Evil hill

There is only one thing worse than walking through very very wet churned up peat.  

That will be walking through heather that has obviously never been burned and is up to your knees.

Yesterday, I had both.

I would have written this last night, if it wasn't for the fact that I was nursing a scabby lip having dragged it around all day.

Note to self:  no matter what the weather men say, always (I repeat always) take a complete set of dry clothes when hill walking in Autumn.

On a positive note, Lady Snow graced me with her presence yesterday.

Love it :)

No sign of winter :(

It has been a very wet few days on the hills.

Once again, if there was a human size tumble drier on the market, I would be purchasing one.

Mountain days & bothy nights

When I speak about a 3 day mini break in the hills, ML assessment automatically springs to mind.  However, for once there was no speak about re-entrants, spurs and relocating.

Instead, I had the utter delight of spending 3 days in the hills with a bunch of folk who giggled their way around the Cairngorms.

It was incredibly hard work of course - they made me climb not one, but 3 munros; they made me go to not one but 2 bothies; and if I wasn't on the 12 months alcohol free rule [home brew obviously does NOT count], they would have forced not only wine but whiskey past my fair lips :)

They tried to educate me on the merits of using the outdoors as an educational tool; the correct pronunciation of all the gaelic names; and failed miserably on getting me in the nude to go for a skinny dip.

Guys - throw away your Kurt Hahns, your Simon Priests and your Carl Rohnkes.  Get yourself 'Mountain Days & Bothy Nights' [Brown & Mitchell], 'Scotland's mountains before the Mountaineers' [Mitchell] and Dougal Hastons 'The Philosophy of Risk' and enjoy the real education that the mountains provide :)

the old woman

The thing about starting a 5 day course on a Sunday is that your days then get all out of sink.

We opted for 'the old woman' today, aka A'Chailleach, but today there were only young women climbing the mountain.

The stags were bellowing, the ptarmigan were flapping and the mountain hares were doing mountain hare things.

Still enjoying the autumnal colours, but they won't last long - the first wind will soon strip them off :(

out with the boys

Today, I'll let the photos do the talking ...

Oh, and yes that is a CAPERCAILLIE!

snow on yonder hills

Yes, that is snow on the hills - must be lying around the 750m mark?

3.5 hours was long enough on the bike this morning - even wearing winter thermals and socks it was cold.

Won't be long now ...

Scrambling in Glencoe

Despite the poor weather forecast for the west this weekend, we managed to stay dry - just.

Just because we stayed dry, didn't mean that the rock did.  It was minging :)

The north west

Last week it with the Fannichs

and this week it was Achnashellach.  Remember that we share the mountains with others, and this time of year is stalking season.  If you're unsure of your rights as a responsible hill user, visit here.