While few of us can aspire to climb the hardest routes, we all may open the SMC Journal and experience the excitement of exploratory climbing or the tense uncertainty of a first ascent. In this issue Helen Rennard recounts her ground-breaking winter climbs with Dave McLeod, Iain Small and Dave Almond, while Almond himself leads us up the fearsome Mistral route on Beinn Eighe. No point of the compass is neglected. In 'Winter Out West' Neil Adams describes pioneering routes in Ardgour. Iain Young goes 'Mountaineering in Hyperborea' on winter visits to the far north, while Bob Duncan soloes...