This article is more about Michaela Bray’s first time up a mountain of any distinction, and for this momentous occasion she chooses non other than Snowdon.  Well, actually, I chose it.  As it was me that convinced Allan, Sarah C and Michaela that Clogwyn Y Person Arète would be ‘a great day out’ and we […]

A breezy day in May that carries with it ozone from a restrained sea. I sit on a beach of pebbles feeling their shape and texture with my fingers while I look at the horizon. Distant walls of grey cliffs, dwarfed boats on a wide steel-blue sea, and the sweep of a million billion smooth […]

Well I guess it all started on July 24th 1999 with the splendidly named Mr Bender and I swear to God that is his surname. Anyway I was a member of Another Outdoor Activities Club on a trip to Snowdonia when I got paired up with this fine gentleman. He suggested a 3* Hard Severe […]

‘Good morning! Tea, coffee?’ I wrestle with the draw strings to get out of my sleeping bag. ‘What do you want?’ I enquire to the cocoon beside me the only response is a grunt which I decide must mean hot chocolate. Our Sherpa dishes out our beverage and I lay back down and try and […]

It’s 8 am on Saturday the 15th of January and I’m looking out of my window in the Tyndrum Lodge hotel at the near horizontal rain lashing down. Of all the days to start my 2011 winter Scotland trip, even a hard week on the Tay estuary had not conditioned me for this but that’s […]