The Adventure Show

The Highlander Mountain Marathon sees 300 runners head into the remote, wild lands of Torridon. For two days the competitors race over the hills carrying everything they need to survive - and they don't know where the race will take them by the end.

This month The Adventure Show is at the spiritual home of Scottish mountain biking - Fort William - for the 2012 World Cup and there's no shortage of action. First there's the fast and furious 4 Cross. Then we'll be heading to the top of Nevis range for the downhill, where the racers plummet 555 metres down one of the longest and toughest courses on the world cup circuit.

The Adventure Show travels to Arran for the Goatfell Race. This is a closely fought hill run, 15 kilometres up and down the island's highest mountain. It's a challenging course leading from road to rough hill track and finally a scramble up huge granite boulders to reach the dramatic summit. Then there's a tricky descent and the final sprint to Brodick.

In this month's Adventure Show, Dougie Vipond joins the hardiest of bikers for one of the toughest events in the cycling calendar. The Snow Roads Audax is aptly named: it's a 300-kilometre bike ride with nearly 5,000 metres of ascent over some of Scotland's steepest hills - those high passes, like the Lecht and Glenshee, which are often snowbound in winter.

In this month's Adventure Show travels to Torridon for the inaugural Celtman Extreme Scottish Triathlon. And extreme is the word: starting with a three-kilometre open-water swim, followed by over 200 kilometres of biking, and the finale is a 42-kilometre run, with an ascent of one of Scotland's Munros thrown in for good measure. It has been described as one of the hardest days of your life and for most just finishing is a major achievement. Little wonder the Celtman has just won the British Triathlon Event of the Year.

In an exceptionally ambitious programme, Dougie Vipond joins rock athletes Dave MacLeod and Tim Emmett as they attempt a first ascent of an extreme new route.

In the middle of winter, with 17 hours of darkness, 500 competitors head north of Inverness for one of the world's toughest mountain bike races, the Strathpuffer 24-hour marathon. And once again, this year conditions are testing - with ice and mud pushing the competitors and their bikes to the very limit.

This year is the fiftieth anniversary of the Cairngorm Mountain Rescue Team, and in that time they have attended over 3,000 incidents. In what has been their busiest winter for 30 years, the Adventure Show has had unprecedented access to the team's 42 members who go out, whatever the weather, to help those in danger.