Members weekend – 7 to 9th November

If you haven’t yet stayed at the Club hut at Muir of Inverey, this is a great opportunity to meet and socialise with other members.

With the southern Cairngorms and the Glenshee hills a short drive away you will be spoiled for hiking choices. Low-level walking, mountain biking and perhaps some early winter climbing are also available nearby.

This is a semi-regular autumn meet outside of the Burn’s Supper and late spring works weekend, which you are all invited to. The weather will either be fantastic or grim (the log stove will be stoked up and cosy), but whatever happens it’s a good place to make the best of autumn and its chilly charms.

To book, please contact Will Ellwood.

Inverdran, Crianlarich – 21/22 November

Inverardran, Crianlarich. Stay in the comfortable Ochils Club hut and take your pick from literally dozens of walks on Munros, Corbetts and Grahams around Crianlarich. Lowlevel walks on the West Highland Way, winter climbing and skiing are also options a short drive away. To book a place, contact Tony Jack.

Photo “Crianlarich” by Sergei Gussev, CC BY 2.0

Corran hostel – 5/6th December

Burns Supper – 23/24th January

Glencoe weekend – 13/14 February

The Mournes NI – 13/14 June

After a ferry over to the Mourne Mountains to meet our local rep Martina, we travelled up from the south east corner of Ireland. We stayed in the Belfast Climbing Club hut, Henry’s Cottage, which is rustic and basic at best, but did grow on us over the weekend.

Saturday was soggy, but with a few cars a traverse was possible so we headed on over to Trassey car park where we began the walk in absolute clag and walked through rivers, that in better weather would have been paths. We followed the Mourne Wall along a grand traverse along Slievenaglogh (584m) and Slieve Corragh (641m) before reaching Slieve Comedagh (767m), where we took welcome shelter in a stone tower. Lo and behold, as the team approached the saddle to our escape route, the clouds dared to clear and we got sight of Slieve Donard, the highest mountain in the North, just making Munro status at 925m.

While 2 disappeared to the pub, others made the steep ascent to the top, to be greeted with views of…. the clouds. Alas, rare glimpses of the sea, mountains and Newcastle town were seen on the descent. An evening in Kilkeel for food and beer before returning back to Henry’s cottage for more beer and some card games.

Sundays weather was far more enticing, we took the steeeeeeep ascent up Slieve Binnian (745m). Some scrambling at the top and a spectacular traverse with Mars-like landscapes as we surveyed the granite tors. Lots of steep descent before we took the harsh 300m uphill to Slieve Lamagan (702m). Then we went off-piste in search of a cave, which looked impressive from the outside. Further investigation revealed lots of boulders, and a sky light. Back again to Kilkeel for pints of Guinness before heading home for a Chinese takeaway and pasta in tomato sauce.

All in all, a great weekend. Great walks, lots of peaks bagged, Guinness imbibed and much jokes and laughter.

Skye – May

Skye is never less than awesome, but when you get a cracking spell of weather too..

With sunshine and spectacular views all around, hills tackled on the Friday included Sgurr na Banachdaich, Sgurr a’ Ghreadaigh and Glamaig.

A trio undertook a traverse of the Cuillin ridge, climbing the northern half including Sgurr na Gillian , Am Bastier (complete with its tooth) and Bruach na Frithe on the Friday, then started off early on the Saturday to complete the southern half in a long and arduous day.

Other hills climbed on Saturday included Garth Bheinn and Belig and a traverse of the hills visible from Glen Brittle Hut. Two successfully scaled the In Pinn and Sgurr MhicChoinnich with a guide, while another 2 completed their Skye munros.

On Saturday night all enjoyed a delicious communal meal, with a giant trout caught in loch Quoich being shared too.

On Sunday morning some headed onwards for more adventures whilst others started the journey home. All told, a memorable and epic club weekend.

Tarf hotel overnighter – 19/20 July

With a yellow warning of rain, and the tall ships ahoy in Aberdeen, fortunately a few stout and seaworthy pirates disdained the joys of queuing an hour for a 20 quid burger down at the docks and headed off inland for adventure.

Starting off at Glen Tilt car park we passed a race in progress (last man standing multi-day ultra loop thing) then into the drizzle first through woods then out into the open glen. Passing the site of geological discovery (Hutton 1785), an unusual canoe lost in the woods, and a waterfall where the Andor Star Wars series was filmed, the group passed Dun Beag to Glen Tarf, and in heavy rain made their way upstream to the bothy, where they were glad to get the stove kindled and cosy.

The next day they split with one return route in poor visibility over munro Carn a Chlamain, making it back down to the Tilt now in full flow. A meal stop in Blair Atholl then the drive home.

Knoydart – 15th August

The club spent a fabulous few days in Knoydart in August with some of our members camping high despite the midges! This is a special place with such a friendly and welcoming community.

Galloway – 12th September

The club spent last weekend at Galloway Activity Centre near Castle Douglas. A mixture of climbing and Corbett bagging were the main activities. The weather wasn’t the best but it didn’t stop anyone from having fun.

Torridon – 10/11th October

The club spent the weekend amongst the Torridon giants of Beinn Alligin, Liathach, and Beinn Eighe at Mol Mor. It was a weekend of two halves – typical “dreich” Scottish hill days followed by wonderful blue skies and spectacular cloud inversions. As usual we ate like kings on Saturday evening with wonderful food contributions and lots of whisky.

Jura camping – 11/12 July

Four happy campers set off on the ferry from Tayvallich to Jura on a scorching hot Friday all set for an attack of the 3 paps of Jura.
The campsite sits directly in front of the hotel (re-hydration was the order of the weekend) and luckily the Jura hotel bar was our saviour on a number of occasions over the weekend.
Off we headed early on Saturday (the hottest day in Scotland for 2 years) and cycled to the start point of the Paps challenge. Midges were luckily mostly absent but replaced by hoards of skin slicing clegs drawing blood with each hungry bite! Superd views were soon being enjoyed with luckily a decent Hebridean breeze high up. We managed all 3 hills (two Grahams and a Corbett) with plenty of scree/boulder scrambling and up and dooning to be had. The elder statesmen of the group (me) ended up with a touch of heat exhaustion but the other 3 kept me going with bribes of buying the 1st round at the hotel and we made it back (just) to the campsite for a welcome shower and crawl to the Hotel for some well earned beer and food.
A great weekend was had with the weather starting to change as we arrived back in Tayvallich on the Sunday evening. Photo of the weekend (see below) goes to Lauren who after hearing munching outside her tent managed to take the deer photo below at about 4am.

Corgarff to Invercauld – 24-26 May

We set off from Corgarff on Friday heading west, serenaded by the glen’s lapwings. At Laggangauld our resident botanist enjoyed a flush of wildflowers before we headed south along the Builg burn, first exploring a small gorge and then making camp. We had an evening jaunt up another gorge on the Allt Gaineimh.

The next day we explored some of the large rocky outcrops on the north-east side of Ben Avon before descending to the rarely visited Lochan na Gabhar. We’d though to camp here next, but with unsuitable conditions continued west eventually finding a good spot amongst the glacial lumps below Sron na h-lolaire just before sunset.

The next day the weather turned and the ascent of Beinn a Bhuird headed into grey murk, wind and rain. We decided rather than spending an uncomfortable night to hike through to the end and retire to the comforts of Muir Cottage, and to reflect on a great exploration off the beaten path in The Cairngorms.

Ben Macdui snowholing – 30th March

Recces earlier in the winter hadn’t revealed much snow depth, but a window of good weather after a late snowfall had a party heading out to the norther corries. Although a suitable spot was found at a popular location, they decided to explore further and after carefully navigating through a white out, the weather cleared and a great location was found and digging began on the east side of Ben Macdui.

After completing a good-sized abode, they headed out for a night hike under the kind of starry skies you only get deep in the mountains.

They headed off on a scenic tour under blue skies the next morning: first to “all the zeros” then Loch Etchachan for lunch. Next was Loch Avon and a visit to the shelter stone before an ascent up Coire Domhain and Cairn Gorm before heading back to the ski centre.

A video has been made with some further information:

Winter Skills Rothiemurchus 3/4/5 February

Our accommodation for the winter skills weekend was the spacious rooms of Rothiemurchus lodge, where we assembled and prepared equipment before tucking in to a communal feast.

Next day, the trainees headed off first into Coire an t-Sneachda, then over to Coire na Ciste to practice ice-axe arrests, under the expert eye of Everest and seven-summiteer Di Gilbert.

Non-trainees attending headed out too – Snowboarding on Friday, up Cairn Gorm into a storm on Saturday, then in better conditions on Sunday there were various trips – to Braeriach, Meall a Bhuachaille and the Lairig Ghru, before folk headed off after a most enjoyable winter weekend.