Landcape – Scotland Walking Holidays

For the team at Aspen, winter is a time for planning and doing reccies. A reccy (reconnoitre) is my favoured term for the joyous pastime of exploring a new area for the purposes of checking its suitability for clients, customers, and Duke of Edinburgh’s Award participants. To this end, foremost in mind are considerations like: Can we cross the rivers safely? What are the campsites like? What’s the ground like? Are the paths even there? Is it too difficult, or too easy for our intended groups?

Josiah Spong, Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Officer for Renfrewshire Officer, approached me in November with the idea of checking out a new 45km Gold Duke of Edinburgh’s Award route in Lochaber, an exciting loop starting and finishing at Corrour train station, taking in Loch Treig, Kinlochleven and Blackwater reservoir. A Gold Duke of Edinburgh’s Award expedition route is undertaken over four days, by a…

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Aspen Outdoors Ltd

The Meall nan Tarmachan ridge is a fine venue for a winter’s day hill walk. Twice now this season, I’ve been up there with groups, navigating on its intricate and complex terrain and practicing steep group movement skills, with ice axe and crampons.

Being based in Glasgow, finding a good winter venue not too far from home can be tricky, particularly in recent years when snow conditions have been lean. Meall nan Tarmachan however, meaning Rounded hill of the Ptarmigan, has a number of benefits. It has a high car park, at 450m. As long as it’s clear of snow, you can start high and save a good amount of time in getting to snowy slopes. The hill also has lots of interesting ridges and corries with different slope aspects, meaning you can find slopes that are less prone to avalanche risk.

This winter the prevailing westerly winds have…

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Scotland Walking Holidays

Category: Landcape

Corrour Gold Reccy

Meall nan Tarmachan