My wife and I will be staying at Crianlarich (GM) doing some Corbett bagging over Easter. Aiming to be out all four days - Friday 6th to Monday 9th. I’ll alert on specific hills where possible. It’ll probably all be 2m FM.
73
Gerald
MW6AQU/P (trying to remember to say MM6AQU/P)
In reply to MW6AQU:
Hmmm, that was an unfortunate snip on the subject line… hope it doesn’t confuse!
In reply to MW6AQU:
Hi Gerald,
As you know height is everything, a lot of the hills in that area are surrounded by giants and getting a signal out can be difficult to say the least.
An alert, preferably the night before will have a few chasers trying their hardest to grab the points from you. I find that the earlier you activate in this wonderful breath taking (in more ways than one) region the better chance of success.
Watch out for very long walks, the wild cats, the wild deer, the wee white worm things and the midges - oh! In fact forget that bit, nothing to fear here!
Anyway have a great time and stay safe
Neil 2M0NCM
In reply to MW6AQU:
Quote: “Watch out for very long walks, the wild cats, the wild deer, the wee white worm things and the midges - oh! In fact forget that bit, nothing to fear here!”
…and the tons of white s*** that fell overnight. Maybe the West got away with it, we didn’t!
Enjoy yourself, Ben More and Stob Binnien are the prize!
73
Barry GM4TOE
In reply to GM4TOE:
Ben Lui is the real prize, Ben More and Stob Binnien are just point-rich grinds!
Have a great time.
73
Brian G8ADD
In reply to GM4TOE:
Snowing hard, blowing hard in the near of Edinburgh. About 3cms on my road on the wee hill (about 165m ASL). Horizontal snow with the blustery wind and about 0C.
Have fun in Crianlarich (pronounced crane-lurch!), as Barry says Ben More and Stob Binnein are the big boys but there are so many lovely Corbetts and Grahams you can give the Munros and crowds a wide birth.
Andy
MM0FMF
In reply to MM0FMF:
Some snow would make it interesting. Haven’t had a winter climbing trip to Scotland this year and I thought I’d missed it.
We’ll definitely be on the Corbetts. I finished my Munros in 2001 and my Tops in 2005. My wife compleated (sic) the Munros last year. So I’m looking to add to my Corbett tally. The only thing that might have tempted me to Ben Lui would be a climb of Centre Gully which has been on my list for many year. Sue won’t be keen for that though.
Gerald
MW6AQU/P
In reply to MW6AQU:
If you’ve not been there then maybe Beinn Chuirn SS-021 is worth a visit either from Dalrigh or Tyndrum. You may want to visit this one before the gold mine redevelopment gets going and see it as it was rather than when a couple of billion kilos of rock have been removed to get a few hundred kilos of gold and a few thousand kilos of silver. You can couple it in with the wee Graham out the back and visit the old lead mine workings as well.
Andy
MM0FMF
In reply to 2M0NCM:
Thanks for the tips Neil.
I have a SOTA beam which I intend to use and I will alert the night before once I have a good idea of the expected weather.
I’ve noted that many of the Corbetts have less than 10 activations, I guess that is down to popularity (or lack of it) combined with the difficulty of getting a signal out.
Joking aside about the “Wildlife Hazards”, these days the thing that bothers me most in the hills is Ticks. I’ve picked up a few over the years and they are a seemingly increasing problem. A mate of mine had Lymes disease a couple of years back and it took ages to diagnose and almost a year to cure. Anyway, it should be too early for them, but that recent spell of warm weather might have brought them out early.
Gerald
MW6AQU/P
In reply to MM0FMF:
Aye Andy, I had thought about that. Last time I stayed in Tyndrum (about 3 years ago, I think) there was a lot of talk about this.
I watched a program a few months back (one of a series about National Parks) that went through the planning process for this “development”.
It’s a tricky one, the hillwalkers and climbers want the hills left “pristine”. But we don’t have to live there surviving almost exclusively off the fickle tourist pound or limited estate work.
As you say though, a good hill to climb before the major work gets going. I do recall passing this area about 20 years ago when descending off Ben Lui and there was some active work then, but I believe it stopped soon after?
Gerald
MW6AQU/P
In reply to MW6AQU:
I’ve not heard about this development, is it the old lead mine that I remember exploring as far as the big shaft many years ago?
73
Brian G8ADD
In reply to G8ADD:
Here you go Brian.
This Flickr set shows the current mine, which is what I remember from 20 years ago. I think this what they will expand.
Gerald
MW6AQU/P
In reply to MW6AQU:
Some snow would make it interesting. Haven’t had a winter climbing
trip to Scotland this year and I thought I’d missed it.
Plenty snow here for you; yesterday the yellow paraffin budgie airlifted 6 Belgians off Ben Macdui. To be fair they were well equipped but had no idea how fast the weather can change on the Cairngorm plateau and were knackered after an overnight.
Barry GM4TOE
In reply to GM4TOE:
A lovely turn of phrase, Barry, yellow paraffin budgie gave me a good post breakfast chuckle! Oh, and its snowing here, too, huge flakes that melt after landing.
73
Brian G8ADD
In reply to GM4TOE:
Yeah, I did hear brief details on this. This Scotsman article seems quite well balanced.
http://www.scotsman.com/news/praise-for-belgian-teens-who-survived-a-night-of-arctic-blizzards-on-ben-macdui-1-2213027
Some more technical detail from Grough
It was very well forecast, but I suppose if you are a foreigner you can still get caught out.
Gerald
MW6AQU/P
In reply to G8ADD:
Sorry to spoil the fun… it was a grey paraffin budgie… Royal Navy from HMS Gannet at Prestwick. The poor old RN often get overlooked in favour of the RAF (especially since a certain Flt William Wales got involved).
In fact in Scotland, statistically, you are more likely to be rescued by the RN than the RAF (or the Coastguard). They consistently fly more missions at Gannet than than all the other Search and Rescue (SAR) stations in the UK.
Some interesting stats (maybe?) here.
It’ll be all change in 2016 when it all goes out to a private company (or companies) and we wave goodbye to the military involvement in UK civilian SAR.
It’ll be all change in 2016 when it all goes out to a private company
(or companies) and we wave goodbye to the military involvement in UK
civilian SAR.
Deploying the famous Norwegian Blue paraffin budgie, presumably :o)
In reply to MW6AQU:
It was very well forecast, but I suppose if you are a foreigner you
can still get caught out.Gerald
MW6AQU/P
Being Belgians I suppose they thought that they were used to snow as they get more of it than we do! You have to experience it to fully appreciate just how savage those summits can get.
73
Brian G8ADD
In reply to G8ADD:
A good day in the Cairngorms…
In reply to MW6AQU:
Nice coating of snow - reminds me of the time I abandoned an ascent of Crowberry Gully on the Buachaille with every orifice filled after a series of powder snow avalanches! The belay was intriguing, in that situation I would have had the rope in a shoulder belay rather than a waist belay and used a deadman rather than the axe, I take it that the waist belay is the current orthodoxy.
73
Brian G8ADD
