Sunrise: Winter Mountaineering, Buachaille Etive Beag, Glen Coe.

Wilderness and what we stand for

We’ve been running collaboration with a small Scottish film company to try and capture “Ocean Vertical”. Not so much who we are, but more of what we stand for, what we and the Ocean Vertical community believe in, and what it means to us to be in the natural world.

Experiencing nature and wild places, living and loving life, and passion for our silent sports; mountaineering, paddle boarding SUP, coasteering, surfing and climbing. And now more than ever, a love for our wild places demanding actions in the fight to save them.

Wild winter weather in the mountains

We kicked off early 2020 with the film crew to capture the winter mountaineering season in Scotland. Like all our adventures the weather always plays its hand, and boy did it fire us some epic conditions; from blizzards and avalanche conditions, to the most whiter than white blue bird alpine days. Just spectacular.

We had an “atmospheric” day filming on the Tarmachan Ridge and Meall nan Tarmachan with a band of like-minded adventure lovers. Deep snow, blizzards, moments of piercing blue sky and a few fogging issues with the film gear. But hey, that’s what making a real adventure film is all about. No careful stage sets, no “acting”, and certainly no actors. Just raw, real and authentic.

A still winters day on the Cairngorm Plateau

And then we hit the Cairngorm Plateau on a ghostly snow-white day; almost eerie in its calmness. There’s a presence up there beyond those frozen Northern Corries, call it what you will. If there is a Big Grey Man of Ben MacDhui, Am Fear Liath Mor, he was very close to us that day, breathing his icy chill down the back of our necks.

We skirted the rims of Coire an Lochan, Cairn Lochan and Stob Coire an t-Sneachda and made our way across the plateau to the buttresses above a frozen Loch Avon. The views impossible and vast. Almost incomprehensible. And then in a breath an icy mist would consume us, and a few moments later disappear into the snowy wilderness. No fogging issues on this trip and the drone finally took to the air, along with the Ravens who haunt the crags and cliff faces in unnerving solitude.

Winter mountain sunrise in Glen Coe

And then to the 13^th of March 2020. We had a call from the film crew on the 11^th saying the conditions in Glen Coe on Friday the 13^th were going to be epic – and this was our chance to capture the sun rise over a frozen Glen Coe.

And of course, we wanted to experience this from the summits, not the valley floor. No problem; the alarms were set for 12.45am in East Lothian. There’s no way we were going to miss this.

The day. 12.45am porridge and peanut butter. Gear all packed yesterday. Hit the road and pick up our fellow early rise adventurers. It’s a silent drive up with most folks dozing.

Full moon over the Crowberry Tower in Glen Coe

We eventually hit Rannoch Moor with a lid of a billion stars across it; the full moon dances and flicks over lochans as we ghost by, a spec in this black wilderness. Somewhere in front of us is Buachaille Etive Mor; and then, framed for a moment in time we see the Crowberry Tower silhouetted against a giant moon. Then it’s gone. Perhaps never to be seen again by any of us in this lifetime. Please scroll on Folks.