Florian, Michael and his brother Steven and myself drove north on Friday afternoon. Last minute changes brought us up to beautiful Sheigra where we hoped to join Martin and Veronica. Being on a mission of sea-stack bagging we left the community land campsite in the morning, got dropped off up the road by Steven who went fishing and walked into Sandwood Bay – through wind and snow showers with intermitted short sunny spells!!!

The sight of me slapping on suncream on the side of the road woukd have been a bit odd if anyone had cared to look at 6.40am on the main road just outside Crinalarich. I was heading up Stobinian and Ben More and the valley was enveloped in thick damp mist. The sun cream proved worth while however when I got up onto the ridge however:

An amazing inversion above about 600m and great weather ... I had made a veryu early start and it was worth it. I'll try to poke a couple more pics in, that one seemed to work but I can't seem to get the others in yet.

got out last weekend for little expedition. took in 6 corbetts on a walk from corran to glenfinnan, this was my first walk in ardgour and i really enjoyed it, although the route was a little more taxing than i had antisipated, there is a full report here, http://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=20579

A goood trip to an excellent venue last weekend. There were overnight frosts and some cold winds but on Saturday we climbed in warm sun at Kyloe. Fabulous fish suppers in Wooler, and the pub turned out to be decent on Saturday night. There were no crowds, polished rock, or massed tourists : We saw only seven or eight climbers at Kyloe, and I wouldn't have imagined Bowden was busy the next day, when Veronika, Martin and Irish Dave climbed half a dozen routes there. Jules and I settled for a walk on the beach on Sunday as we had to be back mid-afternoon. What a great place Northumberland is.

A last taste of winter. Broad Gully might not seem like much of a climb but it was the only thing complete on Stob Coire nan Lochan, and when it's been frozen over night and just has a surface of mush and you've no crampons and your 17-year-old son is in tow it's quite exciting. We roped it mainly because Joe had decided that his dad was wrong and bendy hiking boots would be perfectly adequate. But great fun and a last taste of winter snow. Hard to believe that four years ago I climbed SC gully on good ice in Mid-April ...

Last week I was lucky to walk the west highland way during the most fantastic weather imaginable with crystal clear blue skies and bright starry nights. I bivouacked on a beach by Loch Lomond on the first night. Bunk house in Tyndrum on the second. A rather comfortable night with many pints of good beer at the Kingshouse on the third followed by a final bivouac in the woods just above Fort William. Apart from the section over Conic Hill the path was in a good state and bone dry all the way. An excellent few days and well worthwhile.

Mont Thabor is situated in SE France near the Italian border the area is liberally supplied with huts well away from commercial ski developments and with moderate altitudes up to 3000m it makes an ideal early season ski touring area. Our tour took started from Valfrejus over the Col Fontaine Froid to the Magi hut then over a couple of cols with a steep ski down over recent avalanche debris to the very comfortable Ricou Hut and a pleasant local beer in the evening sun. The next day was pretty wild with snow and strong wind.

On Sunday morning I headed up to Arrochar with Ciaran my son for a morning on the Cobbler. As we passed along Loch Lomond the mist was heavy on the Loch and road but had begun to clear as we reached Succoth car park on what was to be one of the hottest March days on record. The car park was still quiet as we headed up the path around 08.30.

Having completed the slog to the top of the tree line we turned left over the burn at the weir and headed up spongy ground to the ridge that would lead to the foot of the climb.

The CIC hut meet saw Aaron, Michael, Florian, Luca and myself travelling and walking up on Friday evening. Only five other climbers stayed in the hut and they were as determined as us to give the winter another chance – and probably the last one for this season ;-) Guided by the recent blogs we chose climbs for the next day and pulled straws – sorry forks!!! – for the two teams.

Perhaps if someone had responded to my plea for a Thursday buddy, I might not have been in this position. The postion being: 13 miles from the road lugging a bike across slippery tussocks. I was soaked, the weather was getting worse, it was 3pm on a winter day and by dint of the planning technique known as Advanced Muppetry I had a puncture repair kit but no pump and, I suspected, a softening back tyre.