It’s time to introduce another of our #ItsUptoUs campaign ambassadors!

This week, we asked photographer Lucy Hamilton – better known as @loosemooose on Instagram – to tell us how she makes the most of time spent in the hills and why she decided to become an ambassador for our new campaign to #savemountainpaths in Scotland:

“I’m Lucy Hamilton, a relatively recent hillwalking enthusiast, although I went up my first Munro (Beinn Sgulaird) aged 29 which was many years ago.

“I started going into the hills in earnest when I realised that I was perfectly capable of doing so on my own, and I didn’t need to wait for people to be available to come with me. It has been a very important revelation!

“I have definitely got the bug and I feel like it is the easiest way for me, living on the West Coast of Scotland as I do, to have extraordinary experiences. These experiences are enhanced for me because I take my camera up high and document the things I see – I love to share this with anyone who’s interested – there’s always a story involved with a day (or days) in the hills and I hope that it might inspire people to go hillwalking too or at least have a bit of a different perspective on the hills that we see from ground level. For me there are so many aspects to this love of high places, more than I ever dreamed possible.

“More and more I am noticing the paths (or lack of them) leading up to the summits. I suppose in the past I didn’t give them much thought – I was just aware that busier and more popular hills tended to have better paths than the lesser known ones. A good path really can make a big difference to the experience and I am always amazed at the effort that has gone into creating them. It’s always sad to see paths that have become badly eroded as well.

“I didn’t realise, until getting involved with the ‘It’s Up to Us’ campaign from Mountaineering Scotland and the Outdoor Access Trust for Scotland (OATS) that mountains on privately owned land don’t get any funding to help with making and maintaining mountain paths, and given that they are very well used (and the number of users is constantly rising) it is so important that money is raised to help with this.

“So many people get so much out of this activity and it’s great to be able to give something back.”

To find out more and donate now, visit: www.savemountainpaths.scot

In partnership with the Outdoor Access Trust for Scotland

Sponsored by Cotswold Outdoor