March 2020
New Film – The Carneddau Ponies
The Carneddau Ponies live semi-feral on the mountains that back onto my home here in Snowdonia. They comprise a small population of about 300 and are thought to date back to the Bronze Age. Over [...]
Mountain Memories #3
Todays photo is a (not very good) shot of my Dad by the Kings House Hotel in Glen Coe. These stories are not meant to be about the imagery, just the memories that a photo [...]
Mountain Memories #2
Todays photo to trigger a memory is of my friend Alec. In yesterdays memory I chatted a little about my first foray into the harder scrambles in the 1990's when my Dad and I went [...]
Mountain Memories #1
Whilst we are all staying at home I thought I would join the trend for sharing some photos and some stories from the last few years. This photo is of Paddy on the Isle of [...]
We need to stay at home
Whilst the cities are quiet this weekend, yesterday saw the busiest day in Snowdonia in living memory. We all need to work together to beat this. We need to stay at home. I live here [...]
Nice and Quiet on the Hill
Contrary to the forecast it's been a nice day out for the end of the Weekend Winter Skills which was also the last of this year's Expedition Guide winter courses. Me and the boys have been up Meall [...]
A Wee Hill for Winter Skills
We've the last of this year's Weekend Winter Skills courses running this weekend. Given the amount of snow on the mountains of the West Highlands right now you'd imagine that we could have run them well into [...]
Blue Skyes
It's been a super sunny day and there's undoubtedly lots of fantastic ice to climb right now but with the heavy snow and high winds of yesterday getting to those climbs safely appeared to be [...]
Yet another trip to the ‘Gorms
High winds and avalanche hazard are still something that we're working around so to mitigate that it was another drive east for Brian, Richard and me. Coire an t-Sneachda couldn't offer much to reduce the [...]
The Old Haunt of Beinn a Chaorainn
With weather more typical of this winter season we've been back to familiar haunts today with a team ascent of The East Ridge of Beinn a Chaorainn. The rain and thaw might have stripped a little of [...]
A Couple of Climbs in Coire an t-Sneachda
After the weekend off we're back into things with a Three Day Winter Mountaineering Course. With the weather back to the more familiar high winds and rain we all headed east to the Cairngorms where the [...]
Cairngorm Mountaineering
This week Huw and I have been joined by Martin (from last week) Richard and Brian who have all done our winter skills course and are now with us to progress onto mountaineering ground. With [...]
Thank Yous from last week
Hi Rob,Thank you for another superb week in the Scottish mountains. It was great to meet up again even if we didn't get to climb together - I think Huw was on a bit of [...]
The Week Vanishes
That's the end of the Winter Mountaineering and Climbing Week and what a great week it has been with Oli and Shae. We stayed closer to Fort William today where the lower laying routes on Ben Nevis [...]
Stob Coire nan Lochain
For the final day of the winter skills week we headed back to Glencoe and climbed Stob Coire nan Lochain. Plan A had been to do a traverse of the mountain but a lack of [...]
Still on the same Wavelength
It was just Shae and me today and unsurprisingly we went back to the Cairngorms yet again. With the avalanche hazard dropping to moderate most places were safely accessible in the Northern Corries today. We [...]
Aonach Mor
We made the most of a Gondola ride today at the Nevis Range and made our way up to the summit of Aonach Mor. Our theme for the day was winter navigation and the conditions [...]
Lurking about on Lurchers
It's hard to know without direct comparison but I think that we got quite lucky today. Like a lot of other people I imagine we followed the reports of good ice on Lurchers Crag and [...]
Fiachaill Ridge, Cairngorms
Huws tales of crisp neve and blue skies were sufficiently inspiring to see us head over to the Cairngorms ourselves today on the winter skills course. We walked into the Northern Corries and sure enough [...]
An easier day in the Cairngorms
By design Shae, Oli and me have had a much easier day today. Taking the lead from others we headed across to the Cairngorms where it was a world away from the deep snow of [...]
Another beautiful day in Glencoe
For the second day of our winter skills course we headed back down to Glencoe after a planning session this morning looking at avalanche and weather forecasts. We climbed Buachaille Etive Beag which provided a [...]
A Fight on Aonach Dubh
Shae, Oli and me put a lot of thought into planning this morning but we still ended up with nine hours of fighting. Deep snow is making it difficult to move around in the mountains [...]
Plenty of snow in Scotland
Huw and I are back up in Scotland this week with a winter climbing/mountaineering course and a winter skills week running. I have been out with Frank, Jon, Martin and Oliver for the winter skills [...]
February 2020
Crib Goch in the snow
We have had our fair share of wild weather over the last couple of weeks here in Snowdonia but things have definitely calmed down a bit now and there is some snow on the hills. [...]
Norway – Thank You
Hi Rob, Just wanted to thank you again for a cracking time in Norway. I’m very glad the cancellation came up, also glad it was with yourself, you’re a top fella and you gauged exactly [...]