It’s that time of the year again when the white stuff is covering the hills. This year it’s come early and without a warning, one day still running in shorts, next day rummaging for the winter gear (and, typically, by the time I have finished writing this, much of the snow is gone again). Winter hill running is bit of an acquired taste, but taking on the extra challenges is, often, worth it.

continued ...

The mountain bike is a great iteration in the evolution of the bicycle, opening a whole new world of possibilities as well as challenges. There are places where this is undoubtedly more true than others, and Scotland is, unquestionably, such a place. Not simply because of our long standing tradition of access, but because much of our spectacular landscape lends itself well to what the mountain bike has to offer.

continued ...

The Lochness Marathon is approaching fast, and with it my turn to be the support crew. Because of the race logistics there is a fair bit of hanging around … but Glen Affric being just down the road, I know the perfect way to ‘kill’ the time – the Carn Eighe loop is just the right length to be back at the finish line in a good time! A run along a great natural line, without any significant technical or navigational challenges, yet offering stunning views, on the edge of one of the more remote feeling parts of Scotland.

continued ...

Bothies are, in my mind at least, a national treasure, capturing something of the very essence of the Scottish character and generous attitude to strangers. They are more than shelters, they provide for chance encounters of likeminded folk, to share stories (and drams) the old fashioned way, their logbooks testimony to whatever it is that drives us out of our sterile urban existences. And for the runner, they are an excellent resource for multi day trips, cutting on the amount of kit required, as well as extending the window of opportunity beyond the summer months.

continued ...

I have a thing about hills. It goes back a long way. Aged five, my granny took me on a holiday in the mountains, and I have been drawn back ever since. Forty-plus years later, out there on the high ground, the inner child comes out just as wide-eyed as when during those two weeks I listened to tales of mountain creatures, real and mythical alike, and imagined the fairies and elfs coming out after dark.

continued ...

The Coigach hills provide perhaps the single best short run in the entire Coigach / Assynt area. The running is easy on excellent ground (if at places exposed – not recommended on a windy day!), the views are magnificent in all directions, and the caffe in the Achiltibuie Piping School provides excellent post-run cakes!

continued ...

It’s 2:55am and the day, which is supposed to be a culmination of a three year long dream, is being (un)ceremonially drummed in by rain on a skylight window in Inchnadamph Lodge Hostel.

continued ...

Every time I pass through the grassy bowl north of Beinn an Fhurain, a shiver runs down my spine. Here a temporal singularity is created by the intersection of the merciless nature of these ‘wee hills’ of ours with the brokenness of the world we have created for ourselves on the one hand, and the cruelty of fate on the other.

continued ...

The InReach SE is a location tracker and two way (SMS-like) messaging device utilising the Iridium satellite network (which means it has a genuinely 100% global coverage). I have been using it for about 2.5 years, so I thought it might be worth saying something about it. </p>

continued ...

It seems that the GPS is now considered to be a part of the essential outdoor kit, and most of the people I meet ‘out there’ seem to have one (the other day I saw someone ‘navigating’ the towpath along the Forth and Clyde Canal using one). The experts even assure me that it is possible to program in hazards to keep me safe!</p>

continued ...

Sustainability is a nice filler word. It sounds good without sounding overtly posh, it can be moulded to mean almost anything, and, in the absence of a definition, it creates the impression of righteousness without any real commitment to anything at all. Like the childish act of repeating a single word ad nauseum to see it loose all meaning, sustainability, alongside climate change, has become one of the great vacuous cliches of our day. Yet, sustainability is a concept far too important to leave at that! It’s time to claim it back, for unsustainable means the forming of an irreversible rift between past and future, while sustainability holds the promise of being in control of our collective destiny.

continued ...

The ridges formed by the seven Crianlarich Munros provide for excellent running thanks to the tracks hammered out of the mica schist by myriads of boots. However, tackling the whole group of seven together presents a much bigger chalenge than one might expect in the light of its compact nature. Although the as a crow flies distance between the outlying Ben More and Beinn Chabhair is just 9km, the four ridges these hills form are separated by fairly deep bealachs, and the transitions between them are hard going due to rough ground, steep gradients, and no paths or tracks (not even sheep tracks).

continued ...

The Beinn a’Ghlo group near Blair Athol, while easy enough to access from the Central Belt, provides some very fine running on excellent ground, with entertaining terrain around the summits, and only small amount of heather bashing on the final descent. The views are excellent – these hills have far more character than one might expect looking at them from the glens below.

continued ...

ABC watches are great. Mine is Suunto X-Lander, and I love it. I find an accurate altimeter to be a very useful navigation tool in the hills at poor visibility, and the X-Lander barometric altimeter is just that. Plus, it allows me to get realistic ascent and descent values for my runs, unlike the grossly overestimated values one gets from a GPS.

continued ...

When it came to the outdoor activities of my childhood, my mother and my gran were resolute followers of the MTFU philosophy (though they are both far too well brought up to put it in such crude terms!). Rain was never an adequate excuse to just sit home and feel sorry for ourselves, indeed rain meant wild mushrooms would grow in abundance, and, let’s face it, what Slav could resist that? Our family’s invariable response to rain was two-fold: there was the plastic rain coat, and the morale boosting Song.

continued ...

Among Scottish hills, Ben A’an is one of the leading contenders for the least-effort big-views prize (only closely beaten by Stac Pollaidh in Assynt, I reckon). It also offers a fun, if somewhat short, run on a (mostly) rocky path. If only there was some way to incorporate this fine wee hill into a bigger run …

continued ...