Hillwalking Thread

[invergowrie arab]

Wilderness 

 

[LoonsYouthTeam]

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 [mention=17023]Swello[/mention] 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 !

Cheers for that, I have a Garmin watch so have recorded my walk there. Will try a map app for it too.

Aye, dog loved it too, although he made the climb look easy!

[LoonsYouthTeam]

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.

Cheers for all of that

[Florentine_Pogen]

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...

Thanks for the reply....... It was actually the Allan Ramsay I had in mind, I thought that was at NMB rather than Carlops. Didn't realise it had ceased to be.
When I first started walking in the Pentlands , we used to frequent the Habbies Howe Hotel, (showing my age) another long gone and much missed oasis.

[Swello]

12 hours ago, invergowrie arab said:

Wilderness 

 

The local landowners setting the wilderness on fire once a year will be great fun for the lucky eco homeowners, as will the fun game of "find the poisoned bird of prey" or "snare the hare" that they can do with their kids. 

[Leith Green]

9 hours ago, Florentine_Pogen said:

Thanks for the reply....... It was actually the Allan Ramsay I had in mind, I thought that was at NMB rather than Carlops. Didn't realise it had ceased to be.
When I first started walking in the Pentlands , we used to frequent the Habbies Howe Hotel, (showing my age) another long gone and much missed oasis.

 

Alternative is to cross the wee burn before the final walk to Flotterston Inn, take the path to the "new" roundabout, cross over and walk along Mauricewood  and skirt the top of Penicuik before dropping in to a local boozer.

Plenty of pubs and then bus home?

[Florentine_Pogen]

4 hours ago, Leith Green said:

Alternative is to cross the wee burn before the final walk to Flotterston Inn, take the path to the "new" roundabout, cross over and walk along Mauricewood  and skirt the top of Penicuik before dropping in to a local boozer.

Plenty of pubs and then bus home?

Thanks for the suggestion. However, I have never experienced the pleasure of any Penicuik boozers.

[Chinatoon Bairn]

On 29/03/2022 at 14:52, 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.

 

Having to pay a subscription fee for the ability to use offline maps was a bit painful given I could do so for free with Viewranger. Also seems to be a bit harder to actually begin routes than the previous app as well which wasn't appreciated at the beginning of my walk but I'll get used to that I suppose.

Not great, not terrible.

[Swello]

16 minutes ago, Chinatoon Bairn said:

Having to pay a subscription fee for the ability to use offline maps was a bit painful given I could do so for free with Viewranger. Also seems to be a bit harder to actually begin routes than the previous app as well which wasn't appreciated at the beginning of my walk but I'll get used to that I suppose.

Not great, not terrible.

I haven't really looked at offline yet - although I can download for "free". In Viewranger, I was used to having the whole of Scotland in 1:50k downloaded all the time, so I never thought about it when I was going out of signal range. I can't see an option on OA to do the same yet, so I will probably need to download specific parts before I go which isn't ideal.

[DG.Roma]

On 29/03/2022 at 14:52, 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

Haven't used it this year yet but did a few times at the back end of last summer. I also like Outdoor Active. Like you, I never used the more advanced features on ViewRanger so I don't miss them, although I think the grid reference is an important one that's missing.

I find it much easier to plot routes on my phone with OA than I did with VR, and really like that it automatically snaps your route to a path, if there is one, when you put in your A to B.

Yes I know, I'd usually plot on a computer rather than the phone, but when you need a plan C or D when you're away, or get an unexpected opportunity to get out on the hills, what Outdoor Active offers is very handy.

You can get discounts at various places with your subscription too. I'm yet to take advantage, but plan to.

On 28/03/2022 at 21:16, LoonsYouthTeam said:

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 photos never do it justice!

I'd say I'm reasonably experienced as a hill walker, but not on Munros. If you start off on the ones with clear and easy paths, my tip would be working on your endurance before you go.

Long days in the Pentlands will help you, even if the elevation gain is much less, get yourself used to being out for hours on end, build up your stamina and discover what it is you need to get you through the day. Make sure you're comfortable carrying that, and more. You don’t want to find yourself 700m up a Munro, knackered and out of supplies, with 200m+ still to ascend and a few hours of descent to follow.

The majority of mountain injuries happen on the descent as people are fatigued and slightly more relaxed thinking the job is done.

[Swello]

1 hour ago, DG.Roma said:

Like you, I never used the more advanced features on ViewRanger so I don't miss them, although I think the grid reference is an important one that's missing.

The grid ref and altitude are there - you need to press the "compass" icon in the top left corner - grid ref and what 3 words, etc is at the bottom of the screen with a share button.

[DG.Roma]

7 minutes ago, Swello said:

The grid ref and altitude are there - you need to press the "compass" icon in the top left corner - grid ref and what 3 words, etc is at the bottom of the screen with a share button.

Excellent cheers. I don't think that was there last time I used it, if not, then that's promising progress already.

[Chinatoon Bairn]

16 hours ago, Swello said:

I haven't really looked at offline yet - although I can download for "free". In Viewranger, I was used to having the whole of Scotland in 1:50k downloaded all the time, so I never thought about it when I was going out of signal range. I can't see an option on OA to do the same yet, so I will probably need to download specific parts before I go which isn't ideal.

Slightly different to what you had mentioned you do but I always downloaded the route that I would be following before starting as a last resort. OA seem to be charging around £32 per year for the privilege. 

[Leith Green]

9 minutes ago, Chinatoon Bairn said:

Slightly different to what you had mentioned you do but I always downloaded the route that I would be following before starting as a last resort. OA seem to be charging around £32 per year for the privilege. 

Seems an odd situation when they automatically ping the route to your device (e.g. Fenix) for free.

Maybe it just needs a few tweaks to get used to?

I havent messed around with it properly yet.

[Swello]

I think OA is a much more "online" app than viewranger was originally - so it assumes that you are always going to be within range of a good data signal, which in Scotland is clearly not the case all the time (although it's better than the past). Viewranger was aimed at outdoor professionals and enthusiast types and so the core stuff was all about mapping, tracking and locating. OA is aimed at much more casual users and seems to be a social/lifestyle app with bits of viewranger grafted on. 

I'm going to give it some time to see how it evolves - and there aren't many useful/reliable alternatives kicking around at the moment..

[Benjamin_Nevis]

On 30/03/2022 at 09:48, Swello said:

The local landowners setting the wilderness on fire once a year will be great fun for the lucky eco homeowners, as will the fun game of "find the poisoned bird of prey" or "snare the hare" that they can do with their kids. 

Between muirburn and the house being beside pretty much the busiest path in rural Angus, it's hard "f**k that" from me. 

Glen Clova is home to some utterly cretinous landowners, with Hugh Niven chief amongst them. His mewling over the order to restore the land he bulldozed a shitey hilltrack up was particularly enjoyable. 

 

[Florentine_Pogen]

3 hours ago, Day of the Lords said:

Glen Clova is home to some utterly cretinous landowners, with Hugh Niven chief amongst them. His mewling over the order to restore the land he bulldozed a shitey hilltrack up was particularly enjoyable. 

 

Years back, a group of us used to go to the Angus Glens Walking Fest and always stayed at Balnaboth House. Hector McLean seemed an OK guy but his wife was quite far up her own arse.

[Swello]

I'm still at the point with the Corbetts that I can pretty much stick a pin in the map and head off, so as I had a free day yesterday I did that and randomly headed off to Rannoch for a wander in a part of the Highlands that I hadn't been in for a few years. I had obviously blanked from my mind how long it takes to actually get there once you leave the A9

I was heading for Beinn Pharlagain, a hill that I had walked past a few times without ever really noticing - the walk started on the Road to the Isles, a path that I've used a number of times - mostly on my bike - to get into the remote part of the central highlands around Corrour and Loch Ossian, so it was nice to be back there even though it was a bit rainy in the early part of the morning.

Once off the path, it was a standard Corbett bog and heather fest of a climb - although I quite enjoyed seeing the Fort William Sleeper heading for Corrour and Loch Trieg as I can never get over how bizarre it is that a train line runs through here. There is not a lot of green in the colour palette yet - Spring Brown and a bit of black from what looked like a recent wildfire.

The going was decent once I got onto the ridge and as the cloud lifted it was an excellent viewpoint as like nearby Schiehallion, it is in the centre of everything - the grey corries were looking very fine in particular. On a clear, crisp day - I think it would be a spectacular place to be - I had to make do with lots of clouds and haze.

Instead of heading back the way I came, I followed the Walkhighlands suggestion of dropping off North east and following the river all the way back which was worth it.

Nothing too spectacular but pretty enjoyable....

[Swello]

Something a bit different over the weekend - my mate in London suggested meeting up in North Wales for some walking and as I had never been there, I was quite up for it (and for getting some new Furths for my collection) despite the monster drive.

Original plan was to do the Snowden Horseshoe but the weather forecast was for 40mph wind with gusts up to 60mph, which really wouldn't have been a good idea for Crib Goch which apparently has some Aonach Eagach-like exposure - so instead we went for Tryfan and the Glyders, which had more difficult scrambling but less exposure overall.

We set off from Llyn Ogwen early as Snowdonia was heaving - Tryfan is basically a brutal climb straight out the car, so no chance to warm up. The scrambling starts pretty soon and there is a lot of quite difficult Grade 2 type scrambling to get past pretty quickly. We were in the clag soon and it felt like it was just a case of "pick a route" - there may have been easier ways than we went but it was probably the Cuillin the last time I did such a long sustained climb like this. I was relieved to reach the summit in the end but it was good fun. 

After some time messing about at the summit, the climb down to the coll was quite full on again - lots of downclimbs the way we went and as the cloud began to lift, we started to get a decent view of what we'd just been over.

The climb up onto Glyder Fach was a scree run, which is always horrible and we were back in the clouds again - a bit of navigation was needed to find the summit - which was obvious when the Cantilever came into view. More navigation and clambering about steep rock later and we were on an actual decent path and having a more pleasant wander out to Glyder Fawr at the 1000m contour line in lifting cloud.

It's a bizarre jaggy landscape and for the first time, we spotted tons of other folk wandering about - we had not seen many people before as visibility was really low (although I heard a few disembodied scouse accents ).

The climb off the ridge that runs back down to the Llyn had some really exposed downclimbs - a lot harder than I expected, not very nice and it took ages but at least the views were getting better as we got lower again. 

First trip to Wales was really decent - Tryfan isn't a beginners hill but I would really recommend it otherwise - will be back to do Crib Goch another time...

[Florentine_Pogen]

Great post Swello.