Snow & Rock

This is the best place in London to come for all your outdoor gear needs. Set over 4 or 5 floors there is dedicated floor space to everything you will need for sports ranging from skiing to high altitude mountaineering. For me, nowhere in London has anything like its selection.
The only real downside is that all the gear is skewed towards higher end products which is fine if you want to splash the cash but means that you can leave here having spent a worrying amount of money on day glow boots or GoreTex jackets.

Since my climbing partner and I have started nursing fantasies about climbing Kilimanjaro, I’ve been getting the feeling that I’m going to know this shop very well indeed. I was here, not for the coffee shop at the top of the building (which I hear is exemplary) but to mooch around and work out what gear I would need as a result of making such a derranged decision (I have no excuse folks. I wasn’t even drunk!). It’s definitely a pracical person’s store; none of the sexy schizzle you’ll see in Ellis Brigham, which was a shame for me as if I’m going to be splashing out £400 for a specialist technical jacket, that will ensure that I don’t turn into an icewoman the minute I hit high altitude, then I wanna be sure that I will also want to wear it for the snowboard season too. Am I asking too much? But it’s so darned pricey! Didn’t get the Arcteryx jacket in the end.
It is literally a one stop shop though; every carabiner and climbing rope type you could hope for, every base layer that has ever been invented; I didn’t know that so many different kinds of socks — all for different purposes — could exist! How naïve was I. If you’re an alpinist, a triathlete, or maybe you just like a touch of wild camping. Come hither my pretties, it’s got everything you need.
They do loads of supplements too, but I did notice one missing bit though — waterproofing spray for giving the seams of your clothes that extra once over just in case, and the spread of technical climbing shoes was OK but didn’t blow my proverbial socks off. Really nice and helpful shop staff though. Just attentive enough, without being stalkerish. Overall it gets my vote.

I’m extremely lazy and won’t be doing any skiing, snowboarding, or hiking any time soon, so you may be wondering what on earth I’d be doing in a branch of Snow+Rock.
Well, I’d be drinking coffee.
I have no idea what this coffee shop (called Bullet) is doing on the fourth floor of Covent Garden’s branch of Snow+Rock (apparently it’s their flagship store), but it’s doing it very well. They sell an excellent cup of coffee: rich, smooth, and expertly finished with pretty patterns of leaves and ferns in the foam. They claim it was a Time Out London finalist last year. There are big, squishy sofas and the staff seem pretty friendly. If you want a quiet coffee in the middle of Covent Garden, I really recommend it.

I love this particular Snow and Rock branch. This is probably the one with the largest variety in London. The staffs are very helpful if you need advice from them. I usually shop for my snowboard gears in here as you can try them, feel them, test them out before making decisions really these gears are not the cheapest items in the world and need a little fortune to buy them so be sure is better than be sorry!
Just for your information, there is a toilet on the top floor, also very useful when needed!

I like Snow and Rock, and their products are great. The staff really know their stuff, and the quality of their gear is reliable.
Although I went into this branch with my boyfriend to buy some hiking boots, and the boots expert was called over a young guy who clearly felt he was some kind of footware genius. To his credit, he knew what he was talking about, but what really irked me was the way he talked to me as a female. He actually said, You see girls tend to whine a lot when their boots start to rub. NOT the sort of thing to say to a female customer! I felt like I was buying a car he spoke on equal terms to my boyfriend, but I felt like a dumb girl. Shame, as he did know a lot about boots. I won’t be going back to that particular store, but the Snow and Rock brand on the whole is pretty good so I want to emphasis that!