The Christmas Day Santa Swim

What better way to work up an appetite for all that roast turkey and Christmas pud than to start Christmas Day with a quick swim in Loch Leven?

Okay, so it's perhaps not everyone's cup of tea. But 9 hardy souls did just that at the inaugral Ballachulish Santa Swim on Christmas Morning. 

Taking a quick break from tearing open the presents, and pausing before getting stuck into the mince pies, the cheap brandy and the Queen's Speech, swimmers met at the Isles of Glencoe in Ballachulish.

The water was a balmy 5.6 degrees. Big respect to those testing the water without the aid of a wet suit! No doubt they went home to warm their chestnuts by the open fire.

A handful of locals can be found taking to the loch on a regular basis, mostly around Ballachulish and occasionally near Kinlochleven. If you fancy joining them look them up on their Facebook group.

Or maybe get yourself an entry for the Glencoe Open Water Swim in August. At least the water should be a little bit warmer by then!

Hot chocolate all round

Clachaig Winter Mountain Safety Lectures 2016

Dates for the 2016 series of the Clachaig Winter Mountain Safety Lectures have now been confirmed. Running on Tuesday nights throughout. February, the lectures are presented by local mountain professionals and look at various aspects of planning your day out in relation to staying as safe as possible.

Thanks to the sponsorship by Mammut UK, the lectures are Free Entry. Starting at 8pm the lectures move to the Boots Bar for a new venue this year.

Read more about the history of the series on the GlencoeScotland web site here. You'll also find full details of each lecture on the What's On listings for February.

Make a note in your diary, tell your friends,... If you'd like some posters in jpg or pdf format get in touch with us at Clachaig and provide an email address.

Reasons to be cheerful - Febfest 2015

Skiing in 'the' Buff

February is one of our favourite months here at Clachaig. The winter helps, of course, sub-zero temperatures bring hardy axe wielding climbers, fresh snow brings boarders & skiers and our winter beer festival brings just about everyone else. This year it would be fair to say that we experienced a mixture of weather conditions from crisp blue skies to wet and windy days with temperatures high enough to dine alfresco, albeit in your thermals.

Thanks for the award CAMRA

For those in the know Febfest is so much more than just a beer festival, although we never miss an opportunity to fill our cellar with award winning beers.

Pie and a pint anyone?

During the four week celebrations we host regular live music sessions along with Quiz nights, 

Whisky/Gin/Vodka Tasting Masterclasses, Weekly Prize Raffles and Winter Mountain Safety Lectures. Add some tasty accommodation deals, excellent grub and the largest range of cask and craft ales this side of the Pennines to the mix and it’s easy to see why this time of the year is so popular.

go on, have another dram

The weekly raffle

Whisky & good company. What else do you need?

This year our Winter Mountain Safety Lecture Series celebrated it’s 30th anniversary and with numbers topping the 100 mark on two of the four nights it looks like it could roll on for another 30 years. By our reckoning over 350 folk attended the series.

Eyes down for a full house

Airbag demo

Mammut shop @ Clachaig

Once again we were joined by Nevisport who set up a Mammut stall in our residents lounge to allow for leisurely browsing during the lecture break. Many thanks to all who attended and in particular the lecturers Mike Pescod, David ‘Heavy’ Whalley, Richard Bentley and Davy Gunn who educated, enlightened and entertained those present. 

The Big Winter Raffle is now very much a part of our Febfest celebrations here at Clachaig and this year the swag fund was the largest to date with some 40 individual prizes

Mammut's contribution to our prize fund

We are very grateful to Mammut who continue to sponsor the Clachaig Winter Mountain Safety Lecture series and also dig deep into their pockets to provide some great prizes.

Huge thanks also to the many local businesses and accommodation providers that have also chipped in and made it all possible.

Thank you, in no particular order, to:

Mammut

Trail Magazine

Glencoe Mountain Resort

Letterfinlay Foods (Fort William)

Glencoe Independent Hostel

Gordon and Macphail (whisky merchants)

Kinlochlaich Garden Centre

Clachaig Inn

Vertical Descents

Claymore Filling Station

NTS Glencoe

Thistly Cross Cider

Lewis Hamilton (The Band)

Edencoille B and B

Ice Factor Kinlochleven

Craiglinnhe House

Nevisport (Fort William)

Sea Xplorer

Tomatin Distillery

Cairngorm Brewery

Perception Chocolates

Sinclair Brewery
Loch Ness Brewery

Wallaces Express
Glencoe Photography

So, how much did we raise?

Total raised this year £2,335.78

And where does the money go?  

The money is split 50/50 between Glencoe Mountain Rescue Team and the Transceiver Park at Glencoe Mountain.

 

Always ready when called upon

Training Park Glencoe Mountain

But we couldn’t raise all this money without our guests and customers who year after year part with the contents of their wallets at every turn, so your generosity is noted, and very gratefully accepted. 

Thank you for your support. 

Want to see some happy prize winners?

You'll never get lost with this Transceiver (or that shirt)

Ready for the trip

another winner roped in

No more camping for me, I'm upgrading

Fashion icon

nothing beats your neighbour winning a bottle of whisky

some great tunes from Lewis Hamilton

should have gone to specsavers

Rucksack stuffed with goodies - thanks Trail Magazine

Well that's about it for another year folks. Big shout out and high fives all round to our hard working staff, who spent the whole of February selling raffle tickets to anything that moved. Not least of whom is our Alfie who sold countless tickets and is crowned this year’s King of the Raffle who was joined by his Queen, Erin, on the final night.

drummers eye view

remind me how to lower this mic?

And finally, a very special thank you to our mistress of ceremonies, Shauna. 

A job well done. 

See you again next year.