Dave Hewitt wrote:Well done with extricating yourself safely from what sounds like a bit of a pickle. These kind of self-assessment reports are always interesting and (one would hope) helpful to others, so well done in writing it up, too (and writing it very coherently). Two or three thoughts, if I may. One is that the lack of a watch feels like a pretty major omission in terms of kit - as you duly acknowledge. I know that wrist watches have to an extent gone out of fashion among younger people - my better half teaches university students and has commented more than once about how few of them have watches these days. Clearly if you have a fancy phone then that will give the time, but - as with phone-navigation problems generally (which you rightly avoided by taking map and compass) it's no good if the thing packs in. There was a report on (I think) here a few years ago from someone who almost got benighted in the Cairngorms around the same of year, again without a watch and with a phone that stopped working; on that occasion they cleverly calculated the time by checking the timestamp on their camera pictures and estimating how long ago these had been taken - although they forgot to adjust for the autumn clock-change and ended up an hour wrong! But both with that incident and in your own situation there's a trivial way of avoiding any such issues: go to Argos or wherever and buy one of those basic nine quid Casio watches, or something similar. I've long felt that knowing the time - both in the wider sense of when nightfall will come and also in terms of how long it takes to get between various points on the hill, particularly if backtracking, is an important and often under-emphasised part of navigation.
Re nightfall generally, knowing when this comes and having it in the back of your mind all day is really important at this time of year. If - as in your situation - you don't live anywhere near the hills being climbed (and hence you're not able to intuitively know what time nightfall comes on a day-to-day basis), then it involves a bit of calculation and/or remembering to check the previous evening. It's useful to have a sort of general nightfall equation in your head that covers both clear evenings and also cloudy/wet ones, and perhaps to always aim for at least half an hour inside the cloudy/wet time as that helps with giving you a bit extra to play with. Glen Coe is a long way north of Sheffield, so will lose its light a fair bit faster especially after the equinox - but it's also worth bearing in mind that it's a fair old way west, too, so that gives you a bit more time (one degree of longitude equates to four minutes in terms of sun position). These kind of things - actual calculations and general low-key monitoring of sunset etc - are just as important as the more commonly discussed things about navigation and so on. At least you were on the right side of the BST/GMT change - although by late October the daylight is disappearing at a fair old rate of knots.
The other point is that Sgor na h-Ulaidh is a big and quite serious hill to be climbing in autumn from a late start - there's been a long history of accidents and benightments on it, and starting at 11.20am is already cutting it fairly fine in terms of having some slack in the system unless you're really speedy. A target time for the first top of 2pm might have been a better option - it seems to be about 2hr40 to there from the road-end by Naismith, so adding the 15-minute road section gives 2.15pm for the first top - and ideally you'd want to be brisker than Naismith in ascent at least for a late start at that time of year. Even with fast progress in good weather there would still have been precious little leeway for snack stops, layer-adding, dog issues etc.
Also, while there's no harm in being at least a bit triskaidekaphobic (!), try not to be as Munrocentric as your current profile numbers, if correct, imply. A tally of 270 Munros but only four Corbetts and two Grahams is extremely lopsided, and a late start in late October in the Coe (and when feeling a bit rough too) feels like an ideal day for going up Meall Lighiche or Meall Mor from the same start-point as the Munro you chose. They're both fine hills, the Corbett especially (although that might have involved river worries which the Munro at least avoided), and you'd have had a fair amount of extra time to get down for that 4.30pm estimate. It also sounds like it might have been a good day for wandering up the Pap!
Anyway, stick at it (including the solo and poor weather stuff) and keep learning from the mistakes - I learnt a lot from analysing a pretty scary solo episode on Tarmachan (a hill I'd been on multiple times before) after a lunchtime start in January a few years ago. Oh, and definitely buy yourself that watch...
Dave,
Thanks for all your comments, observations and advice. I really respect your knowledge and experience and appreciate the time you have taken to analyse my story. It is not often that the comments are nearly as long as the report!
I am definitely guilty of much of what you have mentioned.
Guess what is top of my letter to Father Christmas, yes, a watch.
As far as time of nightfall, I had a pretty good idea as to when that would be, I just didn't know where I was in relation to that time, see above note re 'Dear Santa'.
I am lucky enough to be dual based and spend half my time in Sheffield and the other half in Laide so I do spend much of my time near the hills
I was actually en route south and using this as a break.
Both my phone and I are fairly simple and I have never used one for GPS, much preferring map and compass, altimeter and (usually) knowing the time. The one time I used a GPS (as well as, not instead of map and compass) in it's early days it packed in on the summit of Braeriach in a white out so I don't have a lot of confidence in them and had to revert to traditional methods on that occasion.
As far as the too late start: Guilty as charged. Overslept from overindulgence the previous evening. Had I allowed myself more time, even the lack of a watch wouldn't have mattered as much (even if not advised for other navigational reasons)
Am I guilty of Munrocentricity (!) ? I suppose there must be an element of that although I don't think my profile fully indicates my walking priorities. I have actually really slowed down my Munro bagging since living in Laide as I also love to wander around Fisherfield, Torridon and Inverpolly without bothering with high hills and I also love doing through routes and some multi day stuff. But yes, I do enjoy counting down my ticks (hence triskaidekaphobia
) , although I am tempted to not compleat my missing An Teallach Munro but that is another story.
Thank you again for taking the time to pass on some of your expertise, you have made many valid and useful points, much appreciated.
Keith
