"Rain rain go away!!! It was supposed to be Winter" Scotland by firechick

We travelled to Scotland with the idea of getting in some 'quality winter hiking days' to fill requirements for Winter Mountain Leader certification.

Ha ha ha. Scotland had it's worst winter (for lack of snow) in many years and it rained the entire time!

We tried Fort William. No luck, no snow. Beautiful scenery on the rare occaisions when the clouds parted.

Wonderful hosts at the hostels we stayed at. But lots and lots of British sitcoms were watched, rather than hills that were climbed in snow!

Sled dog races on millimeters of snow - Aviemore

We found an ad for a sled dog race and decided to go. There was not much snow (did I mention that?) so the dogs were running in dirt most of the time, and pulling 3 wheeled bikes instead of sleds. Still it was great to see, and made us want to get a dog all the more (which we did the following spring).

• Pros:Empty space, loads of rolling hills
• Cons:Rain, did I mention that it rained for a solid 10 days?
• In a nutshell:Bring your gortex and rubber boots