Christmas in Glen Coe II: The Revenge of the Rainstorms

January 3, 2024 Trip reports britain, buachaille etive beag, corbetts, glen coe, hill walking, munros, scotland 0 Comment

Another Christmas, and another cottage in Scotland for a week. What would the weather hold in store for us this year, and would we get up any mountains? The forecast wasn’t promising, but one good day in the hills could make it all worthwhile.

Sore bums and saddlebags: cycling the North Coast 500

November 8, 2017 Trip reports britain, corbetts, cycling, edita, munros, north coast 500, scotland 15 Comments

It was four years since my last visit to Scotland, and I ended up returning in a most unexpected way. A few months ago I’d never even heard of the North Coast 500; now I’ve only gone and cycled it. The adventure took me beyond exhaustion, but somehow I got round. Here’s how.

The truth about the first Lithuanian ascent of Sgurr a’ Chaorachain

September 6, 2017 Humour britain, conrad bartelski, corbetts, cycling, edita, false summit claims, first ascents, hill walking, munros, north coast 500, scotland, sgurr a chaorachain 2 Comments

False summit claims were back in the news when a Swedish mountaineer retracted his summit claim after studying photographs and realising he hadn’t reached the very top. He was praised for his refreshing honesty, but a similar story of mountaineering integrity also deserves attention.

The peat-bog method of training for a big adventure

September 1, 2017 Expedition dispatches an teallach, britain, chimborazo, corbetts, cycling, ecuador, edita, hill walking, munro bagging, munros, north coast 500, peak bagging, scotland 1 Comment

In the last three weeks I’ve cycled 830km across 1273 hills, hiked up 8 Munros and 4 Corbetts, and scratched 253,953 midge bites 37 times per day. I camped for 20 consecutive nights and have lost count of the number