What superb scenery, Lionel! Thanks for sharing the pictures. Good to hear you are able to go out and enjoy your walks again.

Hi Puffin,

You are welcome...and thank you for your kind message.

Greetings from France,

Lionel

Thanks Lionel for sharing those. Also glad to hear you're able to walk in the mountains again. What height do you generally start from on your walks?

Cheers

Sheila

Hi Sheila,

And thanks for your kind message. In my area, for most of the walks I start from the altitude of 900 metres (3000 feet) or 1000, 1100 metres. For some walks it's possible to start a little bit higher if there is a road on higher ground.

I think that it's the big difference if you compare my area to Wales or Scotland. In Scotland you start walking from very low ground, sometimes sea level.

What about Wales ? What is the highest ascent you can do in Wales ?

Greetings from the Alps,

Lionel

Found this drawing on the Angry Corrie webpage.

I walked up Ben Ledi today, can't say too much as I found it a bit of a slog and had to stop every 15mins. Think we reached the summit after about 2.5 hours and the official time if meant to be 2hrs. No one told me going down is as hard as going up though! I'm waiting on mum to get out the shower then I can rinse all the sweat off, I was going to go swimming to help loosen off but mum needs the car. I think I'll have to tick off "hill-walking" on the list of thing I could do to make myself fitter. However the day wasn't all bad, the views of Loch Lubnaig and Venechar were excellent but we also saw a raven, cuckoo, meadow pippits and sky larks.

Here's some pics








In case anyone's having trouble imagining me getting to the top!

Hi Crunchie !

Well done ! Félicitations... Thanks for sharing your pictures. You got a beautiful day and really nice views.

Yes, hillwalking is a great way to keep fit and to enjoy life.

I am sure that not far from your home there are lots of hillwalking possibilities.

Keep going and share your walks and pictures on this thread.

Greetings from France,

Lionel

Crunchie

Great photos thanks! Brilliant weather for you. Much more fun than the gym eh!

Can't wait for Scotland tomorrow!

Jacqui

Lionel: Glad you liked the photos! There are many lochs surrounding Ben Ledi so the views were always going to be nice and we could see Ben Lomond and The Cobbler from the top. The weather could not have been better with sunny skies and a nice breeze!

Jacqui: Yep the weather was fantastic for walking yesterday in the Trossachs. The climb certainly allowed me to work more muscle than going to the gym but I don't think I'd manage it 4 times a week.

I'm sure hillwalking must be a great way to keep fit but I'm still undecided as to whether I'll keep it up, I've been looking at ways to improve my fitness including getting more excersise in what I alerady do (walking, swimming and biking) but also trying new things like the hillwalking. I've been trying to eat better as well but the climb yesterday was quite hard. My neighbour reckons Ben Ledi wasn't a great first climb and I'm certainly feeling the strain today with sore calves and a sun burnt neck. Certainly if I do any more walks I'll post the photos here but I'll need a bit recovery time first.

Great pics, Crunchie and well done getting to the top and still being upright - even if you did need to hold on to the trig. point for support!

Crunchie

Keep its up - I'm sure you'll love it and get hooked. Especially when you take into account all the wildlife you'll see!

I would say I was quite 'gym' fit but not very 'hill' fit. Big difference as I'm sure you're legs are telling you - you just can't hit the same bits in any sustained way in the gym. It does get easier the more you do it as your body does know whats coming up!

I'd love to get into the hills more often but its a case of gym 4 or 5 times a week and the far too infrequent trip back home to get up a hill.

Jacqui

The wildlife and views is the major attraction for me being the nature girl that I am. Problem is that my friend that went with me yesterday is desperate to get onto bigger hills. I don't think I could do much better than I did yesterday and I expect I'd need to do a few smaller ones first but I don't think he'll be too keen so not sure how to get around that.

Thing is does it get easier even when you're doing it infrequently? I'd only manage to do this kind of thing maybe once a month at best. I dunno really how fit I am (the treadmil gives me 4/5), put me in a pool and I can belt up and down all day long and do a lot of distance in that time but try me on a treadmil or hill walking like yesterday and I can take ages.

I tend to go to the gym 3-4 times a week (only going twice this week though - naughty me!), twice I'll try and burn as many cals as I can and the remaining sessions are spent doing weights mostly.

Crunchie, if you can do 20 mins on a stepper or stair climber 2 or 3 times a week at 90 to 100 steps a minute, then you can do any Scottish mountain walk there is. I do that and even at the tender age of 57, I still managed a 22 miler with 6500 feet of ascent 3 weeks ago. The main thing is to pace yourself. You'll get muscle ache the day after for the first few months as your legs get used to the bashing they don't get in the gym. I walk in Scotland with a 46 year old outdoor handy man. He does no gym work, just his job, and happily climbs Munros twice a year for 3 consecutive days, 6 months apart.

From a wildlife point of view, the higher you get, the less likely you are to see much apart from an eagle in flight. Ptarmigan are the most frequently seen birds with Snow Bunting and Dotterel outside winter. Some area have mountain hares. I saw perhaps 50 in a group on an easy Munro Ben Chonzie and that's not a million miles from Falkirk.

Great! The stepper machine! The one piece of equipment I tend to avoid like the plague (that and the cross-trainer).

Folk on another forum I visit are saying I'd have enjoyed it more if I'd picked something less difficult for my first walk. It's trying to convince my friend to take me to hills that are a little easier because he's way ahead of me and it would be a step back for him!

Don't suppose anyone has any easier hills in central Scotland I might attempt before I make up my mind? My mum suggested doing one or two of the hills in the Ochils like Ben Cleuch?