Pete Scullion’s top photos from 2018.
A photographer takes thousands of images in a year… and we’ve asked a few of our regular photographers to pick their top photos from 2018.
First up is Pete Scullion, our web editor and writer and photographer for Wideopenmag, Singletrack, SPOKE, Dirt Rag and plenty of others.
Here’s Pete Scullion’s top photos of 2018:
I started the year off right by climbing Ben Ledi, my local 879m mountain, for dawn on New Year’s Day. It wasn’t quite the sunrise I had in mind, but I did get to dig myself a snow hole to get out of the wind as the sun came up.
Later in January, the forecasts pointed to a perfectly clear Scotland and a complete lack of wind. Cue my second dawn raid on a snowy Ben Ledi for January and the most impressive starts to the day.
On Pancake Day, I managed to burn off all the lemon and sugar by having my legs ripped off by Stu Thomson and Rob Friel. Luckily, lagging behind on the climb gave me the opportunity to pop off a shot I’d had in my head for ages. Always sweet when the shot comes out the way you imagined it.
I had told Ali Clarkson about mountain sunsets when the snow was still lying low, and we picked arguably the perfect moody night for a Ben Ledi assault.
Beinn Ghlas never disappoints, ever. Another perfect sunset summit off Ben Lawers with a top crew made up of Ali Clarkson, Rab Wardell, McTrail Rider and MTB Wod saw us chasing the light back to the van.
Despite travelling all over Europe this summer and riding some truly incredible trails, sometimes keeping it simple and going for a local lap under a perfect sky still wins. Dumgoyne is a SLAG of a climb but affords quite the view out west as the sun dips.
The Summer Solstice in Scotland makes the six hours of daylight in January all worth it. Topping out on Scotland’s most southerly Munro after 10pm to a view like this is why I love this country.
After realising that bagging multiple Munros in a day is where it’s at for upping your count quickly, I opted to tackle the Beinn a’Ghlo three on a solo six hour mission in Highland Perthshire. I slept well after this day. From the summit here on Carn Liath, you can see the other two peaks of the day that look deceptively close.
This might be the most spectacular photo, but it reminds me of a truly ridiculous day I won’t forget in a hurry. Keen to up my Munro count, and having already bagged my 18th the day before, I tackled the South Shiel Ridge on my own. 9 hours, 21 miles and SEVEN Munros may have been too big a day after three hours sleep.
I am MASSIVE fan of raptors. Massive fan. On a lazy-ish day with the Deviate Cycles cats, we saw eleven Griffon Vultures diving from the heavens to tear into a fresh sheep carcass. Seeing these enormous beasts in their element and up close was an absolute treat.
Lightning is a fickle mistress and a rarity in the UK. I was knackered as three storms converged above Bourg Saint Maurice but confident I could nail the shot. This was the last photo I took and midnight. I was so excited I couldn’t sleep.
There really doesn’t feel like there’s any rush when the sky isn’t going to get any darker and there’s a sky like this ahead. Rosie and Julia lighting up Langstrath ahead under the Milky Way on our October bivvy mission in the Lake District.
Endless Trails’ chief Julia Hobson navigating through the boulders on the way off Hellvelyn on a mighty warm day in the middle of October. We found the eye of the storm that day and boy did it pay off.
Keen to get my Munro count into the thirties, I summoned Louise Ferguson for an ill-advised mission to Creag Meagaigh to try and bag the three peaks there. As you can see it was wintery and the high pass in the far middle right of shot was sheer, loose and covered in frozen snow. It looked incredible despite that.
I was lucky enough to be invited out to Verbier to get shown about by none other than Tracy Moseley herself. Normally, my chesty cam GoPro shots come out blurred or too dark courtesy of the forests of Scotland. Verbier had other ideas though.
