Well once again it's that time of the year, a time to reflect and a time to look forward to 2013. We hope like us that you have had a good year. Now that we no longer also have the B&B to run, Fiona and I have had a lot more time to do things. We used to get slightly envious when in the B&B we would tell guests of all the wonderful places around Loch Ness to visit and walk knowing that we would not get the opportunity to enjoy them until the winter months! Not this year, even in the most foul of weather over the summer we took the opportunity to walk and explore some of the lesser known areas around the Loch - The Fraser Yew, Loch Duntelchaig, Loch Ruthven, parts of the Great Glen Way, Jenkins Park Fort Augustus and Invermoristion Falls to name but a few. All this of course has meant that I have been very remiss in writing a regular blog  and my New Year resolution is thus to change this and write at least twice per week! We will soon know if I have made a mistake in thinking I can discipline myself enough to do this but in the meantime as I mull it over, Fiona and I wish all those who have visited Hazelgrove or who are booked to come and stay in 2013, a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year
  

Autumn has come and gone and winter is now truly with us. It is -2C outside this morning, with a dusting of snow covering the ground. But, the sun is shining making for a lovely day as it did yesterday... Aware that both nearby ski resorts were opening this weekend , my friend Ed and I decided yesterday would be a good day for a long high level walk  and so with an early start we headed off up in to the  mountains beside Loch Lochy, 40 mins drive from Hazelgrove. After a long hard walk in we followed a ridge high up on to a plateau. As we asended it became clear that an awful lot of precipitation had fallen as snow here over the past week and the last 200m on to the plateau were hard work as we sunk in places up to our thighs in snow and could only scramble slowly upwards as a result. However, the effort was worth it... the views from the top were fantastic, the sun was shining and the snow sparkled. We could see Ben Nevis, Glen Affric, Loch Ness such was the visibility. But, with a slight wind blowing up spindrift and inducing wind chill, it was not a place to hang around and we kept up a good pace before descending back down. Hopefully, we will have a few more days like this over winter and can revisit the area and do some more peaks because, for the keen  mountain walker this really is a wonderful area to visit!