Winter Walking and Ski Touring
This week I’ve been lucky enough to get out in the Pentlands again in winter conditions. On Tuesday Ivor and I were out for a walk in glorious sunny weather with a dusting of fresh snow. On Friday Pamela and I managed an opportunistic ski tour. The snow cover was good on paths and tracks where it had a base and had drifted in on top overnight. Away from these there was no real base except in small sheltered locations and care was required. A great fun day, which helped to keep our winter skills ticking over as best we can currently.






Winter Walking and Climbing in the Pentlands
Last week saw some good wintery conditions in the Pentland Hills. This meant I was able to get out locally for some winter walking and climbing. The climbing was only in the Grade I to III range and not classics. However, it was great to get out and practice skills I’ll hopefully need later in the season.




Local Running and Training
Over the past few days Euan and I have been training locally for when we can go further afield. Today we were out for a beautiful run in a snowy Pentlands with David. Good to see plenty of people out enjoying the conditions. It reminded us that a lot of walkers and runners may be new to winter conditions this year. If you decide you need a Winter Skills Course for walking or running, a Winter Navigation Course or an Avalanche Awareness Course these are all things we can provide. There’s more information on the ClimbNow website.






Snowy Pentlands, Training and Kit Checks
I’ve been busy this week. Training at EICA Ratho, Alien Bloc and doing the winter equipment checks for Falkirk Outdoors. Today I headed up in to the snowy Pentlands for a couple of hours of running. It was delightful with fresh snow and no wind. For what it’s worth the turf wasn’t frozen and it was boggy/muddy below the snow on paths. Due to rain most of tomorrow in the Pentlands, so unfortunately it’s unlikely to last long.





The Pentlands
Ivor and I headed in to the Pentlands today to try and keep some hill miles in the legs. Starting from Harlaw we took in Harbour Hill, Capelaw and Allermuir. This also gave me the opportunity to pick up a large bag of rubbish I’d seen behind a wall during last week’s navigation course, but hadn’t the rucksack capacity to carry out at the time. Not as sunny today as forecast, however there were good views with cloud below us in the Forth valley.



Pentlands DofE
This week I’ve been delivering DofE training for The City of Edinburgh Council for a good group from Trinity School. This culminated in a practice expedition in the Pentlands. I was particularly impressed with the ambitious cooking options of the group, as some of the photos on The ClimbNow Facebook page show. Wet earlier in the week, but thankfully dry on Thursday and Friday for the practice expedition.

The group in the Pentlands.