Families of dead snowboarders face rescue bill

French debt collectors are pursuing the families of two snowboarders who died in an avalanche last year.Rescuers failed to save the two, who were boarding off-piste at about 3,200m on the north face of La Grande Motte, near Tignes.

Rain check: How's the forecast?

How's the weather in your neck of the woods? More to the point, how's the weather forecast? The Mountaineering Council of Scotland wants your ...

Police warning to Lomond vandals

Following the case of the rampant campers in the Lake District comes news that Central Scotland police are chasing vandals who have been cutting down trees in the Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park.They are warning that anyone committing anti-social acts in the area will be prosecuted.A report has been sent to the Procurator Fiscal after two men admitted chopping down the trees at Sallochy car park.Stuart Chalmers, for Forestry Commission Scotland in the Cowal and Trossachs area said: "Woods and natural spaces provide a huge range of benefits and people value them for a variety of reasons.

Needle sport on Gable's crags

For those who don’t get a big enough adrenaline kick out of soloing rock routes, here’s a new sport to get the heart pumping.Two guys spent 24 hours setting up a slackline across from Napes Needle on Great Gable, one of the iconic rock fingers in the Lakes.

Trust steps up fight against Scottish windfarms

Lovers of the Scottish wilderness areas are being urged to back a campaign against further windfarm development.The John Muir Trust, the campaigning organisation for conservation and, among other things, owner of Britain’s highest mountain Ben Nevis, pictured left, is asking the public to sign up for its fight to keep the country’s wild areas free of large-scale wind-turbine developments.Its website lists its main points:• Wild land should be conserved for nature and people for the benefit of present and future generations; • Developments on core wild land, such as industrial-scale wind developments, are a major threat to our rapidly diminishing wild land; • The best renewable energy options around wild land are small-scale, sensitively sited and adjacent to the communities directly benefiting from them, where the landscape impact is minimal; • Large wind turbines, often 120 metres high (taller than the Forth Rail Bridge) grouped in clusters of up to 100, are totally unsuitable for Scotland’s finest landscapes; • The intrusion is not just the turbines and pylons, but includes the access roads, concrete bases, and underground cables; • Producing energy near to where it is consumed reduces the need for giant pylons through wild and scenic areas e.g.

Boozed-up campers wreak havoc in Lakes

Lake District rangers say single-sex gangs of campers are causing untold damage in the national park.They say they are disgusted by wanton damage and disregard for what they say is one of England’s loveliest landscapes by groups denied access to established campsites who then head to car parks, lake sides and beauty spots for a night drinking and tenting around campfires.Revellers have smashed up farm gates and stiles for firewood, left rubbish and beer cans, scorched the ground and used hedgerows and walls as toilets.Northern area ranger Graham Standring said: “If they can’t find firewood they’ll rip off branches and remove gates and stiles.“A wooden footbridge at Carrock Beck, near Haltcliffe, was chainsawed and burned, which is bad, even by wild campers’ standards.”Chris Berry, whose area includes the honey pots of the Duddon Valley, Wasdale and Eskdale, said:  “We’re only talking about a small minority.

Trouble flares at Vixen Tor 'conciliation' event

More tales of woe and vexation reach grough from Vixen Tor, the Devon crag where access has been blocked.The British Mountaineering Council (BMC) reports that two climbers had to leave some of their gear in place after being made to leave the crag at the end of an open day.

Young Brit sets US mountain record

Everest summiteer Jake Meyer has thrown down the gauntlet to stateside climbers by conquering the USA’s 48 continental peaks in record time.Jake, 23, was the youngest man to climb Everest when he climbed the Himalayan peak, aged 21 in 2005 – a record since broken.

Beer for a year on offer at geocaching event

19:12:17Any event sponsored by a brewery is guaranteed grough's attention, so it's no surprise that a little festival in the Lakes caught our eye.Jennings, the Cockermouth brewery, is one of four sponsors in a geocaching event based at Borrowdale youth hostel in September.