Will's funeral is to be held at 1115hrs on Wednesday 13 Jan at Culduthel Funeral Home, Culduthel Road, Inverness.

All are welcome.

Will Wilkinson

It is with much sadness that I have to report Will’s death in an avalanche on Ben Nevis on 30 December 2009.

I met Will 2 years ago when I first moved to Inverness and we quickly forged a strong friendship sharing a passion for all things climbing, a love of the outdoors and an ambition to climb harder. In this short time we had a great number of memorable adventures, many of which are catalogued here.

I can not hope to do Will justice in my few words here - he was quite simply a brilliant guy and an absolute pleasure to spend time with. Will was a particularly popular member of the Inverness climbing scene and will be sadly missed by many. More than anything, Will was a loving and devoted partner to his fiancée Becky who he was due to marry later this year.

We extend our sympathies and thoughts to Rupert Rosedale’s family and friends who died in the same accident and our appreciation to the survivor and all those in the rescue services who did so much to try and help.

Will primarily maintained this blog as a diary but he enjoyed sharing his adventures and was both surprised and flattered with the number of people who followed it. If any comfort can be sought, it is fitting that Will died doing something he loved so much but tragic that he died so unexpectedly and with so much left to accomplish.

Andy Wardle.

Queues and Views.

Another perfect day on the ski slopes, well weather and snow wise, crowds were a differnt story. We escaped the mayhem of the pistes and lifts this morning with a walk to the summit of Cairngorm to catch the fresh powder on the way down, and was treated to some magnificent views.
The queue police were out in force this afternoon. Letting us all know where we were in the lift queue in case we forgot. To make things worse the M1 poma blew up! So by the end of the day it was taking a while to get from the bottom to top. Well about an hour if truth be known, so my patience was wearing a little thin. Coumpounded by people driving at 10mph all the way down back to Aviemore. Still its hard to complain when we are in such a lovely spell of weather, the snow is currently falling hard again outside the window. Im going to need a rest day at some point if this continues.







Back to join the mayhem, crowds, and pistes.

Staying Local at Christmas......

Another good bealy view.

With so much snow making driving and walking in a nightmare, Davy and I headed to our local. 8 miles from the door, along some pretty bad roads saw us geared up for a rare winter ascent (possibly second?) of a 3 pitch route. A little vegetated in summer this provided 3 great pitches, one of ice, one a cheval for 10mts along a brilliant flake, and a final steep chimney. Excellent fun and I think we made the best of the conditions at the minute. Tech 6 moves and tree belays what more could you ask for!

Pitch 1

Davy on Pitch 3

Christmas day.

After two hours of trail breaking in knee deep powder Becky and I decided to give up on our attempt of little Wivys just below the summit, and head for dinner. Another gorgeous day in the Highlands though. We met this young chap on the way down, and tried to explain we would be avoiding roast beef for dinner!!

Happy Christmas.

Christmas Eve fun.

The belays had some good views today

In an attempt to avoid the masses of powder in the East Davy and I headed West today. We ended up on the Bealach na Ba, towards Applecross, and climbed the brilliant Cobalt Buttress. Without a breath of wind, a cloud in the sky, snow at sea level and temperatures touching -17 on the drive over, conditions couldn’t have been more perfect.

The route itself is well worthy of its 3* and the best I have climbed this year. The crux is quite nippy and the other pitches all provided worthwhile and thoughtful climbing. Topping out just as the sun was setting over Skye with every square inch of land covered in snow it was impressive end to a good day.

Davy happy after the crux wall.

Davy about to top out of the overhanging chimney on pitch 4.

On the way out we noted another headlight with about 60mts of climbing to go on a buttress nearer the sea with Martin Morans mini bus in the layby I suspect he was out new routing.
As I type the snow is yet again falling heavily and Santa is on his way!

Powder days!

With 5 more inches of fresh snow overnight and the magic words on the radio that school was closed Becky and I had a powder day on Cairngorm.
Becky finding some fresh powder early in the day.

What a day too, the early morning cloud sank into the valley to leave a perfect inversion and the hill covered in freshies.

The all knowing eye!

A bit of a walk or explore soon reveals the untouched stashes and we had a fab day in the snow. The odd rock still stuck it's head up though and at one point sparks were reported from the underside of my board!

I don’t think I will be lucky enough to get any more snow closures this week so the climbing will have to wait to Thursday, but psyche levels are high.

Becs at the End of a good day.