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Navigating the White Mounth Munros circuit

Navigating the White Mounth Munros circuit


Postby algorhythm » Wed Sep 23, 2015 10:06 am

How is the path along the White Mounth circuit? Is it easy enough to navigate in hill fog? I will of course have a map and compass but it would be reassuring to know if the path will suffice.
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Re: Navigating the White Mounth Munros circuit

Postby NickyRannoch » Wed Sep 23, 2015 11:48 am

From memory, year or two ago now, no there is not a clear path all the way round.

There is a good stalkers path after lochnagar but you have to leave and rejoin it to get to the next two summits and make directly up the hills.

As you approach the final two there is a short section of pathless walking before it gets clearer again.
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Re: Navigating the White Mounth Munros circuit

Postby prog99 » Wed Sep 23, 2015 11:52 am

Never rely on man made features to navigate by is the best advice. The round may start and finish on good paths but the bits in between need some care.
In fact I know of someone who even managed to go wrong on the good lochnagar path!
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Re: Navigating the White Mounth Munros circuit

Postby Scotjamie » Wed Sep 23, 2015 10:05 pm

On my last visit (albeit several years ago) I managed to have a bad navigation day in suddenly descending clag between Carn an Sagairt Mor and Cairn Bannoch, an easy enough traipse in most conditions.
A touch of complacency (following the trace of a path) was added to a bucketful of stupidity (in not taking proper bearings) and I was heading for the wrong side of Faifernie, struggling to regain bearings. Lost in clag is not clever! After a wee while trying reverse gear, a couple of faint voices led me to two friendly members of Aberdeen MC who were experimenting with new GPS gadget thingies, and pleased I was to meet up.

The paths may be much better trod by now but have to endorse prog 99
prog99 wrote:Never rely on man made features to navigate by is the best advice.


(Whilst I still rely on map and compass I did then buy a GPS thingie as a back up for location :? )
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Re: Navigating the White Mounth Munros circuit

Postby algorhythm » Thu Sep 24, 2015 7:32 am

Had a feeling it wouldn't be so simple as one nice path.. cheers folks
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Re: Navigating the White Mounth Munros circuit

Postby Jemma » Thu Sep 24, 2015 9:14 am

I did it on Saturday - there's mostly decent path/track to follow but I wouldn't have enjoyed it in bad visibility. I either lost the path or it disappears into a boulder field up what appears to be called the ladder and I lost the path in the boulder field coming off Broad Cairn too. I thought you needed to leave the path to get to the top of Carn a' Choire Bhoidheach so I did - I noticed a path when I got to the top though I don't know exactly where it came from or went. You can either walk around the bottom of Carn an t-Sagairt Mor and head up the path you then retrace back down or leave the path early and strike up the east side (which seemed to have most of the plane wreckage on it, if you're nosy like me).
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Re: Navigating the White Mounth Munros circuit

Postby Bob the Dog » Sat Sep 26, 2015 11:34 am

We did it as an overnight navigation exercise in April. Head torches, maps, compasses and backed up with gas just in case...was straight forward to be honest. It also made us aware of the wonderfully motivating effect of the sunrise...boosted our flagging morale no end I can tell you!!!
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Re: Navigating the White Mounth Munros circuit

Postby rgf101 » Tue Sep 29, 2015 11:11 am

"backed up with gas just in case"
I think Mountain Rescue advice is not to rely on loud flatulence to summon help - it echos off the hillsides and can be hard to locate.
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Re: Navigating the White Mounth Munros circuit

Postby Rufus Smalls » Thu Oct 01, 2015 1:01 pm

I did this in early September in v poor visibility.

After Lochnagar you follow the path but take care to branch off at the right times so as not to miss the summits. You shouldn't go far wrong following the WH description but the summit paths are as follows:

For the 2nd summit (Carn a'Choire Bhoidheach) the branch will be a small path on your left at a right angle. There is a small cairn marking the junction. This path then goes straight to the summit, so then retrace.

For the 3rd summit (Carn an t-Sagairt Mor) follow path as per the WH description, crossing the burn, and you will find a very faint four-way junction (possibly cairned, can't remember) with the paths all at right angles to each other. The main path is straight on - ignore this. The one you want is the right hand one, which goes to the summit. Then retrace, and when you get back to the junction keep going straight on (ie that would have been the left path when you first get to the junction).

Summits 4 and 5 are pretty straightforward but a bit pathless amongst the summit rocks.
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