Hillwalking Thread

[Darkblueyonder]

I love it.

Since retiring only recently i have been well into it.

[Middleton Mouse]

Forecast for the weekend is meant to be lovely, anyone going out at all?

Think me and my friend are back off to arrochar to tackle Ben Narnain or Ben Ime, not sure if we can do both with daylight fading quicker now.

[Middleton Mouse]

Well the trip up Ben Narnain turned out to be one of the most enjoyable yet despite having to navigate our way over snow, ice and rock.

We started off from the usual forestry commision path at the head of Loch Long and headed up around 10am. The sun was shining and the sky was blue (for a change) so we thought we were in for a good day. Looking back to Loch Long we could see Ben Lomond and it had one side covered in snow. In front of us lay the ever impressive Cobbler which my friend was tempted to do as there was little wind.

Looking back along the path with Ben Lomond to the left

The Cobbler

However we made our way up the path and had a wee picnic at the Narnain boulders. We had decided not to use the path that branches off to the right to tackle Narnain but instead kept heading North East past the Cobbler and onto the path that takes you up the back of Narnain. We got some wonderful views of Ben Ime but were under no illusions about doing two hills that day.

The summit of Ben Ime

Looking back to the vally

The path was snowy and icy in places and my friend was not confident at all, some kind chap stopped and allowed her to use his walking poles for the tricky bits but she was not happy in the snow at all. I coped a lot better though not so well later on.

The Cobbler from the slopes of Narnain

and the usual queue to the top

The path eventually opened onto grassy slopes and we managed these well enough but after this it came to a boulder field which was a little more difficult. I've no problem with rock, ice and snow so I went first and my friend followed.

Navigating my way over this was fun

By that time we were not far from the summit and the views there were absolutely spectacular. This is my first walk in wintery conditions and so seeing the hills around us capped in snow was lovely. We could see right up Loch Long to Arran but loads of other places too.

Edited November 3, 2008 by Scolopendra

[Middleton Mouse]

Across to the Crianlarich Hills

Ben Nevis

Callander and the Trossachs (is this Ben Venue and Ben Ledi?).

Ben Vane and Ben Vorlich

and of course Ben Ime looked amazing from this side too

Weren't sure what these hills were but made a guess at Ben Bhuidhe

At the summit we sat and had a picnic as it was oddly comfortable but there was so much snow lying around we had to have a snowball fight too.

On the way back I suggested we take the other path as lots of people seemed to be doing it this way. We walked down and came to a steep rocky gully which my friend wasn't happy with at all and so yet again I had to go first despite being much less experienced. We followed this path down and saw it cut across another far shorter hill Cruach nam Miseag. I said we should follow the main path which went this way but my friend suggested we take another faint path that ran down between the two and rejoined the main path. I had a bad feeling about it but as she looked close to having hysterics decided to go along with it.

The way back I suggested we take with Loch Long, Lomond and Ben Lomond in the background

There were some steep bits on my suggested way back

The path we ended up taking

This turned out to be a serious mistake. The path started as loose rock and soon turned into bog. It would have been fine if you were a) Very confident or B) Very light-footed preferably both. I am neither of those things and found it very difficult to pick my way down, that and the path was so faint that I kept losing it. It took us about an hour to navigate our way back to the main path but after that it was plain sailing.

Great day though and good to know I managed to make the most of the wonderful weather we had!

[IDG]

I was in that area myself with my Uni walking club. A few folk went up Beinns Ime and Narnain. I did Ben Vane. Absolutely beautiful day; don't think i have ever had such a clear day. I'll try and put a few of my photos up when I've had a look through them.

Also, I went out last weekend to Creag Meagaidh. What a totally horriffic day. When it wasn't snowing it was hailing. Or raining, constantly windy. All my waterproofs let in.

[Middleton Mouse]

I was in that area myself with my Uni walking club. A few folk went up Beinns Ime and Narnain. I did Ben Vane. Absolutely beautiful day; don't think i have ever had such a clear day. I'll try and put a few of my photos up when I've had a look through them.

My friend reckoned we passed the Glasgow walking club that she used to go out with and we passed loads of people that day. I don't suppose any of your uni friends had a big black dog? We had a wee motley collection of people with odd accents tail us on the last part of the walk but they had this massive black dog with them.

We had a wonderful clear day when we went up Ben Vane too but I'm afraid to say I didn't enjoy that walk too much due to the baking heat we also had that day.

[AyrshireTon]

Went out yesterday and took in a couple more Corbetts - Creag Mac Ranaich and Meall an t-Seallaidh.

Parked at Lochearnhead and took the 2 hour walk to the col between the two hills. I almost started up Meall an t-Seallaidh, but spotted a route up Creag Mac Ranaich, and decided that if I was going to do both, that one would be better done first to get back to the car whilst daylight was still around. My route up was steep, but when I have poles I don't care and normally take direct routes. Met a guy on the south top who had to go back over to the summit to get to his car, and he was good enough to take my pic.

Me on the summit of Creag Mac Ranaich - in the background are the Lawers hills.

Back to the col and up a slightly easier second hill, which after have met a few folk at the col, I had the whole hill to myself - seems everyone else was doing them the other way round. So I had to do the old "camera on the trig point and set the timer" trick.

Me at the summit of Meall an t-Seallaidh.

Probably the oddest choice of hills yet, but I fair enjoyed that. The Munros all looked snow covered, and I had not upped my Corbett quota in a while.

Munros 30-24 Corbetts

[Middleton Mouse]

I went back to complete the Arrochar munro double by doing Ben Ime today. Weather was really cloudy to start with but at least it was dry, I was totally on my own so decided that if I came to a place where I lost the path I'd just head back.

The cloud cleared briefly but blew back in and so most of the way up was spent unable to see 30 foot in front of me. I had decided that to be on the safe side I'd start heading back around 1pm if I hadn't come across the summit. Thankfully at about 12.30pm the mist cleared and I was there.

Started from the car park at the head of Loch Long and will need to download my photos. It was a bit odd as the summit was above the cloud and so I saw the tops of various hills which were above the cloud.

Got a bit lost on the way back down though and failed to follow the path. Managed to find it again thanks to getting good views of Ime from Narnain on Sunday and knowing which direction to head in.

[Fudge]

When I finish my exams in May, my flatmate and I are going on a 3 week camping trip around Scotland and will be climbing approx 18 Munros in that time period. It will consist of a days walking, then a days resting/sight seeing, days walking, days resting and so on

Here is the general plan, suggestions with reagrds to places to stay potential changes to walks would be much appreciated. We are looking for one more walk within a 30 mins (or so) drive of Ullapool

Skye.............(staying at Glenbrittle campsite)

Sgurr Alasdair

Am Basteir

Sgurr Dubh Mor and Sgurr Nan Eag

Fort William...........(Probably Ben Nevis campsite, then Kingshouse)

Stob Dearg and Stob Na Broige

Meall Dearg and Sgorr Nam Fiannaidh

Aonach Beag and Aonach Mor

Ullapool.................(open to campsite suggestions)

Sgurr Fiona and Bidean a’ Ghlas Thuill

Aviemore.....................(open to campsite suggestions)

Ben MacDui, Derry Cairngorm, Carn a’ Mhaim

Cairngorm

[Guest oddjob]

If you're staying up Glen Nevis, Stob Ban and Am Bodach would be well worth the effort.

[Willie Gray Ate My Hamster]

Had a walk up Ben Chonize today

The walk itself was really nice and we managed to do it in pretty good time considering we had a few breaks (due to both of us being unfit) and the path was fairly icy in places. It was my first ever walk up a mountain but definitely won't be my last.

The only downside of the walk was there was zero visibility when we got upto the summit but we did get some cracking pictures during the walk itself.

On the down side.........

We decided to set off early (our aim was for 8am so we could arrive around half 9) but the day didn't turn out as we had planned.... firstly had to go back to the house to turn the grill off 15 minutes after leaving the house then on the drive over we got a flat tire on the M90 (no tools in the car) but luckily AA arrived pretty quickly so we set off again after no more than 30 minutes.....

We finally arrived at 11:15 which all things considered wasn't that bad

On the way back we set the sat nav for Kirkcaldy but for some reason it decided to take us to Oban luckily we noticed this fairly quickly!!! the only thing is during this we were on the look-out for a petrol station as the car was running fairly low on juice and if that wasn't bad enough the Sat nav charger decided to break while we were driving through back roads so we were left with no choice but to drive to Stirling hoping to come across a petrol station rather than end up lost somewhere with no petrol and no sat nav to tell us where we were.....

So all in all an eventful and tiring day

Pandinus will be on shortly with a few pictures

Edited January 2, 2009 by Willie Gray Ate My Hamster

[Guest oddjob]

I went up Streap, it's near Glenfinnan. The weather was fantastic.

[Middleton Mouse]

With all the mishaps that happened yesterday I'm amazed we managed to complete the hill at all but the walk was on a good path (aside from the ice) all the way up to the summit ridge where all we had to do was follow the fence posts.

I remember reading that this was a good area to see mountain hare and I could see why with all the heather and other such cover.

As we got higher up it became more snowy

The fence that runs to the summit

The summit was in cloud so we couldn't see much but there was a lot of snow

Is it any wonder I fell on no less than 5 ocassions on the way back. This is not a frozen burn it's the path.

And I spotted two of these on the way back down

Well done to Steven who did brilliantly on his first hill and didn't put a foot wrong all day (unlike me who is now black and blue from falling so much).

I'm not even going to go into detail about all the disasters, if anyone else had told me that story I wouldn' have believed them.

[Guest oddjob]

I did a wee bit scrambling on the crags between Tom na h-Aire and Fraoch-bheinn.

Loch Shiel from above

I see where you were. Aren't the views great all around.

[Socks]

When I finish my exams in May, my flatmate and I are going on a 3 week camping trip around Scotland and will be climbing approx 18 Munros in that time period. It will consist of a days walking, then a days resting/sight seeing, days walking, days resting and so on

Here is the general plan, suggestions with reagrds to places to stay potential changes to walks would be much appreciated. We are looking for one more walk within a 30 mins (or so) drive of Ullapool

There's a campsite in Ullapool, right beside the shore of Loch Broom. I stayed there once and it was an amazing sight watching the sun set, with a rainbow also visible, over the end of the loch. The only downside is that it's called 'Broomfield' which brought back a couple of not so nice football memories. Plenty walks round Ullapool to choose from. If you fancy a short one, Beinn Ghoblach on the peninsula between Loch Broom and Little Loch Broom would be a good choice.

I was busy looking at maps for hours last night trying to plan something like that myself for this year. This time though, instead of driving round and usuing campsites, I want to have a go at taking the camping stuff with me and having a few nights camping in among the hills. A couple that look possible are a circuit around the hills of the Knoydart peninsula, probably from Kinloch Hourne, and an over the hills route from Beauly to Kyle of Lochalsh, climbing the hills on the North side of Glen Afric on the way. Anyone got any other decent cross-country routes that they've done, with transport to/from both ends of it? Corrour station to Dalwhinnie over Ben Alder might be another possibility.

I'm looking forward to getting out again in the spring. It always gets to this time of year and I want to go out, but I can never really be bothered doing anything high in teh winter because of the time needed to get there, meaning leaving before it's light. Come March though, and I'll be getting back to it.

[Guest oddjob]

Corrour station to Dalwhinnie over Ben Alder might be another possibility.

There's loads to do camping wise around that area, even a couple of bothy's. And there's the Youth Hostel at Corrour as well. Great area.

[Shengus Khan]

Went hillwalking for the first time on saturday in Glen Doll and bagged my first 2 Munros. Went up Driesh first then went on to Mayer. Absolutely superb stuff. Beautiful blue skies made the views sensational.

With United playing on sundays for the next 2 weekends i'll hopefully get out and about again.

[Fudge]

Was up Beinn Ime on Friday in pretty dreadful conditions. The last 800 feet or so was just snow and sheet ice, so we were lucky that we brought all the right gear otherwise it would have been a bit of a struggle.

[Fudge]

Going up Beinn Chabhair on Sunday, hopefully there will be a good bit of snow/ice near the summit.

[Moriarty]

Was really sad to read about the deaths on Buachaille Etive Mor yesterday. I had a great day's walking there last May. Just goes to show how dangerous the mountains can be. Seems that a cornice collapsed and they were buried in the snow.