Alba Mountaineering

24/12/2023

Happy Christmas to all our friends out there on the hill. Looking forward to some winter very soon. I may be retired but that wont stop us having fun in the snow.
Wishing you all a happy and safe New Year on the hills

23/04/2023

A final swansong for Anne and myself to Skye. Anne is my longest serving client at 21 years! How we managed that goodness knows but I will say she is the most dedicated and driven walker I have had the pleasure to meet and I've met a few. Anne needed a few of the more difficult Munro tops on the Cuillin.
So with the weather booked we went for it and had two long days to do Sgurr a Fionn Coire, the Bastier Tooth and Am Bastier on Friday and Sgurr Sgumain, Sgurr Alastair and Sgurr Thearlaich on Saturday.
What a way to finish my guiding on the Cuillin after 37 years wondering about the hills.

11/07/2022

Just back from a wee trip to Skye with Anne my longest serving client for a 20th anniversary trip. We had a mixed few days but managed to do Blaven and it’s south top plus a few other hills in some rather poor weather. Luckily the weekend weather was good for us to join the Munro Society meet at Carbost. On Sunday I did a rainbow ascent if the Dubhs Ridge with Oliver and Paul which was spectacular.

11/07/2022

03/11/2021

Last weekend I was up in Torridon with the SMR rigging team to run a weekend of rigging for the northern teams. The weather was better than expected and we had a great weekend running thru various systems.

24/08/2021

A wee trip down the Grey Coires ridge yesterday including Stob Bhan with Sally and extended family we did three Munros. It was cloudier than forecast but that probably help keep the temperature down.

02/08/2021

This weekend was a tail of two Aonachs. On Saturday I was out with the Rae family, Sally, an old client, wanted her family, Jenny, Adam, Kenneth and Pru to have a good day on the Aonach Eagach in Glencoe. So ably assisted by Tony and an early start we nipped along our first AE of the weekend. Down in plenty of time for a quick pint in the clachaig.
Our second Aonach Eagach of the weekend was on Stob Ghabhar on the traverse of the two Munros we crossed an easy AE section. Super days and good to see Sally again

01/07/2021

Just relaxing and looking at my photos from a trip to the Island of Rum with Anne Ralph and Ali over the past few days. We were out there to walk the Rum Cuillin and the weather really played ball for a change. We did a 20km 12 hour day to traverse the ridge. It started with the mist at 400m then it slowly burned back to a stunner of a day with great skyes complimenting the stunning scenery.

29/05/2021

The longest day ever on Skye. I’m just back from another successful week on Skye and on Thursday we definitely had the longest day you can have on Skye.
Forget the ridge traverse this is definitely the longest day 26Km and 14 hours of effort a diff rock climb and a scarey abseil. Yes you guessed it it was the Dubhs Slabs without the boat.
We walked in from Sligachan 4 1/2 hours to the bottom of the route then up and over and back to Glen Brittle. It was a superb day but I would definitely recommend getting the boat from Elgol in as it cuts the walk in down but book early as they are offering a restricted service.
Well done to Robin and Jan for a super long day.

07/05/2021

Torridon is one of my favourite areas with majestic mountains rising straight out of the moor. Today’s walk was Beinn Alligin a classic Munro with a lot of May snow on it. But the weather was kind too us and the showers seemed to go round us.

01/03/2021

It’s March already and winter is a little patchy at the moment hanging in there on the highest tops, sheltered faces and gullies as usual. But on Ben Sguilaird today it was a walk in the sun.
Obviously my winter work is out at the moment, the first time in 33 years I’ve not done any winter work. Even during the foot and mouth crisis we still managed to get out working and playing in the snow.
Oh well here’s hoping we can get out later in the year. The hills won’t run away.