I’ve been toying with the idea of getting a GPS for some time, but my main objections have been “Too expensive, and I can navigate, so why bother?” However, Maplin were selling these fellas Lowrance IFinderGO2 half price, so I bought one. They do look a bit like the should have been sold in Lidel rather than Maplin, but still, for £49,  I thought it was worth seeing what all the fuss was about.

My initial impression of using a GPS was 7 or 8 years ago on Lochnager before Bill Clinton switched off the selective availability (I wonder if Dubbya would have??), and quite frankly is was shockingly bad, so I was quite impressed that a modern unit gave a 10 figure OS grid reference that was actually near where I was stood. A still sceptical me used it for a whole afternoon at the weekend, and yes, once it “warmed up” it seemed pretty accurate, but a monumental pain-in-the-proverbial keying in way-points and pressing combinations of buttons in the rain.

There’s a good amount of error transferring 10/8/6 figure grid references to/from OS 1:25,000, and even more from a 1:50,000 – so you’re always going to be estimating where you are. So even with a receiver – you need good awareness and map/contour interpretation skills if you’re on mountainous terrain.

My view – I think a GPS is a good toy to have with you if need to re-locate and you’re not confident relocating. If you’re visiting a region many times, it may be a good tool to programme in way-points, say for the bottom of a climb – but if you’re going there often, you’ll know where you’re going!

But as to whether I’d use it day-to-day? No – I don’t think I would. It’s slower to use than a map and compass, and you still need to interpret a grid-ref and say “am I here, or is there an error that puts me off?”.

I do think it’s a good teaching tool – track your day out nav. training and add a quick way point to see “were we where we thought we were?”, and display them on a screen once you get back by uploading to a computer.

At the end of the day, we’re always falling back to a map and compass – so why not just stick with them?

What a big week I’ve had(hence the title of the piece). On the weekend of the 10th and 11th of Feb I helped out on a winter skills course run by Ron Walker under the auspices of his company; Talisman Activities. This was just what the doctor ordered for the run up to the Winter ML assessment next month. We covered all the classic self arrest and crampon procedures as well as snow assessment and emergency shelters. It really was invaluable getting an opportunity to teach all that stuff.
On the Monday I tagged along on Day 1 of a mountaineering course looking at snow belays and safe travel skills with Talisman.
I then directed the snub nose of the vw camper west ending up beneath Creag Meagaidh. On the 13th I headed up the so called Easy Gully on the cliffs overlooking Coire Ardair. It would have been much easier had it not been 450m long! What a place to be, though with its awesome rock and ice architechture. I had to nav in a white out to the sumit which was a joy(seriously). A few people I talked to on the way down had abandoned the summit due to poor vis. You wonder that if you are out in winter you should really have the skills to find a big feature like as summit in a white out. At least they recognised their limitations and called it a day.
On the Wednesday I was solo again on the Mamores gaining Sgurr a Mhaim via the Devils Ridge from Kinlochleven.First time I’ve ever been able to see owt from the top of a Mamore and it was worth the wait! Gorgeous clear views in every direction and the snow was geat fun on the ridge,
I teamed up with the erstwhile D Virdee on the Thursday in order to walk in and snow hole ( or Sner Herl as our geordie chum would say). We headed up with brutally heavy packs thru the white out to Garbh Uisge Beag round the back of Hell’s Lum. It took a mere 5 hours to dig thru some bloody hard snow. We were in and hydrating the cous cous before 7 at any rate. Out in fine clear views under Hells Lum stopping for an hour to climb on some ice smears to the south of it. 7 days on the hill out of 9 in oher words blooming marvellous!
Sorry no photies of the first part of the week but here is a flavour of the snow hole exped.

L to R: Mini lantern; looking out to Loch A’an; Snown-henge – posts and lintels made of snow!

Some short clips of snow-holing in the Cairngorms

Clip 1 and clip 2 (opens in Google Video in a new page)

A short film of Andrew cutting steps on Google Video- no sound.

Looking over towards Ben Macdui – patchy cover. Some ice forming in places on Hell’s Lum, but nothing to climb. The snow was crisp and hard in places - but softened in the sun.

We climbed a busy Afterthought Arete - great, easy scramble with a couple of tricky steps. About four teams on it, but a lovely climb in the sun!

We came back over the Goat Track – bomb hard snow and ice – crampons essential!

Lots of snow still for winter skills and mountaineering, with snow forecast this week. Drop us an email if interested info@mountainactive.co.uk