Had to check the date then to make sure it wasn't April!Hmm
Exoskeleton trousers
Reminds me of death stranding game
Hiking, backpacking, trekking, mountaineering...
- Thread starter Col_M
- Start date
Soldato
Almost had a Dr Michael Mosely situation on Saturday.
I've been eyeing up a mountain ridge walk since we arrived. We're in a Valley and so one side is a fairly long mountain range. View from Google Maps below.
Cycled my MTB to the right side of the hill and then around the back of it to some land where we're building a house. It brought me up somewhere in the dip towards the right (number 1). As i wanted to do the full length, i walked to the end on the right first, then turned around to continue on the full length.
Was a weird mixture as some was relatively walkable trail and then other sections gave no indication as to the best route. I generally just tried to follow the highest points as best i could. However progress was fairly slow. Some of the descents were loose scree, and then other bits were just balancing on the side of 45degree slopes covered in loose stones and thorney bushes ripping me to shreds.
Was making fairly decent progress but as i was walking along i kept underestimating the highest point. I got to the point marked with a 2 which involved fairly tough scrambling, thinking it was my last big climb. I'd taken around 3l of water with me with a mixture of electrolyte drink and also some carb mix. Halfway up the scramble i finished the second litre and thinking i wasn't too far from the village at the end, drank around half my second to last bottle.
Got to the top, only to look down the ridge and see it continued to drop down and then pick back up again for the final climb with a few spikes in between, zoomed in image here
Got over the small spike before the final climb, but then took a bad route and ended up heading down off the ridge line on some fairly sketchy terrain. At this point i couldn't see an easy route back onto the top and didn't fancy backtracking to see if i could pick up a better route high up so decided to just bail and cut down the side of the hill towards a road where i could meet the wife. It obviously isn't a section intended to be walked any involved some very loose rock with no decent footholes, i slipped a couple times and slid a couple meters. Luckily nothing was steep enough where i fall would be dangerous, just lots of cuts.
I could see the road i wanted to get to, but just never seemed to get any closer. I think in an attempt to find the easiest route to the road i ended up zig zagging quite a bit. At one point i had to sit down and rest and could feel myself shaking a little and once or twice i think i was quite light headed and dizzy. Looking at Strava it took me just over an hour to cut down from the mountain to the road which is only around 2km and half of that was walkable track!
Full length of the walk ended up being just over 5 hours and i didn't make the full length which whilst disappointing was sensible. Although given how much of a hard time i had cutting down the side, i do wonder if i'd have been better trying to make it back up and trying to pick up an actual trail as that end of the range has the main peak which i think is walked a little more. I had definitely underestimated the walk, in total it was around 14km and around 1000m of ascent. I think the complete route would've been a similar distance and then maybe an extra 200m of elevation.
I've been feeling a bit weak recently during bike rides so that combined with the heat and also not being used to being out for that duration of time anymore. I keep thinking i'm still capable of spending >10hrs running in hills, but i've not done that for almost 2 years now and was definitely a bit cocky and under prepared/fueled.
From a few times i looked behind me, it was easier to see better route options for sections where i'd struggled on sections, so i think starting at the left side of the range in future would definitely make it easier. The one main section i truly hated had clear path on the other side of the ridge which would've saved a lot of time and effort.
Probably one for October/November time though when it's not 30C.
Whilst annoying to have not completed the full length, it was a good reminded that i do enjoy getting out and it's a long time since i've spent that much time in the hills walking. I've been eyeing up a few weekend hikes or potentially even longer up in the Pyrenees so this was good to show i need to prepare better.
I definitely prefer routes which have proper trails though. Just makes it easier to enjoy the views rather than constantly looking down which gave me horrific neck pain!
Couple photos below showing the general terrain.
I've been eyeing up a mountain ridge walk since we arrived. We're in a Valley and so one side is a fairly long mountain range. View from Google Maps below.
Cycled my MTB to the right side of the hill and then around the back of it to some land where we're building a house. It brought me up somewhere in the dip towards the right (number 1). As i wanted to do the full length, i walked to the end on the right first, then turned around to continue on the full length.
Was a weird mixture as some was relatively walkable trail and then other sections gave no indication as to the best route. I generally just tried to follow the highest points as best i could. However progress was fairly slow. Some of the descents were loose scree, and then other bits were just balancing on the side of 45degree slopes covered in loose stones and thorney bushes ripping me to shreds.
Was making fairly decent progress but as i was walking along i kept underestimating the highest point. I got to the point marked with a 2 which involved fairly tough scrambling, thinking it was my last big climb. I'd taken around 3l of water with me with a mixture of electrolyte drink and also some carb mix. Halfway up the scramble i finished the second litre and thinking i wasn't too far from the village at the end, drank around half my second to last bottle.
Got to the top, only to look down the ridge and see it continued to drop down and then pick back up again for the final climb with a few spikes in between, zoomed in image here
Got over the small spike before the final climb, but then took a bad route and ended up heading down off the ridge line on some fairly sketchy terrain. At this point i couldn't see an easy route back onto the top and didn't fancy backtracking to see if i could pick up a better route high up so decided to just bail and cut down the side of the hill towards a road where i could meet the wife. It obviously isn't a section intended to be walked any involved some very loose rock with no decent footholes, i slipped a couple times and slid a couple meters. Luckily nothing was steep enough where i fall would be dangerous, just lots of cuts.
I could see the road i wanted to get to, but just never seemed to get any closer. I think in an attempt to find the easiest route to the road i ended up zig zagging quite a bit. At one point i had to sit down and rest and could feel myself shaking a little and once or twice i think i was quite light headed and dizzy. Looking at Strava it took me just over an hour to cut down from the mountain to the road which is only around 2km and half of that was walkable track!
Full length of the walk ended up being just over 5 hours and i didn't make the full length which whilst disappointing was sensible. Although given how much of a hard time i had cutting down the side, i do wonder if i'd have been better trying to make it back up and trying to pick up an actual trail as that end of the range has the main peak which i think is walked a little more. I had definitely underestimated the walk, in total it was around 14km and around 1000m of ascent. I think the complete route would've been a similar distance and then maybe an extra 200m of elevation.
I've been feeling a bit weak recently during bike rides so that combined with the heat and also not being used to being out for that duration of time anymore. I keep thinking i'm still capable of spending >10hrs running in hills, but i've not done that for almost 2 years now and was definitely a bit cocky and under prepared/fueled.
From a few times i looked behind me, it was easier to see better route options for sections where i'd struggled on sections, so i think starting at the left side of the range in future would definitely make it easier. The one main section i truly hated had clear path on the other side of the ridge which would've saved a lot of time and effort.
Probably one for October/November time though when it's not 30C.
Whilst annoying to have not completed the full length, it was a good reminded that i do enjoy getting out and it's a long time since i've spent that much time in the hills walking. I've been eyeing up a few weekend hikes or potentially even longer up in the Pyrenees so this was good to show i need to prepare better.
I definitely prefer routes which have proper trails though. Just makes it easier to enjoy the views rather than constantly looking down which gave me horrific neck pain!
Couple photos below showing the general terrain.
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