Category Archives: Uncategorized

Climbing in Scotland – especially in Scotland this winter –  it is something similar to being Keanu Reeves in the film The Matrix – you have to believe to be able to make that leap of faith. My alarm shouted at 4.30 … Continue reading →

  Seeing the pictures in Alpinist Magazine, the angles, the steepness, the flakes and cracks and then reading the account of Ian Parnell climbing the first ascent of Bruised violet, I have always wanted to share his experience. The West … Continue reading →

The rain… The bloody rain … it poured. And poured. The bloody permanent dark. The dark. Cloistering. Depressing. Invasive.  I ran the lane from Roy Bridge heading to Glen Roy. Undulating. Ancient trees. Narrow. The brown peaty river – flowing white … Continue reading →

  Another dark start. Greg, Will, Guy and I, just a few hours before had sat close together in front of The Kingshouse fire. The history inside these walls would have once been magic. Older now, the trick is to … Continue reading →

  Driving to Chamonix before Christmas, mile upon mile of autoroute… I smelt the desperation in Guy Robertson’s text messages… ‘I need. I want. I have to have.’ I sent a text back, ‘Chill Robbo.’ He continued to send texts, … Continue reading →

On the eve of travelling to Scotland, where hopefully, in this winter of discontent I will climb something other than the walls of the CC hut in Roy Bridge, I thought I would post this review of Echoes. I first read … Continue reading →

  At the moment I’m fascinated by the movement of time. And as the trip to Canada comes to an end it’s quite fitting that the last route was Nemesis, an ice-climb I climbed first with Dave Hunter in 2003 … Continue reading →

  Walking the zig zagging snow trail into The Stanley Headwall, a trail that has become almost as familiar to me as The Ben Nevis track, we pass through the burnt husks of pine scorched by summer fire.  Greg Boswell … Continue reading →

Once again I sit looking out of the Canadian Alpine Clubhouse window. A red squirrel, slim and elastic, bounces youthfully along the wooden decking. A freight train trundles the tracks that run parallel to the road leading into Canmore. Row after row of … Continue reading →

In today’s instant online access it’s easy to lose some of the adventure, the unknown, the mystery. The forums abound with accusations of spray and hype and grade inflation for recognition. It’s true, climbs are hyped sometimes, but I’m pretty … Continue reading →