Wednesday 25 February 2015

Scarborough Walking Holiday

Most of our regulars were away together in Scarborough last weekend - from Friday to Sunday. Philip had an unfortunate misadventure. He was thrown over twice by waves, injuring his arm on the first occasion, and falling on it again on the second. He had to be rescued by helicopter. Lets all hope he gets well soon.




(Pictures contributed by Ernie.)

Sunday 22 February 2015

Geoff's To Lindley Bridge & Back

The A walkers met today at Swinsty Moore Plantation Car Park (the one with the toilets), near Timble, LS21 2NP, OS grid reference SE 186 537 at 10 am. The distance and ascent of the walk were 10.6 miles and 1,570 feet, according to ViewRanger on an iPhone 4S. There were 3 people on the walk: the leader and two newcomers. The turnout was not encouraging, but most of the group were away together for the weekend. Here is the route, from an earlier recording:

http://my.viewranger.com/track/details/MTE5NTQxNQ%3D%3D

It was dry with a cold wind in the morning, and misty with heavy rain and sleet in the afternoon. It was nonetheless a good walk. We made rapid progress, despite difficult conditions under foot in places, finishing at 2:30 pm.

The snowdrops were in flower near Lindley Bridge. Spring is on its way!

Saturday 21 February 2015

Walk Difficulty Statistics

I have collected together the data from our programmes and my track logs for our A walks. I have data for only 28 walks (1 E, 14 M and 13 S), but that is enough to show the general pattern.

The average estimated length of an A walk was 11.0 miles, and the average actual length was 11.5 miles. Most of our volunteer leaders provided good estimates, but there were a few significant underestimates.

The average actual length of an M walk was 10.9 miles, and the average actual length of an S walk was 12.1 miles. (M/S walks have been counted as S).

Here is a histogram showing the number of M and S walks falling within each range of ascent:


Here is a graph showing the proportion of A walks falling below each ascent value:


About 30% of our A walks had less than 1,500 feet of ascent, and about 30% had over 2,000 feet of ascent.

Tuesday 17 February 2015

Ramblers Walk Grades

The Ramblers definitions for their walk grades are:
Easy Access - walks for everyone, including people with conventional wheelchairs and pushchairs, using easy access paths. Comfortable shoes or trainers can be worn. Assistance may be needed to push wheelchairs on some sections, please contact the group running the walk for details.

Easy - walks for anyone who does not have a mobility difficulty, a specific health problem or is seriously unfit. Suitable for pushchairs if they can be lifted over occasional obstructions. Comfortable shoes or trainers can be worn.

Leisurely - walks for reasonably fit people with at least a little country walking experience. May include unsurfaced rural paths. Walking boots and warm, waterproof clothing are recommended.

Moderate - walks for people with country walking experience and a good level of fitness. May include some steep paths and open country, and may be at a brisk pace. Walking boots and warm, waterproof clothing are essential.

Strenuous - walks for experienced country walkers with an above average fitness level. May include hills and rough country, and may be at a brisk pace. Walking boots and warm, waterproof clothing are essential. People in doubt about their fitness should contact the organiser or leader in advance.

Technical - walks for experienced and very fit walkers with additional technical skills. May require scrambling and use of ropes, ice axes and crampons. You must contact the organiser or leader in advance for further details.
It is clear that Leisurely and below are not applicable to our walks. Technical may apply to some of our A+ walks. For A walks and below, that leaves us with just Moderate and Strenuous.

Moderate walks are for experienced walkers with a “good level of fitness,” and Strenuous walks for those with an "above average level of fitness.” The population under consideration is “experienced country walkers”, or equivalently it seems, “people with country walking experience.” However, there is a big difference between the fitness levels of different walking groups, even in the same part of the country, and our walks are advertised nationally. It is difficult to see how we can make a worthwhile assessment on this basis.

Moderate walks may include some “steep paths and open country”, and Strenuous walks may include “hills and rough country.”  When does a steep path become a hill? When does open country become rough country? These are difficult questions to answer, but most of our walks contain hills by any reasonable definition, and it appears that they should be graded Strenuous.

Is an above average level of fitness necessary to walk up a hill? Only if the "experienced country walkers" under consideration have a very low level of fitness. The bar appears to be set very low here. These grades do not look very useful to our own experienced walkers.

ViewRanger

ViewRanger is a free App which runs on iPhones, iPads and Android devices. ViewRanger can be used for navigation, showing your position on a moving map, and for recording walks. Open maps are free, but you have to buy OS maps. Landranger for Yorkshire and Humber and the National Parks of England and Wales cost under £10. Here is the manual for the iPhone:


On an iPhone 4S, recording one of our walks takes about half the battery charge in Full Accuracy mode. I have had problems with Power Saving mode. It is important to turn the display off when you are not using it, using the sleep/wake button. Disabling WiFi and 3G also saves power.

It is important to change the name of the track to something meaningful before starting to record another track. Unwanted tracks can be deleted by selecting Advanced in the track Details. If you forget to stop the recording at the end of the walk, it is possible to create a route from the track and delete the relevant section. (Display the route on the map. Select the last way point. Tap Edit, tap Delete, tap OK, repeat...)

Tracks and routes can be uploaded to the ViewRanger website at the click of a button. GPX files can also be imported and exported:


(N.B. It is necessary to scroll down in iTunes to see the file sharing interface.)

On the ViewRanger website, you can view all of an author's routes and tracks by clicking on the author's name. It is possible for anyone to download routes from the ViewRanger site. This facility is not available for tracks. On the other hand, timing information is shown for tracks, and statistics are shown on the View Ranger website. (N.B. You can get statistics for a route by downloading it to your phone. The statistics given when an on-line map is selected are grossly inaccurate, however.)

Also see Getting Started with ViewRanger.

Monday 16 February 2015

Ernie's Looking for Lost Lad

The A walkers met yesterday at Strines Inn, Mortimer Road S6 6JE, OS grid reference SK 222 906 at 10 am. The distance and ascent of the walk were 12.5 miles and 2,050 feet, according to Satmap. There were 33 people on the walk, plus another who did not make it to the start on time. Yet another good turnout, despite the long travelling distance for many of us. Here is the route:

http://my.viewranger.com/route/details/NTQyNDM%3D

It was a dry day, but there was snow and hill fog on the high ground.

On top of Black Tor

(The route and picture were contributed by Ernie.)

Saturday 14 February 2015

Pisser Clough

Pisser Clough finds its way onto everybody's list of rude place names, e.g.:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/earth/earthnews/8419352/National-Trusts-silliest-walks.html

The National Trust walks mentioned in this article do not appear to be on their website. I did, however, find a short walk visiting Pisser Clough, elsewhere on the web:

http://www.walk4life.info/walk/greave-clough

This link does not mention the famous name, but the map clearly shows Pisser Clough, Pisser Hill and Pisser Rough.

The name Pisser Clough can apparently be traced back to shortly after the Norman Conquest:

http://reshistorica.historyboard.net/t103-origin-of-place-names

Pisser Clough was discussed on Women's Hour on Radio 4 some time ago, along with other odd placenames. A local West Yorkshire historian traced the name back to a barony boundary map on which three cloughs were itemised in near proximity to each other ("clough" might sound like it could have come from the Gaelic "cloch" - stone - but there is no reason to surmise Gaelic connotation in Yorkshire, which leaves the standard interpretation of "wooded vale" as the logical choice of meaning, whatever the supposed etymology). Each clough was listed with a comparative description based on size and the lesser of the three was marked as "pissen". Since the boundary map was from early post-conquest it is a fair assumption that "pissen" was simply a rendition of the French "pissant", meaning insignificant or least significant.

Pisser Clough is indeed rather unimpressive, but the path over it turns out to be very interesting. There is no signpost on the Widdop Road, and the start point is difficult to find, but the path is not difficult to follow after that. It is, however, precarious in places, with a steep drop on one side. It also has a collapsed bridge, and the bridge over Pisser Clough itself has seen much better days. The scenery is very good, however.


I met three men working at the end of the path. They told me that I was the first person they had seen for three days. Despite its fame, Pisser Clough is not much walked.

The path onward through Greave Pasture is not marked, and there is no path on the ground. It is also rather heavy going, and the views are not especially good. It is better to continue via the track to the Calder / Aire Link.

Sunday 8 February 2015

Pauline's Commercial Folly

The A walkers met today on Reservoir Side Road, off Back Lane, Blackmoorfoot HD7 5JW, OS grid reference SE 102 131 at 10 am. The distance and ascent of the walk were 10.8 miles and 1,742 feet, according to ViewRanger on an iPhone 4S. There were 34 people on the walk. Another good turnout. Here is the route:

http://my.viewranger.com/track/details/MTM5NzExOA==

It was a cold but dry and sunny day. There was very little snow on the low levels, but much more on high ground. The views on the high ground were very good. On the highest section, on Shooters Nab, we crossed a heather more with several inches of snow. There were also some steep slippery inclines. Nonetheless, the walk was mostly easier underfoot than on Philip's walk. We also crossed some Access Land where shooting was taking place, and the signage was not clear. Fortunately the shooters saw us coming, and no one was hurt.


Nearing the top of the climb, but with the really steep bit and the shooting hazard yet to come.

Sunday 1 February 2015

Ollie's Oddballs Going Nowhere

The A walkers met today at the dead end of Meynell Road, Colton, Leeds LS15 9AQ, OS grid reference SE 370 328 at 10 am. The distance and ascent of the walk were 13.2 miles and 1,069 feet according to ViewRanger on an iPhone 4S. This puts the walk ahead of Keith & Nita's Flock to Flockton in the race for the Tape Measure Award. There were 39 people on the walk, according to Kevin. Here is the route:

http://my.viewranger.com/track/details/MTM4MzExMQ==

It was a sunny, dry but cold day and the walk was very muddy. Nonetheless, Keith & Nita's walk is probably still in pole position for the Hippo Award.