If your best day involves a map and a flask, most dating apps are quietly working against you.
The problem is not that outdoor people are rare. There are a lot of us. The problem is that the standard dating app sorts by distance and photographs. It has no idea whether the person it just showed you would enjoy eight miles in the rain, or would rather set fire to their boots.
You end up on a lot of first dates in a lot of bars, finding out on the third drink that "I love the outdoors" meant a beer garden.
Be specific about what outdoors means to you
"I love the outdoors" is the most common line in UK dating and it means nothing. Everyone thinks they mean it. Replace it with the actual thing.
"Two Wainwrights a month and I am building up to the rest." "Sea swimming all year, badly." "I have an allotment and it is out of control." "Three horses, so my Saturday is spoken for." Any of those tells a reader more in one line than a paragraph about loving nature.
Say what level you are at, honestly
Outdoor mismatches are usually about pace, not interest. Someone who walks eighteen miles with 1,200 metres of climb is an outdoor person. So is someone who does a nice four miles and a pub lunch. Put them together with nobody saying anything and they will both have a miserable Sunday.
Write the distance you actually do. It is not a boast either way, and it saves both of you a wasted Sunday.
Use photos that show weather
Anyone can look happy on a summit in June. A photo in poor weather, still smiling, tells a reader you do this when it is not fun, which is the only real test of whether someone likes being outside.
Keep at least one photo where your face is clearly visible with no sunglasses, hood or helmet. Sounds obvious. Half of outdoor profiles have no usable photo of the person at all.
Open with the place, not the compliment
"You look great" gets nothing. "Is that Cadair Idris behind you? I did it in the fog in April and saw a wall" gets a reply, because it hands the other person something easy to answer.
People who spend time outside like talking about where they have been. Ask about the place and you are already having a conversation instead of an exchange.
Make the first meeting a short walk
A first date outdoors solves most of what makes first dates awkward. You are side by side rather than across a table, you have something to look at, and it ends naturally when the loop does.
Keep it to an hour or so, somewhere popular with other people about, and tell a friend where you are going. Full detail in our guide to planning a first date outdoors.
