Scotland Via Ferrata Expeditions Alpine 4000 Nick Bullock Andy ...

SCOTLAND
pocket rocket
This time last year, Nick Williams was an Edinburgh IT consultant who only got out in the hills
at weekends. Now he's jacked in the nine-to-five to bring out an innovative new set of Scottish
walking guides. Alison Medland finds out how he did it.
To most of us, the idea of giving up a
successful business to camp rough and
live on oatcakes for the best part of a year
is not particularly appealing. For Nick
Williams, 33, it is just one more twist in an
unorthodox career.
As author of the first six Pocket Mountains
walking guides, three of which are
published in June, Nick represents a new,
younger face in the Scottish mountain writing
fraternity. In the 20 years since he began
mountaineering, he has built up a respectable
portfolio of routes, with expeditions
to Russia, Pakistan and China and
plenty of climbing in the Alps and Scot-
land. This was interspersed with periods of
study in China and Ukraine, a spell in the
French army, several stints as an interpreter,
two years working in Hong Kong and, more
recently, a career as head of an Edinburgh
IT company.
It was Nick’s unquestionable focus on
any project he took on, however, that persuaded
Robbie Porteous, a young Scottish
publisher, to approach him when he was
looking to commission a new author in
2001. Robbie had an idea for a series of
walking guides in pocket-sized format that
would fill the gap between the coffee table
book and the purely functional guide that
����������� An Teallach from Destitution Road, Gruinard Bay, and Beinn Alligin and
Loch Torridon. Just some of the great images in these new guides. All credit: Nick Williams.
could be taken into the hills. Between them,
the concept evolved into a series of six
pocket guides covering the Scottish Highlands
and Islands, each encompassing 40
circular routes with colour photography,
maps and local information. The mission
for Nick was to finish most of the routes
within the year.
In the last 12 months, he has spent 180
days walking and has lived in the hills for
three to five days at a time, covering up to
30 miles and three different routes daily.
Working to a typically Scottish budget, he
camped wild - sleeping in the car when the
midges were bad and living on oatcakes,
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