One pad or two?
One full-size pad is the start. Two is how you stop twisting an ankle on a sloped Roaches landing. A slider or sit pad fills the gaps. If you only buy one thing this year, buy the pad, not another chalk bag.
Hinge vs taco
Hinge pads (Organic Simple) carry better on Peak walk-ins and sit flatter on lumpy ground. Taco pads can be thicker in the middle and annoying on stairs. For UK grit, hinge wins more often.
Organic Simple Pad
No gimmicks. Proper foam, bombproof skin, buckles that don’t explode on the A53. It’s the pad we’d lend a friend visiting Leek for the weekend.
Affiliate links ahead. If a pad’s out of stock, use the collection link rather than panic-buying a folding gym mat.