24-10-14, 06:04 PM
Sounds like you had fun DJ.
I think it's worth finding out where your limits lie weather wise. You need to be wary of summit fever too, and very much so as we move into winter.
I crawled the last couple of 100 feet up onto Conival a couple of years ago, madness. A bit of summit fever got hold of me that day. It did kind of work out as I knew I should get shelter across the ridge to Ben More Assynt, so I pressed on. And it did work out, it was like somebody switched the wind machine off as I dropped down onto the ridge between the two. Heading back, a good look at the map helped me determine that when heading back off Conival, once I'd left the madness of the summit plateaux if I dropped off the ridge to the west a tad I might get a little shelter from the NE winds. It worked treat. Though still left me with a scary approach to the down scramble of the bealach, so was back on my hands and knees for that wee bit.
Another thing I find with high winds is it renders my poles useless. So the wind and no poles makes taking a tumble much more likely. But yeah I leaned one of my weather limits that day. Was fun but not intention of trying such madness again.
Keep your map on the page you need in a map case. Your map should not be rendered useless under any circumstances (though yeah wee accidents do happen!) Get an Ortlieb one, they are worth the extra and will last much longer than the cheap ones. If you know where you are (like on the summit) you should always be able to head in roughly the right direction on a compass bearing. If the cloud is down keep an eye on that compass. If you get blown about, and dodge round a few rocks or whatever it's so easy to end up heading in the wrong direction.
One way of navigating when the cloud is down is time and direction.
I do like my GPS, it's pretty accurate and very reassuring tae ken exactly where you are. So with GPS, even in a white out, you can still take a compass bearing with reference to your map with very reasonable confidence. It may have saved my bacon a few times!
Should still be time for some more big, or biggish hills depending on the weather. But once there's been a few good falls of snow yeah you need to do a bit of thinking before you head to the hills and you would need to invest a bit more in kit.
Meanwhile I'm still stuffed. Just about managing not to loose all my fitness, but still got some sort of hip issue. I think it's a muscular issue. So following my physio's advice I'm gonna start my swimming regime tomorrow. How I hate swimming and bleedin swimming pools.
That's five months I've been struggling now. Gonna be gutted if I don't start making some decent progress soon. Winter hill walking can be absolutely magical. I only go on good weather days and when the snow should be stable and on straight forward routes, but always well kitted out for possible bad weather and carrying the usual axe and crampons should they be required.
Oh not been up Ben More yet. Nice one.
How did Beinn Ime go?
I think it's worth finding out where your limits lie weather wise. You need to be wary of summit fever too, and very much so as we move into winter.
I crawled the last couple of 100 feet up onto Conival a couple of years ago, madness. A bit of summit fever got hold of me that day. It did kind of work out as I knew I should get shelter across the ridge to Ben More Assynt, so I pressed on. And it did work out, it was like somebody switched the wind machine off as I dropped down onto the ridge between the two. Heading back, a good look at the map helped me determine that when heading back off Conival, once I'd left the madness of the summit plateaux if I dropped off the ridge to the west a tad I might get a little shelter from the NE winds. It worked treat. Though still left me with a scary approach to the down scramble of the bealach, so was back on my hands and knees for that wee bit.
Another thing I find with high winds is it renders my poles useless. So the wind and no poles makes taking a tumble much more likely. But yeah I leaned one of my weather limits that day. Was fun but not intention of trying such madness again.
Keep your map on the page you need in a map case. Your map should not be rendered useless under any circumstances (though yeah wee accidents do happen!) Get an Ortlieb one, they are worth the extra and will last much longer than the cheap ones. If you know where you are (like on the summit) you should always be able to head in roughly the right direction on a compass bearing. If the cloud is down keep an eye on that compass. If you get blown about, and dodge round a few rocks or whatever it's so easy to end up heading in the wrong direction.
One way of navigating when the cloud is down is time and direction.
I do like my GPS, it's pretty accurate and very reassuring tae ken exactly where you are. So with GPS, even in a white out, you can still take a compass bearing with reference to your map with very reasonable confidence. It may have saved my bacon a few times!
Should still be time for some more big, or biggish hills depending on the weather. But once there's been a few good falls of snow yeah you need to do a bit of thinking before you head to the hills and you would need to invest a bit more in kit.
Meanwhile I'm still stuffed. Just about managing not to loose all my fitness, but still got some sort of hip issue. I think it's a muscular issue. So following my physio's advice I'm gonna start my swimming regime tomorrow. How I hate swimming and bleedin swimming pools.
That's five months I've been struggling now. Gonna be gutted if I don't start making some decent progress soon. Winter hill walking can be absolutely magical. I only go on good weather days and when the snow should be stable and on straight forward routes, but always well kitted out for possible bad weather and carrying the usual axe and crampons should they be required.
Oh not been up Ben More yet. Nice one.
How did Beinn Ime go?