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.

Annual Glencoe Litter Pick

Wednesday 9th April saw the annual litter pick, clearing the old village road from the Clachaig junction down to the humped back bridge into the village of rubbish in preparation for a new season.

In all, 20 bags of rubbish were filled, with the more unusual items featuring a pair of knickers, a mobile phone and a 'no entry' sign.

In addition to Clachaig staff, other businesses along the road got involved with the collection, including Dan & Ann from Strath Lodge and Keith & Davina from the Glencoe Independent Bunkhouse.

Read more about Clachaig's take on its Environmental Impact policies on the web site.

The Big Winter Raffle raises £2624.50

The Big Winter Raffle appeared for the first time last year. Mammut, courtesy of an introduction from the guys at Trail Magazine, very kindly stepped up to the mark and sponsored the Clachaig Winter Mountain Safety Lecture series.

Funding had previously been provided by the Mountaineering Council of Scotland, and before that the British Mountaineering Council. But in times of austerity, the series was under threat after more than quarter of a century of free lectures. In addition to funding the lectures, Mammut also provided a few top quality prizes for a raffle.

At the same time, the winter of 2013 saw some very tragic and high profile mountain accidents, and this in turn put a lot of pressure on mountain rescue services. It therefore seemed only natural that we would use the prizes to generate some essential funds for these voluntary teams. And the idea hit home. We asked local businesses for their support and they rallied round with some great prizes. We threw in a few ourselves and the Big Winter Raffle was born.

2013 went really well. Public support was also at a high, and we raised a little over £1800. In setting a target for 2014, we reckoned that we had our work cut out to reach that figure again. However, you've got to aim high, so we set the bar at £2000.

The final figure for 2014? A whopping £2624.50. Absolutely tremendous! We've completely exceeded our expectations. So there's a huge thank you due to everyone involved. Not least of whom is our Lucy, Queen of the Raffle tickets 2014, who's sold countless tickets, filled in countless stubs, and was rewarded numerous big hugs by our final night winners.

But also, there's big thanks due to Mammut for starting us off down the path towards the raffle, and all of the many local businesses who also chipped in and made it all possible. And not forgetting everyone who bought a ticket. We know that you're asked to part with the contents of your wallet at every turn, so your generosity is noted, and very gratefully accepted. Thank you for your support.

Thank you, in no particular order, to:

Mammut

Glencoe Mountain Resort

Letterfinlay Foods (Fort William)

Glencoe Independent Hostel

Glencoe Cafe

Paddle Lochaber
Gordon & Macphail (whisky merchants)

Kinlochlaich Garden Centre

Nevisport (Fort William)

Williams Brothers Brewery

Cairngorm Brewery

Isle of Skye Brewery

Sinclair Breweries
Loch Lomond Brewery

Wallaces Express
Glencoe Photography.

You are all stars.

 

Special thank yous also go to Anthoine who 'made us an offer we couldn't refuse' for the giant wooly mammoth that we managed to acquire from Mammut when they were looking the other way. And also to Maureen Cadden for the very kind donation to the cause. Your contributions are very gratefully accepted.

So where's the money going to? Half of the money has been donated to Glencoe Mountain Rescue Team.

The other half was earmarked for a local mountain safety training initiative, preferably in conjunction with the transceiver park at Glencoe Mountain. We're still looking into this, to ensure that the £1312.25 delivers the best bang possible, for the benefit of as many as possible. It's looking quite exciting just now, and we'll bring you more information about how the money is spent once a final decision is made.

 And a final thank you to our master of ceremonies for the last night. A fine job well done!

On Horses For Horses

If you've visited Clachaig in the last 7 years then chances are that you'll have encountered Loes, our horse-mad Assistant Manager. She's that horse mad that she's now taking over our Glencoe blog with horses. Here's a few words from Loes on her latest fundraising venture - for horses, of course.


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On Horses for Horses was started late Spring 2011 by me (It’s a one man band)

Inspired by people sailing, walking or cycling across the word, but knowing I was not in a position to do so with my cob Charlie I decided it was a good idea to come up with similar challenge around the world but make it about team work and a team effort.

The aim is to get as many people possible to join and ride out and raise money via personal donations or sponsorship for the charity World Horse Welfare. We will do this until we reach a combined 24906 miles.

Once we reach that goal no doubt other challenges will be set. I have already started a project to raise money to buy and donate an ozone blanket for Highveld Horse Care unit in South Africa - to help combat Africa Horse Sickness in Africa with more projects in the pipe line.

To donate to World Horse Welfare via this initiative you can use the Justgiving link https://www.justgiving.com/Onhorsesforhorses

More information (blogs, video, photos and a forum) can be found on www.onhorsesforhorses.org

If you want to help raise money for the ozone blanket and want more information about it you can contact me via the contact form on the website (We need another £700)

In the February issue of Scottish Field there is a 2 page spread on On Horses For Horses with a little more information about my horsey back ground and explaining what On Horses For Horses is.