I heard it on the jade vine

Distance: 16Km Height ascended: 1100m Time taken: 6 hours Munros: Ben Macdui (1309m) and Cairngorm (1245m). The second day of my trip around the Cairngorm 4000ers started fairly early. No matter how comfortable my chosen spot, I'm never a great sleeper in a tent, particularly in the middle of summer when the sun rises so early. I've found that using an eye mask (like those people have when travelling by plane) does help enormously, even so by 6am I was wide awake and ready to get moving. I guess these days, with an energetic toddler who likes to wake early, my body is fairly accustomed to it anyway. The bonus of getting out of the tent early was seeing the sun rise above Ben Macdui and start to reach into the Lairig Ghru. The sky was clear and blue and the sun slowly illuminated the steep sides of Devil's Point and Cairn Toul in front of me as I ate my breakfast, a truly stunning view. By 7am I was fed, packed and ready to be moving. Given that the day was to start

Distance: 22Km Height ascended: 1400m Time taken: 7hours 30 minutes Munros: Braeriach (1296m), Sgor an Lochain Uaine (1258m), Cairn Toul (1291m) and Devil's Point (1004m). Over the last few years we've done a family holiday for a week to stay in Ballater in Deeside. We've often gone in the Autumn when the area is particularly beautiful but with the imminent arrival of daughter number 2 things got pushed forwards to July this year. This seemed to me like the perfect opportunity to make use of the longer daylight hours to fit in a bigger hillwalking trip. I had various thoughts of doing the hills near Lochnagar or possibly those accessible from Glen Shee. Eventually though, a much bigger prospect came into view. Although I wasn't really on the "right" side of the Cairngorms, I realised it's not that far to drive to get to Aviemore. This brought up the idea of doing the classic walk over all the Cairngorms hills that have a height greater than 4000feet

Distance: 21Km Height ascended: 1900m Time taken: 7hours 15 minutes Munros: Beinn a'Chroin, An Caisteal, Cruach Ardrain, Beinn Tulaichean Having been doing shorter routes during the Winter I felt that with the longer days of Spring and the clocks going forwards it was time to get back into the longer, bigger challenges. With the recent warm weather there was no risk of any snow remaining except in the most shaded hollows so there was not going to be any need for the heavy crampons and ice axe so I knew I could cover the ground much faster. Even so, I expected this route might take a minimum of 8 hours. This isn't a hugely long walk but the amount of ascent and the steepness of the climbs means this route is definitely hard work and that's what accounts for most of the time. Having recently discovered the access into these hills from Inverlochlarig I was keen to do as many of the munros in this area from this starting point. Last month was Stob Binnein and Ben More

As an undergraduate at Durham University I got to know the Lake District really well through the Hillwalking Society (DUYHA later DUHWS) and had many excellent outings. I am reckoning it's now over 10 years since I last actually set foot in the area never mind did any hillwalking. My plans for hillwalking in 2012 hadn't initially included anything outside of Scotland as I have intentions of covering a lot of munros this year. However a message posted on Google+ by an acquaintance from my university days got me interested in going back. In some ways I think that I fancied going back for old-times sake - a bit of a nostalgia trip maybe - but I do still have plenty of unfinished business in the Lakes. I am also hoping this year to do some more challenging routes in Scotland, particularly I fancy the Aonach Eagach ridge, so a bit of practice on some easier ridges first to check I can still handle the exposure seemed like a good idea. The plan was to meet up for the weekend at P