Clive vs Mr Naismith

Looking north from Sron A'Choire Ghairbh toward Loch Ness : its a wee bit windy !

Naismith's rule gives an estimate of how long it may take to cover ground on the ascent of a hill.

Allow 1 hour for every 3 miles (5 km) forward, plus 1 hour for every 2000 feet (600 metres) of ascent.

My copy of 1992 "The Munros" uses a slightly different similar calculation of 

4.5km per hour plus 10m per minute for climbing

but the results turn out to be similar.

A week in a cottage north of Fort William on a King family holiday spent most of the time doing jigsaws, child friendly walks and bike rides and trying to get motivated to go out an do a few hills. On the last day I set out a 3pm to do Sron a'Choire Ghairbh and Meall na Teanga which are just west of Loch Lochy. The time given by the book to the 1st summit was 3 hours 40 minutes and to the second was 4 hours and 40 minutes. The 1st half is on good path or forestry roads and the second part of the walk in is on rough track or no track with some peat bog hopping. I took the direct approach from the west up the steep nose, rather than from Carn Bhealach which was much rougher, but a fraction shorter.

Post Bob Graham I have been in a bit of a motivational lull [ I set out on the Tuesday morning at 7am and ended up driving 2 miles up the road before deciding I could not be arsed, turned round and went back to bed ], so not been full of motivation and fight on the running front of late, so was not really pushing myself to my limit on this outing which maybe was no bad thing, this was a family holiday.

Got to the summit of Sron a'Choire Ghairbh in 2 hours dead, a 100 minutes quicker than the book schedule and Meall na Teanga in 2 hour 40 mins so that gains another 20 mins on the book times. Carrying an appropriate amount of kit no doubt slows things down a bit, and I was no where near race speed. Suspect I have lost some of my hill climbing spark in the last 10 weeks.

Only took 1 photo, the wind on the top made us both struggle to run into it. Hounds ears and cheeks were flapping around in the wind a bit. On a clear day this must be one of the best hills for a view in Scotland. Ben Nevis to the south, looking up the great Glen from above to the north, but a cracking view in each direction. Some interesting ridges which are worthy of further exploration, but time did not allow on this visit. These are hills I must visit again.

It got dark while I was on top of the ridge, but had no problem hitting one of the streams and following it down to the entrance to the Forestry and the path. all done in just over 4 hours, could have taken 30 minutes off this time with some application. I would have guessed 4 years ago it would have taken 7 hours-ish as a walker. Without the experience of wondering around the Lakes at night I would not even have set out at 3pm in the certain knowledge I was be doing a fair part of the outing on remote and unfamiliar ground in the dark. 

In no way does this suggest Mr Naismith was slow, but using 2/3 of his figures should be a safe guide for a slow late afternoon outing.


On the training front I have done a little running, but have started going to Circuits in Aberystwyth Sports centre to contract the observation that I may have legs like a bullock, but my arms and core are in serious need of some work. Finding it hard, but that is no bad thing. It a good way of getting my enthusiasm back for exercise, I am sure the running bug will follow in its own time.