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Hillwalking Thread


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1 minute ago, MixuFruit said:

For me I am slowly making all my clothes (and where possible other stuff) to be British or at least European made. I just prefer my money to be paying someone vaguely local a decent wage when I buy something.

A completely non argumentative post, but why is someone neither British or European not worth a decent wage? These far east factories are employing skilled workers, certified to ISO standards and often ethically audited. 

Personally, I'd rather have the best gear which kept me warm and dry, after assuring myself they weren't exploiting anyone. 

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2 minutes ago, MixuFruit said:

It's not really about any concerns I have about either the quality or welfare issues associated with making these things in Vietnam or wherever. As I say I have stuff made in the far east which is fine and I won't be in a rush to replace it. I just firmly believe that each £ spent as locally as is reasonable incrementally makes the place a bit nicer to live in.

Fair enough. I'm all about food miles now. I miss kiwi fruit but it's a decadent excess 

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Just now, MixuFruit said:

It's not really about any concerns I have about either the quality or welfare issues associated with making these things in Vietnam or wherever. As I say I have stuff made in the far east which is fine and I won't be in a rush to replace it. I just firmly believe that each £ spent as locally as is reasonable incrementally makes the place a bit nicer to live in.

Fair do's 👍🏼 I worked in China for a short time and the standard of work blew me away in terms of quality control (and that was what I was there to audit). 

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On 03/01/2021 at 00:46, Adamski said:

A few others that you might well already know about but I don’t think have been mentioned:

Linn Park (our family favourite - spent a lot of time there during the first lockdown, big and lots of different parts to explore).

Rouken Glen (the main park is pretty busy, but much more space to yourself if you cross the river).

Alexandra Park (took the kids there today, lots of space for a wander around).

Queens Park (great views of the city, can get a bit busy though).

Cathkin Braes

The Kilpatrick Hills (Old Kilpatrick station to Loch Humphrey is a decent family walk with good views - planning to do it tomorrow).
 

What are the Kilpatrick Hills like? I am stuck in Glasgow City and was reading that these appear to acceptably within the rules for me.  

That said being winter and that I haven’t been there before I don’t want to do anything that might end up with me needing mountain rescue so are they more like small local hills or more remote and best kept till spring? I’ve been looking online but can’t get a reliable picture of the area. 

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48 minutes ago, MixuFruit said:

Back to actual hillwalking. I have been basically confined to the Ochils for some time but I'm fair enjoying going exploring. This trip was to bag three peaks in descending diddyness: Myreton Hill, Bengengie Hill and Colsnaur Hill. I set off bright and early, from the footprints on the snow I was the third person heading up, which made me feel very smug on my way down. Lots of prints of hares and foxes and wee mice and birds too, very peaceful.

After a boring if a little icy zig zag up the path from still sleeping Menstrie, I got to a gate, you can see snowy Colsnaur Hill looking very nice in the early sunshine. One set of feet went up by the deer fence so I decided to follow that to climb Myreton Hill first.

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After a brisk walk with the odd comedy arms waggling to avoid falling downhill episode, I claimed the mighty Myreton Hill (387m). I took a photo to mark the occasion:

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Then onwards to Colsnaur Hill, tracing the deer fence. There is an absolutely sickening amount of altitude you have to drop before climbing in earnest. You might well think that on a number of occasions heading down here I fell on my backside but as nobody was about, the answer to that is between me and God:

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The view back to Myreton hill from about the same height on the way up Colsnaur hill. Nae need.

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Colsnaur hill itself was looking fine in the sunshine, though the wind was beginning to bite already:

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Quite a short while later I made it to the cairn with its rather fetching yellow labelled rock:

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I took myself down the hill out the worst of the wind for a wee refreshment (best bit of the day), however after I'd had my cup of tea, disaster struck as the wind caught it and away it rolled down the hillside before I had a chance to catch it. Had that for years.

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After some food I took the lie of the land and decided I'd press on to Bengengie Hill (on the left with the crags), as it's not easily climbed as a destination in its own right. It looked like Ben Cleuch might've had an avalanche at some point.

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This was not my greatest decision. It took me about 45 minutes from the car to Colsnaur hill summit, but it took me another whole hour to get across the snow field to the Bengengie hill cairn. The view across to Ben Ledi, Ben Lomond and others was wonderful though.

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It was a pain in the backside clambering through deep snow (very jealous of the ski tourer I encountered gliding with ease), but it was very pretty with the sun catching wee sparkles all over the place, and interesting formations:

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After what seemed like forever I got on the path down, nursing cramp in my legs and avoiding splitting my head open on the frozen path. I noticed a reservoir had almost completely frozen over on my way down:

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A good trip, looks like it's going to thaw for the next week now so glad I got up there.

 

What a day for it - looks brilliant..

I've only been in the Ochils once but as part of doing the main lowland summits (the dreaded Donalds), I've had a route plotted in my mapping software for a while to do an Ochils epic starting at the Innerdownie end and heading along the tops to Blairdenon hill - will be a 2 car job or leave a bike at the western end on the way past..maybe 2021 is the year to do it...

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5 hours ago, Jambomo said:

What are the Kilpatrick Hills like? I am stuck in Glasgow City and was reading that these appear to acceptably within the rules for me.  

That said being winter and that I haven’t been there before I don’t want to do anything that might end up with me needing mountain rescue so are they more like small local hills or more remote and best kept till spring? I’ve been looking online but can’t get a reliable picture of the area. 

The bit I've done 3-4 times (up to the end of stage 3 in the link) makes for a good family walk. The views of Glasgow and the Clyde estuary are fantastic, and we got a corker of a sunset the day we went up. It's not hard - my kids (aged 6 and 4) complained a bit but managed it, and it can feel like you're somewhere more countrified than you really are. I'm planning on going back on my own and doing something like the full walk suggested in the link in the next few weeks. I'd say more small local hills than anything likely to need mountain rescue, but a decent bet when you're stuck in Glasgow over lockdown.

Edited by Adamski
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7 minutes ago, Adamski said:

The bit I've done 3-4 times (up to the end of stage 3 here) makes for a good family walk. The views of Glasgow and the Clyde estuary are fantastic, and we got a corker of a sunset the day we went up. It's not hard - my kids (aged 6 and 4) complained a bit but managed it, and it can feel like you're somewhere more countrified than you really are. I'm planning on going back on my own and doing something like the full walk suggested in the link in the next few weeks. I'd say more small local hills than anything likely to need mountain rescue, but a decent bet when you're stuck in Glasgow over lockdown.

Excellent, thank you - I’ll take a look this weekend then. I just don’t want to be one of the knobs that attempts something really stupid and needs rescued, at least not in Covid lockdown anyway. (Also the link seems to go to a Glasgow Uni HR page - just in case it was personal and you want to take it down.).

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22 minutes ago, Jambomo said:

Excellent, thank you - I’ll take a look this weekend then. I just don’t want to be one of the knobs that attempts something really stupid and needs rescued, at least not in Covid lockdown anyway. (Also the link seems to go to a Glasgow Uni HR page - just in case it was personal and you want to take it down.).

Oops - thanks for letting me know! Nothing personal, just combining messing around on here with weighing up my furlough options for the coming weeks!

Try this link: https://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/glasgow/duncolm.shtml

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19 minutes ago, Swello said:

According to Walkhighlands twitter account, this is their most downloaded walk at the moment, so I think a lot of folk are (understandably) doing the same calculations...

Ha, I’ll just follow the crowd up then 🤣

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Went for a walk in my "back garden" today - more to have a play in the snow that anything serious. I got a pair of Microspikes as a present at Xmas and I was keen to try them when everything was frozen. They are surprisingly decent and will be a great crampon alternative on less serious terrain - they weigh far less and allow you to walk more naturally, so quite pleased with them (especially as they work on any footwear). 

Apart from stopping for a quick coffee, there was a lot of powder higher up, so I did a bit of snowshoeing as I'll be getting nowhere near the Cairngorms which is the only place I tend to use them.

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I'll miss the snow when it melts - it's been fun for the past couple of weeks....

 

Edited by Swello
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Oops - thanks for letting me know! Nothing personal, just combining messing around on here with weighing up my furlough options for the coming weeks!
Try this link: https://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/glasgow/duncolm.shtml
Walk Highlands also has a walk up Cochno Hill which I did years ago and don't remember much about other than some great views. It's a bit closer to Glasgow as well- what are the actual rules about going outside a council area for exercise? It is a 5 mile limit?
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  • 3 weeks later...

Anyone got any suggestions for a pair of super warm hiking socks - particularly ones that will keep feet warm when staying still for a few hours? I’ve got a pair of waterproof sealskinz but they don’t keep my feet warm. Basically my boots get cold and then my feet get cold. Is there a way to combat this?

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40 minutes ago, jamamafegan said:

Anyone got any suggestions for a pair of super warm hiking socks - particularly ones that will keep feet warm when staying still for a few hours? I’ve got a pair of waterproof sealskinz but they don’t keep my feet warm. Basically my boots get cold and then my feet get cold. Is there a way to combat this?

I don't use Sealskinz for that reason. I've used Merino socks (eg, Smartwool) for years as when they get wet, your feet stay warm and that works for me in all seasons.

There are some experienced long distance hikers (eg Chris Townsend) who promote the use a mix of non-waterproof shoes/boots and merino socks as when things inevitably do get wet, they dry out quicker than goretex boots which keep the water in for ever. 

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4 hours ago, Swello said:

I don't use Sealskinz for that reason. I've used Merino socks (eg, Smartwool) for years as when they get wet, your feet stay warm and that works for me in all seasons.

There are some experienced long distance hikers (eg Chris Townsend) who promote the use a mix of non-waterproof shoes/boots and merino socks as when things inevitably do get wet, they dry out quicker than goretex boots which keep the water in for ever. 

After spending nearly 2 hours of a precious Sunday afternoon researching socks I have plumped for these:

https://www.icebreaker.com/en-gb/merino-mountaineer-mid-calf-socks/101291044M.html

There will be hell to pay if my feet get cold on my next outing. As for the boots issue, I usually use a pair of goretex however today I was using a pair of Altbergs and my feet were again cold. I will update the thread once I've tried these socks.

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8 minutes ago, Margaret Thatcher said:

I have had a look on walkhighlands but can't find an easy way to identify this kind of thing. Wondering if there are any Munros within easy reach of a beach anywhere?

Beinn Sgritheall has the beach at Corran very close

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