2007 - A year in pictures

Typical Scottish ski trip with the Edinburgh Ski Touring Club. Lots of walking carrying skis, not much snow, mixed weather and lots of single malt scotch after the day out. I recall someone got wet in this crossing.

Ski mountaineering trip to the Ala Dagar mountains in southern Anatolia, Tukey. These mountains are over 3000m. .

We had our gear carried up to the base camp by local porters. The standard pony-loading technique was to load the beast until its legs started to buckle, then take off a few kilograms.

Early morning start from the base camp. We'd ski to our high point by 11-ish and be off the mountain by 1pm to avoid the avalanche danger. You wear harscheisen (ski crampons) until the snow softens.

Cycle ride in the Pentlands Hills, thirty minutes south of our flat in Edinburgh.

Pentlands again.

Dad and bridge. My parents visited from Australia for a few weeks in May as part of a round the world tour to catch up with relatives and me. Dad is a civil engineer and so was very impressed with the Forth rail bridge.

Tobermoray.The most picturesque village in the whole of the UK. We took the folks there for 3 days..

Dad again. West coast Mull.

Linda, Andrew andJane (who lives in the flat below us) on the start of the Aonach Eagach ridge in glencoe, a Highlands classic.

Aonach Eagach again. It gets narrow in places and requires some "care".

American visitors - Andy and Aaron. We lived next to Aaron's parents in Oregon. They wanted to be photographed in front of a flashy car. Being outside our front door wasn't good enough..

Andy and Aaron's bedroom after the first hour. It never improved.

Hiking the Tarsuinn ridge in Arran. It requires several abseils to get round. This drop was in fact steeper than it looks.

Arran is home to the UK's busiest mountain rescue team, after Glencoe.

Craig (another Aussie from Melbourne) demonstrating the finer points of mountain bike carrying technique, on Hellvellyn, Lake District. The descent was suboptimally steep.

Summer garden party!

Rock climbing on Buachaille Etive Mor, Glencoe. That's Peter (and Sam below)

The top of "Curved Ridge". A wonderful scramble to the top of Stob Dearg (I think), Glencoe. You can see the Kings House pub beckoning in the distance. It's a long way down.

Old cottage in Glen Etive. We didn't stay there but I thought it worth a photo.

We were going to climb Glen Etive slabs but we wimped out as it was a bit wet and there was a particular move we were all scared of and went for a walk instead.

A night out at Borthwick castle. Kilts were optional. Linda is in the red.

Linda's "Save Glenogle Pool" deputation to Edinburgh council to hand over 8,500 signatures to the Councillors. That's Linda in the middle.

Fife coastal trail cycle. Full of old ruined castles and churches every few miles. So many cycling opportunities.

Andrew misjudging the depth of a ford. A weekend away in the Cheviot hills in the Scottish Borders.

The Scottish Borders are not as well known or as dramatic as the Highlands but are really close to Edinburgh and receive a fraction of the traffic the more famous north receives. The terrain is wonderful.

More cycling.

East Lothian country scene. About an hour to the east of Edinburgh.

East Lothian again.

We were impressed by the accuracy of their road signs.

Gypsy Glen cycle near Peebles. Climbing up to the ridge. We had track notes but were quite convinced that no one had actually done this loop really before writing it up.

Same trip. You can't see the driving rain.

Cycle ride around Holmesfield with Linda and Al (Linda's dad)

Andrew and fellow newbies at the British Citizenship ceremony (the Queen is, of course, already British). Mine was one of the few names that the Lord Provost (Edinburgh Mayor) could pronounce without stumbling.

Ironically the Lord Provost was a member of the ruling SNP (Scottish Nationalist Party) whose manifesto includes the aim to create an independent country.

Cottages in Wanlockhead, an old lead mining town. The highest town in Britain. We stayed here for the weekend.

Wanlockhead again. Heading off on a cycle ride. Fortunately for Linda the Lead Mining Museum was closed for the season.

Funchal. Capital of Maderia Island. Maderia is famous for Madeira wine, Madeira cake and 1000's of retired British expats escaping the UK weather.

Walking the levadas in Madeira. Levada's are old water aqueducts carrying water from miles away, often via water channels cut in to cliff faces 100's of meters above the valley. Pretty impressive.

Madeira shopping mall. The highpoint of Linda's week away.