Just back from 7 consecutive mountain days (of which the most enjoyable was the Club day on The Saddle) but I thought some might like to know how I fared elsewhere.
An earlier informal outing to Mullach Coire Mhic Fhearchair (Fisherfield) was planned with Cris but didn't happen, so last week I climbed that one from the A832 via Loch a' Bhraoin. It's a long day and the 28.5k took just over 9 hours. About 45 minutes was spent to and from the wee exposed top of Sgurr Dubh, so if that was omitted and a cycle was used on the long loch approach it should be possible for Cris to add on a couple of other Fisherfield Munros.
John B may also be interested to know that I made it to A' Chralaig's remotish top of A' Chioch which proved impossible on the Club outing on 1st May when snow and zero visibility intervened !
I also blogged about a windy outing to Torridon in July, and on Saturday enjoyed a perfectly calm day to bag my remaining 2 Tops on Beinn Eighe - what a spectacular mountain !
Finally , Les might like to know that I was back in Skye this week and he isn't the only one to suffer poor weather there. Yesterday, Thursday, all forecasts indicated that sunlight would be the sole hazard but up on the Cuillin Ridge it was dreadful, heavy rain, winds of 25mph+, and cold enough for gloves. Managed my 4 remaining Tops there, but I have never seen rock so greasy and frankly I was glad when the time came to escape down the Great Stone Chute !
Friday 20 August 2010
Toughprint
As many of you know, I like to take an A4 map onto the hill in a pocket (as well as my OS map in my bag). I have tried all sorts of poly pockets etc, and laterly was laminating a double sided page that Wesley likes to affectionately call a "sarah sheet". The problem with laminating is that when it is folded to put in a pocket it starts to de-laminate and water gets in the creases.
So I purchased a pack of Toughprint through Amazon. According to the blurb it is 100% waterproof, tough, durable and photo quality. 25 sheets for £13.99 so not cheap at 56p each. However I do file these maps for reuse. I am pleasantly surprised with it. It seems to be waterproof (coped with the showers we had on Lochnagar) and stands up to a fair bit of buffeting in the wind. Please ask to see it next time we're on a walk and you can judge for yourself.
So I purchased a pack of Toughprint through Amazon. According to the blurb it is 100% waterproof, tough, durable and photo quality. 25 sheets for £13.99 so not cheap at 56p each. However I do file these maps for reuse. I am pleasantly surprised with it. It seems to be waterproof (coped with the showers we had on Lochnagar) and stands up to a fair bit of buffeting in the wind. Please ask to see it next time we're on a walk and you can judge for yourself.
Tuesday 17 August 2010
Weekly Reports versus Blog versus Diary
Firstly, I take issue with Ron’s comment that “…the Reports of Recent Walks web-page is nothing more that a crude blog….”. I know he is referring to the technology involved. I am referring to the content. Contributors to the Weekly Reports have hitherto taken great care with their copy to ensure that it is readable, factual and informative, mindful that it constitutes the “shop window” of our Club. If this were not so, I know that the editor would, and has on occasion quite rightly edited the piece to make it presentable. The Weekly report is rather more refined than the Blog and I think we should keep it, and keep it so.
In contrast, a blog is full of personal opinions as well as facts, often written hurriedly and without the care and attention one would give a more important piece of writing. All bloggers know and accept this and it in no way detracts from the value of the Blog and the important role it plays. However, neither Club members nor members of the public will plough through all this stuff to find out what we did last week, or obtain a clear picture of what our Club does and stands for.
Let us use up to date technology to publish the weekly reports, but keep it under the control of an editor. If this task is too onerous for one person, we should appoint a small number of additional members to assist.
The Diary of course predates the Website by many years. Yes, it is a tradition. It is also a record of what the Club actually does, as opposed to what we intend to do (the programme). It is read every week, and information extracted by the Club archivist (task currently being performed by Gerry). The information assists those producing the programme, the weekly reports, the annual report, supports grant applications, and so on. Other media can present this information but there is no more immediate and accurate means of gathering it than the members who participated writing it down immediately after the walk.
I can understand that sometimes members may be too tired or too embarrassed to write something meaningful, poetical, philosophical, original, funny, scathing, intelligent, outrageous, or useful. Please don’t bother. Just ensure that you or someone in your party writes down the day and date, which hills you did, which routes you took, and whom you walked with. That will do thank you. If you didn’t do the walk on the programme, a reason why would be helpful. Or if it was just due to weather or conditions on the Hill, a description of these would be useful.
AndrewG
In contrast, a blog is full of personal opinions as well as facts, often written hurriedly and without the care and attention one would give a more important piece of writing. All bloggers know and accept this and it in no way detracts from the value of the Blog and the important role it plays. However, neither Club members nor members of the public will plough through all this stuff to find out what we did last week, or obtain a clear picture of what our Club does and stands for.
Let us use up to date technology to publish the weekly reports, but keep it under the control of an editor. If this task is too onerous for one person, we should appoint a small number of additional members to assist.
The Diary of course predates the Website by many years. Yes, it is a tradition. It is also a record of what the Club actually does, as opposed to what we intend to do (the programme). It is read every week, and information extracted by the Club archivist (task currently being performed by Gerry). The information assists those producing the programme, the weekly reports, the annual report, supports grant applications, and so on. Other media can present this information but there is no more immediate and accurate means of gathering it than the members who participated writing it down immediately after the walk.
I can understand that sometimes members may be too tired or too embarrassed to write something meaningful, poetical, philosophical, original, funny, scathing, intelligent, outrageous, or useful. Please don’t bother. Just ensure that you or someone in your party writes down the day and date, which hills you did, which routes you took, and whom you walked with. That will do thank you. If you didn’t do the walk on the programme, a reason why would be helpful. Or if it was just due to weather or conditions on the Hill, a description of these would be useful.
AndrewG
Monday 16 August 2010
Two days in Glen Shiel
On Saturday I arrived at my start point in GlenShiel too do the three Munros on the west side of the south ridge. There was no sun as promised by the weather men, only low lying mist. However I set off across some wet ground south then west for a short distance before heading south west to the summit of Sgurr Coire na Feinne before heading to my first Munro of the day Sgurr an Doir Leathain.
On reaching the summit the mist had lifted though views were still restricted. Had lunch then set off for Sgurr an Lochain and by now the sun was fully out and had excellent views in all directions.
Set off for Sgurr Beag though traversed round the south of the peak and headed for my final Munro of the day to Creag nan Damh. On approaching the cairn there was a large bird sitting on top of the cairn though could not tell what it was. After a good break and lots of photos I set off south east down a steep slope then South to the A87 where I had to walk back to my car which was about 7km east to my start point.
Since I was joining the club next day I decided to test my new tent at the Sheil Bridge campsite and also get eaten by the midges. The guy and his wife in the tent next door kindly help me to erect mine which took us 10 minutes, or should I say them. If it had been me, I would still be trying to piece it together though now I am all set to do some wilderness walking to bag a few Munros!!!
I met Norman in the Kintail Lodge for a night cap and discussed our days on the hills.
I will leave the Sunday report to a club member though I did The Saddle via the Forcan Ridge and Sgurr na Signe. A great two days with wonderfull weather and five munros.
On reaching the summit the mist had lifted though views were still restricted. Had lunch then set off for Sgurr an Lochain and by now the sun was fully out and had excellent views in all directions.
Set off for Sgurr Beag though traversed round the south of the peak and headed for my final Munro of the day to Creag nan Damh. On approaching the cairn there was a large bird sitting on top of the cairn though could not tell what it was. After a good break and lots of photos I set off south east down a steep slope then South to the A87 where I had to walk back to my car which was about 7km east to my start point.
Since I was joining the club next day I decided to test my new tent at the Sheil Bridge campsite and also get eaten by the midges. The guy and his wife in the tent next door kindly help me to erect mine which took us 10 minutes, or should I say them. If it had been me, I would still be trying to piece it together though now I am all set to do some wilderness walking to bag a few Munros!!!
I met Norman in the Kintail Lodge for a night cap and discussed our days on the hills.
I will leave the Sunday report to a club member though I did The Saddle via the Forcan Ridge and Sgurr na Signe. A great two days with wonderfull weather and five munros.
Tuesday 10 August 2010
Problems making a comment?
If like me you have been struggling to comment on a controversial post - good on John Burton putting the cat amongst the pigeons - it could be that you are using firefox. After much tearing of hair and scouring the internet for advice my feelings of inadequacy were finally put to bed by another blogger elsewhere. If using firefox you need to have third party cookies enabled. You don't in other browsers so I simply logged on using chrome. Not sure if you can use safari though.
Hope this opens the floodgates to comments.
Sunday 8 August 2010
Reports of Recent Walks
Further to John and Norman's blogs re the diary and the newsletter, I think I better come clean and confess that I would like to use the blog software for the weekly reports which are presently on the club web-site.
Obviously, the "Reports of Recent Walks" web-page is nothing more that a crude blog. This was fine when I started it but things have moved on, blogging technology is available today, all over the web and we ought to make use of it. The advantage would be that any member could contribute reports and publish them themselves. At present, people write trip reports in an email. I then cut and paste these into a copy of the web-page on my PC along with some HTML (HTML is the instructions to your browser on how to format the page), add the photos, tweak the HTML a bit to tidy up any oddities and load everything to the web-server. Really, this is all looking a bit "third world" by today's standards !!
We could either include reports of these walks in the existing club blog or have a separate blog dedicated to Programme Walks. I personally think that one blog is enough for a small club like ours.
But this is enough from me. What do others think ?
Obviously, the "Reports of Recent Walks" web-page is nothing more that a crude blog. This was fine when I started it but things have moved on, blogging technology is available today, all over the web and we ought to make use of it. The advantage would be that any member could contribute reports and publish them themselves. At present, people write trip reports in an email. I then cut and paste these into a copy of the web-page on my PC along with some HTML (HTML is the instructions to your browser on how to format the page), add the photos, tweak the HTML a bit to tidy up any oddities and load everything to the web-server. Really, this is all looking a bit "third world" by today's standards !!
We could either include reports of these walks in the existing club blog or have a separate blog dedicated to Programme Walks. I personally think that one blog is enough for a small club like ours.
But this is enough from me. What do others think ?
The Diary
The diary--do we really need it? There, I've just picked up a fairly large stone and thrown it into the Nevis Hillwalkers pool. I hope that the ripples that are caused will produce some eddies in all sorts of directions. I do realise that the diary has been a feature at the end of our walks for a long time, but wonder who, if anyone, reads it? And also, what purpose it serves? Someone out there, I'm sure, will tell me. But with our very good website with entries on each walk, and even photos, and now this blog (thankyou, Ron), are we not becoming a little overburdened with walk detail?
At the end of our walks, it is customery to meet up at a local hostelry or cafe to talk about that day's walk and others, and generally socialise. The diary, at the moment, is part of that, but I feel that it has become something of a chore, actually reducing the craic.
That's enough of my feelings on the subject. Now it's your turn! And by "you", I mean all members. Let's have lots of comments, please!
At the end of our walks, it is customery to meet up at a local hostelry or cafe to talk about that day's walk and others, and generally socialise. The diary, at the moment, is part of that, but I feel that it has become something of a chore, actually reducing the craic.
That's enough of my feelings on the subject. Now it's your turn! And by "you", I mean all members. Let's have lots of comments, please!
Thursday 5 August 2010
A Short Day Out
Hi everyone.
This is my first attempt at writing a mesage on the blog so
lets hope it works! I was out today for the first time in quite a while so I didn't fancy a big day out. I wanted a short day to give me a short strenous walk to get back into the swing of things. Andrew and I met in the Glencoe car park and walked up to the mast " the hard way" of course because we couldn't have too easy a start back. We were out for about 3 hours but it was enough to stretch the calves and get a bit of fresh air. The views were much better than expected and we only had one heavy shower so that was a real bonus. It was great to get out and I am looking forward to getting back to walking with the club so if there is anyone else out there who wants to be led gently back into the habit of walking give me a shout and I will keep you company.
It's not all about getting to the top as quickly as possible. It's about enjoying the walk, the company and hopefully the views.
Jean
This is my first attempt at writing a mesage on the blog so
lets hope it works! I was out today for the first time in quite a while so I didn't fancy a big day out. I wanted a short day to give me a short strenous walk to get back into the swing of things. Andrew and I met in the Glencoe car park and walked up to the mast " the hard way" of course because we couldn't have too easy a start back. We were out for about 3 hours but it was enough to stretch the calves and get a bit of fresh air. The views were much better than expected and we only had one heavy shower so that was a real bonus. It was great to get out and I am looking forward to getting back to walking with the club so if there is anyone else out there who wants to be led gently back into the habit of walking give me a shout and I will keep you company.
It's not all about getting to the top as quickly as possible. It's about enjoying the walk, the company and hopefully the views.
Jean
Tuesday 3 August 2010
Beinn Dearg near Blair Atholl
Hi Folks
On Sunday I drove up to Blair Atholl to climb Beinn Dearg. It is a remote Munro so I took my bike and cycled along the track which felt like a steady ascent all the way to the bothy.The good point was that it would be downhill back to the car and so it proved. On reaching the bothy it reminded me of the club trip to Knoydart last May in that 'beautiful' Druim Bothy that we stayed in for three nights.
Further along the track you come to the path which starts the uphill walk proper, heading mainly north to the summit. The weather was ok with light mist on the summit and just a couple of light showers which only lasted about 10 minutes.
On the cycle out I met up with the young couple that I spoke to at the bothy where they had stayed the night after walking in on Saturday, not realising how far a walk it was. I felt sorry for them as they had back packs and the young lad also had two polly bags to carry with several more miles to go. A good day and another one bites the dust.
Hope to join the club walk for the Saddle and plan staying a couple of nights to do another day in that area.
Les
On Sunday I drove up to Blair Atholl to climb Beinn Dearg. It is a remote Munro so I took my bike and cycled along the track which felt like a steady ascent all the way to the bothy.The good point was that it would be downhill back to the car and so it proved. On reaching the bothy it reminded me of the club trip to Knoydart last May in that 'beautiful' Druim Bothy that we stayed in for three nights.
Further along the track you come to the path which starts the uphill walk proper, heading mainly north to the summit. The weather was ok with light mist on the summit and just a couple of light showers which only lasted about 10 minutes.
On the cycle out I met up with the young couple that I spoke to at the bothy where they had stayed the night after walking in on Saturday, not realising how far a walk it was. I felt sorry for them as they had back packs and the young lad also had two polly bags to carry with several more miles to go. A good day and another one bites the dust.
Hope to join the club walk for the Saddle and plan staying a couple of nights to do another day in that area.
Les
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