A sun lit rough field surrounded by trees on a hillside slope. Behind the trees, the silhouette of Ben Lui sits beneath a blue sky. The sun is visible in the top centre above the hills.
There are worse views to wake up to than Ben Lui
I wrote a bit of a brain dump about my first experience of the Fort William Mountain Festival. I'm already looking forward to next year!
munromicroadventures.substack.com/p/the-fort-w...
Snow-topped Ben Nevis under a clear blue sky
It's a lovely day in Fort William. Almost sad I don't have my boots to go up Ben Nevis.
I'll be at the Fort William mountain festival later this week. Thought I should put all the events I'm going to into my calendar.
I'm now worried that I booked too much! 😂
Tour magazine for the Banff mountain film festival
Today's plan mostly involves watching films. Blue and Red.
Snow-covered mountain ridge showing Sgurr nan Spainteach and neighbouring peaks under a dramatic winter sky, with rocky crags breaking through the snow cover and dark clouds overhead.
Disappeared north into the Scottish Highlands in my van for a few days this week. Weathered a storm by Creag Meagaidh, hiked into the snow in the Fannichs, and felt the burn hauling myself up the slopes of Glen Shiel. Three great days away.
Came away in the van for a few nights. Made a point of packing my tripod and charging the Nikon batteries. I'm very rusty with my photography, so this seemed a good opportunity to practice.
My wife confirmed that the Nikon is still sitting by the door, whilst I'm now here at Creag Meagaidh 😭
The weather clearly heard that I want to head to the hills on Tuesday... 🤬
A wooden structure built from brush handles and tied together with rope. At either end is an A-frame built from three poles. The A-frames are joined together by four horizontal poles to form a long shelf. On the shelf sit three washing basins. Two dish towels are draped over poles extending from the right-side of the structure.
First Scout camp of the year done and dusted. Here's the dishwashing station they built (I may have tightened the lashings when they weren't looking).
It was built to Scout height, but I ended up doing the dishes so the Scouts could go sing songs at the campfire. My back will take days to recover!
Stunning weather to go with stunning views! You lucky pair.
A hiker walking along a snow-covered plateau. The sun is showing weakly through an overcast sky.
A hiker in an orange jacket and black trousers wearing crampons, standing on a patch of ice. Snow covers the ground behind, with tufts of brown grass poking through the snow.
Silhouette of rounded mountains with an orange sunset visible behind.
A fun trip up Beinn Dòrain with Leon yesterday. Managed to do some crampon practice on the frozen ground.
Happy New Year to everyone. I hope 2026 brings you all the adventures you wish for.
The final Calvin and Hobbes, which appeared in papers 30 years ago today.
I'm glad you had to update it—I missed the post the first time around.
Mountain landscape showing Loch Ericht stretching into the distance, surrounded by multiple ridges and peaks with patches of snow. Brown heather moorland covers the hillsides, with a dark coniferous plantation visible in the middle distance. The foreground shows frosty ground on the hillside, and the scene is lit by bright sunshine under clear blue skies
A Christmas cold laid me low for the past couple of days.
Took a trip up to the Drumochter Pass today and got paid back beautifully with the view down Loch Ericht, from the back of Geal-charn.
This view more than made up for two days being ill!
A toy Derpy from K-pop Demon Hunters.
I'm not the target demographic for K-pop Demon Hunters, but I loved Derpy, and wanted one for my van dashboard. Et voilà!
A bottle of port, glass, and a Christmas mince pie sitting on a table in front of a TV. The TV shows the character John McClain from the Die Hard series. To the left is a Christmas tree decorated with lights.
Pressies all wrapped. Time to properly start Xmas. Merry Christmas, everyone! 🎅🎄☃️
I should really be wrapping up pressies. Instead I wrote up my camps of the year. Possibly a little bit of cheating to pad out the numbers this time around. Enjoy.
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Figured I would blog about my unexpectedly long journey to Mountain Leader.
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Pictures borrowed from @grahamuney.bsky.social since I was far too busy stressing to take any myself.
Completing a journey that started in 2019, I sat my Mountain Leader assessment over the last two weekends and passed!
Thanks @grahamuney.bsky.social for making the unavoidably stressful assessment as enjoyable as it could possibly be.
I was followed around by robins everywhere I went today. I found this one in my cab after I left the door open, and it was very glad of the few scraps of food I found in my pocket. #rangerdailydiary
Two hikers with red and orange waterproof jackets on, wearing sunglasses. Both have hoods up making it look like it's cold. In the background are Scottish hills under a grey sky.
Plenty of wind up Ben Gulabin this afternoon. Out with Leon, having a slight Blues Brothers vibe.
Top down photo of a wooden table. On it is a mug of black coffee and a copy of New Mountain Magazine.
Starting my long weekend away in the best possible way.
I find myself in Glen Isla for a few nights. Cottage, not tent. I heard an owl earlier. So relaxed... 😴
This will be a fascinating talk tomorrow, 3pm BST. It's online, free but registration is required: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/an-archaeo...
A moody black and white photo of two hikers and a dog walking through the mist towards the sun.
On Sunday, the summit of Glas Maol proved atmospheric. It was nice to get out and introduce someone new to hillwalking in the Cairngorms.
Oh, views were had later. This was just a thin bank of cloud around the summit.
Climb each hill like it’s your last | cairngormwanderer cairngormwanderer.wordpress.com/2025/10/13/c...
The stars have aligned. I'm finally getting back to the hills tomorrow. It's been too long. Will do something from Glenshee Ski Centre to introduce a neighbour's son to the hills. Will pick east vs west when we get there. ⛰️🥾
I love Glen Derry. Particularly the changes I've witnessed over the past (almost) 40 years. Changes for the better, I hasten to add.
Don't think I've been there this year, though 😞
