Hi Alan,

Not a mountain report I'm afraid just a grateful word from a Scottish winter enthusiast suffering from withdrawal symptoms in Baghdad.Coming to the end of a long 7 months in this s...t hole and the only thing that has kept me sane is logging on to your blog as often as I can to catch up with what you lucky b*****ds have been doing on the hill this season.Not back until late March by which time no doubt all the white stuff will be gone!
Maybe next year.......

'Envious' of Baghdad

Thanks for that. I'm sure we all wish you did not have to be in Iraq doing what you are doing. My own opinion is that the west has for too long, tried to 'kick' too many nations globally into our way of doing things, that we are now reaping the rewards! That's not to say we should ignore human rights, far from it. Just that we should also respect other religions and attitudes and cultures. We must try and live together in harmony, but history shows that our leaders and politicians are not capable of achieving this. During the last few centuries, reactions from global 'colonialism' have expanded from defending cultures with blow-pipes to high-jacking and using aircraft as bombs. Nothing has changed apart from the weapons and technology used to react against unwanted intrusions into other nations way of life. Naive, me, no chance!

Hello Alan,
Just a quick note to say that went up toward Stob Ghabhar today (16th) with the aim of a gully climb. No luck, what snow remains is wet slush and thawing from the ground/rock outwards.
If we get a freeze back in time, there may be some worthy gullies in the area of Coire an Lochan but way too warm just now. No pictures as it really wasn't worth taking any in the mist and rain.
Regards
N Bryan