I’m not really one for taking anyone on the hill that isn’t essential – fundamentally I hate carrying wasted weight – light and (not so) fast is the aim . I don’t sacrifice essential safety kit such as torch, layers, first aid kit, blanket etc but Flasks of coffee tend not to be something I pack. That said – both my wife Sam ( my main hill partner) and my regular climbing buddy Fraser both love a coffee on aRead more
Posts tagged: ##winter
Schiehallion
Ahead of the Christmas break we wanted to get a decent hill in and forecasts pointed east so Schiehallion in the Low east Highlands , near Aberfeldy was our decision. We’ve done Schiehallion twice already once in mid winter and once in spring , both times required crampons with a lot of lying snow and ice around the rocky summit but today it was a different story Setting out early ( been a while sixes we’ve been up at 6am!)Read more
Fjern Breen Insulated Jacket
For those that follow me you will know I have become a real fan of Fjerns clothing / equipment since I found them via Sport Pursuit around 2 years or so ago and since purchasing their superb Orkan hard shell waterproof Jacket (review here) and posting my review they have been kind enough to let me try out other items – most recently I just received the Breen Medium / Light Insulated jacket . A full review will follow onceRead more
“Sharp Pointy Things for Christmas Please”
A piece written by our resident Mountain Guide Andrew Mallinson, penned before Christmas but very pertinent as the snow and ice returns to the UK and many of us are now gearing up and getting out to the Cairngorms and other areas … So what do we want in our seasonal stockings ? Well, with the first dusting of snow on the mountains, thoughts inevitably turn to winter and whether we’re “tooled up” for those magnificent days that await inRead more
Winter Solstice in Coire an t-Sneachda
As we moved between pitches 2 and 3 the wind slowly started to pick up and the lack of sun on the face saw the temperatures start to dip as the sun hung low on this, the shortest day of the year. Get the feet movingRead more
Safety first, Safety second
Its something we all do, get “complacent through familiarity” . Be it walking across a road, driving a known street or as in this case, think we are safe on a well know mountain “because we have been here before”. I’m glad to say climbing in a team of regular buddies as I tend to do I’m fortunate to have people around me (some with military backgrounds) who tend not to fall into this trap and really do think SafetyRead more
Fjern Orkan on test
after much hunting around, trying on and almost giving up I stumbled across the Fjern Orkan shell Read more
#NotWinter
Its frozen ropes, sodden gloves, painful and somehow also numb fingers, running noses and feet of frozen pins and needles.Read more
Hunting winter in Scotland!
After scratching about, the last bit of gear seeming VERY far away and below me, feeling the exposure to my core I capitulatedRead more
Maybe more
The battle continued, slabby rock under powder, no gear options and all the time swimming upstream.Read more
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