The Fort William Mountain Festival today announced the winner of the seventh Scottish Award for Excellence in Mountain Culture. It's climber, instructor, guidebook guru, new route superman and all-round mountain enthusiast, Andy Nisbet. The award will be formally presented at the Fort William Mountain Festival on Saturday 22nd February.

This annual award recognises and celebrates the achievements one inspiring individual who has made an outstanding contribution to Scotland’s mountains in the fields of sport, theatre, art, photography, film or literature. Previous recipients have included Jimmy Marshall, Hamish MacInnes and Dr Adam Watson. 

'Andy Nisbet was chosen as this year’s worthy recipient because of his inspirational enthusiasm for the Scottish mountains and his invaluable contribution to climbing through his work in writing guidebooks' said festival organisers. 

'Over the decades Andy has gone to incredible lengths to bring climbers a highly accurate and detailed record of the tens of thousands of climbs across Scotland in the SMC’s climber’s guidebook series.'

'Known for his boundless enthusiasm, humour and pioneering attitude, Andy exemplifies the passion for mountain culture that this award celebrates.'

'Andy’s life’s passion has been exploring and opening hundreds of new routes on Scotland’s mountains and sharing his unparalleled knowledge of the Scottish cliffs in his guidebooks.'

With almost 1000 new winter routes to his name [that's not a typo, Ed.] Andy has made more first ascents in winter than any other Scottish climber. For more about him see Gary Latter's tribute marking Andy's birthday last year, 60 Years of Andy Nisbet

'With these first ascents, he has introduced many climbers to new cliffs and corners of the country they might not otherwise have discovered' continues the festival statement.

'Every climber who has picked up a guidebook to inspire and inform them owes Andy a huge debt for his commitment and enthusiasm.'