Sep 29, 2018
Enjoying a couple of weeks back in the NW Highlands. While walking up and down the road making phone calls (house with no WiFi or reception) I noticed this wreck below our place!
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Enjoying a couple of weeks back in the NW Highlands. While walking up and down the road making phone calls (house with no WiFi or reception) I noticed this wreck below our place!
Just wandering around, checking out the landscape. Do I want to live here?
Immediately after returning from the Arctic I unpacked and repacked and after dropping Lauren off at the airport started driving north for the Highlands of Scotland. By driving back and forth repeatedly across the country, dodging the rain, we managed to manufacture an Indian summer of sorts!
After warming up on some easy sport routes at Moy we climbed in Skye, Assynt, Easter Ross and Ardnamurchan on some sunny classic trad. We were forced by vegetation on our chosen route at Creag Glas into repeating Salamander, our favourite route of all time, taking advantage of this to each lead the pitches we didn’t the previous time, and to do the 5b alternative crux. A tough trip for weather but some really great climbing!
Living the Atlantic Northwest Dream!
A big dump of snow and a deep freeze gave us a few fantastic days out on the hill in the Cairngorms, mixed climbing in the Northern Corries and skiing laps in remote bowls on the plateau. Scotland can give unreliable conditions but when it’s great it’s really great!
Road Tripping the Atlantic Northwest!
Despite wanting to head south of the border to the Lake District, the weather disagreed so we headed instead to the far northern tip of Scotland. Driving down narrow roads overgrown with grass through the flow country, the most extensive blanket bog in Europe, and through the complex post-glacial knock and lochan landscape of the west, we found the beauty and remote rock climbing that this sub-Arctic region deserves. We stayed in tents and in bothys, abandoned but well-maintained buildings left open for any passing walker or climber to use.
Some of the climbing is a little bit esoteric (i.e. loose, worrying and rarely climbed) but much is world-class solid gneiss and granite which in any other part of the UK would be swarming with climbers every day of the week. Some crags lie next to beautiful sandy beaches, others just a couple of minutes from the road, while many are several hours walk or cycle into the backs of remote glens. This region contains some of the best climbing in the country, and lies so far north that the nights are just a few hours long, allowing you to climb way into the late evening. It also lies so far north that you are very unlikely to meet another climber.
Climbing always provides a little adventure but the Northwest Highlands provide just a little bit more, along with a lot of beauty and emptiness.
Apologies in advance bc I know I'm going to be spamming Maine pics all week #timelapse #skypics #atlanticnorthwest (at Oakland House Cottages by the Side of the Sea)
Scottish Backcountry Skiing
If you like wind, cloud and beauty and don't mind dodging a bit of heather(!) then the Scottish Highlands are a great place to get out and have an adventure on skis. This was the Munro Ben Wyvis at the weekend.
Sking on Ben Wyvis near Inverness in the Scottish Highlands today. Gives a real flavour of backcountry skiing in Scotland!