I heard it on the jade vine

Arrochar has a special significance for me, it was my first taste of the Scottish hills waaay back in 1996 when on a weekend away with the Durham University Hillwalking Society (DUYHA as it was then). If memory serves, my first hill on that trip was Ben Vane and from that moment on I have been a confirmed munro bagger! That was also my first taste of winter mountaineering, I recall a massive amount of snow and being equipped with an ancient ice axe with a wooden shaft! I believe that over the years I have climbed all the larger hills in this area at some point, I've certainly been up both The Cobbler and Ben Narnain a fair few times and twice suffered on the steep ascent to Ben Vorlich. All of these trips targetted the hills in ones or twos so what I had never done was to link up all the munros in a single walk. Yet again my inspiration for this walk came from Dan Bailey's excellent book " Great Mountain Days in Scotland " (published by Cicerone). Rather than taki...

Ever since I first read Dan Bailey's inspirational book " Great Mountain Days in Scotland " (published by Cicerone) a few years ago one challenge I've really wanted to have a go at is that of walking the 4 munros of Ben Cruachan, Stob Daimh, Beinn a'Chocuill and Beinn Eunaich in a single day. The route offers a bit of everything - big mountains, high level ridge walking, easy scrambling on good rock and spectacular views. (This continues on from A night out on Ben Cruachan ). On paper this might not look like a really big route, it's only 20km with about 2100m of ascent but that really doesn't account for the scale of what is involved. The ups are big, the downs are big and there's plenty of scrambling in between. Applying the traditional Naismith rule gives a walking time of 7hr 30mins but I took 9 hours (although with a 10kg pack), Bailey recommends allowing 11hour for the full loop. I'm an early riser, especially when camping, but e...

Ever since I first read Dan Bailey's inspirational book " Great Mountain Days in Scotland " (published by Cicerone) a few years ago one challenge I've really wanted to have a go at is that of walking the 4 munros of Ben Cruachan, Stob Daimh, Beinn a'Chocuill and Beinn Eunaich in a single day. The route offers a bit of everything - big mountains, high level ridge walking, easy scrambling on good rock and spectacular views. The main reason I've not got around to doing this sooner is that it is quite a long way to travel from Edinburgh, certainly it's too far for me to drive there and back in a day. Also family life means I can't be out for entire weekends for camping trips that frequently. On a recent trip to the Ben Alder area I took the train to Corrour station as it's not easily accessible any other way. As I was sat on the train in Crianlarich station waiting for it to split in two, with the first part going on to Oban, it dawned on me that Be...

Distance 11km Height Ascended 850m Time Taken 9 hours Munros Stob Coire Sgreamhach (1072m) The weather has been truly appalling for the last 6 weeks, I can handle a certain amount of rain or snow and the cold doesn't tend to bother me but the whole of December was a write-off due to the incredible gales. The idea of trying to cling to the side of a mountain in the teeth of a hurricane just doesn't appeal. This means that I've not been out in the hills since November when I managed to do the grade II Sron na Creise ridge. I've been watching the weather forecast over the whole Christmas and New Year period hoping that there would be at least a couple of calm days and finally a short window (just one day!) appeared between the storms. I've had my eye on Sron na Lairig for a while now. I first caught sight of this ridge when I climbed Buachaille Etive Beag on a fine winter day last year. It's the sort of ridge which just looks so good it demands to...

Distance: 29km Height Ascended: 1450m Time Taken: 7 hours 30 minutes Munros: Glas Tulaichean (1051m), Carn an Righ (1029m) and Beinn Iutharn Mhor (1045m) This is my third trip to the Glen Shee area this year. The previous two were in the winter and, for ease of access, those trips were focussed on the munros nearest to the ski centre. Now that summer is here and we're actually getting some good dry weather I felt the time had come to take on some of the longer walks required to cover the more distant munros. This trip is probably the longest single day route (in terms of distance) I've ever done in the mountains. Thankfully the start at Spittal of Glen Shee is fairly high (it's at 350m) and once you get over the first ascent there is not too much reascent between each top. I started this walk at about 8am and, according to the car, the temperature was already 15C. For Scotland, even in summer that can often he as high as the temperature reaches at midday. The sk...

Distance: 11km Height ascended: 660m Time taken: 3 hours Munros: Carn Aosda (917m), Carn a'Gheoidh (975m) and The Cairnwell (933m) I have driven through Glen Shee many times now and never stopped to even take in the view never mind doing any hillwalking. This weekend I thought it was about time I rectified the situation and actually ventured out. These hills are a good choice for a hillwalking trip in January, the start is high (660m) and the distances are not great so a walk can easily be fitted into a short day. There is also the possibility of a good snow covering, they didn't put a ski centre in Glen Shee without good reason... In fact, the winter is the one time of the year when this area has any chance of looking reasonably nice since there is a vast amount of clutter strewn everywhere across the hills nearest the road which is all associated with the ski runs. The view from the car park is very off-putting, there are ski tows, chair lifts, large amounts of woo...

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...

Route http://www.munromagic.com/MountainInfo.cfm?Mountain=21 Distance 17km Munros Cac Carn Beag (Lochnagar)

Route http://www.munromagic.com/RouteInfo.cfm?RouteID=184 Distance 33.5km Munros Carn a' Mhaim, Ben MacDui & Derry Cairngorm

Route http://www.munromagic.com/RouteInfo.cfm?RouteID=110 Distance 14.7km Munros Ben Vorlich & Stuc a'Chroin I was rather pushed to find a free day for some hillwalking in August which actually had vaguely decent weather. It eventually came down to Sunday 28th August, the only slight issue being that I had already arranged to be at a Edinburgh International Festival concert on that evening so I had to be back in good time and not so wiped out that I would snooze through it! The choice was to either go for a short drive and a mid-size walk or a longer drive with a short walk. I opted for the former and headed out to do Ben Vorlich & Stuc a'Chroin near Lochearnhead. These hills are not new to me, I first did them in full winter conditions as an undergraduate many years ago which was a truly incredible introduction. This was going to be my fifth outing, typically doing both except for my previous visit when I only did Ben Vorlich due to horribly thick cloud. ...

Over the years I've often wondered about people use walking poles, even at university a few people in the student hillwalking group were using them but I wasn't sure why they bothered. I always had the impression that they didn't give much benefit and that somehow they detracted from the hill walking experience. The various problems I've had with my ankles and knees over t he last few years d ue to my flat feet have made me reassess walking poles. They certainly seem to be more popular than ever and I've seen numerous articles in magazines such as Trail extolling their benefits. There is now also some scientific evidence that walking poles significantly reduce muscle damage during mountain walking. So, I have finally given in and I recently bought a pair of Leki Makalu Trail walking poles from Tisos (my favourite shop for outdoor kit and, no, they're not paying me to say that...). They cost £56 and were by no means the cheapest poles they had on sale (which I...

Route http://www.munromagic.com/RouteInfo.cfm?RouteID=47 Distance 17.4km Munros Carn Mairg, Carn Gorm, Meall nan Aighean & Meall Garbh After my previous total washout on 26th June I wanted to get straight back out there and complete the Carn Mairg round so the next chance I had on Sunday 24th July saw me taking on this route for the second time. The weather could not have been more different from my previous outing. The sky was blue, the cloud was very high (not even close to the tops of the hills) and the temperature was warm without being too hot. To me this is the ultimate summer walking weather, as long as I remember to apply the sun cream it's as good as it gets. As before I took the clockwise approach to the round starting with Carn Gorm and then heading over An Sgorr to Meall Garbh , I then took in Meall a' Bharr to reach Carn Mairg . Rather than going direct to the final munro - Meall na Aigean - I also took the chance to visit Meall Liath . I...

Route http://www.munromagic.com/RouteInfo.cfm?RouteID=47 Distance 17.4km Munros Carn Gorm & Meall Garbh (2 out of possible 4) Last Sunday (26th June) saw me attempting the Carn Mairg round of 4 munros. This route is 17.5km and, being 5km shorter, should have been considerably easier than my previous outing to Beinn A'Ghlo. A combination of appalling weather and very tired legs meant that this was never going to be an easy day out. The walk starts at Invervar, which is near Fortingall (which is itself near Aberfeldy) in Perthshire. It seems that over the years the estate which owns these hills has not been very welcoming to hill walkers, in particular they pretty much don't want to see people during the stalking season. With this in mind June seemed the perfect time for a visit. The estate has now provided a small parking area in Invervar with strict guidelines that once it is full people should just go somewhere else. The parking area is not that easy to spot ...

There are times when having a small kid really makes me realise just how much the world has changed. This morning Ella was chatting about space rockets and "blasting off" to the moon so I immediately got onto youtube and we sat down to watch footage for loads of the Apollo and Shuttle launches (subtly ignoring a few unfortunate fireballs along the way). We then went on to look at the Apollo astronauts planting flags and bouncing around on the moon. She was really fascinated with it all, although at first she got a bit worried by all the fire and the equipment falling away as the rockets got going. The one thing which truly puzzled her though was watching the earth-rise from the perspective of the moon. Clearly at the age of two the idea of the world being round is a tricky one. I guess I saw these things on TV occasionally as a kid but being able to see them on demand really is awesome. I also still can't get over how long it is since anyone last stood on t...