Hiking, Scrambling, Mountaineering, and Climbing

Yeah probably overly responsible but I was very keen to not fall off a mountain.

It just made me laugh and reminisce of being at 4,000m in a blizzard in cycling shoes in Kyrgyzstan - not so responsible!

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How did you find being at 4,000m? The first few times I went that high I really struggled!

No real issue. Slight headache and slower than normal but nothing substancial. I've been to about 4,500 I think.

I do get lucid dreams when I sleep high though.

Living at sea level means that I'll always have to aclimatise to some extent but over the years the amount of aclimitisation I need has dropped considerably. The first time I went to 4,000m I nearly passed out.

I do get lucid dreams when I sleep high though.

Yeah man, those magic mushroom dreams are really weird.

Altitude has been weird for me. I've been at 4000m recently and was totally fine - no problem at all - but for the few days leading up to it I'd been at 1500m+ the entire time.

By comparison, I was once at 3000m and had to sit down and I almost fell asleep, but I had been at 250m above sea level for the few days leading up to it.

I got a permit to hike Mt Whitney (highest mountain in the lower 48) in July which is 4421m and I am 100% going to spend a couple of days at the base of it before I start to acclimatise.

Grim:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-61128854

Not unexpected considering how busy that mountain is.

When I did some via ferrata in the Dolomites there were loads of piles of poo and TP left from the previous ski season. 🙄

Y'all monsters never heard of a trowel and LNT!?

Did a couple of cheeky sandstone routes in Cummingston up in Morayshire today.
Grotty sandstone but few nice routes on that block. That prow looks like it would great fun but usually done as a nail biting boulder problem over the rocks at low tide. Def a leg breaker if you fuck it up.

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Anyone done a trip to Lundy before btw? Found the guidebook for pennies up here in a second hand bookshop so had to get it.

Yes. We caught the boat over and stayed in one of the cottages on the island. There is a campsite there too but being on a small island it'd be pretty grim if the wind and weather was bad, you'd want to bag a camping spot in the shelter of the wall if possible if you were camping.

There's a very small shop that does convenience store basics but if you have any dietary requirements etc and plan on self catering then I'd recommend bringing food with you just in case the range in the shop isn't very big. We visited a few years ago so this may have improved by now. They also have a pub which serves food and seems to be one of the main social focus points of the island.

I'd say 3 days is enough to see everything at a relaxed pace if you're walking. We walked around the Northern half of the island one day and the Southern half the next. The letterboxing trail will take you round most of the points of interest and clues for this can be bought in the shop. Obviously there's birdwatching and climbing to be done too which could take up a lot of time if those are your sort of things.

The only bit we didn't get to was Rat Island which is accessible at low tide however it's over slippery seaweedy rocks and we weren't confident we'd get there and back before the tide came in, plenty of people manage to do it though.

This seems to be happening a lot lately in various locations around the UK, along with abandoned cheap camping gear and litter.

Some say that it's partly down to covid as people sought out holidays and activities they can still do when travel was restricted and other attractions/activities were closed but the ignorance of newbies is no excuse, it's just laziness and selfishness. Hopefully everyone knows leaving litter and human waste is wrong, or do people these days have the mindset that they should be able to have their fun without thinking of others or taking any responsibility for their actions?

If "Leave no trace" and "Follow the country code" arent getting through to people then what will? I quite liked a sign I saw North of the border that said "If we all love Scotland then who's leaving all the litter?" It seems we need to foster a culture of responsibility for the outdoors that a lot of people don't have. I'm sure if you asked a lot of the litter and stool leavers if they were proud of their country or loved their nation they would say yes, yet they aren't prepared to atc like a responsible adult to do their bit to look after it.

Wow thanks for all the info, really helpful.
We’ll be there climbing as looks like there’s 100s of long routes up to our grade including some uk classics so would want a solid 5days of climbing plus a couple of rest days.

I went a long time ago as part of a party. We hired the lighthouse. Everything that Booga has said is correct, and there are loads of UK Classics at reasonable grades. I remember the trip out there being a bit of an epic. There really isn't much to do for a "rest day", you will have walked most of the island going to and from crags. The whole place is recommended, and if you can take some binoculars for seal / puffin / bird watching, so much the better.

that rock looks amazing!

Weirdly (despite the ‘disgusting’ factor) I’d guess there’s a significant proportion who wouldn’t drop litter but might do a wild poo, on biodegradable grounds. The idea that when you poo, you can then walk away is pretty inbuilt into people from years of using a toilet with a flush… Plus it is more complex as with turds, digging a hole for it might be OK (depending how close to water sources, etc) whereas that approach clearly doesn’t work with a crisp packet.

Litter, I’d guess at least some is dropped by accident or blown away - you go to eat your sandwich + biscuit at the panoramic top of a hill, wind kicks in, packaging flies off. Obviously doesn’t explain all of it but I think mistakes can happen - which is a strong argument for using biodegradable packaging for things to take out on the hill.

Looks nice but it’s actually pissy sandstone with a thin harder crust. Wouldn’t want to take a big fall on it.

Thanks!!
Am I right in thinking we need a 70-80m ab rope to access most of the routes?

Meh. FB posts asking where to 'Wild Camp' for First Timers and everyone says Angle Tarn.

Not really a Wild Camp, maybe a Wild Party if you can hook up with the one who has Coke.

wouldn’t drop litter but might do a wild poo

The difference is that one is easy to carry out with no planning and find a suitable bin, the other requires advance planning for a situation lots of people just don't consider until it's too late.

I've done more than my fair share of making like a bear, and have been caught without any loo roll enough times to know better. But you make sure you're well off the path, in a secluded spot, bury it as best you can with leaf litter and sticks etc. These days I carry a trowel and bury it. Doing the Spine race over the summer and they have added trowel, tissues and poo bags to the mandatory kit list so hopefully this starts to become more commonplace and eventually the norm.

I mentioned the general litter on Snowdon in a previous post. Far too much for it to all be just blown away. Bits of card tucked under rocks, bottles lobbed off the top, cans tucked in crevices. I picked up what I could but didn't really make a difference. Again, collecting litter should be the norm to keep places nice for all and littering (barring the freak gust of wind taking your lunch over the edge) should be totally unacceptable in the first place. But you see it everywhere, it's not just odd people, it's society that needs to change.

I hiked the Backbone Trail here in SoCal this weekend. I bailed early yesterday as the temperature had reached 28 by 11AM yesterday and there was no shade for the remaining 13 miles. I'd already hiked 13.5 miles/3000ft and it was my birthday and I didn't want to miserable for the rest of the day - ha.
There was a 9 mile climb on the first day that I climbed in the midday sun. It really wrecked me and I never fully recovered. The ground in the Santa Monica Mountains is also much harder than I am used to and my Altra Lone Peaks just weren't providing enough cush. My feet really got destroyed. Still, 58 miles/11,000 ft of climbing in three days is decent. Gonna go back this weekend for the final 13 miles.

No campsites for the first forty miles which meant I had to sleep in a car park under some picnic benches...

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Fantastic scenery! Would love to do some hiking in SoCal, only done a few hikes up in Yosemite but where you are looks stunning