Heart of the Highlands May

Guides - Ian, Isabelle
Clients - Ann, Ash, Beatrice, Carol, Craig, Gail, Keith, Linda, Tom
Conditions - one rainy day, fine the rest of the week

Big Highland Tour May

Guide - Peter with Isabelle on a scouting trip to the B&Bs
Clients - Jane, Stephanie
Conditions - Glorious start to the first week - especially at Arrochar and on Ben Nevis, a bit gray later on Skye and at Kinlochewe

Highlands Railways and Hills May

Guide - Niall
Clients - Caroline, Charles, Eric, Sandy
Conditions - fine

Skye Discovery May

Guide - Ian
Clients - Alice, Caroline, Charles, Eugen, Frances, Gonny, Ingrid, Kristina
Conditions - Noah's Ark building weather

Pitlochry Weekend May

Guide - Geordie
Client - Stacey
Conditions - better than in the West!
This was a private guiding rip for one of our returning customers - accommodation in Pitlochry, travel by train - with Geordie guiding his local hills - Drummochter Pass on Saturday, Ben Vrackie on Sunday

Ben Nevis weekend May

Guide - Ian
Clients - Bill, Ekaterina, Lyta, Paul, Margo, Niels, Oskar
Conditions - Rain on Friday, fog and snow on the summit of Ben Nevis saturday

West Highland Way Adventure

Guide - Niall
Clients - Vogelzang Family from the Netherlands
Conditions - Rain. A lot of rain!

Buachaille Etive Mhor 29th April

Guide - Niall (with help from Dougie from Make Tracks)
Clients - Adirondack Mountain Club
Conditions - Mixed

Ben Lomond - Saturday 25th April

Guide - Jon
Clients - Adirondack Mountain Club
Conditions - Blue sky day

Skye Discovery April

Guide - Ian
Clients - Annie, Maggie, Priscilla, Wing
Conditions - Gorgeous April weather throughout!javascript:void(0)

Easter Ben Nevis Weekend

Guide - Andy
Customers - Amy, Douglas, Orlena, Susana, Sylvia, Tanya

Pentlands in the Sunshine

Guide - Jon
Driver - Dave from Macbackpackers
Customers - 17 people from Briggs Engineering Ltd
Route - Balerno to Flotterstone Inn (5 miles)

This was a gorgeous, warm, sunny day - felt more like May than March... The plan was for a half-day's walk including transport from Dundas Castle, so although we only travelled six miles to the start of the walk at Harlaw, it was hard to imagine that you are within spitting distance of half a million people.

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Ben Lomond

Guide - Richard
Customers - Paula, Roy
Blue sky - cold and sunny in Edinburgh but wild and windy over at the hill

Ben Ledi - Students Day Tour

Ben Ledi - Antwerp University getting fresh air

Guide - Gary
Customers - 17 students and teachers from Antwerp University
Conditions - Snow on the summit, zero visibility

Camping and ski touring

Meanwhile....

After meeting the guys in the Bridge of Lochay Hotel, I drove eastwards on moonlit snowy roads past Loch Tay and over to Blairgowrie where I'd arranged to meet Nobby in his Mazda Bongo campervan - the plan was to head up to Glenshee, camp in the carpark and be first on the slopes in the morning... Al & Lindsay were coming up too but they saw sense and got a room at the Spittal of Glenshee hotel. It was midnight when we reached Glenshee - the final pull up the pass was like driving in winter Norway, hard compacted snow on the road and white out conditions (so that's what snow poles are for at the side of the road)

Nobby slept in the van - but I prefer a tent so we pitched the tent in the lee of Glenshee ski centre buildings - by this time it was a whiteout with 60mph winds so I improvised and weighted the tent down with heavy road cones. The Big Agnes Seedhouse tent is a lightweight backpacking tent which we use on the summer wild camping weekends - it doesnt have snow vallances on the flysheet and the inner is mostly constructed of mozzy mesh - this meant that the wind constantly drove a small, powdery and increasingly expanding drift in - but I was really warm in my two down sleeping bags and two sleeping mats - and slept well until woken up by the piste bashers and snow ploughs preparing the car park at first light.

The wind put all piste skiing plans on hold and the now shut snow gate on the Glenshee road prevented Al & Lindsay from meeting up, or from actually getting anywhere in a hurry at all - so Nobby and I headed northwards down to Braemar village where the wind had certainly abated - walking up the northern slopes of Morvern, the 800m lump which overlooks the village (skinned up the first part but found that the heather was catching the skis too much so we found that it was more efficient to carry the skis for most of the ascent - meeting two walkers (who conveniently broke trail) and one descending cross country skier all day. After three hours of snow bashing to get up, the descent was a mere twenty minutes or so by snowed-in landrover track before a final couple of miles flat x-c skiing, surrounded by snow covered hills back to the village. Ace!

February Winter skills with Gary

The 2nd Winter Skills course of the year - this time we didn't have to wait for the snow, though at lower levels there was still considerably less than the foot or so which had kept the commuters at bay down south all week. Conditions at Killin were pretty wild on the Saturday, with a strong wind blowing the snow but Sunday was one of those legendary blue sky winter days which get talked about in years to come.

Guide/Instructor - Gary
Customers - Gordon, Dave, Tim

Walking Up Lowther Hill this time

Set out down to Lowther on Saturday to actually ski the hill in daylight - however when I got out of the van, as well as being bitterly cold, it was pretty obvious that the wind had blasted a lot of the snow away which had lain the week before - the few remaining patches, in the gullies and slightly more sheltered hollows, looked barely skiable. I debated in my head, whilst listening to the first half of Stoke vs Man City, the merits of taking the skis with me, just to have a go at the largest gully, just down from the summit - but just before Stoke scored, I turned off the radio, donned normal walking boots and headed up the rock solid Southern Upland Way.

The view from the summit is a wide one - Tinto to the North, the Moffat Hills, South-East and a highland-looking glen immediately South. I expected to see over to Arran in the West but the frozen lump of East Mt.Lowther and the setting winter Sun stole the view. The wind on Lowther's summit was truly fierce, so I sheltered in the lee of the golf-ball radar station before walking, half surfing the wind down to the lower transmitting tower and the narrow grassy ridge over to Green Lowther - this is where the wind was at its strongest - hood-up, goggles on, this was winter walking at it's finest!

Wanlockhead has Scotland's highest pub (Wanlockhead Inn), so when I got back down to the village (rows of small white cottages with smoky chimneys, windswept, empty streets, a shut lead mining museum and SYHA hostel and a bored looking dog chained to a wall), I thought I'd pay it a visit, managing enough shrapnel for half a McEwans 60 - the beer was nice but the tartan carpet was giving me irrational panic attacks and the sudden desire to leave!

First ski tour of the year

Lowther Hill is the highest hill in Dumfries and Galloway, but being just off the M74, 40 miles SOUTH of Glasgow it's almost in Lanarkshire and the Borders but at 725meters high, it large enough to have snow on in the winter. So I escaped the office, tazzed down down the Biggar road in the fading afternoon sunshine (snow on the Pentlands' tops and on Tinto Hill), crossed the motorway and took the potholed road up to Wanlockhead, the highest village in Scotland. (Believe it or not, but the highest villgae in Scotland is actually 1 whole meter lower in altitude than the highest village in England - Flash in that wild place known as the Staffordshire moorlands yet neither are in the truly mountainous areas).
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With a rapidly setting sun, I donned the plastic telemark boots and walked up the damp and melting Lowther Hill track from Wanlockhead for about 1km, after about 520m in altitude the snow was deeper and more stable, with a definite icy crust - Lowther Hill's not-so-secret is the cold war golf ball on the summit complete with perfectly asphalted access road - which makes for quick hill ascents. However, it was perfectly dark with zero moonlight when I started my headtorch-lit run back down. It was a rusty, thigh-busting, side slipping, out of control nightmare - but it was ace!

Winter Skills Course with Gary at Killin

First winter skills course of 2009 - a dusting of snow on the tops on Friday but snowing on Saturday and a full on blizzard on the Sunday.

Gary, of course, knows where all the good snow spots are on Ben Lawers since he lives at the foot of the hill - Killin is an ideal base for winter skills courses - since we usually have the hills to ourselves, unlike at the ski centres.

Guide - Gary - tarmachan-mountaineering.com

Clients - Bruce, Anthony

The Most Boring Munro in the Land?

At Drummochter Pass, the high point after the long pull up the A9 from Blair Atholl is a good place for winter munro bagging becasue teh starting hight of 400m leaves half the job done in terms of altitude gained - the west side has Geal Charn, A Mharconnich and Ben Udlamain - which have great views out over Loch Ericht but somehow the east side's big flat topped lumps, somehow have never held the same attraction - I was wrong! I found myself at a loose end on saturday afternoon, so instead of tidying the bunkhouse, I headed up a landrover track up the frozen heathery slopes of A’Bhuidheanach Bheag with Alex and Sophie for some blatant Munro bagging - the track all the way to the summit was a bit of a cheat but the wide open views of the wintry sunset were definitely inspiring! Walking up hills is never dull!