Mountain Sit Rep

International Winter Meet Day 5 - Heavy snowfall overnight on strong westerly winds resulted in dangerous windslab conditions on the fifth day of the International Meet (February 27). On Be...

SNOWSHOEING ON BEN MACDUI - Showshoe heaven Day two on Steve & Marina's winter course with Tarmachan Mountaineering. We had a fabulous day on Sunday but today was something special. ...

Thwaites Science - Erin dragging the GPR across the ice shelf. Having written about my experiences working on Thwaites Glacier in my previous blog post, I thought that it wo...

Glen Coe, Aonach Mor and Glen Feshie - This week I’ve been working on a Winter Mountaineering Foundation course based out of Ballachulish. We visited Stob Mhic Mhartuin on Monday with soft snow ...

Christmas Comes but Once a Year - 2020 has not been a good year for winter climbing conditions, particularly here on Skye. December was tropical and January’s storms rolled wildly from hot ...

The hot air in between… - On the off-chance, Grimer got in touch, “Nick, are you about? I’m in Llanberis, do you fancy a chat for my podcast, I’ve been doing an interview with Hazel...

Train to Run - a trip to the Basque Country - Published in The Fellrunner Magazine #124 (Oct 2019) Finlay competing in Zegama-Aizkorri race 2019 (13th) We live in an age of ever increasing opportunitie...

Salbitchin’ on the Sudgrat - Following some great routes but mixed weather in the Grimsel Pass, the perfect window presented itself for a much bigger mountain objective. The famous Sud...

PLB's, SPOT's and the Garmin inReach - A comparison and guide. - *A comparison between Personal Locator Beacons, Spot devices and the Garmin inReach* I bought myself an emergency communication device this summer for pers...

Ardnamurchan to Aberdeen - ‘Itchy peddles’ and inspired by a friend on a similar trip from Oban last year. This entire route might be a new […] The post Ardnamurchan to Aberdeen ap...

This blog has moved - This blog has moved. After redesigning my website in June 2019 I have moved my blogs to: https://www.davemacleod.com/blog I'll leave the archive of post...

Sublime on Solitaire - Haven't blogged in quite a while but today was so good I've got to put some pics up: Its getting tough to find routes Claire hasn't done as we've been hitti...

Synergy Guides - Vertical Fever is no longer – come visit our new site here: https://synergyguides.com/

Laying some demons to rest - Sat in the passenger seat of Tony’s car, I asked him the geeky question of what was his favourite route of the trip. He then bounced the same question bac...

Training and Exploring - With more ankle surgery on the horizon in August I've been trying to get fitter in the hope I recover quicker so last week I headed up North Buttress with ...

Scrabble - *Scrabble* Our eyes met. Neither moved. Slowly the slender leg of the heron reached forward and delicately stepped closer to the water. Still our eyes lo...

End of the Blog - This is just to say that while the pages here will continue to exist, I will no longer be publishing anything. Feel free to view the past posts but for no...

Antarctic Expeditions 2017/18 - ALE's Union Glacier Camp is up and running for the 2017/18 season so time for an overview of this years Antarctic & South Pole Expeditions. Alongside the u...

Eventful so far! - So the first half of 2017 has been pretty awesome so far, and super eventful to say the least. I think the best way to show what I’ve been up to is throug...

Summer so far... (Part 2) - Back from Skye I was back with Alan Halewood on a very busy SPA Assessment. Kingussie was our venue for personal climbing followed by a day in Glen Nevis...

Grand Rocheuse N Face and a little more - Following the excellent climb with Uisdean, Keith arrived for a solid week in the mountains allowing little room for a break. Day 1 resurrected a love for ...

Manchester University Mountaineering Club winter courses weekend 2017. - Well the snow returned in Glencoe right on que this weekend. We were working with twenty two keen students from MUMC on their annual winter safety and skil...

Winter so far.... - The winter might have been slow to start this year, with limited snow and too much warm weather, but that hasn't stopped us. We have been as busy as ever a...

Indian Himalaya, Miyar Valley Expedition -

Jordan - My first visit to Jordan was through a work trip for a project set up between the UIAA (International Climbing and Mountaineering Federation) and the Jorda...

Possibilities - For an avid winter climber like me, Autumn is always a time of possibilities. The reality of course is that proper winter conditions are a long way off, b...

James Edwards (1976-2016)... - It was during the summer that I learnt of the death of James Edwards following a fall hillwalking on Ruadh Stac Mor. He was in the remote area of Fisherf...

Westonbirt Masterpieces - Not my pictures but the incredible trees - mainly Acers that were in full Autumn display today at Westonbirt Arboretum http://www.forestry.gov.uk/westonbir...

Busy day on the Aonach Eagach - Quite a few teams making the best of the decent conditions and last of the summer daylight days today in Glencoe. A pleasant dry day if a little greasy und...

Catch up - After injuring my finger last November, it has been struggling to recover fully. I've had time out climbing, but it just doesn't feel right. So I've take...

Thursday 12th March 2015 Intro to winter climbing - Been working in the North West highlands for Martin this last week...

NEW BLOG - I have recently been working on a new website and blog. You can find the new blog, with all of the old posts on this blog, here: http://www.expeditionguide...

Scottish Summer but Still Winter in the shade! - Back in Scotland working on a 5 day Intro to Winter Climbing course for Mountain Magic, www.mountainmagic.co.uk Blue Skies, no wind, warm sunshine but fort...

17-02-16, Aonach Eagach, Glen Coe - Winter Mountaineering - After a mini thaw, wet, stormy weather of yesterday, lush weather has resumed today in Glen Coe. Aonach Eagach was in a fine winter condition, some new s...

Glenshee intro - Today Ana and I decided to try ski touring together in Glenshee. I had my touring ski's for a bit but Ana bought them at the end of last season. Here is An...

- Sorry, we're not here any more. We've moved to - http://www.abacusmountainguides.com/blog Make sure you bookmark the new page. Mike

America - Swimming with dolphins, meeting the Queen, falling in love, standing on the moon. Everyone seems to be talking about "bucket lists" nowadays. If a climber ...

Goodbye Apple Mountaineering, hello West Coast Mountain Guides - Running Apple Mountaineering up until now has been good fun, and an interesting learning curve, and it will be a bit of a shame to sideline it, however, ...

Orkney ‘Sea Stacks and Sea Cliffs’ trip 2015 - We had another great trip exploring the sea cliffs of Orkney recently. We climbed on Orkney itself, South Ronaldsay, Hoy and the Caithness coast. Lots of...

FUNdas, Assessments and Training oh my! - After a blustery flight to Kirkwall on Thursday morning I have been busy with work in the Islands two main climbing walls. Some PPE inspections and meeting...

Sochi - photoblog! - Andy hasn't got a computer with him out in Russia - so here's some pics to whet your appetite for when he gets back and writes up the trip……. Today the ice...

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