We’ve had a glorious start to October with strong easterly winds keeping any significant cloud well to the south. The good weather coincided with Alexa and Simon’s visit for four days hiking with go further. They didn’t have specific objectives so we suggested four of the best walks in the area. Luckily, we managed to some interesting shots during their trip which show off the weather and the walks.


We started the week with an ascent of Beinn a'Chearcaill - one of the lower Torridon hills but a walk that takes you into the heart of the Torridon area to the west of the Beinn Eighe massif. The summit of this hill is an unusual plateau of Torridonian sandstone littered with boulders. Strong winds battered the area from the East on this day and it was almost impossible to take any pictures near the summit.



The descent from Slioch at around 900m looking south to Torridon.



Later in the week we did the long coastal walk on the Slaggan peninsula starting at Mellon Udrigle beach where we watched a seal before setting off. The hill in the distance is Beinn Ghobhlach on the Scoraig peninsula to the north.



Another view at the start of the Slaggan coastal walk.



A sandy beach on a small hill loch high on Beinn Ghobhlach.



The view of the An Teallach massif from the summit of Beinn Ghobhlach later that day.

Tags: Beinn a'Chearcaill, Slioch, Greenstone Point, Beinn Ghobhlach

Go Further clients have experienced a series of special days on some of the north’s most famous peaks in perfect winter conditions.



In the first half of the month we found ourselves on Slioch - just north of Loch Maree (in the distance in the picture above with Torridon in the background). Here the group are just hitting the snow line at about 1500 feet.



Later that week we moved south to Torridon where this picture was taken of the the main Beinn Eighe ridge from the Liathach ridge. For more details on Torridon see here.



Liathach is a special mountain at any time of the year but, combined with An Teallach and Beinn Eighe, can there be a better series of winter summits to aim for on the Scottish mainland?

Another great day out is to tackle the Black Carls on the Beinn Eighe Ridge - one of the best Wester Ross scrambles and, in the winter, a great mountaineering adventure. Here the group is heading onto the main ridge...



...and here (below) we are heading towards the start of the Carls.

Tags: Liathach, Beinn Eighe, torridon, Slioch, Winter, mountaineering

go further has had one of its busiest summer seasons so far and here is a selection of some of our best shots from recent trips.


In May Zoe and friends (pictured below) took a break from their running holiday to tackle a tough traverse of Ben More Assynt and Conival in the Inchnadamph area. This route starts at Inchnadamph and reaches Conival via the beautiful and narrow Gleann Dubh. From Conival there is a rough ridge walk (pictured here) to Ben More. From there we took the exciting south ridge that includes some exposed scrambling before dropping down to the spectacular Dubh Loch Mor.





We rested by Dubh Loch Mor for a long spell before tackling the long walk back to Inchnadamph. This long traverse is one of the most challenging in the area but variety and complexity of the scenery makes the long day worthwhile. This picture shows the burn running from Dubh Loch Mor with the imposing South Ridge of Ben More Assynt behind.



As we keep finding out, some of the best mountain days in the North West are to be found on the ‘Corbett’ tops - those mountains between 2,500 and 3,000 feet in height. Several are to be found on the fabulous Coigach Peninsula just north of Ullapool. In May, we had several long spells of bright and cool weather and one of those coincided with this visit to one of the most accessible of Coigach’s mountains - Cul Mor. This picture is taken from the summit ridge looking south west to one of the most visited mountains in the North West - Stac Pollaidh.



This picture is also taken from the north west top of Cul Mor looking north towards Suilven - one of the most spectacular and remote of all Scotlands ‘Corbett’ tops.


Despite some brilliant weather in May and June, we did see some very late snow and one of those flurries coincided with a complete traverse of An Teallach by Jill and friends (pictured).


Here, two of our group can be seen nearing the end of the pinnacled ridge a short distance before one of the main Munro tops which was in cloud.


The day started brightly but became overcast as the party reached the main ridge where we took this stunning picture of the full ridge.

Tags: Ben More Assynt, An Teallach, Conival, Coigach, Assynt, Suilven, Stac Pollaidh, Ullapool

As the cold snap continues, these pictures were taken on the same day from the summit ridge of An Teallach in early december on a mountain rescue training exercise. The lower picture was taken at about 10am when we were near the summit of Sail Liath (945m) looking south East. The Top picture is from the Corrag Bhuidhe buttress looking south west over to the magnificent Beinn Dearg Mor. The sun is reflecting off Abhainn Gleann na Muice which runs into the stunning and remote Loch na Sealga - a 5km long loch with Beinn Daerg Mor rising on one side and An Teallach on the other.

Tags: An Teallach, Beinn Dearg Mor, Loch na Sealga, Abhainn Gleann na Muice

Congratulations to Tim and Helen (pictured below) who were on their honeymoon last month when we went ventured onto one of Torridon’s most remote peaks - Beinn an Eoin. This picture was taken in the middle of November from the summit of in the heart of Torridon looking south. Beinn Alligin is on the right with the sun catching, we think, Loch na Cabhaig. The Horns of Alligin are in the middle of the picture.
This was a bitterly cold day (wind chill at around -10c) in November which marked the start of a long spell of very cold weather.

Tags: torridon, Beinn an Eoin

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.

Tags: Great Wilderness Challenge, fisherfield

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.

Tags: Kuhjo Crag, An Teallach, Wester Ross

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.

Tags: An Teallach, Winter

This weekend saw some stormy cold weather sweep over the North West bringing some wild winter conditions to the higher tops. This picture, taken yesterday, is from the summit of Sgurr Fiona on An Teallach looking south to Gleann Na Muice.The strong south westerly brought significant snow showers that settled above 800 meters.

The picture below was taken from near the summit of Sgurr Creag an Eich along the North West Ridge of An Teallach. The furthest point on this ridge that you can see is the 760 meter summit - Sgurr Ruadh. Half way along the ridge you can make out the Coastguard Rescue helicopter which set down to drop off members of Dundonnell Mountain Rescue Team. These pictures were taken during a training exercise with DMRT.

Tags: An Teallach, Winter