Lochaber Blogs
Blogs (web logs) provide an ideal opportunity to explore the traditions, culture and wildlife of Wild Lochaber. We have put together a collection of local blogs and provide the titles and text snippets to give a taste of each entry with direct links to the main blog entry on the host website. We hope you will find time to explore the full articles and further information on the host blog sites.
Please feel free to contact us if you have any suggestions for blogs you would like to see here.
West Coast Mountain Guides
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Ken: For Sebastian’s final day, we braved the rain and made our way up to the East Ridge of the North Top of Stob Ban. Fortunately, the rains eased during the morning, and our ascent of the East Ridge was a pleasant affair, with clear views to the summits of the surrounding Munros. The ridge...
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Ken: I was back out with Sebastian, and working for Peak Mountaineering, today, and we decided to go for Castle Ridge on Ben Nevis. The day started off dry, but the drizzle soon set in, giving us a rather damp ascent of Castle Ridge. In these conditions, careful footwork becomes all the more...
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Ken: The weather turned out to be much better than the forecasts suggested; the winds decreased through the day and the rain held off. I was out with Sebastian, working for Peak Mountaineering. Sebastian was up in December, during a particularly cold snap, so today’s conditions were quite a...
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(Steve) It was lovely on Castle Ridge today. Nick and I enjoyed the ascent in warm sunshine whilst the majority of the North Face was shrouded in mist. No crampons required and not too much greasy rock which I have always found Castle Ridge suffers from so shortly after the winter. We took a walk...
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The cloud had rolled in overnight shrouding most of the hills by day break. Thankfully there wasn’t much precipitation falling from the sky but things felt damp and slushy both on Ben Nevis and in Glencoe. Steve and Nick scrambled up the Zig-Zags along Gearr Aonach and into the Coire where...
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Ken: Something a bit different today. Andy, Will and I thought we should finally get round to skiing the gullies on the West Face of Aonach Mor, and we couldn’t have asked for a better day on which to do it, well, almost… The quad was closed, so we skinned up from the top station to...
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(Steve): We’ve had some great weather in recent days, enough sunshine to be climbing rock in t-shirts at times. I was back down the Glen this time with Nick who was keen as mustard straight off the sleeper train from London. We climbed around 8 pitches of Severe before jumping on...
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Ken: I was back out today with Robert, whilst working for Abacus Mountain Guides. I think that we managed to find the cloudiest area of Lochaber today: the Grey Corries. We hit the cloud at about 800m, whilst making our way up the northern flanks of Stob Choire Claurigh, and didn’t see...
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Ken: Whilst the freezing level has remained above the summit for a few days now, the lack of rain has ensured that snow loss up high has been fairly minimal. I was out working for Abacus Mountain Guides, with Robert, who has been inspired by Gary Smith’s new guidebook: Scotland’s...
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Ken: Bit of a change from a couple of days ago, as the temperatures have crept up, but not excessively so just yet. I was out, working for Abacus Mountain Guides, with Ed, Pierre, Alistair and Stu, who were keen to reach the summit of Ben Nevis via Ledge Route. Needless to say, there’s still...
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Ken: This morning, we awoke to another dusting of snow down to sea level, and quite a murky start, but that soon cleared, to give Helen and I a stunning day on the Aonach Eagach in Glencoe. We were surprised and very grateful that a team had set off before us, and put in a track for at least some...
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Ken: I was thinking to myself how it would be great if it was like mid-January again, and lo and behold, we woke up to 40cm of fresh snow down to 300m. The amount of snow in the Highlands is quite amazing, and just like for much of January, getting around the mountains proved to be tough going...
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Ken: A day off for myself and Steve today, which given the amount of fresh snow lying at sea level first thing this morning, and the rain lashing on the windows this afternoon, felt like no bad thing. However, unlike myself and Steve, Hannah isn’t soft, and braved the return to full-on...
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Ken: Another brilliant day on Ben Nevis today. With the sun shining this morning, Ben Nevis felt very alpine. Hazel and I retraced our steps back into Coire na Ciste, but then veered off towards No. 2 Gully. This part of the mountain was quite quiet, with only a couple of teams on the White Line...
Glenloy Wildlife
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May is a fantastic month to visit the west highlands, spring flowers in bloom, leaves unfurling, migrant birds here and singing, early butterflies and very few midges! Why not join us and the pine martens and explore the area at it’s best, either on your own or take a guided trip and...
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Here at Glenloy Wildlife the new season is finally upon us. The weather, however, thinks differently and there is fresh snow on the hills in time for Easter. The snow buntings are still around the car park on Cairngorm! While everyone else has being having dollops of the white stuff throughout the...
Go Mountain Goats
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On Monday 26th February 2018 I set a new Tranter Round record.Here's some of the key info, in reply to questions posed by Dan Bailey of UK Climbing / Hillwalking:OK Finlay, here’s a few Qs:14:24:48 … wow! Did you set out from the outset to try for the winter record?I mainly decided to go and do the...
Alan Halewood
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The blog has been quiet this winter as my 'hits' statistics show a drop from a high point of over 2500 back 10 years ago when there were only 4 or 5 winter blogs around to now maybe only 100 or so. I make lots of use of Facebook https://www.facebook.com/climbwhenyoureready/ and Twitter...
Guy Steven
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This winter, what a season! April has started and here in the Alps, it doesn't look like it's slowing down...or warming up as we would expect or hope for. Even back at home it is looking to be a superb season and with no signs of slowing down either.Since my last post there has been...
Hunter Mountaineering Courses and Guiding
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Max – Beinn Udlaidh Max – Beinn Udlaidh Max – Eilde Canyon Lena Hunter MIC on Ben Nevis Intro to Winter Mountaineering Intro to Winter Mountaineering