UKH

Many of the world famous walks and scrambles have small paint flashes every so often to help with route finding. eg, the GR20 in Corsica and the Alta Via 2 in the Dolomites are two examples. To my mind these do not detract from the pleasure of the experience at all.

I have tried to walk/climb the Cuillin Ridge several times and always been unable to complete it due to low cloud and poor visibility which make route finding very difficult. Of course, if I lived locally I could just wait for fine weather before setting off. Then route finding would be easy peasy.

But like so many, I have to fix dates in advance and travel many hundreds of miles and the probability of getting a fine spell of weather is pretty slim.

I would love to see the route marked, or at least some parts of it with small paint flashes, not every 10m but in the key areas where route finding in cloud is difficult and mistakes are made. This would give all of us a better chance of completing a great route, even in the less than perfect weather that we are used to.

I'm happy to volunteer.

Dicksterios

In reply to Dicksterios:

Splodges of paint are easily missed, especially in mist.
A steel cable along the entire route and ladders on the climbing pitches would be better.

In reply to Dicksterios:

0/10. Nice try but too obvious.

In reply to Lusk:
Don't forget the hut on the inaccessible pinnacle. It could be called "The In Pinn Inn" and have the toilet aimed down the normal scrambling route to encourage people to pay to use the cable and ladder.

In reply to Dicksterios:

Just ask a local to show you the way, if you ask really nicely they may even carry your lunch and a flagon of wine for you.

In reply to Dicksterios:

Aye whatever...

In reply to Dicksterios:

I remember a story from the seventies about a French group who went out and painted a route up a British mountain for the kids to follow the next day. The story said that a bunch of locals went up and wire-brushed the paint off.

In reply to Dicksterios:

>I have tried to walk/climb the Cuillin Ridge several times and always been unable to complete it due to low cloud and poor visibility which make route finding very difficult.


If you can't find the way how will you mark the route?

Just sayin'.

In reply to Dicksterios:

Someone's beaten you too it. They've started marking the route........with turds!

In reply to Dicksterios:

Wouldn't be it too dangerous to do it in poor weather? Markings would only encourage for less experienced to wander into the danger.

Hi Dick Serious,

Seriously good idea, Dick!

One improvement - I think a continuous line would be easier to see. If you use glow in the dark paint then it will also stop people getting stuck if they're benighted without a headtorch.

You'll find people on this forum say that this paint would detract from the "challenge" of the route, but hopefully the increased traffic will also add some polish to key steps, which should mean anyone who might previously have got lost will instead slip off.

Please email me if you want an assistant.

In reply to humptydumpty:

Ha ha ha, lots of witty replies but not a single serious objection, or did I miss something?

In reply to Dicksterios:


So far from sensible that no-one's taking it seriously.

In reply to Dicksterios:

Paint, as others have said will be of limited value in poor weather. Have you considered using 5w lasers angled at 45deg every 20m? Would work well in fog!!

In reply to Dicksterios:

They should be very careful to mark the sections under the bridges and around the Goats.

In reply to bouldery bits:

Is that why all the sheep I saw in the lake district last week had paint on them?

In reply to Dicksterios:





If you can't find your own way along the ridge how do you propose to mark the 'proper' route yourself?

In reply to Dicksterios:


I've got a serious objection.

Everyone is laughing at you for a reason you know.

In reply to Dicksterios:

Never mind paint. I want it bolted.

In reply to digby:

But where are you going to get a 4km single rope?

In reply to Dicksterios:

Although compass is unreliable on the ridge for route finding, Dowsing always gives the same level of success, without the need for locating painted rocks.

Carbon fibre walking poles, if used on the walk in, make excellent dowsing rods, once on the ridge.
Best held up at an angle of 45 degrees to avoid the water from thunderstorms running down your sleeves, you'll find them very responsive to energy fields.

HTH

In reply to Dicksterios:

The cuillin ridge is an aspired to and special route because of the very thing you have been troubled with. It is a true mountaineering adventure that tests the climbers navigation and route finding skills like nowhere else. To route mark it would take this away and cheapen the route.
The Scottish mountains (especially those on the isles) tend to reward the climber in terms of sheer effort put in. The more you put in, the more you'll get out.
Liken this to the Alps and on popular routes we can use a similar adage, the more you are prepared to pay, the more you'll get out.
I'm calling troll

In reply to wilkie14c:

I think you may be a bit late.

In reply to Dicksterios:

How about a solid white line that becomes dashed where it is safe to overtake?

In reply to george mc:

use the in situ VF of course

In reply to Dicksterios:

Ignoring the ops idea...

What is a beast if a runner were to use coloured chalk to discreetly mark the fastest route in an attempt to beat the record? Would people object to that? It would wash off with the first rain.

Thoughts?

In reply to Roberttaylor:

It would not be in the spirit of the challenge and the record would be for a marked run with the original still standing.

In reply to davidbeynon:


lots of 50m ropes plus ducttape.

In reply to Dicksterios:
I travelled 1000 miles to do Cuillin Ridge and I did not finish it (because of bad weather). Don£ t smear it with paint please before I am coming back - at least

In reply to Dicksterios:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Rock-Roll-Mountains-Graham-Forbes/dp/184018969X

Too late. This guy was advocating a Via Ferrata years ago.

Floodlight the thing, lengthen the season into those shorter days,

In reply to pavelk:


My walk in to the Cuillin took 3 months, and this only after about 30 years of self imposed restraint, on the basis that merely driving there to 'do' it was profanity, and that I must wait until a suitably fitting trip could do it justice.

In old age, you and I might look back on our adventures, mining the rich seam.
By contrast, someone in need of a paint dauber to make their 'personal challenge' reliably achievable will probably barely register that it was 'done', sitting as it probably does, alongside their other personal challenges like the 3 peaks car-athon , Everest Base Camp, Machu picchu and feckin Kilimanjaro.

In reply to Lusk:



You forgot to mention a chair lift to the start on Gars-bhienn and a zip wire from Sgurr nan Gillean to the Sligachan Hotel....

In reply to Dicksterios:

A wire bridge across the TD gap would also speed up single day attempts.

In reply to Dicksterios:
shorely their must be an app in a way for this?

In reply to wercat:

I was just thinking that. Don't these new fangled GPS gizmos give you all the information you might want ?

In reply to GrahamD:


I believe so. I have been advised that there even an app for arranging the sort of weather you require for your trip.

In reply to Dicksterios:

Some quite short sighted ideas here, modest hut at An Doris, viewing platform, meals and take aways of course. Shouldnt be too hard to build a few good via ferratas there to make it more commercially viable. A little like the cosmiques hut, butwith a balcony like the telepherique station where you will have to climb past if doing the ridge, a bit of punter interaction.

In reply to Lion Bakes:


Go for a catapult and landing net instead.
Or maybe several in a row so you can really speed things up.

In reply to KevinD:

Just do the entire ridge traverse in one go using a cannon.

In reply to Dicksterios:

A few taps along the way? No need to carry all that pesky water

In reply to summo:
An Doris - named after Howard Doris?

They did indeed bild platforms

In reply to wilkie14c:

Are you really this stuck up and serious? I've a small inkling the OP was taking the piss.

In reply to Trangia:


The state I was in when I finished; I would have been sorely tempted by the zip-wire. Straight into the Bar would have done me just perfect!

In reply to Fat Bumbly2:


Funnily enough I rather like the idea of abbing into the TD gap on a dark winter's day and finding a Narnia-esque streetlamp there.

In reply to Barrington:


I couldn't agree more! The walk down to Sligachan in the dark, with the lights never seeming to get any closer was the hardest part of the traverse, not helped by being eaten alive by midges every time we stopped for a rest or pee. Never in my history of mountaineering was a pint at the bar so welcome....

In reply to Toccata:


I could accept that if it came with a Narnia-esque guarantee of perfect winter conditions at all times.