Geovertical

Last ML practice session for Toby before his assessment next week. Despite the excellent weather and visibility he made light work of contour interpretation.

Some of the lower, more rounded hills of Scotland are excellent places to practice navigation because they have such subtle features. This makes reliable contour interpretation and absolute must to confidently navigate in such terrain.

Some more ML rope work practice up on Torduff Hill. A fantastic little spot to practice steep ground safety and emergency procedures.

A fine afternoon providing some top navigation tips and rope work practice for Toby in preparation for his ML assessment.

Despite not being in mountainous terrain, Torduff Hill in the Pentland hills just outside Edinburgh makes for a fantastic little spot to practice steep ground and rope work.

Lovely Devonian volcanic rocks too!

A short session practicing releasable abseils with Craig Wilson this morning.

Climbing at the Gellet Block at Limekilns in Fife today with Craig Wilson. Superb weather, four fantastic routes (DTs - VS 4c, White Ensign - VS 4c, Red Flag - HS 4c and Two Ringer - VS 4c)@ topped off with a smattering of fossils - colonial corals (Craig for scale pointing out a coral "thicket" lens), small solitary corals, broken crinoid fragments (similar to sea Lillie's) and the indomitable brachiopod Gingantoproductus giganteus!

The limestone at Limekilns was quarried out during the 18th century to supply the limekilns by the shore - a major 18th century industrial centre. Known as the Black hall Limestone this limestone represents warm, shallow marine conditions with occasional storm deposits hence the broken crinoid stems.

Had a great time today giving a navigation training course today in preparation for Marina and Megan's 50 mile Cheviot Goat ultra race in December.

Credit to them for acquiring the skills well in advance of the event. For the race, some of which will be during the night, GPS will be invaluable for speed but what do you do when the batteries run out???

What an amazing day on the Cairngorm plateau! Lots of fresh, new snow about so some fantastic snow forms. Here you can see small "snow dunes" on the NW slope of Cairn Lochan.

HOWEVER, were these formed from today's S-SE winds or previous N winds?? The steeper side of the dune is to the right of the picture (SW-ish) and if they formed in the same way as a sand dune that would mean wind blowing from left to right in the picture i.e. NE wind!?!

Fantastic three days snow holding and walking around Creag Meagaidh. Great to see some wintery conditions again

A nice quick review of fossil finds on the Isle of Skye in the BBC news today featuring a photo of a dashing young Neil Clark

Skye dinosaurs: 40 years of fossil discoveries on island In 1984 the presence of dinosaur fossils in Scotland was confirmed for the first time.

Fantastic couple of days shadowing a Mountaineering Scotland winter skills course yesterday in Glencoe and today practicing some snow anchors with fellow team members from Tweed Valley Mountain Rescue Team.