free to be able to rate and comment on reports (as well as access 1:25000 mapping).
It's the start of a new month - which means it's time to announce the winner of our first 'Walk Report' competition. All trip reports submitted from 15th December to 31st January have been read and digested - and there are loads of great ones in there. It's been great to see many new members writing their first reports too - we've had an amazing 161 new members signing up!
So thanks to monty, Tom Craggs, CatrionaD, Noose, Kevsbald, Mairi, thenobz, Rekrab, Monty, the-nipper and jester - and I hope you continue to share your reports.
The nearly men (and women!)? bootsandpaddles contributed a great report on
Glen Clova's eastern hills. Bigbertie wrote several reports with cracking photos - culminating in an adventurous winter outing to remote
Sgurr na Ciche. There were lots of fine temperature inversions just before New Year and we had great reports on Ben Lomond from both
romor45 and
canisp, whilst Alan Sherry showed off
Ben Challum looking the finest it can. New member
mountain coward has written a whole string of superb reports on both sides of the border, with several coming close to our prize for the best walk report.
But the winner is... doogz. He wrote some great reports, from perfect weather on Ben Vane to awful conditions on Beinn a'Chaorainn, but there is really only one report that can catch the prize. It's Carn mor Dearg - the icy arete and Ben Nevis [report removed by poster] - the perfect winter mountaineering day out! So it's congratulations to Doogz and
£60 of TISO vouchers on its way.
So what of February - Sunday 1st had probably the finest weather in the Highlands for some time. Let's hear your best for the next month as the days begin to get longer. Remember - it doesn't have to be an epic hillwalk to win, and from now on
all walk reports in the UK are now eligible to win.
Here's a picture of a breaking cloud wave on Buachaille Etive Mor from Doogz report:
