Against the grain

Jim Perrin raises our anticipation for the coming season, recalling the gleaming, glittering challenges of winter climbing in the Cairngorms

Twenty-five years ago, large chunks of Eryri’s Aran range were out of bounds. That all changed in 2000. To celebrate a quarter-century of the legislation that changed the game, Trail set out to walk the entire ridge… unobstructed.

Moments enjoyed, lessons learned, the strange thoughts that only happen on a walk: welcome to the bits and pieces that don’t make big stories, but do make a difference.

After crossing Scotland on foot following their own bespoke routes, graduates of the TGO Challenge Class of 2025 tell first-hand tales of heatwaves, high camps and bog-trotting through the landscape on this truly unique long-distance journey

Norman Hadley shares a tale of youthful misadventure, when a navigational mistake on the Cairngorm plateau seemed to defy all constraints of space and time

I am lying hip-deep in a peat bog looking up at the grey, ominous sky and pondering my life choices. My backpack is so heavy with all my food, water and camping gear that I can’t actually get up. I am