Girl vs Wild

[Fudgie]

Good to see I wasn't the only one out there today. I think I got a bit luckier with the weather

[mgmt!]

brave or mad !! either way well done.

[mrssanta]

glad you came down in one piece and the pics are brilliant.

[goth_angel]

That was an interesting report and given the conditions glad you are okay. Must admit I think I'd have stayed in the car.

Am sure you have had this asked before but why didn't you have a map? I've seen on a couple of your other reports that you haven't taken one so it seems to be deliberate? OK in this weather there was prob a fair risk of it blowing away but at least you would have had it to refer to when you got off track.

I am not having a go (I am no expert) just you could have come quite unstuck navigationally given conditions.

[KeithS]

Well done on what sounds like a wild and windy battle through the hills. Sometimes they are the best days, being hard fought.
Again, as in other posts I would question not having a map, do you carry one in your pack just in case? As goth angel said, I'm not having a go, but I wouldn't dare go into the hills, even in clear weather, without a map and compass. I'm not an expert, but I'm not a novice either.
I enjoyed the report and pictures. I'm sure all your cobwebs will have been blown away (not that you had any)
Well done again

[Frogwell]

Brilliant camera work!

[spiderman]

What a hellova walk in these conditions.Your love of being out in the hills is inspirational. These three hills make for a good walk under normal conditions but in gale force winds it is exceptional. You must have taken some buffeting crossing from Narnain to A'Chrois. The path you came down at the end is the Succoth path which used to be a popular way up to A'Chrois and Narnain but is little used now.
I am going to get great pleasure pointing out what you did to my hairy, hard mountain men companions who at the suggestion in the forcast of a 40 mph wind on the summits will cancel a weekend walk.

[icemandan]

Superb report. Liked the gathering storm pictures and the wierd fungi.

[Caberfeidh]

Excellent photies of an impressive place, great weather to be out for a wander! How do you keep your camera from freezing up?

[pollyh33]

Nooooooooooooooooooooo but yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh but........

Well done ML

[Mountainlove]

sometimes these days are the best,can't wait till more of this:

pics 024.jpg

Great photo! These are the days when you start asking yourself ...why am I doing this...and you find the answer when you are on the way back...because I am loving it!

Excellent report and the pictures are fantastic,especially 'Ben Ime and Ben Narnain 056.jpg (112.99 KiB)',the photography skills in that one are astounding
It was pretty wild up there today,my face still stings. Well done on continuing on to the other hills. We did have a wee scout about looking for your parachute....sorry rain cover,it might be in Loch Lomond by now.
I'll be writing my inferior report tonight or tmrw night after work Good to meet a fellow 'Walkhighlander' out and about.

Hello again...thanks for looking for the rain ccover...as yo said it was probably on the way to Loch Lonond
Looking forward to read your report as well....know what you mean about the stings....it was mad!

We were up The Cobbler today and we are two heavy guys ...after the ascent up the front the weather was deplorable ... We could hardly stand and decided to go back out the wind....
Once we cut off the path down we took the ridge walk back along high above the A83...which was challenging in the gusts of wind
I watched from the summit of The Cobbler as wave after wave of prilled snow ..needle like..swathed over it
I cannot believe you"" never had a map""or even just went back down toward Ime
If the cloud hadn't lifted where would you have thought you were and mapless how would you have descended
U are very very lucky that fotune favoured you today

To answer the question about why I dont take maps... (that for all who asked...)
For my first 10 hillwalking years, I never took any maps or a compass because I did easy hills, in really good weather conditions...never alone and always with others.
3 years ago I discovered solo walking and about 2 years ago I started buying some maps. From all the years hiking without maps and the fact that I also walked in pretty remote areas, I learnd to look at the landscape, moss of trees to know where north is, wind direction etc etc. In the mountains I take a compass reading to know in which direction I need to head, if things go bad. The main reason why I dont take maps is that I dont own many. I do print out maps but in the case like yesterday, I planned to do the 2 mountains Saturday night...without a printer at home I wasnt able to do a print out (do most of my planning last minute)
So in these cases I look at the maps in my Munro book to memorize them.
I completely agree with all of you that taking a map is always the way foreward...but to learn how to navigate without a map and compass really does build your skills for times when you (for whatever reason) dont have a map.

[soulminer]

With safety in mind, and hindsight, was it wise to venture into the hills mapless?

Around the same time I looked around and realized that the surrounding looked rather strange….I really wasn’t sure where I was anymore ad looking back I saw no other walkers.

and walked to a nearly cliff to see where I was. Putting my bag down on a big rock in front of me I was suddenly hit by a gale….next thing I realized was that my backpack (which weighted about 4-5 kilos) was lifted up in the air and was on the way down the hill

Was it wise to walk to a nearly cliff ? When.......

I tried to stand up, but the gale threw me down on my knees again.

Don't take this as a personal insult, as it is truly not meant as such- but this, I would suggest, is erring on irresponsible to say the least. I wonder if you thought of the consequences of the wind shifting direction and you not being thrown to your knees, but in the same direction as your bag ! Considerering where you were 'perched'

You braved the elements and eventually reached the safety of the path, and that is to be commended. May I suggest erring on the side of safety in future, especially as you were walking alone. I also suggest taking a map and compass as an absolute basic.
Cheers.

[Mountainlove]

With safety in mind, and hindsight, was it wise to venture into the hills mapless?

Around the same time I looked around and realized that the surrounding looked rather strange….I really wasn’t sure where I was anymore ad looking back I saw no other walkers.

and walked to a nearly cliff to see where I was. Putting my bag down on a big rock in front of me I was suddenly hit by a gale….next thing I realized was that my backpack (which weighted about 4-5 kilos) was lifted up in the air and was on the way down the hill

Was it wise to walk to a nearly cliff ? When.......

I tried to stand up, but the gale threw me down on my knees again.

Don't take this as a personal insult, as it is truly not meant as such- but this, I would suggest, is erring on irresponsible to say the least. I wonder if you thought of the consequences of the wind shifting direction and you not being thrown to your knees, but in the same direction as your bag ! Considerering where you were 'perched'

You braved the elements and eventually reached the safety of the path, and that is to be commended. May I suggest erring on the side of safety in future, especially as you were walking alone. I also suggest taking a map and compass as an absolute basic.
Cheers.

Dont worry I dont take it as an insult
I should point out that I took great care to walk towards the cliff and sat down in front of a rock in order not being blown over...It just had to be as I needed some bearings. As soon as I looked down and realized there was no chance to walk down that bit...I continued along the shoulder which was much saver...lol in the general forum I asked the question last week which maps one needs...I am sure you will be glad to know I am waiting for a few to arrive

[Caberfeidh]

Map/schmap... I don't think a map would have much of a life-expectancy on a blustery day like that. Far better to know the area and keep it in your head.

mapless how would you have descended

... By going downwards - that's the key to descending!

[daveh]

What a fantastic day out on the hills and i reckon you have put a few armchair/fair weather walkers to shame.Natural navigation too reading the ground and the terrain and i reckon you learned a lot too.Well done