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woody
2007-01-25 15:13:45
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bangor trail
oliver
ive only ever done the bangor trail in the summer, and even at that time of year there are sections that are very soft underfoot, ive gone down up to my knees and hips before, that said i dont know what its like in the winter... the worst sections are immediately after the footbrige at lat 16 - long 868, ( sorry not very good at grid ref ) its over the tarsaghaunmore river..although in your case you'l meet this area before the bridge ( i usually go the other direction ) the track is not very well defined here its more of a wander over bog.... otherwise if you stay on the track.. especially around nephin beg and corslieve ( i tried to cut across once, its very boggy and lots of small streams make it hard work ) i would imagine youd be ok... although the area immediately after you leave the lodge will be very wet too, where it follows the river up to the valley between nephin beg and glennamong.. but should be manageable.. to get to the point i wouldnt do it at this time of year...photo of part of trail attached |
oliver fenton
2007-01-24 13:07:57
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Bangor Trail
Starting at Shramore I am hoping to walk the Bangor Trail in a day. Does anyone see any problem with this. It's not under water or anything! |
dhmiriam
2007-01-22 21:53:14
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GPS versus Compass and Map
Simon3, weedavie, padodes et al, get a foothold lads/lassies. Standing on a footpath reading from a map, a debate arises, this is the best way to go, no, it isn’t, this is the way, isn’t, is, isn’t, is…..bang……not looking, step down off footpath awkwardly, tear ligaments, week in wheelchair, where ? At the foot of the Sierra Nevada on one weeks holidays.
GPS versus compass and map, is this really the way to go, yes it is no it isn’t, yes it is no it isn’t BANG, guys look where you are going!
Proof of pudding: Place map, compass, mobile phone, tracking device or whatever nature GPS, et al in small box with tiny lock and key. Remember key must be tiny…..swallow key. Pack the box in bottom of backpack.
Set off with three days supply of anything you will reasonably need to keep alive following a substantial meal of roughage and bulk, and GET LOST if you can manage to, its amazing how difficult a thing this is to do, if, you have a reasonable knowledge of your terrain. My apologies padodes, there is no sense whatsoever of a pristine charm about my suggestion, and certainly not in two or three days time.
People you may discover a hell of a lot more about where you are at any given moment as opposed to where you are going. Once one can memorise where one is at any given moment, really soak it in, and where one has been, and can retain the information, and of course this will all be limited to one’s capacities for memory and retention (pardon the pun) one gets somewhere by linking individual to his environment and gaining an intimate knowledge of it, like goat herders, shepherds, crows and bees. Challenge yourselves with how far a distance one can retain perfectly in memory. Your trips undoubtedly will be shorter than your current expeditions unless you are either very foolish or very regular guys and girls, at which point each of you will learn which method of navigation is imminently more suited to you, or the best one for you personally.
Neither do I recommend depending entirely on Nature as suggested above, not that I reasonably expected anyone to try it, really proof of pudding that!
Getting oneself lost, Safely, IS more of a challenge than you might think. Give it up guys, life is too short. Why not post your getting lost and survival stories? Thoroughly more enjoyable. |
nagirock
2007-01-16 17:38:09
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photo request
I am currently working on a Geography text book and am looking for the following: Photograph Hi Res Digital or Slide of - Lughnaquilla, Wicklow mountains (as an example of mica-schist rock)
- Kilkenny or Connemara marble (as en example of a metamorphic rock); ideally this would show the marble in the landscape where it occurs. please send anything you might have to d.corrigan3@ntlworld.ie I will pay a small fee for suitable photo (send low res first for viewing). Many thanks. |
padodes
2007-01-14 19:44:57
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Rob Roy Challenge
Prompted by the suggestion that I read the article on the "Rob Roy Challenge" (http://bubl.ac.uk/org/tacit/tac/tac51/nevermin.htm), I did so and found it quite congenial. I'm not insensitive to the pristine charm of this kind of navigation. Some years ago I went through a "lost-in-the-wilderness phase" and read Harold Gatty's classic, "Finding Your Way without Map or Compass". It certainly helped me to become attentive to the pointers that nature can give us. I began noting the position of the sun, when it wasn't hidden behind a thick layer of nimbostratus. I took stock of the direction of the wind, when it wasn't gusting from all quarters. I even paid attention to the side that moss grows on trees, when I could find one above the treeline in my moment of need. Less helpful, perhaps, was the flight of migratory birds, since those I could observe seemed as fanciful as the flights of the Irish imagination. The least indicative sign came from the orientation of anthills, however, which, though quite useful in Africa, leaves much to be desired in our own latitudes. In a word, sole reliance on the Rob Roy method, though attractive and no doubt adventurous, is best undertaken in the company of Lady Luck! |
weedavie
2007-01-12 13:58:10
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No, this is the last time.
Padodes, Robroying is travelling without map or compass- go on, have a look at the article, it's funny and interesting. I could claim Rob Roy was keen on Munros but the century that elapsed between his death and Sir Hugh's birth weakens the argument. Odds are that he did climb most of the Glen Falloch / Glen Dochart 3000s, though. Earliest recorded 3000 ascent was Mad Colin Campbell in 1590 driving a herd of goats off Stuchd an Lochain. I've no doubts Simon would know the earliest Irish 3000 ascent. St Brendan on his own hill, I suppose.
A compass is a high tech development but its a development of one of these naturally occurring thingies, the earth's magnetic field and metal with a charge or something (you can see I did extra singing instead of physics.) GPS goes along with Gameboys, jPods and mobile phones in the list of ways to use up the west's pocket money. From that point of view, compass use is better than GPS. |
simon3
2007-01-12 10:15:35
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re GPS Use
Padodes -
You point out the technological basis of maps, compasses. One could add modern means of transport from cars to Ryanair. In navigation one could preparation by exploring virtual terrain in advance. In gear there's the pervasive inflence of polyester (fleece) and teflon (Goretex).
I approve your sceptical probing about "return-to-nature". Many of our tools are the "outcome of sophisticated technological development".
Nevertheless sports and recreational activities are full of artificial classes of activity often maintained by social groups. People continue to use sail power in the face of the advantages of power-boating. People have started to use snowboards even in the face of the advantages of skis. People do the breast-stroke even though the crawl was established as the most efficient stroke a century ago.
Let's allow the possibility that different ways may exist for people to enjoy walking in the hills. Very likely a series of modes or disciplines will arise. (Another way of looking at it would be to see it as the evolution of different memes under pressure from different cultural influences - Rousseau, environmentalism, technology - filling different niches.)
If some people want to use a limited range of navigational and other gear in the hills - why not?
There could be much general value in a discipline of walking without using some modern tools. It can teach aspects of self-reliance, landscape reading, decision making etc. Indeed how exactly should newcomers to the sport be taught in relation to GPS (which will soon be cheap and available on every mobile phone) without overdependence?
What I do find ridiculous is forms of chauvinism or fundamentalism. Where someone says "our way of doing things is BETTER than yours and we are superior to you". This is particularly silly in relation to new technology where sometimes people cling to what they know without making any allowance for the value of emerging methods. It's like saying the crawl is better than the breast stroke or yachts are better than power boats. |
padodes
2007-01-11 18:29:20
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A parting (Parthian) shot
Weedavie, allow me one last comment, too, on the subject of map & compass or GPS. You seem to speak in favour of map & compass, and against the GPS, in the name of some kind of Rousseau-like "return to nature", where map and compass are more 'primitive' and thus more virtuous than the GPS. The ideal, you suggest, lies in "Rob-Roying" in the hills. That is to forget that Rob Roy had no O.S. map in his sporran, much less a Silva compass. The fact is that both of these artifacts are, in their own right, the outcome of sophisticated technological development. Modern topographical mapping is not a 'natural' product. It is the result of aerial and satellite surveys and begins its life in digital format on a computer long before it becomes the 'simple' sheet of paper hanging on a nondescript bootlace around a hiker's neck. (Ironically, modern cartography depends increasingly, too, on data supplied by GPS.) Similarly, the deceptively simple Silva-style compass is a sophisticated piece of engineering with over three thousand years of refinement behind it. (You might care to peruse Alan Gurney's very readable book, "Compass", on that topic.) If you are to be really coherent in your "return to nature", then why stop short at the modern map & compass in your navigation? Why not go back to the sun and prevailing wind by day, or the moon and stars by night? To be like Rob Roy (who, by the way, does not seem to have had any particular interest in the Munros), I'm afraid "artificial aids" like your map & compass will have to go too. |
weedavie
2007-01-10 17:16:05
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OK I'll shut up now
I suspect we're sitting on a philosophical divide here. I know you can enjoy a hill without knowing where you are or what you're seeing. A GPS is a good aid in this case but significantly dilutes the experience. Karaoke is great for a laugh once every couple of years but compared with a couple of guitars and maybe a fiddle and who's for the next song, it's doesn't even leave the starting line.
When you use a map you're developing your relationship with the land. On a new route you savour the anticipated challenges, the connections with known routes, the names and meanings of features.
I wouldn't dream of walking in an area and not buying a map, here or Connaught or Greece. I'm not saying I'm weird, I certainly don't use handcuffs, but when I lock myself in a room with a pile of maps, there's a parallel with magazines and certain adolescent activities.
A GPS will let you know where you are with certainty (though I've known people to refuse to believe what they're being told.) A map requires more skilled use, gives you a better feel for routes and in able hands is a more precise way-finder. Yes, you do occasionally screw up (selection of the correct car park is the heart of the route) but that's the way that you learn. If I was departing from maps it would be to discard artificial aids entirely - there's already a movement in Scotland to do this - Robroying (see the wonderful hill fanzine, the Angry Corrie - http://bubl.ac.uk/org/tacit/tac/tac51/nevermin.htm). |
loz
2007-01-10 10:22:16
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GPS Use
I'd just like to add my 2 pennies. I use a sheet and compass, but always have the Garmin in my sack for that "just in case", As do i have a first aid kit, a phone, changes of clothes, a fire starting kit ( matches plus magnesium striking rods ), and a few other items. I admit it - i'm an aging scout.
However often ( if I dont own the sheet - which as there are a vast number covering this great country - i dont have them all ) I might just go out with some downloaded routes and the Garmin. - Am i a bad person ?? - hopefuly not being sneered at by those who have the sheet of an area. ITS NOT ONLY MAPPING AND NAV SKILLS THAT KEEP YOU OUT OF DANGER !!, awareness and common sense do have a part to play in mountain saftey.
On a lighter note - i'd just like to add how much the strapping on of the Garmin to my daughters wrist - so she can see the distance to a top decrease as she walks, seems to boost her drive when her weary 6 year old legs might otherwise fail ! |
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Forum: General
Thank you MV |
ahendroff 20 hours ago.
At 5.42pm today I completed my 404th and final Arderin. Long journey to here. Delighted & overjoyed. Humbled at the challenge also. And thanks Mountain Views for that. Gougane Barra will always be... |
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Summit Comment
Soarns Hill: Forested summit |
slemish a day ago.
Getting to the summit of Soarns Hill is difficult and the extensive forestry means that views are severely limited. But as it qualifies under MV prominence rules, off I went to climb it. I parked ... |
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Summit Comment
Soarns Hill: Local summit visit |
Harry Goodman a day ago.
Climbed Soarns Hill to-day as one of the 100 listed hills nearest to my home. I used three5four0's very helpful route description. The following additional information may be useful. The second... |
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Forum: Suggestions
Re Main Area Display, logging |
simon3 2 days ago.
The suggestion is that the list of summits for a mountain area obtained by asking for More Detail for the mountain area show whether or not the summit has been climbed. This has now been implement... |
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Forum: General
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BleckCra a day ago.
Thank you kevin carroll. If I can put a smile on that contrary face, the Matterhorn should be a cakewalk. |
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Summit Summary
Meenanea: Bump on ridge with good views. |
 Collaborative entry Last edit by: simon3 2 days ago.
Meenanea is a summit of low prominence on the ridge from Cronamuck to Croaghbarnes.
It is most likely that it will be reached as part of a traverse along this ridge.
It has excellent views towa... |
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Track
Walks Around Port 2 |
gerrym 4 days ago.
http://youtu.be/jq7O1tarPuQ
A second walk starting and fini walk, Length:17.0km, Climb: 578m, Area: Donegal SW (Ireland) |
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Summit Summary
Cronamuck: Granite knob at the end of a ridge. |
 Collaborative entry Last edit by: simon3 2 days ago.
This summit can be reached using the ridge extending NE from Croaghbarnes and there are suggestions it could be reached from Commeen to the north on the R253.
Cronamuck has views over towards Gau... |
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Forum: General
A Cloon Horseshoe "mini Scavvy"? |
Conor74 a day ago.
Think none of the Scavvies so far have tackled the Dunkerrons, and the Cloon Horseshoe at its heart - Mullaghanattin, Beann, Finnararagh and then moving all the way on to Knocknagantee and swingin... |
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