Hillwalking Thread

[vikingTON]

I'm down in the Borders doing some route walking - jumping between the Borders' Abbeys Way and St Cuthbert's Way based on convenience/interest. It's about 25C at the moment and glorious.

By no means a Munro but the Eildon Hills were an enjoyable - short and steep - landmark to clamber over between Melrose and St Boswells yesterday.

Heading across to the coast to do St Abbs and Eyemouth tomorrow. 

[Swello]

4 hours ago, virginton said:

I'm down in the Borders doing some route walking - jumping between the Borders' Abbeys Way and St Cuthbert's Way based on convenience/interest. It's about 25C at the moment and glorious.

By no means a Munro but the Eildon Hills were an enjoyable - short and steep - landmark to clamber over between Melrose and St Boswells yesterday.

Heading across to the coast to do St Abbs and Eyemouth tomorrow. 

Borders are looking magnificent at the moment, so you've timed it well and there is a total lack of squelchy stuff due to the dry spell. 

[invergowrie arab]

I need to do some walking in Toryland.

Quite fancy the southern upland way after watching Ian Robertsons show over Xmas.  Would probably fancy east to west though as Port Patrick would be a class finishing point 

Edited June 24, 2022 by invergowrie arab

[Swello]

I've done a surprisingly big chunk of the SUW on various other walks - would also like to do the whole thing though. Having climbed the majority of the big hills down here, I think @virginton has the right idea - point to point walks are the best way to see things in the Borders and D&G.

[MONKMAN]

Has anyone summited, or attempted to summit, all 10 Munros in the Mamores range in 1 day?

Edited June 25, 2022 by MONKMAN

[invergowrie arab]

31 minutes ago, MONKMAN said:

Has anyone summited, or attempted to summit, all 10 Munros in the Mamores range in 1 day?

Steve Fallon has. Doesn't sound like my idea of a good time though. 21 miles is doable if about the upper end of my 1 day limitations. 3400m of ascent is eye-watering though 

https://www.stevenfallon.co.uk/mamores.html

Edited June 25, 2022 by invergowrie arab

[Florentine_Pogen]

18 hours ago, MONKMAN said:

Has anyone summited, or attempted to summit, all 10 Munros in the Mamores range in 1 day?

Back in 1976, our school had a hillwalking club and we had a 2 week tour of the north-west, which included a 3 day incarceration in Steall bothy.

One of the goals set by the teachers (Stewart Robertson, Claire Slatter, Ian Jones....possibly all passed away now) was to bag all 10 Mamore tops in 24 hours.......which we did but involved an overnight bivvy.

[MONKMAN]

1 minute ago, Florentine_Pogen said:

Back in 1976, our school had a hillwalking club and we had a 2 week tour of the north-west, which included a 3 day incarceration in Steall bothy.

One of the goals set by the teachers (Stewart Robertson, Claire Slatter, Ian Jones....possibly all passed away now) was to bag all 10 Mamore tops in 24 hours.......which we did but involved an overnight bivvy.

I'm thinking it could be done in a day, setting off early.  I've done the South Glen Shiel ridge in a day comfortably, and its 5 miles more distance but 700m less climb. 

Going to give it a go next month I think. Going anti-clockwise, I'll know after An Gearanach if its worth doing the last 4 or whether to bail down the ring of Steall route.

[invergowrie arab]

1 hour ago, MONKMAN said:

I'm thinking it could be done in a day, setting off early.  I've done the South Glen Shiel ridge in a day comfortably, and its 5 miles more distance but 700m less climb. 

Going to give it a go next month I think. Going anti-clockwise, I'll know after An Gearanach if its worth doing the last 4 or whether to bail down the ring of Steall route.

Its almost double the ascent of the South Glen Shiel ridge 

[Benjamin_Nevis]

I'm thinking it could be done in a day, setting off early.  I've done the South Glen Shiel ridge in a day comfortably, and its 5 miles more distance but 700m less climb. 
Going to give it a go next month I think. Going anti-clockwise, I'll know after An Gearanach if its worth doing the last 4 or whether to bail down the ring of Steall route.

I'm planning it for next month. Doing Binnein Beag first though as I'd rather be descending from Mullach nan Coirean than BB. It's basically a tester to see if I could manage the Mullardochs

[MONKMAN]

31 minutes ago, invergowrie arab said:

Its almost double the ascent of the South Glen Shiel ridge 

Meant to add with the Forcan ridge as well. I’m sure it was about 2700 ascent. 

[MONKMAN]

26 minutes ago, Day of the Lords said:

I'm planning it for next month. Doing Binnein Beag first though as I'd rather be descending from Mullach nan Coirean than BB. It's basically a tester to see if I could manage the Mullardochs

 

Surely not planning that in one day?

[Benjamin_Nevis]

4 minutes ago, MONKMAN said:

Surely not planning that in one day?

Not yet 

I'll make a decision after the Mamores. If I can't do the Mamores reasonably comfortably, there's absolutely no point in attempting the Mullardochs. The massive problem is that the equivalent distance and ascent for the Mamores only gets you as far as Mam Sodhail on the Mullardoch round, which still leaves you the out and back to Beinn Fhionnlaidh, an absolutely huge climb back to Carn Eighe then the comparatively simpler munros of Tom a'Choinnich and Toll Creagach, not to mention a shite descent back to the dam. Unless I feel pretty decent after the mamores I won't be trying that. I do however fancy backpacking the Mullardochs over 3 days, getting quite jealous of my pals doing it and waking up to glorious sunrises and inversions 

[Swello]

Interesting to see how everyone gets on in Summer Epic season - I've done some really big days over the years but never anything as long as the Mullardoch Round or the Mamores in a day. I've always liked the camping part so much that if a walk went over a certain distance, I automatically split it so I could get a good camp in too. 

[IrishBhoy]

On 23/06/2022 at 17:09, microdave said:

Beinn Ime today and I feel broken. It's my first decent hill of this year and I now think I should've started with a Corbett (such as the Cobbler). There were a few times that I almost gave up because I didn't think I could make it but I'm glad I carried on because I didn't actually have much more to go. It was covered in mist which meant I couldn't see the summit and I think that was hampering me. I've included a pic of the Cobbler which was looking magnificent today.

Ime is definitely the most featureless Munro in that area. I combined it with Beinn Narnain the first time up it, and before I went Ime was described to me as being ‘an unrelenting slog’, which turned out to be quite accurate. You could have made your return route a bit more interesting by scaling the boulders up the back of Narnain to its summit, and descending down the front of Narnain taking the path that leads almost back to Succoth car park, missing out the never ending zig zag path. 

[Benjamin_Nevis]

My only memories of Ime were endless clag, some bog, rain, no views then a tortuous descent off to Glas Bealach and then more bog etc etc etc. Narnain was decent enough.

[microdave]

Ime is definitely the most featureless Munro in that area. I combined it with Beinn Narnain the first time up it, and before I went Ime was described to me as being ‘an unrelenting slog’, which turned out to be quite accurate. You could have made your return route a bit more interesting by scaling the boulders up the back of Narnain to its summit, and descending down the front of Narnain taking the path that leads almost back to Succoth car park, missing out the never ending zig zag path. 

Featureless is a very apt description. I met a guy on my way down who told me that the last time he'd been up (decades ago) the path was almost nine existent and was like walking in treacle. I was up Narnain last year and descended down the front which I found pretty tough. I was happy to return via the zig zags last week although there are a few short cuts just to speed the walk up a wee bit when it's most needed.

[IrishBhoy]

20 minutes ago, microdave said:

 

 

Featureless is a very apt description. I met a guy on my way down who told me that the last time he'd been up (decades ago) the path was almost nine existent and was like walking in treacle. I was up Narnain last year and descended down the front which I found pretty tough. I was happy to return via the zig zags last week although there are a few short cuts just to speed the walk up a wee bit when it's most needed.

 

Yep Narnain down the front requires a wee bit of concentration. I might be getting mixed up with another Munro but it’s Narnain that has the darker section of rock about half way up called the Spearhead? 
 

Talking of clag, me and my friend went and climbed Ben Cruachan and Stob Daimh at the crack of dawn one Monday morning last year. When we started the ascent up Cruachan we could hardly see 5 feet infront of us, but managed to get to the trig with only a couple of detours where the path became boulders. We followed the path round to Stob Daimh easy enough too, and after a couple of minutes at the cairn chose a path which we assumed was the route back down the opposite side of damn. After walking for about an hour, the high winds created a brief visibility window and I noticed that the Cruachan damn was on our left, and not on our right where it should have been. We realised we had completely lost our bearings and were on our way back to the summit of Cruachan, soaked to the bone, with near zero visibility, and an extra 2 hours added on to the walk. The low ground between the damn wall and the train station was an absolute bogfest in to the bargain. Was glad to get back to the car that day. 

[Benjamin_Nevis]

Yep Narnain down the front requires a wee bit of concentration. I might be getting mixed up with another Munro but it’s Narnain that has the darker section of rock about half way up called the Spearhead? 
 
Talking of clag, me and my friend went and climbed Ben Cruachan and Stob Daimh at the crack of dawn one Monday morning last year. When we started the ascent up Cruachan we could hardly see 5 feet infront of us, but managed to get to the trig with only a couple of detours where the path became boulders. We followed the path round to Stob Daimh easy enough too, and after a couple of minutes at the cairn chose a path which we assumed was the route back down the opposite side of damn. After walking for about an hour, the high winds created a brief visibility window and I noticed that the Cruachan damn was on our left, and not on our right where it should have been. We realised we had completely lost our bearings and were on our way back to the summit of Cruachan, soaked to the bone, with near zero visibility, and an extra 2 hours added on to the walk. The low ground between the damn wall and the train station was an absolute bogfest in to the bargain. Was glad to get back to the car that day. 

We missed the cairn on Stob Diamh on that route on a crystal clear day. My mate who was on his SECOND FUCKING ROUND dismissed it as a subsidiary top, only to realise his mistake a few mins after we'd walked past it. Surprisingly his suggestion to tag on the Corbett was roundly ignored [emoji23]

[IrishBhoy]

3 hours ago, Day of the Lords said:

We missed the cairn on Stob Diamh on that route on a crystal clear day. My mate who was on his SECOND FUCKING ROUND dismissed it as a subsidiary top, only to realise his mistake a few mins after we'd walked past it. Surprisingly his suggestion to tag on the Corbett was roundly ignored

We managed to find the cairn but must have went round it 360 degrees to find the same path we had just came up. How did you find the section between the damn wall and getting back to the road, I’ve heard that even on a dry day it’s bog factor is off the scale. 
 

Apparently the hydro damn at Cruachan is a bit of a visitor attraction, and it gets the name ‘The Hollow Mountain’ due to a kilometre long tunnel built through the heart of it, where they keep the turbines and other machinery. I imagine it’s like something from Thunderbirds I wouldn’t mind seeing it.