go further Scotland news feed

Happy Birthday

www.gofurtherscotland.co.uk — 2008-09-02T11:51:52+01:00

Happy 21st to local climber Megan Macrae pictured here on the crux of Superblue (7b+) at Creag Nan Luch - not far from her home. Creag Nan Luch (Crag of the Mouse) is one of Scotland’s best sports crags and is found at the West end of Loch Maree near Poolewe and Gairloch. For more information see Superblue (7b+) below.

Full Traverse of An Teallach

www.gofurtherscotland.co.uk — 2008-08-26T10:38:27+01:00

There are many ways to tackle An Teallach but the best way to experience the scale of the massif is to start from Corrie Hallie and walk South West to the steep east-facing slopes of Sail Liath. From there, a long haul onto the main ridge means you can traverse both munros and most of the tops travelling north to Dundonnell.

In July this group (left) tackled the ridge in perfect conditions for the exposed scramble before the first munro. The roped scramble over the Corrag Bhuidhe pinnacles takes a direct line up three pitches of steep climbing. The climbing isn’t hard, but it takes a serious line in an exposed situation. From top of the first assent the route stays on the crest of the ridge for some excellent scrambling on perfect rock including an easy chimney and a sharp ridge traverse. This picture looks south from the top of the Corrag Bhuidhe into the Fisherfield Wilderness. From this section of the ridge the scrambling eases over Lord Berkeley’s Seat (which overhangs Loch Toll an Lochain) and on to the first munro - Sgurr Fiona at 1059m. The ridge then turns to the North East towards Bidein a’ Ghlas Thuill which overlooks the second of the two stunning corries.

This picture (left) shows the group on Bidein with the Corrag Bhuidhe in the distance. From Bidein, there are a number of options. Sometimes we drop down to the northern beallach and then north to Dundonnell Hotel. Alternatively, we can drop into the corrie and back to Corrie Hallie or traverse the central ridge east to Glas Mheall Liath and out to Corrie Hallie. On hot days a return to Corrie Hallie means we can dive into a beautiful pool under a waterfall 15 minutes from the road. See our page on An Teallach for more information or call us if you would like to discuss route options.

Stunning day on Liathach

www.gofurtherscotland.co.uk — 2008-07-12T21:17:15+01:00

Sometimes mixed conditions can make mountain day unforgettable. Liathach in Torridon is a great castellated ridge that jumps to well over 3,000 feet from sea level inside 1.5 kilometres. Its steepness is given even more drama by its sandstone tiers and pinnacled ridge. On Wednesday last week the day started cold and misty with the cloud base at about 700m. After making it onto the summit ridge we traversed west and by midday we could sense the cloud getting thinner and breaking in gusts. By 1pm the sun was occasionally slicing through the mist and, when the wind dropped, conditions became warm and humid. As we tackled the scrambling on the pinnacles (left) the cloud was tumbling over the summit ridge in great white waves. It was an exhilarating spectacle as we climbed over the last section of Am Fasarinen towards the second munro.

This is the view of Meall Dearg - Liathach's northern pinnacled ridge - taken from the main ridge about one kilometre East of Mullach an Rathain.

Here you can see the cloud breaking over the Eastern section of the main ridge. On the right of the picture you can just make out another party emerging from the mist onto the summit ridge.

This picture looks north down to the floor of Coire na Caime some 400m below. Check our our pages on Torridon and Scrambling for options for guiding. Janet (pictured above) and Stuart chose our 'Torridon Munros' course - six munros and eight 'tops' over three days including Liathach.

June Rain

www.gofurtherscotland.co.uk — 2008-07-03T21:07:16+01:00

Karen, Judy, Mel and Karen proving it is possible to have fun in torrential rain in the Cuillin. This picture was taken in late June at the summit of Bruach Na Frithe. This is usually a straight-forward peak manageable from the Sligachan but at the end of this day the burns you can normally skip over were raging after seven hours of downpour.

Skye Action

www.gofurtherscotland.co.uk — 2008-06-09T13:12:06+01:00

The gofurther team has enjoyed bright and dry conditions on most days on Skye over the past few weeks. The top picture shows Paul with Christine, Rory, James, Gair, Calum, Alistair and Pat after an ascent of the Inaccessible Pinnacle on Sgurr Dearg. Here, the group has descended down the steep slabs from the Pinnacle for a breather on an airy outcrop before we climbed back onto the main ridge for an ascent of Sgurr Mhic Choinnich. The other picture shows Colin with the same group on the Western Buttress of Sgurr nan Gillean. This section is the most technical part of the buttress with scrambling over, and between, a series of small pinnacles. The group went on to the summit of Am Basteir which you can seen in the distance.

Dry Conditions

www.gofurtherscotland.co.uk — 2008-06-09T13:05:49+01:00

With hardly any rain now since mid-april the ground is parched and dusty. This picture shows how dry the peat is in the notorious 'bog' between Larachantivore and Shenevall in the Fisherfield Wilderness. The picture was taken in mid-May.

Wilderness Walk

www.gofurtherscotland.co.uk — 2008-06-09T12:28:14+01:00

With the weather perfect for long mountain routes and cimbing gofurther has had a busy May. This picture was taken in the middle of the month during a walk through the Fisherfield Wilderness following the route of the Great Wilderness Challenge (GWC). The GWC is an annual sponsored walk and run held in August organised to raise money for local charities. The longest GWC route leaves Dundonnell in the north and ends 25 miles later at Poolewe in the south. Here Clive and Jan are enjoying the stunning view from the path above the Dubh Loch. This walk normally takes around nine to ten hours. See our pages on guided walking for more.

Sea stack climbing - Am Buachaille

www.gofurtherscotland.co.uk — 2008-05-12T20:47:52+01:00

With the weather perfect for coastal walks and sea-cliff climbing the gofurther team took themselves to the magic of Sandwood bay on the North West of Sutherland. About 30 minutes to the south along the coast stands one of the UK's most impressive sea stacks - a 65m tower of sandstone which you can just make out in this picture. This climb includes everything: a beautiful walk to a stunning and remote location; a walk around a rugged coast; a swim out to the stack; a exhilarating climb; a 50m abseil; and, some breathtaking views. But words can't paint the picture, so we've put together a small video of the trip we made on Friday 9th May. Just click on the embedded movie below. Three days on and the weather hasn't changed. If you're interested in guided sea stack climbing click here for our dedicated page.

Early Summer

www.gofurtherscotland.co.uk — 2008-05-07T21:18:29+01:00

The settled spring conditions have given way to .....settled hot weather with temperatures well above 20c for the past two days and a high pressure system set in to the East. This picture was taken looking North West towards the mouth of Little Loch Broom at just after 9pm on Wednesday.

Perfect Conditions

www.gofurtherscotland.co.uk — 2008-04-23T09:11:27+01:00

April has brought some of the best mountaineering and climbing conditions we've seen for a few years. The month started cold and dry with a few frosts down to sea level. As the days turned increasingly sunny, a sharp easterly breeze with very low humidity meant the North West Highlands had the best weather in the UK. All of these pictures were taken in the last two weeks. The first shows the snow-capped Torridon mountains taken from the Melvaig peninsula; the second is action at the sheltered south-facing Kuhjo Crag near Gairloch; the third is An Teallach taken on a guided day out to the summits.

Late Winter

www.gofurtherscotland.co.uk — 2008-04-14T20:58:14+01:00

A very early Easter. Two weeks of bitterly cold northerly weather which has left the hills of Wester Ross plastered in snow. Forecast is for it to stay cold for a few more days. Views of Loch Toll an Lochain from the SE ridge of Bidean a' Ghlas Thuill, the highest summit of An Teallach at 1062m, taken on Wednesday 19th March.

Water Lilly - Classics of Wester Ross

www.gofurtherscotland.co.uk — 2008-02-11T12:59:56+00:00

Loch Tollaidh Crags, Wester Ross, is the best single pitch trad venue around Gairloch. The climbing is always technical and sustained. To get a real appreciation of the quality of the climbing here you need to be operating at HVS and up. Hidden Crag has the longest routes and the rock is truly immaculate clean, rough Lewisian Gneiss. Water Lily, E2 5b, and Buena Vista, also E2 5b, are classics. It is very hard to decide which is the better of the two so it is best just to do both! Paul Tattersall and Jim Buchanan are hard at work updating the Loch Tollaidh Crags topo for wildwesttopos.com with over sixty new routes to add since the original topo was published, it will be ready for this spring.

Superblue (7b+)

www.gofurtherscotland.co.uk — 2008-01-10T20:06:35+00:00

Over winter we've decided to profile some of the best routes in the North West - so thanks to Jim Buchanan of Wild West Topos for these awesome pictures of Michael Lee on Superblue - graded 7b+. This line follows an overhanging curving crack line on a bulge of perfect gneiss at Creag Nan Luch (Crag of the Mouse) at the West end of Loch Maree near Poolewe and Gairloch. Strenuous moves lead to a tricky and powerful crux at the top of the crack. This route was bolted by gofurther's Paul Tattersall just after the first clutch of routes were equipped in the middle section of the crag. Several more routes have since been added on the upper and lower tier starting at around 6a. The range of routes available make this a perfect venue if you are moving from indoor cragging to sport routes or if you looking to push your grade with coaching on technique. See our rock climbing pages for more. Wild West Topos produce a range of easy-to-use photo-topos of the best rock venues in the area.

Gaelic Place Names

www.gofurtherscotland.co.uk — 2008-01-10T08:23:46+00:00

Apamapa is a really useful guide to Gaelic place-names in Wester Ross. Written by local Gaelic expert Nevis Hulme, the online and map-based guide lists many of the Gaelic hill and mountain names in some of the most popular mountain-walking areas. The Northern Ross-shire pack for example, covers the An Teallach, Fisherfield Six, Slioch, Torridon, Beinn Dearg, Fannich and Ben Wyvis areas. Click on the Apamapa logo for more.

Shades of Grey

www.gofurtherscotland.co.uk — 2008-01-02T09:08:13+00:00

Although forecast for broken sunshine, December 29th brought a long spell of miserable horizontal hail and sleet. Winter days like this present their own challenges such as difficult navigation while staying out of the worst winds. For example, on Thursday Helen, Simon and Tom were undaunted by the early conditions and wanted to stick to our plan of a winter skills day on An Teallach. After reaching the top of Mac is Mathair in a howling gale we crossed the plateau north of the main summits well above the cloud level to the coll just north of Bidein a' Ghlas Thuill - one of the two An Teallach munros. The wind was far less fierce here and the cloud broke for us long enough to get a view of the vast Glass Tholl corrie. As the weather eased we reached that top before descending back to the coll (pictured). After practising some ice axe arrests, we then dropped down the long path North East to Dundonnell. The whole day took about nine hours. Check out our winter pages for more options.

New Gruinard Sport Routes

www.gofurtherscotland.co.uk — 2007-12-27T20:36:45+00:00

The recent spell of incredible weather saw some new sport routes added over the Christmas period. After Murdo, Paul and Colin first equipped a series of 7s on the main wall a few other lines are now established on Goat Crag. Most recently, Paul Tattersall finished a line left of Teepee - Tom Paine's Bones at 6c. Nearby, Am Fasgadh finally has a sensible warm up thanks to Ian Taylor - The Groove 6b+, the right hand line of bolts following the groove - vaguely. Right of The Crack (7b) Paul has also bolted The Shield at 7a+ which has rapidly become a classic. Left of The Crack, Ian Taylor and Lawrence Hughes equipped Primo - 7c - which goes all the way up the headwall of perfect rock above the quartz band to a lower-off at 25m. Thanks also to Murdo for sorting out several of the lower-offs at this crag before he was injured. More on Goat crag and Am Fasgadh soon. The picture shows Jenny Cunningham and Paul 'Storkey' getting to grips with Mac Talla and The Prow respectively at Goat Crag.

Christmas Boulder

www.gofurtherscotland.co.uk — 2007-12-26T20:37:40+00:00

The settled spell clung on until Christmas day before it broke down completely on Boxing day. This picture was taken at about 1.30pm on Christmas day looking North East to Beinn Ghoblach. Again, it was taken from close to the summit of Carn na Glaic Buidhe where we stumbled on this promising sandstone erratic. It doesn't look like there are any decent vertical problems but, as it overhangs on three sides, it may be worth a visit to train on the 360 degree traverse.

Winter Solstice

www.gofurtherscotland.co.uk — 2007-12-23T21:09:15+00:00

Winter Solstice in the North West Hightlands was spectacular this year. Not a breath of wind, wall to wall sunshine and bitterly cold in the shade. It was a stunning end to a long, dry, cold and sunny spell of fantastic rock climbing weather. In the picture (which was taken at about 1pm on Winter Solstice) Colin is standing on one of the many gneiss boulders that are a feature of the Gruinard, Poolewe and Gairloch area. Very often these large boulders are found on, or near to, the summits of small hills near the major rivers or near other natural features. Some of us find it difficult to believe that these boulders are simply the result of natural erosion. It's almost as if they were carefully positioned for reasons long forgotten. The one above is near the summit of Carn na Glaic Buidhe above Badlurach and the one below is found on the knoll just south of the Carnmore bothy.

Murdo Out of Action

www.gofurtherscotland.co.uk — 2007-12-22T21:20:20+00:00

The gofurther team were hoping to bring you some news about new routes on some of the best sports crags in Scotland; but that will have to wait. Instead we have some bad news at the end of the year.... This is a picture of Murdo on Mac Talla (7b) at Goat Crag. Taken the day before he had a serious accident in Torridon. While we're assured he will be fine, he's expecting to be out of action for at least six months and probably around a year. We all wish him as fast a recovery as is possible and a complication-free 'rest'. Murdo will be sorely missed at the crag, on the mountain and around the table afterwards.

And another...

www.gofurtherscotland.co.uk — 2007-12-13T08:47:05+00:00

The weather has suddenly turned much milder but the sunrises are no less dramatic. Forecast is for a long spell of settled sunny weather for the far north.