UKC

Happy New Year. I recently noticed a reference to a "Round of Glen Coe" running route. Just wondering whether anyone on here has done it, has a description of the summits involved, and/or link to a route map? Thanks!

In reply to J Brown:

My version (by no means the only one, but chosen as 'an unambiguous circuit of every 3000ft top and extended Aonach Eagach from the Devil's Staircase')...

http://www.petestack.com/running/glencoe.html

In reply to J Brown:

Full Moon Addict has done a couple of Glen Coe rounds- his blog is here: http://longdistancechallenges.blogspot.co.uk/p/scotland.html He posts here occasionally and put some shots up in the last couple of days.

ALC

In reply to a lakeland climber:

Wow! Plenty of food for thought there. Thanks.

In reply to petestack:

Thanks Pete. I found your site last night after posting the question. That is pretty much exactly what I had in mind. I have a long term (probably, if I'm really honest with myself, unrealistic) ambition to do the Ramsay Round, so I'm starting to put together options to build towards that target. I love Glen Coe, so this seems like a superb day to aim for.

Thanks,

Jamie.

In reply to J Brown: The Tranter round is the obvious first one.. by doing that you recce 2/3rds of the route anyway..

Check the Scottish Hill runners long distance challenges page.. I think Pete may be involved..

Thinking of heading up to recce the Tranter this week, but fancy the Cairngorm 4000ers first, looks a classic loop.

In reply to J Brown: I wrote a description of the Glen Coe watershed (Pap, AE, Devil's Staircase, Buachailles big and little, Bidean range) in this book: http://www.cicerone.co.uk/product/detail.cfm/book/612/title/great-mountain-...

Timings are for walking (I'd never be fit enough to run it) but the route description and map are of course the same whatever pace you have

In reply to J Brown:

I did a round of Glencoe around easter 2011. Running along a deserted aonach eagach into the sunset at the end is one of my best running memories. It's worth considering carrying a couple of water bottles as there's nowhere to refill between the devil's staircase and the clachaig! It's a cracking day out, whichever list of summits you choose.

In reply to parkovski: Was looking at the SHR site and Alex Keith ran the Cairngorm 4000ers one July, starting at 5pm.. some evening run..

In reply to IainRUK:

Aye, I've been looking after those pages for the past year or so. But the stats for my round (which were copied from my site) predate my involvement and could also do with checking because I've found actual GPS tracks tend to measure longer than the map-and-string method used to produce them.

In reply to Dan Bailey - UKHillwalking.com:

Thought you'd be along sometime, Dan! On which note, worth pointing out that Dan's route and mine follow a slightly different rationale, with mine taking all the Munro Tops to update the classic 'Bobby Shields' round where Dan skips Stob Coire nan Lochan (which I so nearly missed in haste and thick cloud!) and Beinn Fhada but includes the Pap.


For a middling club runner, 12 hours still seems a decent yardstick for my round. Sure I can improve on my 10:55 (still haunted by the Bidean debacle and some other 'slow but not wrong' bits) to go sub-10 (maybe sub-9:30) and would expect someone of Iain's calibre to go a good hour quicker yet, but think Dan's route probably covers enough extra ground to take a tad longer.

Also (@Dan), bet you are (because *nobody* runs it all)!

In reply to J Brown:

That's what I thought...

Till I did it!

In reply to J Brown: I tried the round of the Munros, got half way and bonked. Looking forward to getting back and starting slower...

In reply to petestack: Bet I'm not... Well, definitely not at the moment (if ever)

In reply to Dan Bailey - UKHillwalking.com:

Thanks, I'll check out that book.

In reply to petestack:

Hmm, well I'm sure I'm a long way off trying at the moment, but I think its great to have long term targets to motivate my training.

Thanks everyone, lots of good tips here.

In reply to IainRUK:

Thanks Iain. Yes, I was thinking the Tranter would be a good route to try ahead of the RR. Probably going to try the Mamores traverse first and see how my timings compare to a Tranter / Ramsay schedule.

In reply to IainRUK:

Interesting. I'm thinking of trying this as part of the scottish 4000's with a bike ride in the middle this summer. Unfortunately I've now read the details on the site and no know it'll be bad form to go east to west and start at the cairngorm ski station. Arse. I was really looking forward to a nice sit-down rest!