Viewing 30 posts - 41 through 70 (of 70 total)
  • Hill walking talk to me about it.
  • molgrips
    Free Member

    There is a bit more to navigation than that

    Oh?

    lemonysam
    Free Member

    Just go for a walk. Start out fairly gentle and get more ambitious. If the weather’s awful you’ll probably have less fun and also it’s more dangerous so at first it’s a good opportunity to go for a low level walk. Some of the best walks I’ve done have been low level walks on days when the hills were shitty.

    If you get wet/sore/cold feet then get some boots, if the rest of you gets cold/wet/sore consider some other clothing.

    Jeans aren’t ideal but they’ll do, I do most of my walking in jeans. Trainers are perfectly fine for 99% of walking but boots can be better.

    elma
    Free Member

    Thanks for all the replys so basically just get going and work out what works for me and modify after that.

    Someone at work has mentioned that they can get deals on Scarpa boots are they any good , they seem to get good online reviews.

    Thanks again for all the advice.

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    lemonysam
    Free Member

    Elma, some more specific advice for the northeast.

    For a perfect introduction to hillwalking head up to simonside, park at the forest car park and then wander up through the trees to the ridge via bob pyles struddle. Along to Garleigh and down via the carvings on the moor. An almost perfect day’s walking compressed into an afternoon.

    scotroutes
    Full Member

    Nowt wrong with Scarpa as a make but it’s more important that whatever you get fits you well. Personally, I just can’t get on with them at all. Go to a decent shop that has a selection of makes. Try on loads. Go to another shop etc. etc. Try to go later in the day as your feet tend to swell a bit, but not so late that the shop assistants are in a hurry. Take a pair of thick walking socks with you.

    piemonster
    Full Member

    Someone at work has mentioned that they can get deals on Scarpa boots are they any good , they seem to get good online reviews.

    They’ll be great if they’re a good fit. If they’re not a good fit they can easily be awful.

    chiefgrooveguru
    Full Member

    I much prefer wearing approach shoes to heavy boots in most conditions. The exception is when it’s very rocky and I’m carrying a big pack, and then not for the ankle support (is any boot that is comfortable to walk in sufficiently laterally stiff to stop you going over?) but for the greater sole stability and protection against bruised soles. Whatever you go for, the ones that fit your feet best are the best ones!

    boblo
    Free Member

    Regardless of all the above stuff about ‘stuff’, why not go out with someone who knows what they are doing? Hillwalking covers a broad stretch from bumbling in benign circumstances to being out in wild conditions on severe terrain. If you are new to the game and find yourself cold, wet and lost, it could end poorly for you.

    How about going on to the BMC website and finding your local Mountaineering Club? They’re not all beardies with staring eyes looking to crawl up K2… 🙂 Spend some time with them learning the game and you never know, you might even enjoy their company.

    molgrips
    Free Member

    Boots don’t stop you going over unless they are huge, but they do help. I have strong legs and ankles, and I never understood what boots were for, but after going on a long mountain rocky walk in shoes I did get tired ankles.

    chico66
    Free Member

    +1 for navigation

    My first hill walk was with my brother in law up Lochnagar. Beautiful sunny day and you could see for miles. Weather closed in at the top and you couldn’t see more than 10m. If my BIL hadn’t have known what he was doing I’d have been stuffed

    piemonster
    Full Member

    local Mountaineering Club? They’re not all beardies with staring eyes

    To be fair, most of them are.

    kcal
    Full Member

    local Mountaineering Club? They’re not all beardies with staring eyes

    — To be fair, most of them are.

    really? last I looked in ours, they weren’t, must be different in pieland 🙂

    lemonysam
    Free Member

    To be fair, most of them are.

    I used to be the president of one and I can’t grow a proper beard for love nor money… 🙁

    midlifecrashes
    Full Member

    There is a lot of hill walking to be done without worrying too much about navigation, and with minimal risk of getting lost. National trails are so heavily used these days most of them have been heavily signposted and the pennine way is paved for huge chunks of it due to erosion. You can do some great walking from the train too. Head over to Haltwhisle, walk up to Greenhead, you’re then on Hadrian’s Wall, and one of the best bits of it. Head east for a few miles to Housesteads fort, then down from the wall to Bardon Mill for the train back home. Reverse it if the wind is the wrong way.

    jambourgie
    Free Member

    I’ve been walking for ages around the peaks, Win Hill, The Great Ridge, Mam Tor etc, totally oblivious, in trainers, jeans and a T Shirt. Have I been risking death all along for not having the right gear? What areas are we talking about? Scotland/Snowdonia etc? What about Kinder/Bleaklow etc?

    peterfile
    Free Member

    I’ve been walking for ages around the peaks, Win Hill, The Great Ridge, Mam Tor etc, totally oblivious, in trainers, jeans and a T Shirt. Have I been risking death all along for not having the right gear?

    Not in full winter nick you haven’t 🙂

    Edit: actually, maybe you have, just realised those are all wee tiddler hills

    Hill walking is a bit like MTB. You can do it in your jeans and trainers and riding a BSO, but if you do it regularly you’ll eventually want to pick up some better kit.

    jambourgie
    Free Member

    I see.

    Yeah, I’ve never been up in really bad weather. Fair enough. Still struggle to see how you could get that lost though.

    peterfile
    Free Member

    Yeah, I’ve never been up in really bad weather. Fair enough. Still struggle to see how you could get that lost though.

    Seriously?

    It’s actually pretty easy in winter. Cairngorm plateau in zero visibility in winter is one of my favourite places for going round in circles 🙂

    I can understand what you mean in summer conditions, but winter is a whole different ball game. So easy to get caught in poor visibility or darkness, or both. Add in the fact you may not be able to see a path or any easily identifiable waypoints. It can be really tricky at times.

    molgrips
    Free Member

    Yes. You get lost when you can see bare grass or snow for ten feet around and nothing else. No visual clues about where you are or which way to go. Might as well be blind.

    jambourgie
    Free Member

    Fair enough.

    I actually did get lost once in a forest in France with an ex girlfriend. Well, I actually knew the correct way but she swore blind that we were going the right way. I just decided that I’d rather get lost in a foreign country and get eaten by bears, rather than the get into another row with the missus.

    But by god did I not let that lie when we eventually got back eight hours later 🙂

    boblo
    Free Member

    To be fair, you’d need to be blind to lose the paved path up Mam Tor. Try wandering around Bleaklow in zero viz on a winters day and see how the tee shirt holds up 🙂

    peterfile
    Free Member

    But by god did I not let that lie when we eventually got back eight hours later

    🙂

    Last year, I got us very lost at midnight in December while trying to find our way through a forest to a bothy.

    It was really misty and I just couldn’t seem to get the navigation right. We had to take a few different and crossing paths to get there. It was a bit of a disaster to be honest. Took us an hour longer than expected and my gf and I weren’t on the best terms when we arrived. I felt like a total failure, and even though I suspected it was my poor navigation, I kept complaining the the map “must be wrong”.

    Once we’d lit a couple of candles, I found an map on the table which showed the area in more detail…and the paths were completely different on my OS map. My map was wrong. What are the chances 🙂

    Spin
    Free Member

    will my snowboarding gear be ok to go walking in or should i get some specific items.

    Probably addressed above but…

    Your snowboarding gear will be rubbish. Far too hot and bulky. For where you are some walking trousers, wicking t-shirt, fleece and cheap waterproof will suffice. Slightly different requirements if you head for the big hills but you’ll work that out.

    Poles? I don’t use them in summer unless I’m carrying a really heavy bag.

    Lots of folks saying boots are essential. Well they’re good for wet ground but if it’s fairly dry then approach shoes are great for most things.

    molgrips
    Free Member

    The maps are often wrong. High Street springs to mind.

    Spin
    Free Member

    The maps are often wrong

    But still amazingly accurate. Britain is the best mapped country in the world.

    crankboy
    Free Member

    Define hill, define walk. I started mountain biking with a halfords special a pair of trainers and a dodgy baseball cap . I had a fab time and went on to a helmet better bikes and better kit . I have a load of walking stuff but for me the essentials are boots that fit and are comfortable ( scapa work for me ) and waterproofs (tfn and berghaus.) Start small with what you are comfortable with and build up .

    Navigation is a tad important .

    epicyclo
    Full Member

    ianfitz – Member
    I hate boots. Big clompy things. Fell running shoes or approach shoes are perfectly adequate. They will allow you to use your sense of balance and you’ll feel much lighter on your feet.

    I find the need for ankle support that even good walking type shops harp on about to be way over the top. Shoes allow you to have more feel for the ground and in my experience you’re way less likely to go over on an ankle. If you have any propreaception in your lower limbs you’ll be fine.

    I agree. I suspect the more you use boots with ankle support, the more you’ll need them IMO. Our ancestors went all over those hills in shoes that were very lightly built.

    JCL
    Free Member

    I went hill walking once when I got a flat and didn’t have a tube. Bored me to death.

    CountZero
    Full Member

    Yeah, I’ve never been up in really bad weather. Fair enough. Still struggle to see how you could get that lost though.

    I got lost in Savernake Forest once, to my eternal shame! 😳
    I had a map, but no compass, and I ended up at 4.30pm, late in the year, with no lights, at the furthest side of the Forest from Marlborough, where my car was. I had to peddle like a bastard right through the forest and back into town, about five miles, in gathering gloom. Muppet.
    Even easier in the hills; weather can change in a heartbeat, what starts as a clear, sunny day in the hills above the Lakes can become thick, damp, chilling fog in thirty minutes, and once you lose sight of landmarks, you’re stuffed.
    Even if it’s a warm day, a light fleece and a lightweight windproof top, like a Montane Featherlite H2O, which will fit in a pocket, can mean the difference between being chilled and miserable, and warm and comfy, should it cloud over.
    That happened while I was walking around South Hams, in Devon a couple of years ago. Beautiful warm sunny day in late September, got as far as the other side of Lannacombe Bay, and the cloud started to come up, so I cut up to Higher Borough, heading back to Hallsands, and within thirty minutes it had clouded over, wind got up from the east, and the temperature dropped ten degrees. Lucky I had a wool long-sleeved shirt, otherwise I would have been chilled right through; as it was I was damp and uncomfortable from the misty drizzle being blown horizontally across the high ground.
    I was cursing the fact I didn’t have a windproof top in my bag by the time I got back, four miles, and two hours later… 🙁

    user-removed
    Free Member

    Just download this app (android).

    http://backcountrynavigator.com/

    The full GB covered with OS maps. Bloody brilliant.

Viewing 30 posts - 41 through 70 (of 70 total)

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