With ice and snow providing wintry conditions on Scotland’s mountains the MCofS has announced the dates for the 2013 Aviemore and Glencoe winter safety lectures. These will be held at the Mountain Cafe in Aviemore on 6 February and at the Clachaig Inn in Glencoe on 12 February. This season’s speaker will be Heather Morning, Mountain Safety Advisor for the MCofS. Heather has over 30 years experience mountaineering, climbing and skiing in the Scottish Hills. She has also been actively involved with mountain rescue in the Cairngorms for the last 10 years and will be accompanied by the ‘four legged…

Forestry Commission Scotland's multi-million pound project to improve forest visitor services in Galloway Forest Park has finally got the go ahead. The project will see a new visitor centre complex at Kirroughtree, a totally modernised centre at Clatteringshaws and an upgraded centre at Glentrool. Last month the whole project received the green light from planners and now the project is gaining momentum with new operators joining forces with the Commission to provide services. Keith Muir, Tourism Manager with Forestry Commission Scotland in Galloway said:“With planning permission granted, we have a fantastic opportunity to really sell Galloway Forest Park as a…

Harvey Maps have just launched a map to the epic hillwalking challenge that is the Charlie Ramsay Round. Covering 24 Munros it is often tackled as a 24 hour challenge. Harvey Maps say, “In June 1964 Philip Tranter, son of the author Nigel Tranter, was the first to cover all of these mountains in a single trip, taking in the Mamores, the Grey Corries, the Aonachs, Carn Mor Dearg and Ben Nevis. Could Tranter’s round be extended to 24 Munros within 24 hours? At 12 noon on Saturday 8th July 1978, Charlie Ramsay left Glen Nevis Youth Hostel, travelling anticlockwise,…

The dates have been released for a series of free Winter Skills talks organised by Cotswold Outdoor and featuring Heather Morning, Mountain Safety Officer for the Mountaineering Council of Scotland and mountain guide Mick Tighe. The “Skills for the Hills” talks will be held in Cotswold stores at 7:30pm (apart from the Peebles event which will be in the Eastgate Theatre) on the following dates: Aberdeen: 25th November Edinburgh: 27th November Glasgow: 28th November Peebles – EastGate Theatre: 29th November Fort William: 30th November Glasgow: 5th December The events are free but as places are limited you are asked to…

Footpath closures at Glen Nevis will be affecting a number of routes on Monday 12 and Tuesday 13 November. This is to allow stones to be airlifted onto the path leading to Steall Falls as part of a major footpath repair being undertaken by the John Muir Trust. Walking routes affected include Steall Falls and the Nevis Gorge and the Mamores mountain route known as The Ring of Steall. Forestry Commission Scotland is warning walkers on the Great Glen Way that there is currently a a 1km diversion in place between Alt na Criche and Rudha Ban which is likely…