Summer availability  days out this summer can be arranged for just yourself, with a partner or for a group of friends. There's still availability throughout August and September. For a no obligation chat about organising any type of mountain training or guided day, email or call 07921 312 905. Just let me know what you'd like to do, when you'd like to do it, and we'll take it from there.

Winter Scotland 2011  last season gave the best and most prolonged winter climbing and walking conditions in living memory. If you'd like to start planning early for next winter, feel free to get in touch with any questions or with any dates you'd like to reserve. Details on winter climbing and mountainering instruction can be found on the winter and mountain pages.

Winter skills courses - additional info  I've put together some further information about Scottish winter skills courses on an additional winter skills page. You'll get an idea of what a course entails, what skills can be covered and what areas of the Highlands have been visited on recent courses.

North Wales - rock climbing instruction  a bit of climbing instruction could be the ideal way of kick starting a great climbing year, giving you all the necessary skills for moving your climbing along. Complete beginner? Making the jump from indoor climbing to real rock? Want to lead trad for the first time? Looking to progress to harder climbs? - whatever you'd like to do, just get in touch to explore fixing something up.

North Wales - guided climbing days  a day or two of guided climbing will give you stacks of rock mileage, improve your climbing technique and the provides the opportunity to climb some of the best routes around. There is an amazing diversity of rock climbing concentrated within the Snowdonia National Park and along the North Wales coastline. It's probably unique in that there are so many quality routes, catering for all levels of abilty, in such a compact area. Take a look at the summer gallery for just a small idea of where you could be climbing. Or for even more inspiration, have a thumb through 'North Wales Rock', a recently published guide book that beautifully showcases the variety of climbing in North Wales (see below).

North Wales - hill skills  we're blessed in North Wales with both rolling hills and rugged mountain topography. This produces a great mix of pleasant hill walks and adventurous mountain scrambles, letting you engage as gentley or rigorously as you like with the great outdoors. Daily instruction is available to give you the all the necessary skills for enjoying the British hills. Navigation training to improve your confidence when hill walking. Or some advanced scrambling experience to sharpen your route finding ability on steep terrain ...even learning how, and when, to use a rope.

To fix up a day or two's instruction in mountain navigation, easy scrambling (without a rope) or to learn advanced scrambling skills, just email or call 07921 312 905 for a no obligation chat.

Lighter Later  everybody loves sunshine. But every year we set our clocks so that we get less of it in our lives, sleeping through sunlit mornings while we use expensive, polluting electric lights to keep out the dark nights. Lighter Later is a campaign to brighten all of our days, by changing the clocks so we are awake when the sun is out.

The idea is simple: we shift the clocks forward by one hour throughout the entire year. We would still put the clocks forward in spring and back in autumn, but we would have moved an hour of daylight from the morning to the evening, when more of us are awake to enjoy it. Visit lighterlater.org to find out more and add your name to this common sense campaign.

Blog  I wish I had the spare time to write a blog or to be honest, I just lack the literary skills that would make it anything worth bookmarking. Instead, I try to upload a photo or maybe two each week to the winter gallery or summer gallery. These galleries let you see some of Scotland's and Wales' mountain areas where I've been walking and climbing with clients and friends.

North Wales guide books  hopefully you've already got your hands on the 2nd edition of North Wales Rock - a beautifully produced selected climbs guide book which is packed with inspirational photographs and detailed info on over 670 classic climbs. It's the only guide book you'll need for your first visits to Snowdonia, regardless of what level you climb at. The long awaited Llanberis slate guide is due out imminently.

Scottish Rock - 2010  if you can get to Inverness, which these days is pretty easy, you can be picked up and taken on a Highland road trip to climb some all time rock classics.
For classic rock aficionados, a 3 day trip to the far north west could see you climbing the Old Man of Stoer (the mainland's tallest sea stack), the Cioch Nose on the Applecross peninsula and finish with an esoteric route on Stac Pollaidh, the iconic Assynt mountain.
If hard rock is your thing, 3 days is enough time to visit Skye in pursuit of the classic Grey Panther on Kilt Rock, wrestle with King Cobra in the heart of the Cuillin and finish with an 'enchainment' of three star routes on the huge cliff of Sron na Ciche.
The Old Man of Hoy ranks as one of the coolest climbing adventures in Britain. This sandstone column stands 137m above the Atlantic at the most westerly point of the Orkneys. 4 days is advisable to allow time for ferry crossings and to keep a day in hand to get the best conditions for an ascent.

If you'd like more information on a Scottish rock climbing trip in 2010, just call or email. You'll get a quote and an exciting climbing itinerary for whatever time you have available with all the logistics, gear and guiding taken care of.