Feeling a bit bleary-eyed this morning after a busy two days at this year’s VisitScotland Expo in Glasgow. Despite all the economic gloom, it was an upbeat event full of outdoor interest for us. I spent as much time as possible pounding the aisles, chatting with hotels, activity companies and independent tour operators about their plans for the year ahead – the best of which will be featured in the news pages of our summer issue. Look out for one hotel’s offering of a ‘heaven and hell’ experience – one day living wild off the land, the next living it up in country house luxury!

The outdoor world has not come through the economic problems unscathed, however, and it was sad to hear that the World Mountain Bike Conference on Sustainability due to be held in Dumfries next month has had to be postponed until next year. It’s a great shame as it was the first time the big cheeses of the mountain biking world had scheduled their annual get-together outside of North America.

Dumfries and Galloway will have to make do instead with The Original Bicycle Festival that runs from 9-24 May. It looks like a great festival in a part of the country that doesn’t always get the profile it deserves. The festival will see a range of cycling-themed events that are suitable for everyone from biking beginners to budding Mark Beaumonts. These include Women on Wheels, a free day at Kirroughtree on 17 May organised by Clair and Sam at thebreakpad bike shop and designed to give women of all ages and levels of fitness some two-wheel inspiration.

In amongst the guided rides and coaching sessions, one highlight should be a presentation by local hero Granny Mave – a grandmother of three who recently completed a transcontinental bike road across Canada, aged 70. The trip raised money for Macmillan Cancer Support, with Granny Mave funding the trip herself by selling hand-made greeting cards and pictures locally.

Talking of festivals, it’s great to see the Outsider Festival back again this year at Rothiemurchus in June. We’ll be there touting the mag and probably running some of the trails. Hope to see you there, too.

Finally, I mentioned in last week’s blog that our summer issue will feature a cover shot from a new photographer (well, new to us anyway). His name is Bruce Percy and he has worked in wild places around the world with an emphasis very much on adventure photography. We are very grateful to Bruce for the opportunity to use one of his shots of Sandwood Bay to illustrate the northwest Highlands ‘explore’ section in our next issue. The tricky bit now is deciding which image to go for. Check them out for yourself in Bruce’s Scotland portfolio. As you will see, it’s a tough choice …
Bye for now
Richard

Shamed by a lack of recent postings, and ridiculed by colleagues for my limited grasp of technology, I have committed to scribbling a weekly blog giving a sneaky peek into the inner workings of the magazine, together with thoughts and musings on the wider outdoor world. When words fail me, I will be ably assisted by colleagues who rarely have such difficulties.

Each blog will be posted Friday morning sharp. Well, that’s the plan anyway. And don’t worry, they won’t all be as long as this one. It’s just there’s a lot to catch up on.

We always count ourselves lucky that a major part of our work on the magazine involves meeting people from all walks of life who are passionate about what they do. I spend a fair amount of time enjoying the outdoors but without being particularly expert at anything, so it’s been a real treat over the last few months to get tips from people who really know what they are about.

Earlier this year, I joined a group of fellow amateur snappers on an experience day run by professional wildlife photographer Philip Price at Loch Visions on the shores of Loch Awe. It was the kind of grim winter day when most of us wouldn’t even consider reaching for the camera, but Philip demonstrated how it is possible to capture some pretty reasonable shots even in rubbish light. Although it won’t win any prizes for originality, I was still quite proud of my shot of a rather belligerent looking robin.

In February, I headed north to enjoy the glorious conditions that greeted the inaugural WinterFest in Glen Affric – a new annual event run by Tim and Gina Francis at Natural High Guiding. With cloudless blue skies and waist-deep powder snow in places, we had to pinch ourselves that this was Scotland, rather than some far-off Alpine valley.

Although we didn’t get to strap on the crampons on the day I attended, we did learn all about route-finding, avalanche awareness and digging snow holes. We also got to grips with some winter mountain terminology, including ‘sun wheels’ – a delightful name for the tracks left by dislodged clumps of snow as they roll down steep hillsides.

Then it was off to the week-long Fort William Mountain Festival in March for a few nights of dazzling outdoor films, presentations and shamelessly plugging the magazine. Thanks to all those who took freebie copies – we hope you enjoyed them and look forward to your subscriptions. Hell, it’s only £12.00 for the year, what are you waiting for? Subscribe today!

For me, the festival highlight was the climbing evening hosted by Dave MacLeod, a Fort William-based climber whose levels of commitment and courage have seen him put up some of the hardest summer and winter climbs imaginable. Congratulations also to Claire MacLeod who picked up a new talent Best Director award at the Scottish BAFTAs for her film of Dave’s scaling of Echo Wall high up on the north face of Ben Nevis. We hope to feature this star husband-and-wife team in a future issue of the magazine.

We are now busy travelling around gathering material for our next issue, which will include a major section on exploring Assynt and the far Northwest Highlands this summer. It’s tougher than it sounds. Really. We are also very excited about a photographer lined up for the summer issue’s cover shot – a quite haunting take on one of the area’s most bewitching locations. More on that next week…

Bye for now,
Richard