Hillwalking Thread

[Benjamin_Nevis]

35 minutes ago, invergowrie arab said:

The idea of NC500 isn't an awful one but vampire capitalists who have probably never left London are selling the brand and logo to cafes and petrol stations along the way who now can't afford not  to stock the stickers and t-shirts. Sponsored by Jaguar FFS

I thought it was Aston Martin tbh. 

I agree the idea itself isn't actually a bad one, but it's been marketed horrendously and the people that have made millions from it haven't contributed a fucking penny of it back in. Wankers like Clarkson glamourising the idea of tanking round it in supercars haven't helped, but as VT points out, neither does the lack of facilities. There are plans afoot to establishes continental style Aires I believe which should alleviate some of the issues, but ultimately you will always get utter wankers hiring campers, and behaving like utter wankers. 

I limit camping to mountains or when i fancy being in the middle of absolutely fucking nowhere. When the other half is with me, we'll book a self-catering place somewhere remote. We were in Laide this year, which was superb. I can't think of anything worse than sitting in a fucking car for 1 or 2 days solid. f**k that. 

[vikingTON]

6 minutes ago, MixuFruit said:

Call me weird but... not go?

They can still go and have a decent enough experience without having to deal with Hamish suddenly deciding to sell his two star hotel rooms for £200 a night off the back of a marketing gimmick. They'll just use Inverness as a base instead though which is a cause of complaint at the moment.

What it really needs is a functional train/ferry route to render the road trail obsolete.

Edited November 21, 2020 by vikingTON

[Swello]

Lack of infrastructure is the basic problem - but developing what's needed takes a lot of time in the Highlands (the place looks empty but the land is all tied up in big estates) and the NC500 marketing stuff meant that it went from quiet to mental in a couple of years - there was no way to catch up with what was needed.

On the fact that established camp sites and hotels have been gouging the f**k out of it - this is something that really does need looking at. The best recent example is that Forest and Land Scotland (the Forestry Commission) offered their car parks as informal overnight stopping place for campervans, which to most people I'm sure seems like a clever solution - car parks in rural locations that are typically away from people's houses and roads, are publicly owned and are empty at night. The owners of established campsites went mental and the Forestry shat it and pulled the trial (and after a different group went mental then subsequently re-introduced it quietly).  It shows that some people are doing well out of the current situation and won't be giving it up easily.

[invergowrie arab]

42 minutes ago, Day of the Lords said:

I thought it was Aston Martin tbh. 

 

Aye that 

[Whitburn Vale]

Meall Buidhe in Glen Lyon yesterday was grand !!

I had done Stuc an Lochain 2 yrs ago but ran out of time light wise to complete meall buidhe as well.

Snow covering the last third of the ascent and a view to die for at the summit.

Was mushy lower down though but managed to circumvent most of it.

P.s, 8 cars were parked up with folk doing one or both mountains,fair play to all...

[Swello]

1 hour ago, Whitburn Vale said:

8 cars were parked up with folk doing one or both mountains,fair play to all...

I'm sure they were all from the Perth and Kinross area  

[thisal]

On 21/11/2020 at 16:42, Manifesto said:

He is antsy about it. Could do with putting the phone down and going for a.... Wait a minute

 

As someone who stays bang on the NC500 I can't stand those central belt knobbers that rock up here to 'go for a walk'. Passed the An Teallach car parks today going to work and thankfully they were empty.

 

Plus side of the old virus is I only had to cut the grass twice this year. Unreal amounts of deer and rabbits kept knibbling and only after the liftage of lockdown did the corpses toll at the side of the road start to appear.

f**k you Duke of Sutherland I'm coming anyway.

[Swello]

After about 6 weeks of doing nothing due to cracking my ribs doing something stupid on a mountain bike, I've been crawling up the walls in a way that lockdown never drove to me to, so today was the first chance I've had to get out. I decided to forego the pleasures of watching the 'Well - Hibs game on the laptop and do a very straightforward circular walk in the Southern Uplands to keep it local - I headed to the Ettrick Valley to do the only hills there that I hadn't climbed before, Ettrick Pen and Wind Fell. Forecast was better for the afternoon, so I had a much later start than I would normally do.

These are not spectacular hills but still have decent views and it's a nice, remote corner of the Uplands - but just getting out in the weird light you get in December afternoons was brilliant....

[MONKMAN]

Did the Cairnwell 3 this morning. Ridiculously easy walk, 3 munros in just over 3 hours.

[the aggressive beggar]

4 hours ago, MONKMAN said:

Did the Cairnwell 3 this morning. Ridiculously easy walk, 3 munros in just over 3 hours.




 

That first pic is stunning.  

Drove through Glenshee for the first time last week, will defo be back in a few months to try this out.

[Archie McSquackle]

With the lockdown and me being unable to leave Glasgow (or 5 miles from the boundary for exercise), I'm obviously a bit stuck for hills to go walking in. Does anyone have any suggestions for good family walks in Glasgow in parks or similar? I live in the north-west of the city so have probably done most of the options near me but am keen to get out and try somewhere new. Not looking for anything overly strenuous to be honest as I won't be able to talk the rest of the family into it.

[Le Tout P'ti FC]

With the lockdown and me being unable to leave Glasgow (or 5 miles from the boundary for exercise), I'm obviously a bit stuck for hills to go walking in. Does anyone have any suggestions for good family walks in Glasgow in parks or similar? I live in the north-west of the city so have probably done most of the options near me but am keen to get out and try somewhere new. Not looking for anything overly strenuous to be honest as I won't be able to talk the rest of the family into it.

You probably know these, but the two I do with my kid most often are:

1. Pollok Park. Park at the big house, cross the river behind the house, walk over golf course to Pollok West Station, re-enter park by main drive and wind your way back to house. Will pass Highland Coos, playpark etc.

2. River Kelvin. Walk from Kelvingrove along Kelvin as far as you like, I usually turn at the Ha'penny Bridge and come back through the Botanics and wind down through the Uni.

Also enjoy picking up the canal at Cowcaddens and walking out past Firhill.

[philpy]

1 hour ago, MixuFruit said:

I'm looking for a new softshell jacket, something quite light but that will stop the wind, anyone got any recommendations? Assume money's no object and I'll work backwards from there.

Have a look on the regatta site, plenty of good stuff in the sale

 

[Genuine Hibs Fan]

1 hour ago, MixuFruit said:

I'm looking for a new softshell jacket, something quite light but that will stop the wind, anyone got any recommendations? Assume money's no object and I'll work backwards from there.

I got a Patagonia "Lone Mountain" 3 in 1 jacket recently, part of that is a softshell and is terrific. Their stuff can be a bit dear but worth it thusfar

[alta-pete]

Up Dumyat today for my seasonal ritual, it seems most of Stirling/Clacks/Falkirk had the same idea. Busier than Sauchiehall St. Path was treacherous with packed snow. With discretion being the better part of valour and seeing the queues waiting to get up the last wee bit, opted to bale out about 85% of the way up and just head back down. Now I know how those guys queuing to get up Everest feel! 
 

[MONKMAN]

I'm looking for a new softshell jacket, something quite light but that will stop the wind, anyone got any recommendations? Assume money's no object and I'll work backwards from there.

As mentioned, Patagonia stuff is really good. Arcteryx also, but it can be stupidly expensive.
For the popular brands - Berghaus, North Face and now more than ever Rab, their top of the range stuff is really good but offset by their mass produced cheap shite.
Montane is one of the last few British outdoor clothing companies that hasn’t really hit the masses yet and become “fashionable”, and as a result still maintains good quality.

[Archie McSquackle]

5 hours ago, Le Tout P'ti FC said:

 

 

You probably know these, but the two I do with my kid most often are:

1. Pollok Park. Park at the big house, cross the river behind the house, walk over golf course to Pollok West Station, re-enter park by main drive and wind your way back to house. Will pass Highland Coos, playpark etc.

2. River Kelvin. Walk from Kelvingrove along Kelvin as far as you like, I usually turn at the Ha'penny Bridge and come back through the Botanics and wind down through the Uni.

Also enjoy picking up the canal at Cowcaddens and walking out past Firhill.

 

Thanks for the tips. We parked at Tesco and did pretty much the Kelvin walk you described yesterday (Botanics was very busy so skirted the busiest parts) and you weren't to know but I work fairly close to Firhill so am very familiar with that bit of the canal.

Living and working in this part of the city, we've probably exhausted most of the walks (Victoria Par today as the kids are fed up with Garscube/Dawsholm) but I might well try your suggestion of Pollok Park - haven't been on the walk the other side of the river and it doesn't take long to get there.

[alta-pete]

10 minutes ago, MixuFruit said:

Was there the customary line of bags of dugshite dropped in the middle of the path?

Tbf no, not as I could see. But then I was 100% concentrating on not falling on my hoop in front of the massed audience.

Although some family’s Lurcher did take itself off to curl one out 5yds from the path on the way down. Fair play to the dug, held it in all the way up and 2/3rds of the way down but - you guessed - the owners were suddenly oblivious. Wasn’t in the mood for an altercation by that point. 

Young Harry and Olivia were also getting it tight from their posh parents about their behaviour on the way up. Which was nice.  

Lesson learned (again). No fun when the three Counties have the same idea on the same day.  Will leave til after New Year before trying again when hopefully it’ll be quieter. 

[Swello]

3 hours ago, MixuFruit said:

I'm looking for a new softshell jacket, something quite light but that will stop the wind, anyone got any recommendations? Assume money's no object and I'll work backwards from there.

I use both both Mountain Equipment and an Arcteryx soft shells. The Mountain Equipment one is *perfect* for Scottish conditions as it is very windproof and also surprisingly waterproof as long as it's topped up with Nikwax Softshell Proof regularly - I use it as my main jacket most of the time.  I would give it a big recommendation, except I checked and they no longer make it which is a pisser (as I would buy another one).

Arcteryx make really good quality stuff in my experience and I like it - but it really is silly money (I always buy end of year stuff on Sports Pursuit, I've never paid full price). The one I use is a Gamma MX Hoody and it works well and is windproof enough but I only use it in the summer as the material is quite thin with no insulation at all. Unlike the Mountain Equipment one - I always feel like Arcteryx is designed with someone else's weather in mind (somewhere drier than Scotland basically).

[Swello]

Toyed with not posting this one as there's lots of people can't get into the "proper" hills at the moment and don't want to be making things worse but I personally still enjoy seeing Highlands stuff even though I can't get there - so it's done in that spirit

Seeing the first decent dump of snow in the Borders inspired me to head out for a local walk and my December camp. I headed to my default and favourite place in the Uplands, Loch Skeen.

The Grey Mare's Tail car park was pretty busy at 2pm when I arrived - the sun was already low over Moffat Dale at this point and I was keen to get a move on. Had a very unexpected first use of the crampons of the season as the long climb up past the waterfall was polished smooth and given that there are a few places where a slip would be really bad and the fact that I had a heavy pack, I felt safer despite the fact that there were plenty of people picking their way down without them.

The way the path rounds a hillock and delivers you with no warning right at the outflow of Loch Skeen is one of my favourite hillwalking things and it was looking superb in winter mode. There was no-one around but the sun was already disappearing fast and my plan was to make it to the other end of the Loch to try a new pitch instead of my normal one.

The tent is normally easy to pitch but in the deep heather and powdery snow it was a bit of a pain but I got there eventually. I was wanting to get everything done in daylight but I needn't have worried as the full moon was already casting shadows onto the snow and illuminating the hillside on the other side of the Loch. The wind died and I enjoyed having the tent door open. 

The main problem with camping in December is the fact that you spend a huge amount of time in the tent in darkness, especially as was the case last night when it isn't a good night for taking pictures of stars.  I solved the boredom problem by er, drinking the contents of my hipflask very quickly and lying around in a happy stupor before remembering to make my dinner about 9pm. It snowed heavily overnight and blew a bit of an un-forecasted hoolie for a couple of hours around 3am which meant a trip out to mess about with guylines which woke me up.

This morning was sunny and clear and as it was nice to be out in the snow,  I briefly toyed with the idea of heading up and doing the circular round  to White Coomb but I'd had a decent time already, so I made some porridge, packed up and headed back as the sun was coming up.

Edited December 29, 2020 by Swello