FionaOutdoors

What is your skiing “type”? Are you happiest on long and flattering blue and red runs, whiling your days away enjoying the scenery and staying within your comfort zone? Are you a journey skier? The kind who spends delightfully long and frequently adventurous days discovering new ski runs and interconnecting valleys while making lots of [...]

Certainly, I reckon you’d agree, Scotland boasts a great deal of land that could be called “wild”. But how do you define “wild”? According to a new Scottish Natural Heritage project: “Wildness is a quality experienced by people when visiting places of a certain character.  Measuring wildness is inherently difficult, as people respond differently according to their experience [...]

If you know me…Or you read this blog… you’ll know that I am always on the look out for new outdoors challenges! Just after turning 40 I decided to run my first marathon, the Loch Ness Marathon. A couple of years ago I set a goal of cycling the Bealach Mor Sportive. Last year, I [...]

Romy Beard is one of my regular guest bloggers. I met her through Glasgow Triathlon Club and we have followed her as she explores Scotland on foot (she is from Luxembourg originally), becomes pregnant, gives birth to a baby boy – and now as she bids to beat her 10K personal best (PB) time. Here [...]

At 1150ft, St Johns Head on Hoy is the tallest sea cliff in the UK.  A route called the Long Hope was first climbed in 1970 by climber and poet Ed Drummond together with Oliver Hill.  They took seven days to climb the cliff, sleeping on ledges and in hammocks along the way.  Forty years [...]

They might have caused a dozen or more raised eyebrows, and certainly a few fellow tri club cyclists thought they were hilarious, but my new skiing mitts have become the genius solution to cold hands while cycling. One of the reasons that I don’t like cycling in winter is that my hands get very, very [...]

It’s great to hear about other people’s outdoor sporting achievements and goals. I “met” Andy Fallon on Twitter. His tweets about an epic cycling challenge sounded interesting. Here’s his story. Andy is 45 and married with a six-year-old daughter. He lives in Huddersfield West Yorks and spends his days working for Morrisons as a senior [...]

The Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour always offers a round-up of spell-binding and inspirational films. I know, because I’ve been before and this year the potential film line-up looks just as awesome. Already a mainstay in Glasgow, this year the Film Festival also comes to Edinburgh. In fact Edinburgh is the first port of [...]

I just wanted to add my vote to the campaign, being supported by fab cyclist Chris Boardman, over threats to cut funding for cycling and walking promotion in Scotland. The campaigners and environmental groups argue that a funding cut of about a third by the Scottish government will be hugely detrimental to health and carbon emission [...]

If you run (or walk) in Lycra tights, you’ll know that they usually fall down. Even if they only slip down a little this can still be very annoying and uncomfortable. I have tried all kinds of techniques, such as buying running tights a size too small, turning the waistband over to make it tighter [...]