British Mountaineering Club
Do you know your crampons from your gaiters? When it comes to waterproof gear, have you considered your midlayers? The answers to these questions can all be found on the web, and the British Mountaineering Club's links section is a good place to start, even if the foothills of Snowdonia are as far as you intend to climb.

Berghaus
Berghaus provides a slightly ropey interactive gear selector. Despite being little more than an online flow chart with some sections missing, it might prove helpful. But the site is too sloppy to fulfill its promise, and functions best as a research tool.

Oswald Bailey
Oswald Bailey is an altogether more useful online shop, which specialises in camping equipment and clothing.

Cotswold Outdoor Service
The Cotswold Outdoor Service is temporarily offline as stock is updated, but looks promising.

Pete's Gear Pages
For impartial advice on hiking poles, down equipment (sleeping bags, chiefly) and packs, try Pete's Gear Pages. Pete, by his own admission, is a "terminally sad gear junkie" who has assembled some excellent tips on buying and using equipment.

All the sites mentioned above cater for occasional climbers and walkers, and even if you expect temperatures to be comfortable and the conditions favourable, they are well worth visiting. Plenty of hardcore British stores have an online presence, and many of these are linked from the British Mountaineering Club's site.

1.ski.com
Skiing is still the most popular type of sports holiday, and the need for advice on equipment is being recognised by the proliferation of ski sites. 1.ski.com offers useful advice on equipment. Choosing the price you want to pay and your level of experience will return a list of items in printable format.