Clachaig Blog - Winter 2006
| 15th March 2006 Our annual series of 6 lectures, presented in association with the Mountaineering Council of Scotland, aim to provide information pertinent to visiting the hills in winter, with weather & avalanche forecasts, navigation and equipment all featured throughout the series. Our thanks to the MCof S and the lecturers for another successful year. All being well we'll be back in February 2007 for some more FREE skills for the hills. |  |
| 27th February 2006 Clachaig has committed to raising £1000 towards the cost of establishing a community poly-tunnel. Glencoe & Glen Etive Community Council hope that the tunnel will compliment their newly established composting scheme and will considerably reduce the cost of keeping the village looking smart and tidy. Britain in Bloom here we come! Many thanks to all who've contributed so far, already raising £290 towards the project. |  |
| 27th February 2006 FebruaryFest came to a close over a perfect winter weekend here in Glencoe. With good snow cover on the hills and superb evening sunsets making for a sublime view outside, the temperature was considerably warmer inside for our closing night session. Despite the late arrival of 'winter', the festival was a resounding success and without doubt achieved the number one objective of warm cheer for cold folk coming in off the hills. 37 Ales and NO Guinness! In place of Guinness we offered a choice of Dragonhead Stout and Dark Island from the Orkney Brewery, Celtic Black from the Hebridean Brewery and Black Cuillin from the Isle of Skye Brewery. Opinion expressed in our survey varied from the encouraging to the rude (we know who you are!) but on balance was positive with 52% expressing a positive view compared to just 27% taking a negative view. We might not have got rid of Guinness for good just yet but you can expect more market testing of 'real' versus mass marketed, over-hyped, fizzy stuff in the future! More surprising perhaps, was the complete lack of complaints over the decision to replace Dry Blackthorn with a 'real' cider from Somerset - Thatcher's Heritage. The first 10 kegs went down a treat! Again, more market testing in the traditional cider season this summer. |   |
| 13th February 2006 A full house audience reaching triple figures enjoyed mountaineer Andy Cave's Learning to Breathe lecture. Andy is no stranger to Clachaig, having started his climbing career here in the mid 80's along with Mal Duff and his merry men. Andy returned to Clachaig as part of our FebruaryFest celebrations and received a tremendous welcome. His book has been critically acclaimed and is this year's winner of the Boardman Tasker award for mountain literature. Thanks Andy, and hope to see you back at Clachaig again soon. |
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| 1st January 2006 Long time Clachaig customer, mountaineer and beer buff, Alan Hinkes has been awarded an OBE in this year's New Year's Honours list. Alan was the first Briton to climb all the world's 8000 metre peaks, finishing with Kanchenjunga last summer. Alan's vast mountaineering experience means that he knows exactly what to wear in the hills - and here is pictured at K2 in his Clachaig t-shirt. Buy yours now! On his regular trips to Glencoe Alan gets the benefit of 2 of his favourite pastimes, as he gets to head to the hills and sample the wide range of cask ales at the bar! Alan was also named "Yorkshireman of the Year" following his impressive achievement. Praise indeed! Congratulations Alan! |
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