Guy Robertson confirmed as speaker for Aviemore event

Top Scottish climber Guy Robertson will be the speaker at a major social event in Aviemore this month.

The event is the Streap Alba Geamhradh 2020 After Party, to mark the culmination of the international Scottish winter climbing meet, which is open to members of the public as well as climbers and volunteers who have taken part in the week-long festival.

At the After Party in Tiso Aviemore Outdoor Experience on 28^th February, members of the climbing public will be able to meet and chat with participants and hear about the week’s climbing, with various freebies and prizes on offer.

They’ll also get a chance to hear an inspirational talk by Guy Robertson.

Based in Aberdeen, where he works full-time as a low carbon energy consultant, he has put up new rock and winter climbs in regions as diverse as Africa, the Middle East, the Alps, Peru, Norway, Canada and the Greater Himalaya.

However, it is for his Scottish winter mixed climbs he is best known, having for many years been at the forefront of developments in this discipline. Guy made second ascents of most of the hardest winter test-pieces from the 1980s and 1990s, and then went on to pioneer many high quality winter routes of his own up to grade X.

Despite this winter’s overall lack of snow or cold temperatures, he and Greg Boswell took the opportunity of the initial cold spell in November to make a new VIII,9 route on An Teallach, named Local Hero in memory of Martin Moran. It was in the same Hayfork Wall area as the route the duo climbed last season, the Grade X,10 The Forge.

Also last winter, in what turned out to be a 22-hour day, including walk-in and driving, he and Andy Inglis did the first winter ascent of The Chancel on Beinn a Bhuird, an E1 in summer and only the second E-grade route on the mountain to have been climbed in winter.

Guy is equally passionate about rock climbing, however, and in recent years has developed several excellent new long routes on Scotland's mountain cliffs.

In 2015, he compiled a new anthology called ‘The Great Mountain Crags of Scotland’ - a beautiful, large format, hardback 'coffee table' book celebrating the all-year-round climbing Scotland's mountains have on offer.

His talk will take the audience on a whistle-stop tour stopping at many of these great cliffs, describing a traditional climbing journey from early winter explorations in the Cairngorms to recent rock climbing exploits in the far north-west.

Tickets for this event cost £5 and are available to members of the public at https://winterclimbingmeet2020.eventbrite.co.uk  

Streap Alba Geamhradh 2020, the International Scottish Winter Climbing Meet, from 22nd to 29th February, will see international guests teaming up with UK climbers to climb classic routes, technical test-pieces and possibly brand new first ascents, getting a taste of the unique delights of winter climbing in Scotland. It is being run by Mountaineering Scotland in close partnership with the Alpine Club, the Scottish Mountaineering Club and the British Mountaineering Council, and is sponsored by Salewa, manufacturers of mountaineering clothing and equipment.

 (Picture shows Guy Robertson on Local Hero, An Teallach)