3 day Guided Round with Murray Wilson - 28 May 2021 The Mullardoch Round is one of the biggest Munro-bagging challenges in Scotland: 55km, just under 5000m ascent and 12 munros altogether, four on the north side of Loch Mullardoch and 8 on the south. The round takes in the four highest hills north of …
Category: Hiking and Hillwalking
Ben Macdui
Ben Macdui is Scotland’s second highest mountain (1,309m) and is a big hill day at any time of year, but particularly in winter. Last Sunday (1 April) I met up with four clients with the aim of reaching the summit and practicing some winter Skills on the way. The forecast was great: cold air temperatures …
Murray’s Leader Rucksack
With the onset of Spring and the start of the Duke of Edinburgh's Award expedition season, instructors at Aspen Outdoors Ltd are sorting out their summer gear, thinking through and refining what bits of kit to take when leading groups in the hills. In this blog Murray Wilson talks about the kit and equipment that …
Isle of Raasay
After a quick ascent of Ben Macdui with a client I got back to my car at 2pm, with plenty of time to drive to Skye for a two day, impromptu trip to the Isle of Raasay. I wanted to explore the island for a potential Duke of Edinburgh's Award Gold expedition in April. Ambitiously …
Navigation Glossary
Confused about navigation jargon? Here's a glossary that explains terms like attack point, re-entrant and catching feature. 4 Figure Grid Reference The coordinates for a 1km square box formed by the vertical and horizontal lines on a map that utilises the Ordnance Survey National Grid reference system. 6 Figure Grid Reference The coordinates for a …
Sunrise on Snowy Ben Venue
The forecast for Sunday was to be still, cold and sunny. With snow covering the mountains there was a prospect of fantastic wintery views. So I left the house at 6am with a plan to catch sunrise on Ben Venue, at around 8:38am. Ben Venue is a popular hill in the Trossachs. Most people either …
Night Nav in the Campsies
Six of us gathered by Glengoyne Distillery on Thursday 23rd of November for a Night Nav session run by Alastair Maclean in the Campsie Hills. The session was a free CPD workshop offered by the Mountain Training Association, one of two that ran in November this year in the Glasgow area. At 6:30pm it had been dark for a while …
Lochnagar
It's been another great weekend of winter hillwalking, this time in the Loch Muick, Lochnagar area. Our base was Glas Allt Shiel bothy, which occupies a room in the 'Widow's Lodge', a big granite hunting lodge built by Queen Victoria in 1864. A light dusting of snow, icy winds and sunshine were the conditions we …
Winter days in Coire Etchachan
This time last week I was checking the forecast and to my delight a cold spell was in prospect. The snow would arrive Friday and it would remain cold for four days, with temperatures of about -6C on the summits and wind speeds of about 30-40 mph. I headed to the garage and got some …
Hiking the Kintail Munros from Camban Bothy
Earlier this summer my friend Jim - Milanese munro-bagger - messaged me about another munro-bagging trip. With only 37 munros left he'd some of the best, the wildest and most impressive hills to do. This time the goal was to do 10 munros in Kintail over three days, based at Camban bothy. My instructions were …
Continue reading Hiking the Kintail Munros from Camban Bothy
