A short November walk taking in the hills south of the River Dee with grand views to the wintry Cairngorms

Date: 11th November 2012
Distance: 21.62km
Ascent: 665m
Time: 7 hrs 30 mins
Hills: Carn Liath
Weather: Early sunshine giving way to cloudy but dry conditions. Very cold wind.
Route: View on OS Maps

Sunday morning dawned cold and clear in Aberdeen. A close conjunction of Venus and the waning Moon hung low in the eastern sky as I walked to the meeting point for the November Stocket hillwalk. There a gathering of Stockets was lacking only one thing: a coach. After a couple of phone calls the confusion was sorted out and twenty-five minutes later we were on a warm coach heading west down Deeside under beautiful morning skies. Pockets of frost and a low running river were both remarked on.

A review of Alex Roddie’s historical fiction novel The Only Genuine Jones

A circuit of the hills in the eastern Cairngorms with an overnight camp on Beinn a’ Bhuird

Date: 20th-21st October 2012
Distance: 41.23km
Ascent: 1,572m
Time: 28 hrs 30 mins
Hills: Beinn a’ Bhuird (Munro), Beinn a’ Chaorainn (Munro), Beinn Bhreac (Munro)
Weather: Predominantly sunny, very cold wind and icy temperatures
Route: View on OS Maps

Four weeks ago I was supposed to be in Assynt, enjoying the wild lands of the far north and climbing my halfway Munro. My car however had different ideas, breaking down and leaving me stranded in Aberdeen on a sunny Friday. It took two weeks and more money than I really care to think about to sort it out but at least I have a car again. For my return to camping trips I wasn’t up for something as distant as Assynt, instead I chose to head back to my favourite stomping ground, the Cairngorms.

A report of a four day backpacking trip through the Northwest Highlands of Scotland

Date: 24th August to 27th August 2012
Distance: 82.26km
Ascent: 3,671m
Time: Four Days
Hills: Sgurr nan Coireachan (Munro), Sgurr Thuilm (Munro), Luinne Bheinn (Munro)
Weather: Plenty of it
Route: Click to view on Social Hiking

Day 1

I've never really felt nervous before a trip before, but this one seemed different. My rucksack was loaded with food enough to see me through five days of backpacking. It was heavy, bulging, even a little unwieldy. As I sat on the Citylink coach that took me from the Cluanie Inn (where I had parked my car) to Fort William I gazed out at a familiar landscape. Hills and lochs that I have driven past several times now were all gloomy and grey as a steady rain fell from leaden skies. At Fort William I had a couple of hours to wait before my train but with little appetite spent it in the bustle of the station cafe reading a few chapters of my book. The Maillaig-bound train duly arrived on time and took me west, along the beautiful shores of Loch Linnhe. As the rain finally eased there was now a brightness to the sky, a promise of a better afternoon and the thought of claiming my first couple of Munros of the trip.

A round of the Tarmachan Ridge above Killin

Date: 15th September 2012
Distance: 14.23km
Ascent: 933m
Time: 4 hrs 30 mins
Hills: Creag na Caillich, Beinn nan Eanach, Meall Garbh, Meall nan Tarmachan (Munro) Weather: Early sunshine and breezy to later on low cloud and very strong winds Route: View on OS Maps

A quick drive north east took us to Killin and up the road to our high starting point for the day. We passed the new and very busy Ben Lawers car park to reach the Tarmachan starting point which only had a couple of cars parked up at this relatively early hour. Although the clouds had earlier been stuck to the summits, we booted up in bright sunshine with a blustery breeze blowing the long grasses.

A report from a traverse of the Cairngorms from the Linn of Dee to Coylumbridge via Cairn Toul and Loch Einich

Date: 18th August 2012
Distance: 38.16km
Ascent: 1,827m
Time: 10hr 24min
Hills: Angel's Peak (Munro), Cairn Toul (Munro), Devil's Point (Munro)
Weather: Early showers giving way to bright sunshine
Route: View on OS Maps

The opportunity to traverse a mountain range in a day is a rare one and is definitely one of the main reasons why I am a member of the Stocket Hillwalking Club. The club’s 2012 Cairngorm Traverse was an opportunity to cross the Cairngorms, either via the famous pass of the Lairig Ghru, or going across the Cairn Toul massif to bag the Devil’s Peak, Cairn Toul and Sgorr an Lochain Uaine. Despite the fact that I had been up in this area wild camping just a couple of weeks before I was still thoroughly looking forward to this day out, especially as the weather promised to be rather good. Would it be, as with Braeriach on the last occasion, third time lucky for a summit view from Cairn Toul?

An overnight trip into the Western Cairngorms with a camp near the summit of the Devil’s Point

Day 1

Date: 4th August 2012
Distance: 22.23km
Ascent: 1,678m
Time: 10hr 15min
Hills: Braeriach (Munro), Angel's Peak (Munro), Cairn Toul (Munro), Devil's Point (Munro)
Weather: Early bright sunshine, cloudy later with a heavy rain shower
Route: View on OS Maps

Other than perhaps getting up to head on holiday, 4:30am on a Saturday morning isn’t a time I would normally be pleased to see. Looking outside didn’t do much to engage my motivation; Aberdeen was wreathed in a dense, Victorian fog and I could barely see the other other side of the street. However, I had somewhere to be and someone to meet so after a few last minute preparations and a pain au chocolat consumed between yawns I was on the road.

Walking through the Fisherfield forest, often called the Great Wilderness, brings with it an experience few people get to enjoy as part of a normal, everyday existence. In the well developed land of Great Britain, where tarmaced roads have been run to the furthest flung corners of the island, it is hard to get away from the marks of human civilisation. Fisherfield is one of the most isolated spots by this measure with the encircling roads failing to encroach on this unspoilt area of wild land. Dominated by hills, mountains and lochs there are few buildings and fewer people.

Date: 21st July 2012
Distance: 18.34km
Ascent: 1,218m
Time: 4hrs 30min
Hills: Craig Maskeldie
Weather: A warm, humid summer's day with rain on and off
Route: View on OS Maps

Well, it had been several weeks since my last drenching in the Scottish hills. Saturday rolled around and I had a free afternoon so the bag was packed, sandwiches were made and I was heading down the road to pay another visit to the Angus Glens. Around this time last year my girlfriend and I had enjoyed a wander down Loch Lee and enjoyed views of the craggy hills which crowd in around the Water of Lee. We hadn't been up the hills on that occassion (there was a barbeque to enjoy, after all) and since those views I had been keen to get back and take in a few of the summits. Although I have a long route planned out I ended up just doing a short walk today, mainly because the weather really wasn't very enjoyable.

It doesn’t seem all that many years ago that only those people travelling to the far reaches of the world, places like the remote Himalaya or the Poles, had access to satellite communications technology. These satellite phones were heavy and prohibitively expensive. Now a wide range of handheld devices are available which tap into global satellite communications at a fraction of the price that a satellite phone would have cost you just a few years ago. Whilst these devices may not allow full conversations to happen when off grid, they do provide a convenient way of communicating your status (whether good or bad) back to friends and family, and, through social media, the wider world. They also offer the ability to contact emergency rescue services in locations that getting a phone signal might be impossible and for this reason are increasingly being carried by people going off into mountainous or remote areas both on land and sea.