tools out there that can use them to syndicate the content of the site providing the feed onto another (RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication”). I’ve used some of these tools to produce the “Hostelling News” box on the Leicester YHA home page – this shows the six most recent hostelling news stories from a variety of sources.

Don’t worry, I’m not suggesting you start hiding in the bushes around Matlock, stalking the YHA’s esteemed Chief Executive. Instead you can do it from the comfort of your computer!

Caroline has started her own Twitter account, so you can follow what our glorious leader is doing – or at least what she wants to tell us about it. I don’t know how much we’ll learn from it, but it should be welcomed as part of YHA’s new efforts to communicate with the membership.

Since this is a day for looking back, I’ve fed the recent output of this site into a nifty tool called Wordle to produce a graphic representation of its content. I think it looks kinda cool (click on the image for a bigger version):

By way of contrast, here’s what it produces for Karl’s YHA Blog:

Wordle will build a graphic for any block of text, or any website with an RSS feed. It’s great fun, but be warned – you can spend hours playing with it!

Here’s to plenty more interesting words in 2009, Happy new year!

Sleigh bells ring, are you listening? In the lane, snow is glistening… At this time of year many of us yearn to be out walking in a winter wonderland, instead of trudging round the shops listening to naff Christmas songs. But how can we stop a snowy day out in the hills ending with a less than festive call to mountain rescue?

Outdoor news site Grough has a lengthy article detailing how to stay safe this winter, covering everything from how to plan and pace your route to what kind of crampons to wear. They even extoll the virtues of a regular communal faff! It’s well worth a look if you’re heading for the hills over the next few months.

With the festive season almost upon us, what do you get the hill walker in your life? Yet another pair of gloves or socks? A pin-up of Julia Bradbury? Perhaps not. How about a stretch of Lakeland footpath?

Fix the Fells has been featured on these pages before – it’s a partnership run by the Lake District National Park Authority, The National Trust and Natural England to repair Lake District paths and combat erosion in the future. All their work is heavily dependent on public fund-raising.

This year they’re running a Fix a Fell for Christmas campaign. Simply donate a sum on your loved one’s behalf and it will go towards upland paths. Just £10 will replant vegetation alongside one metre of path, whilst £600 will pay for an hour of helicopter time. What’s more any amount you give will be tripled by the Heritage Lottery Fund, so a donation of £10 actually gets them £30.

But how do you wrap up a few square metres of Cumbria and put it under the tree? Don’t worry, they’ve thought of that. When you make a donation, a personalised certificate is generated for you to print out and give as your gift.

But remember, a Lakeland footpath isn’t just for Christmas…

Sam Dalley of the Backpackers’ Press writes:

One of our member hostels has pointed out to me that YHA local groups are short of accommodation which is available to individuals and small groups in the winter.

There are over 250 Independent Hostels in the UK and over 95% of them stay open all year.

Full details of all these hostels are in the Independent Hostel Guide which retails for £4.95.

I would be glad to offer these guides for free (while stocks last) to any local group member who sends 5 second class stamps to cover the postage.

I’ve seen a copy of the guide and it’s quite impressive, listing 275 hostels across the UK plus a further 50 in Ireland and continental Europe. If you want to take Sam up on this kind offer, send your stamps to:

Backpackers Press
Speedwell House
Upperwood
Matlock Bath
Derbyshire
DE4 3PE

Potential independent hostellers should also visit the recently remodelled Independent Hostel Guide web site, where the same information can be found online. The site isn’t perfect, but there’s a a thing or two YHA could learn from it.

Until recently, this network of “stone tents” in the Lake District was managed by the YHA. Now they’ve gone independent, and have a slick website to sell their services. Each of the twelve barns is extensively photographed and described, and availability can be checked online for the next twelve months.

If you’re looking for somewhere simple to stay in the Lakes, these could be just the job.

If you’re heading north to tick off some more of Sir Hugh Munro’s list of 3,000-foot mountains, you could do worse than check out Munro Magic first.

All 284 Munros & 220 Corbetts are covered in detail including descriptions, pictures, location maps, walking routes and weather reports, as well as listings of nearby accommodation in which to rest up afterwards.

Pete Owens is a man with a mission. A mission to track down the finest “facilities” inflicted upon cyclists by the planners of our highways. Take a look the hall of fame (or should that be shame?) at the Warrington Cycle Campaign.

Sadly, there are more of these every year. This forum is a place where you can see pictures, and share stories, of hostels gone by.