Fort William Mountain Festival has something for every kind of hill-goer

Scotland’s mountain-going community is hugely diverse – on any given weekend, on any of the country’s Munros, Corbetts, Grahams and Donalds, you might find climbers and hikers, skiers and snowboarders, artists and photographers, mountain bikers and paragliders, twitchers and botanists. Month after month, year after year, these people are drawn back to the same remote, high places, yet they all look at them through very different eyes: the climber typically seeks the most challenging route to the top of a mountain while the skier looks for the most exciting route to the bottom; the paraglider tries to predict where the best thermals will be, while the photographer aims to reach the best possible viewpoint in the best possible light conditions. And yeah, the twitchers never seem to be satisfied until they’ve managed to spy at least one ptarmigan.