It’s the start of our Scottish winter season! Chris, Oli and James have settled down in our Cairngorms base to begin providing instruction, guiding and coaching on our various winter courses. To celebrate here are some photos from our previous Scottish winter adventures. We offer long weekend three-day and five-day winter hillwalking skills courses and…
It is chilly today, and although the sun is out it does feel like autumn has suddenly burst into being. This is the time of year where we dig out our wooly hats and gloves and shuffle our warmer clothes to the front of the wardrobe. Insulated jackets are an essential bit of kit if…
How to Buy a Down Jacket The longest night has now passed and we move slowly towards the Spring. In the remaining winter months we reach for our insulated jackets. We have two choices: down or synthetic. Both options have pro and cons. Synthetic is cheaper and more forgiving in wet conditions ie synthetic will…
Rab Mythic Ultra Down Jacket First Impressions The timing of the arrival of this jacket couldn’t have been better. The forecasters had been warning of arctic weather arriving throughout the UK and as the temperature plummeted the Mythic Ultra down jacket was delivered by a chilly looking postman. My first thoughts were how light the…
Choosing Gloves and Clothing for Scottish Winter Walking and Mountaineering As we head out into the hills this winter either for trekking, walking, mountaineering or climbing we need to make important decisions that will impact both our enjoyment and safety. We will check the weather and the avalanche forecast. We will prepare our maps and…
Gloves for Scottish Winter Walking and Mountaineering When your hands are cold they don’t work well, so gloves are an essential part of your Scottish winter kit. Firstly, no one glove will work all day, in all weather conditions so you will definitely need more than one pair. We recommend thinking about your gloves as…
Winter climbing partners never move fast enough! From my perspective I have just completed a lightning fast accent on a thin runout smear of ice then undertook the cleaning of iced up cracks with poise and precision to build a structurally satisfying anchor. All this done in record breaking time. Why then, is my partner…
Clothing and Equipment for Scottish Winter Walking and Mountaineering This is a up-dated version of a post on clothing and equipment for Scottish winter walking and mountaineering first published in 2017 and then again in 2020. The principles are the same but I have updated some of the items to reflect my current preferences. Boots…
Top Ten Gear and Equipment Reviews of 2022 We all love our outdoor gear and equipment; It keeps us warm, helps us enjoy the hills and mountains with increased safety and enables us to feed and fuel ourselves. Looking back through the stats these are our most popular kit blogs of the year and our…
This is a up-dated version of a post on clothing and equipment for Scottish winter walking and mountaineering first published in 2017. Not much has changed but some brands have some new kit that I have now included in this up-date. BootsPossibly your most important items of clothing and equipment for Scottish winter walking and…
Rule number 0.5 in mountaineering is look cool and the reflective piping and orange stripes of the Scarpa Ribelle Mountain Tech OD certainly draw attention to themselves. Whilst the only time I have looked cool was stuck in a blizzard in Alaska, wearing these boots is about as close as I will get to cool…
For the last two months I’ve been working in Scotland instructing Scottish winter mountaineering for Jagged Globe. Here is a gallery of some of the photographs I’ve taken while out in the hills and mountains. [supsystic-gallery id=’1′] Alex