TGO Challenge 2020 route submitted for vetting
After a few weeks spent pondering maps, my planned route for the 2020 TGO Challenge has now been submitted. For background on the Challenge, and why I decided to participate, see this blog post. It’s an annual non-competitive backpacking event in which hundreds of people cross Scotland on foot
Skills guide: Planning off-path routes
If your hillwalking has mainly been confined to the Peak District or Lakes, it can be daunting to visit a wilder area where there are fewer footpaths. For the first-timer in the Scottish Highlands, here’s how to confidently plan walking routes – even where there are no paths. This feature
A pillaged ecology in the Scottish Highlands: ‘I am angry beyond words’
An environmental consultant expresses anger and concern about landscape mismanagement and the impact of deer in the Scottish Highlands Last week, after I put up a post on Twitter and LinkedIn describing how I was writing a piece about the ‘pillaged ecology in the Highlands’, I received an email from
What I’ve been reading this week, 6 December 2019
Letting loose the lynx, taking ultralight backpacking too far, an outdoor election, and throwing in the apostrophe towel. Environment ‘Forgotten’ elm tree set to make a comeback – I’m too young to remember a landscape with large elm trees. It’s nice to think that future generations might be able
Pinnacle Editorial is fully booked until summer 2020
An availability update. I’ve taken on a number of writing commissions lately from several different clients, and have a stack of editorial projects lined up well into 2020, so it’s time to declare myself fully booked for the foreseeable future. I’ll admit that I’m surprised – at
A Single Moment: Alpine Bivouac
This feature was first published in Sidetracked magazine, February 2018. Suddenly I’m not sure I want to go through with this, but there’s no chance to go back now. Not unless I want to descend that ridge in the dark. I’ve climbed to the summit of Stockhorn,
What I’ve been reading this week, 29 November 2019
Scottish Salmon’s dark secret, the unease of winter’s sounds, poetry from the Cairngorms, CMD Arête, and a global plan to save the Web. Environment Beavers set to return to Norfolk – excellent news. Glen Etive hydros update – an update from the John Muir Trust on the Glen Etive hydro
What I’ve been reading this week, 22 November 2019
I have some cracking reads for you this week on a range of subjects: homecoming salmon, an Alpine rejuvenation, winter backpacking tips, wonder of wonders, photographing the Hebrides, and much more… Environment Melting glaciers and the double-edged sword of last-chance tourism – ‘the environmental paradox: traveling long distances to see melting
My photography – November 2019
Thanks to a combination of getting out more than usual and some excellent conditions, I’ve had a strong month for photography both on and off the mountains. In no particular order, here is a selection of images from November 2019. Tip of the hat to my brother James Roddie,
What I’ve been reading this week, 15 November 2019
This week in my increasingly inaccurately named ‘what I’ve been reading this week’ slot, it’s a mixed bunch of links on everything from Himalayan mountaineering to climbing literature, the best gear of 2019 to a redesigned MacBook Pro… Nirmal Purja’s ascent of all fourteen 8,000m peaks:
