Hillwalking Thread

[Welly boy]

13 hours ago, invergowrie arab said:

Yeah it's a piece of piss. Obvious path all the way. 

The final third is really steep but its all on a good path and you are up on top quick.

If you are of reasonable fitness you should be back at the car in under 4 hours.

Cheers for that sounds like it shouldn't be to taxing.

[Swello]

I'm currently trying to get over the fact that 25-odd people were in trouble on Ben Nevis and had to be rescued (and one sadly died) - what is the story there? An avalanche? 

[Florentine_Pogen]

I'm currently trying to get over the fact that 25-odd people were in trouble on Ben Nevis and had to be rescued (and one sadly died) - what is the story there? An avalanche? 

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/mar/09/man-dies-17-rescued-ferocious-conditions-ben-nevis-scotland

[MONKMAN]

Buachaille etiv mor on Monday, visibility and weather shit all day. 

 

[MONKMAN]

Beinn a’ Bheithir today via the schoolhouse ridge. Weather was glorious. 
 

[Swello]

Due to annoying busyness in March, I've struggled to get out during the good hill weather and I was desperate to get out, so went for a walk that I could do in a few hours - Beinn an Lochain at the Rest and Be Thankful.

This was a really enjoyable walk - would highly recommend it as a "beginner" hill as navigation is really simple (and probably hard to make a mistake in poor visibilty) and it's a lot quieter than most of the hills in the Arrochar Alps - but if you like a bit of horizontal in your walk, this really isn't the one for you. The walk is basically an uninterrupted climb over a couple of Km straight from the road, really steep in some places, so it's a decent workout on a hot day like yesterday. The ridge is really nice and twisty, so lots of interest to take away from the burning legs

It was blue skies all the way but was a bit hazy for decent long shots....

[LoonsYouthTeam]

I'm looking to get into hillwalking as a means of improving my health (physically mostly but also mentally). I walk plenty with the dog but have never really done hills before.

Climbed Caerketton Hill in the Pentlands today which is the Hill with the dry ski slope on it you can see from the Edinburgh City bypass. Delighted to make the summit, there were a couple of crests I reached where I considered stopping, especially one steep climb but glad I persevered as the views were cracking.

It's 1,568ft so not a huge summit by any means but easily the biggest hill I've climbed. I plan to climb other hills in in the Pentlands as they're close to my house and from what I've read are good practice hills as they're steep. Plan to finally build to a Munro but don't think I'm fit enough or experienced enough yet, although I do have an experienced friend I could bring along for my first one.

How did people who first got into hill walking find it when they first took on a Munro? Any other tips to help out a novice?

Don't think my photos do it justice

[Swello]

56 minutes ago, LoonsYouthTeam said:

I'm looking to get into hillwalking as a means of improving my health (physically mostly but also mentally). I walk plenty with the dog but have never really done hills before.

Climbed Caerketton Hill in the Pentlands today which is the Hill with the dry ski slope on it you can see from the Edinburgh City bypass. Delighted to make the summit, there were a couple of crests I reached where I considered stopping, especially one steep climb but glad I persevered as the views were cracking.

It's 1,568ft so not a huge summit by any means but easily the biggest hill I've climbed. I plan to climb other hills in in the Pentlands as they're close to my house and from what I've read are good practice hills as they're steep. Plan to finally build to a Munro but don't think I'm fit enough or experienced enough yet, although I do have an experienced friend I could bring along for my first one.

How did people who first got into hill walking find it when they first took on a Munro? Any other tips to help out a novice?

Don't think my photos do it justice

The Pentlands are actually a really decent place to build up your hill fitness (probably a lot more than you'd think). There are loads of paths that can be linked up to make progressively longer walks until you're doing some serious distances and it's a good opportunity start to work on your map reading (I did my navigation training in the Pentlands actually) in a low risk way. 

A walk over Turnhouse out to West Kip is a proper hill walk with lots of re-ascent and by the time you've made it back via Loganlea and Glencourse, you'll have done enough of a day to be in the realms of plenty of the easier Munros in terms of exertion.

Lastly, the western part of the Pentlands  (East Cairn/West Cairn out to Wolf Craigs for example) is pretty pathless, very quiet and is similar to a lot of wild walking you would do in more remote parts of the country. I wouldn't head out there initially as it's actually pretty easy to get lost but it's a good testing ground later on.

 

[LoonsYouthTeam]

The Pentlands are actually a really decent place to build up your hill fitness (probably a lot more than you'd think). There are loads of paths that can be linked up to make progressively longer walks until you're doing some serious distances and it's a good opportunity start to work on your map reading (I did my navigation training in the Pentlands actually) in a low risk way. 
A walk over Turnhouse out to West Kip is a proper hill walk with lots of re-ascent and by the time you've made it back via Loganlea and Glencourse, you'll have done enough of a day to be in the realms of plenty of the easier Munros in terms of exertion.
Lastly, the western part of the Pentlands  (East Cairn/West Cairn out to Wolf Craigs for example) is pretty pathless, very quiet and is similar to a lot of wild walking you would do in more remote parts of the country. I wouldn't head out there initially as it's actually pretty easy to get lost but it's a good testing ground later on.
 

Cheers, will definitely make this my training ground.

Aye, from the summit of the hill today I could see a few other paths to other hills and all seems quite well connected. I'll see how the knees feel tomorrow but plan to head back out this weekend weather permitting

[Leith Green]

9 hours ago, LoonsYouthTeam said:

Cheers, will definitely make this my training ground.

Aye, from the summit of the hill today I could see a few other paths to other hills and all seems quite well connected. I'll see how the knees feel tomorrow but plan to head back out this weekend weather permitting

You can also pick up a free map (from the visitor centre at Flotterstone and Harlaw near Balerno) showing the main paths. Once you are more experienced, you can do some proper mapreading, and perhaps also get yourself a device (Garmin etc) which will allow you to access maps and record your walks etc.

I walk a fair bit in the Pentlands with my son, primarily as I rarely have the time to go further afield these days. As @Swello rightly mentions, there are some reasonable routes, some of which have gradients which can help your fitness - esp those off the main routes.

What I like most is that - although there are always walkers - as you get slightly off the beaten path, numbers are not massive even though you are very close to the city........most people are too lazy to go more than a few hundred yards from the car park.

Your dog seemed to enjoy the walk !

[Swello]

9 hours ago, LoonsYouthTeam said:

Cheers, will definitely make this my training ground.

Aye, from the summit of the hill today I could see a few other paths to other hills and all seems quite well connected. I'll see how the knees feel tomorrow but plan to head back out this weekend weather permitting

Get yourself this: OS 1:25k and you can spend many a happy evening working out what you're doing next - very therapeutic (or that might just be me )

[Florentine_Pogen]

On the subject of the Pentlands, I happened to dig my old Bartholomews map out a few days ago, bought in 1978 (stop sniggering......) and interesting to see the South of Capital City pre. bypass.
I'm thinking of a wander from Hillend to either Flotterstone or Ninemileburn due to alcohol being available at both termini.

[invergowrie arab]

https://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/news/our-pick-10-of-the-easier-munros/

That link will give you an introduction to some of the easier munros. 

If you have the time and money you can do navigation courses and if you are near Edinburgh these might suit 

https://www.pentlandoutdoornavigation.com/

https://www.mountaineering.scot/safety-and-skills/courses-and-events/our-courses/navigation-courses

To be honest I just taught myself to navigate through a mixture of trial, error and near disaster and this book which is really good https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mountain-Navigation-Peter-Cliff/dp/1871890551

In terms of gear good boots, a waterproof, hat, gloves and your map and compass are enough to get started. 

Check out the Mountain forecasts at https://www.mwis.org.uk/forecasts/scottish 

For the munros I would leave it until late May June to be (almost) sure of getting snow and ice clear hills.

[Swello]

In slightly geeky hillwalking news but maybe of interest to a few - the weekend's walk was the first time I had to use Outdoor Active for phone mapping instead of Viewranger which I had used for years (almost from when it was first available in fact) and which they turned off completely at the end of February (you don't get that problem with paper Maps!).

I hate the idea of a forced migration, had read a lot of negative things about OA and was a Viewranger fanboy but my first impression is that it is - totally fine. I guess because I had spent a lot on buying the entire Scottish + Lakes OS maps on Viewranger, they seem to have added me at a tier where there is no subscription - which has made it easier to stomach and it now appears that I can get 1:25k maps where I only had 1:50k before so that's a pretty significant benefit although I don't know if this is permanent. 

Another big change for me was that when I plan a walk in the Outdoor Active website (in my case by importing a GPX file), it magically (I linked the accounts) appears as a GPX route on my Garmin Fenix watch that I use for at-a-glance navigation constantly when I'm walking. Before, I had a complicated workflow to make that happen, so I'm really pleased about this.

I always used Viewranger in a very simple way - I didn't use any advanced features at all and only used it to see where I am on the map relative to my plotted route or to get a grid reference - so no satnav-type navigation, tracking or locator beacon and although I always read that OA is missing a lot of stuff - it isn't noticeable to me and it worked perfectly for my limited use. Will need to test it on a more challenging walk and in worse conditions but so far so good.

tl;dr - wanted to hate OA, didn't hate it - quite relieved.

 

[Leith Green]

2 hours ago, Swello said:

In slightly geeky hillwalking news but maybe of interest to a few - the weekend's walk was the first time I had to use Outdoor Active for phone mapping instead of Viewranger which I had used for years (almost from when it was first available in fact) and which they turned off completely at the end of February (you don't get that problem with paper Maps!).

I hate the idea of a forced migration, had read a lot of negative things about OA and was a Viewranger fanboy but my first impression is that it is - totally fine. I guess because I had spent a lot on buying the entire Scottish + Lakes OS maps on Viewranger, they seem to have added me at a tier where there is no subscription - which has made it easier to stomach and it now appears that I can get 1:25k maps where I only had 1:50k before so that's a pretty significant benefit although I don't know if this is permanent. 

Another big change for me was that when I plan a walk in the Outdoor Active website (in my case by importing a GPX file), it magically (I linked the accounts) appears as a GPX route on my Garmin Fenix watch that I use for at-a-glance navigation constantly when I'm walking. Before, I had a complicated workflow to make that happen, so I'm really pleased about this.

I always used Viewranger in a very simple way - I didn't use any advanced features at all and only used it to see where I am on the map relative to my plotted route or to get a grid reference - so no satnav-type navigation, tracking or locator beacon and although I always read that OA is missing a lot of stuff - it isn't noticeable to me and it worked perfectly for my limited use. Will need to test it on a more challenging walk and in worse conditions but so far so good.

tl;dr - wanted to hate OA, didn't hate it - quite relieved.

 

I havent used the change to OA yet. Is it any good for bike routes?

I usually use RideWithGPS and import (then they appear on my Edge Touring, and Fenix).

Feel like I have too many accounts some days................

[Swello]

7 minutes ago, Leith Green said:

I havent used the change to OA yet. Is it any good for bike routes?

I usually use RideWithGPS and import (then they appear on my Edge Touring, and Fenix).

Feel like I have too many accounts some days................

TBH - I never downloaded Viewranger routes and so I doubt I'll start with OutdoorActive - I make my own GPX routes and import them (and on occasion I have downloaded Walkhighland routes if I change my plans when I'm away from home already) - the process was clunky with Viewranger and is much slicker with OA.

[Leith Green]

3 hours ago, Swello said:

 

Another big change for me was that when I plan a walk in the Outdoor Active website (in my case by importing a GPX file), it magically (I linked the accounts) appears as a GPX route on my Garmin Fenix watch that I use for at-a-glance navigation constantly when I'm walking. Before, I had a complicated workflow to make that happen, so I'm really pleased about this.

Take a greenie for this by the way. Just tested a wee route and - as you say - it went straight to my Fenix !!

Magic stuff, cheers !

[vikingTON]

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/mar/29/locals-secure-buyout-mainland-britain-most-remote-pub-old-forge-inverie

[Swello]

34 minutes ago, virginton said:

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/mar/29/locals-secure-buyout-mainland-britain-most-remote-pub-old-forge-inverie

Great news - bye bye belgian arsehole.

[Le Tout P'ti FC]

On the subject of the Pentlands, I happened to dig my old Bartholomews map out a few days ago, bought in 1978 (stop sniggering......) and interesting to see the South of Capital City pre. bypass.
I'm thinking of a wander from Hillend to either Flotterstone or Ninemileburn due to alcohol being available at both termini.

Please don't go to Nine Mile Burn in search of a watering hole. If there was once a pub, it's long since gone. There is a wee van selling bacon rolls and such like, but that's your lot now.

Also in relation to Pentlands watering holes, the Allan Ramsey in Carlops sadly did not survive lockdown and is currently not trading.

If you keep going along the Roman Road you will eventually get to West Linton, where a cold pint awaits from the Gordon Arms. But nobody is walking there from Hillend!

So basically nothing trading between Flotterstone and West Linton now. Didn't want you going thirsty after a long walk...