Cyclists Kevin Beck and Stuart Welsh have raised £809.53 for the John Muir Trust, by climbing Snowdon, Scafell Pike and Ben Nevis, totaling over 11,000 ft, while covering the 533 miles between the mountains by pedal power. The pair, who both work for Serco in East Kilbride, took just eight days to cover the distance, finishing in September 2010. Kevin said: “The weather to start with in North Wales was dreadful with heavy rain but as we reached Scotland we were bathed in sunshine.Most days we covered just over 90 miles but we did manage one at 101 miles.” “We…

Forestry Commission Scotland will be hosting an evening for stargazers in Galloway Forest’s Dark Sky Park on Monday 14 February. The event is organised as one of the Commission’s Astrofest programme of activities to celebrate the first anniversary of the forest park being awarded Dark Sky Park status. The Valentine’s night event will start with a talk at Glentrool School Hall at 7pm and weather permitting, a guided tour to spot distant galaxies. Keith Muir, the Commission’s recreation and tourism manager said: “The Dark Sky Park events to date have been very popular indeed so it is great news that…

A full scale search has been resumed today (Tues 1 Feb) for missing man Haider Ali Manir who failed to return from a walk up Ben Nevis on Sunday. The 20 year-old man was reported overdue at around 6pm on Sunday 30 January. A relative reported concerns when he failed to return. Police are co-ordinating the search which includes members of Lochaber Mountain Rescue Team, RAF MRT, RAF Valley MRT (a Welsh mountain rescue team who stayed in the area to lend assistance following a weekend training exercise), SARDA dogs and Rescue One Seven Seven from Gannet. Searches were called…

A 35 year old hillwalker has escaped with only minor injuries after falling 1000 feet down a mountainside in the Grey Corries. The climber, who was 35 and from Glasgow, was part of a group of hillwalkers. He fell from near the summit of Sgurr Choinnich Mor in the Grey Corries at around 2pm yesterday. He had struck the hillside on the way down, scattering some of his gear and passing three rocky outcrops. The rescuers – on HMS Gannet’s Sea King Helicopter – arrived within half an hour from a training mission, and after seeing a man standing up…

Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister appeared to give ground on the issue of VAT charged on new equipment for Mountain Rescue Teams. The issue has been raised by Mountain Rescue for some time and has been put into sharper focus recently with the recent rise on VAT to 20%. Nick Clegg was speaking at public meeting in Boat of Garten, Strathspey, last week. In response to a question from a member of the public he pledged to investigate the issues and said there were “very compelling” reasons to look into scrapping the VAT charges for MRTs.

The Government’s plan to privatise the Search and Rescue service (SAR) throughout Britain appears to have collapsed as the Royal Bank of Scotland has pulled out of the consortia bidding to run the privatised service. The previous Government had announced plans to privatise the whole of the SAR and after a brief suspension of these plans, the new coalition Government decided to go ahead with the privatisation. This covers the helicopters used to search for lost and injured walkers and climbers in Scotland. The plans do not affect the Mountain Rescue Service which will continue as a voluntary service, although…

With the current Scottish thaw not predicted to last, and with plenty of snow on many higher slopes, a useful avalanche advice card has been updated with mountaineers and ski-tourers in mind. The plastic-coated card, designed to fit into a rucksack or jacket pocket has been produced by the Mountaineering Council of Scotland (MCofS) in association with Avalex. 90% of people involved in avalanches actually trigger the avalanche themselves. This popular card aims to reduce this by providing a handy reference including the following information: * Clues to instability/stability * Rutschblock Test * Safe travel techniques * Search and Rescue…