James Stone (Clach Liath)

Mountaineering and the Volcanic Seven Summits

  • Home
  • About me
  • Volcanic Seven Summits
  • Top 50 Ultras of the World
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy

Archives for October 2017

The Scottish Mountains really must do better – Part II

18th October 2017 by James Stone Leave a Comment

Some may remember this post on the opinions of certain visitors to Scotland

I thought that two years later I ought to check whether or not things had improved. Having I visited a few websites to see what reviews had been provided by visitors, I am sorry to say that they do not seem to have done so. :?

Visit Scotland and others really do need to get I grip I feel.

My previous post had first looked at Ben Nevis.

“The walk was boring and unimaginative, lacked 4G signal in many places and when you got to the top you couldn’t see anything. Basically this mountain summed up Scotland as a whole! A big disappointment! Also there is snow at the top… I don’t like a snow.” :shock:

Clearly we need annual snow removal and a telecoms mast on the summit. At least the last person appears to have climbed the Ben, unlike the following person.

“One of the biggest hills I have ever seen, but not a mountain for sure! We didn’t even bother getting out of the car. Driving for two days to get there was certainly the better part of the trip. I can guarantee bants in my car, they’re never a disappointment. Everest has nothing to worry about.”

I like his modesty. :wink:

The next (long) comment has some potentially valid points but the hyperbole tend to diminish them. The tourist path obviously needs to be surfaced and the buildings removed from the summit:

“I returned to The Ben for the first time in 20 years. What a terrible mess most of the Tourist Path is in. Most (I don’t exaggerate) of the path is in a terrible and dangerous condition. Repairing miles of eroded and missing path one big rock at a time is a pre-mediaeval approach. The Romans built better roads 2,000 years ago and much more quickly.:clap:

“The dangerous condition is appalling. I reckon at last 2,000 people :shock: climbed The Ben when I went up a coupla days ago. I saw four people fall. Three went down on their backs coming down, slipping on wash-down grit, or trying to find way down sometimes 2ft drops :shock: where the path had totally gone. One was lying down injured, assisted by friends. The fourth I saw being helped down by the shoulders by two other walkers.

“Too much rubbish around too. Empty beer bottles at the summit, which continues to look like a builder’s yard.

“For the premier walking venue in Scotland, this is utterly appalling. If you are keen to bag this one, take another path (I hope the others are better.) Sorry to be so negative, but something serious needs to be done before serious injuries or deaths occur.”

Turning now to Ben Lomond there was no story of an epic climb as last time. The main complaints seemed to be about the path improvements, indeed the path itself. Here is an example.

“Path up Ben Lomond no better than goat track very unsafe and badly maintained needs smoothed out to be more user friendly.”

So clearly it needs the Ben Nevis treatment – a tarmacked path to the summit please.

One of my favourites remains Arthur’s Seat. I cannot work out how many of the following comments might be wind ups. But here goes.

“Not a chair in sight – had to sit on the grass, and was left with an unsightly wet patch so it looked like I had soiled myself.” :shock:

or

“Nothing, just a bleak view of the city and can be dangerous. and never, ever take your dog as there are cliff falls that dogs and their humans have died by falling off”. :roll:

and

“It’s called Arthur’s Seat. No seat at the top or anyone by the name of Arthur. Total rip. If I had paid to go I would have asked for my money back due to false advertising. Luckily it’s free.”

Phew!! That’s all right then.

I am not sure what the next person was on.

“Scotland is renowned for its horrible weather.. it didnt dissapoint.. the paths were muddy and full of stupid tourists could only see [the] castle from the top. They haven’t installed the gondola yet and it was tall but not pointy enough for my liking.. not enough rainbows. Disappointed.”

Solution? Install gondola, reshape for pointy-ness and, er, provide rainbows…

The Fairy Glen and Pools on Skye seem to have become a magnet in recent years. So we have the following comments for this “attraction”.

“…….. this was the most overrated thing I’ve seen in a long while, maybe ever. There are so many fabulous views to see in Skye and so little time to see them, some little green cone shaped hills just don’t do it for me……….

“Any fairies are either hiding under the leaves laughing their wings off, or are long gone.” :lol:

and

“No wifi. The water was a weird colour and it was pretty windy and also there were animals standing about which were pointless.” :shock:

And, finally, still on Skye here are a couple for The Storr:

“… the day in Skye as usual was raining… when we arrive at the beginning of the path to the Old Man of Storr the rain stopped and the sky started to be clear… we started our way and suddenly started to rain as hell… I strongly recommend it if you like to see big stones and get very wet. I give two points as you can swear a lot and with the noise of the rain nobody listen“ :lol:

and

“Talk about foul weather and uninspiring views. Yes it’s rocky and there once used to be trees around but the lack of them now means you get wind blasted from all directions. The foot path is kind of well made but rough and mountain foot wear is required. The climax of the walk is supposedly this large pointed rock called the Old Man, quite honestly I felt like an old man by the time I got to it, it’s really just a large pointy rock not really going anywhere. Good luck, wish I’d got to Wales.”

Best get off to Snowdonia then. Happy climbing!

Congratulations to Zhang Liang

14th October 2017 by James Stone 4 Comments

Liang Zhang

On my trip to Antarctica last January I met an unassuming Chinese man, Zhang Liang.  He was on the same flights in and out of Union Glacier as I was.  His objective was Mount Vinson like the majority of mountaineers to Antarctica.  Here we are back at Union Glacier after we had each succeeded with our objectives.

Liang Zhang

He is attempting to climb the Seven Summits and Mount Vinson was his sixth summit.  He has Denali in Alaska to do.  This is a photo of him on Vinson (taken from his Facebook page).

LiangZhang

But he also has two other objectives.  The first is to ski to each of the North and South Poles.  This he had already achieved by the time I had met him.  The other is to climb all of the world’s 8000m peaks.  There are 14 of these.  Up to now only 39 people have, indisputably, climbed them all – there are another five or six whose claims are challenged, including the Briton, Alan Hinkes.

On 2nd October 2017 Zhang Liang summited Nanga Parbat in Pakistan so completing the 8000m peaks.  So he becomes the 40th person to have done so.  He had summited K2, the world’s second highest mountain in July.

Assuming he manages to climb Denali, I believe he will be the second person ever to have climbed the 8000m peaks, the Seven Summits and skied to the Poles.

Congratulations on his recent achievement!

A new attempt on the Volcanic Seven Summits – Part 2

12th October 2017 by James Stone Leave a Comment

Giluwe - Ted Fairhurst

I mentioned in a recent post a current attempt by Ted Fairhurst to climb all of the volcanic seven summits.  He is now in Papua New Guinea.  On his Facebook page he has reported a successful ascent of Mount Giluwe.  At 4368m (14330ft) it is the highest volcano in Australia/Oceania .

He has reported:

“After 11 hours of hiking up through dense jungle and grassy equatorial highlands following a ridge over many hilltops we arrived in the rain at basecamp. Monday October 9 we climbed up a steep couloir (about 65 degrees on the upper 150m) to the summit of Mount Giluwe. The climb was pretty straight forward but more exposed and technical than I was expecting. There was little room for error in some places. We were mostly in slow drifting engulfing clouds but the jagged saw-tooth mountains would gradually appear out of the mist. The whole landscape has a fairy tale beauty.

“I shared a sincere special affinity with my Papuan guide and porters. Under a tarpaulin shelter built on the edge of a miniature forest on the grassy sloped highlands they started a fire in the rain and cooked on the coals sweet potato, corn & rice. Papuans are gentle and friendly and so willing to help. Unfortunately life expectancy is only about 45 years because of a poor lifestyle and lack of modern infrastructure. “

He seems to have been a bit unlucky with the weather given that it is still the dry season there but that is the tropics for you.  The summit provides some truly magnificent panoramas as this video shows:

Ted has Pico de Orizaba (in Mexico) and Ojos del Salado (on the Chile/Argentine border) to do.  But first he tackles Mount Sidley in January 2018.  If and when I have any further news, I will update further.

Southern Corbetts – Corserine and The Rhinns of Kell

8th October 2017 by James Stone 2 Comments

Corserine summit

The previous day I had climbed Cairnsmore of Carsphairn. Today I was going to walk the Rhinns of Kells ridge, the highest point being a hill called Corserine at 814m (26750ft). The forecast was good and, for March, the weather was relatively warm, albeit with a sharp breeze.

“Rhinn” is a word from old Irish meaning foothill, a landmark or a peninsula. “Kells” is refuge or niche. The name referring overall to Irish settlement in the area. The ridge runs in a roughly north-south direction for roughly 16km from Black Craig in the north to Meilke Millyea in the south. I was not going to tackle the northern section from Carlin’s Cairn to the north. But rather hit the ridge at Corserine and then make my way south.

The normal start point for this walk (and the one that I would use) is from Forrest Lodge on the east side of the ridge. Forrest Lodge is at the centre of a forestry estate owned by the Norwegian Fred Olsen Group.

The estate provides a car park 6km west of the A713 up a twisty no through road. There are warning signs there against overnight parking at the car park.

From the car park the approach to Corserine follows forestry roads at first and picking the right one to start on is key. Once identified it is straightforward with some helpful indicator signs. There is a map on the board at the car park and the initial road is called Birgir Natvig Road followed by Robert Watson Road. On the return to the forest one follows Professor Hans Heiberg Road.  I understand that these individuals are all scientists.

After an initial forested section a felled area is passed through and a house, Fore Bush, is on the right. The road swings to the right and back up into forest. After a couple of turns, the path, now rougher and wetter, meets the edge of the forest by Folk Burn and a stile.

Once out of the forest a faint path then leads over grassy ground, trending to the right towards the north east ridge of Corserine.

Here views opened up towards Cairnsmore of Cairsphairn.

To the left are some incipient cliffs.

Incipient cliffs on Corserine

The path continues up the ridge and eventually to a large cairn (named as Hennessy’s Shelter on the 1:25,000 OS). This is on the edge of the summit plateau around the 800m mark at the Scar of the Folk.

Hennessey's Cairn on Corserine
Hennessy’s Cairn on Corserine

It was then an easy and pleasant walk across to the summit trig. There were great views to the right towards Carlin’s Cairn. Here the view expands to hills to the west, including Merrick, the highest hill in Galloway. There are also great distant views to the Northern Pennines, the Lake District, the Isle of Man, Ailsa Crag (just), Arran, the Southern Highlands and the rest of the Southern Uplands.

Summit of Corserine
Summit of Corserine

Here is Arran to the north-west.

Arran from Corserine

These were the views to the south, including the Lake District in England across the Solway Firth.

The Lake District from Corserine

The route continued on down the south ridge of Corserine and over the subsidiary summits of Millfire and Milldown. At the next col, Jet and I stopped. Whilst I had something to eat, Jet took advantage of the lochans there – the Lochans of Auchniebut.

A 100m ascent took us up to the trig point and cairn at the southern end of Meikle Millyea. From here, the view back to Corserine is like this.

Corserine from Mickle Millyea

The view out to Cairnsmore of Cairsphairn is out over a vast expanse of air.

View to Cairnsmore of Cairsphairn from Mickle Millyea on the Rhinns of Kell

The true summit of Meikle Millyea is not at the trig point and cairn but actually around 350m to the south. So I wandered across the rough ground to that point. The views to Merrick were better here.

And to the snow covered Lake District.

I returned to the trig/cairn and followed the north-east ridge down to Meikle Lump following a broken wall and over wetter ground to the edge of the forest and, in a while, Professor Hans Heiberg Road.

So this walk saw me complete the seven southern Scottish Corbetts. Only about 170 other Corbetts to do now!

Welcome

Thank you for taking the trouble to read this blog.  You can find out more about me by clicking on the “About Me” tab above.

The blog started out just as a mix of mountain climbing and other travel reports interspersed with a few random musings prompted by a trip that I made to Mexico and South America in November and December 2014.  You can find details of that trip using the Tags and the Archive below.

It has since developed into a bit of a resource on the Volcanic Seven Summits or the V7S.  For this the best place to start is probably here.  Comments are welcome!

Links

  • Walkhighlands
  • Parkswatchscotland
  • Peakbagger
  • Alan Arnette
  • Mark Horrell
  • Ted Fairhurst
  • Cookie policy

Tags

8000m peaks Aconcagua Antarctica Australia Ben Nevis Bolivia brumlow top Corbetts Damavand Dan Bull David Hamilton Francois Bernard Giluwe Hewitts Humour Iran Iztaccihuatl Katie Sarah Kilimanjaro Kosciuszko Llullaillaco Marilyns Mount Bogong Mount Elbrus Mount Hagen Mount Mukal Mount Rainier Mount Sidley Munros Ojos del Salado Pico de Orizaba Ruapehu satyarup siddhanta Scottish Mountains Seven Summits Taranaki Ted Fairhurst Teide Tochal Toubkal Ultras Volcanic Seven Summits Volcanoes Yorkshire 3 Peaks Zhang Liang

Recent posts

  • Volcanic Seven Summits: Defining the Continents
  • Entering the Marilyn Hall of Fame
  • Deception in Antarctica?
  • Will you Dare to Reach?
  • So just how much does it cost to climb the Volcanic Seven Summits?

Archive

  • December 2020 (1)
  • November 2020 (2)
  • July 2020 (1)
  • May 2020 (2)
  • April 2020 (1)
  • March 2020 (1)
  • February 2020 (2)
  • January 2020 (6)
  • December 2019 (1)
  • November 2019 (1)
  • October 2019 (1)
  • September 2019 (1)
  • July 2019 (1)
  • January 2019 (2)
  • December 2018 (3)
  • November 2018 (2)
  • October 2018 (1)
  • September 2018 (1)
  • July 2018 (1)
  • June 2018 (3)
  • May 2018 (2)
  • April 2018 (1)
  • March 2018 (1)
  • February 2018 (3)
  • December 2017 (1)
  • October 2017 (4)
  • September 2017 (4)
  • August 2017 (2)
  • June 2017 (2)
  • May 2017 (1)
  • April 2017 (2)
  • February 2017 (1)
  • January 2017 (1)
  • December 2016 (2)
  • November 2016 (4)
  • October 2016 (3)
  • September 2016 (1)
  • August 2016 (1)
  • July 2016 (1)
  • May 2016 (7)
  • April 2016 (4)
  • March 2016 (3)
  • February 2016 (1)
  • January 2016 (2)
  • December 2015 (3)
  • November 2015 (4)
  • October 2015 (4)
  • September 2015 (2)
  • August 2015 (1)
  • July 2015 (5)
  • June 2015 (1)
  • May 2015 (5)
  • April 2015 (2)
  • March 2015 (4)
  • February 2015 (1)
  • January 2015 (2)
  • December 2014 (2)
  • November 2014 (25)
  • October 2014 (3)
  • August 2014 (1)
  • June 2014 (1)
  • April 2014 (1)
  • March 2014 (1)
  • February 2014 (2)
  • August 2013 (1)
  • July 2013 (7)
  • June 2013 (3)
  • May 2013 (1)
  • April 2013 (1)
  • February 2013 (3)
  • October 2012 (1)
  • June 2012 (3)
  • April 2012 (2)
  • March 2012 (2)
  • February 2012 (3)
  • November 2011 (2)
  • August 2011 (1)
  • July 2011 (2)
  • April 2011 (1)

Copyright © James Stone 2014-2021