UKC

I am heading up Buchaille next week to do curved ridge, my friend has done it once in summer but they downclimbed off

I was hoping to get some grid references for the walk off for my gps a bit like Dan Bailey does for his route cards so we have a backup if we have a whiteout if anyone knows the route or where I could find it I would appreciate the help
Thanks

In reply to LJJ77:

I generally get grid references off a map. But maybe I'm missing something.

In reply to Robert Durran:

I don't believe you are...

In reply to LJJ77

You might not be a club sort of person, but reading your profile, this group looks to be close to where you live.
They ( or one of the many winter skills courses run in your intended area) might be just the thing to help you become more adept at planning an adventure, and then maximising your chances of a safe return from it.

http://clwyd.clubmesh.com/

In reply to LJJ77:

You obviously know about GPS, I haven't got one. It seems to me that you need to do more judging yourself. What if the whiteout is before the summit. Walking up to it will be as hard as walking down from it as in a whiteout you can go down when wanting to go up just like that.

I know some people share the grid reference to get off Ben Nevis at the summit, probably in this case and many like it you are looking at 2 grid references for starters and accurate judging of distance.

If you are in a whiteout in my opinion your most important skill is pacing as you really do not know up or down hardly anymore .This assumes you already know how to read a map and set a compass pretty well.
Therefore if you cannot do map or compass well you must know where you are on the way up all the time as practice. Any point you cannot find where you are and some pacing to test it fails, seriously consider going down for somewhere safer to get it learnt on.
I am often a bit clumsy without pacing as I can find cols and spurs everywhere, but a bearing is useless if you are in the wrong place except to prove you are in the wrong place.
For pacing test how many steps you take for 100m and carry pebbles to remember your count to 1000m. 1000m is a surprisingly short distance on a Munro ridge.

I don't see how a GPS can help somebody who cannot do map reading well already. If something goes wrong and the GPS told you where you are then surely you really do not know where you are.

In reply to howifeel:

Thanks for the sensible reply but maybe I should of made clear a few things both of us know how to navigate (my mate is ex military) and I am capable of taking the grid ref off the map to mark waypoints for the route down but there can be a discrepancy as you pretty much have to guess the last numbers hence the reason why I was asking if there was a route card with the grid ref on it as they would of been taken by someone marking them down en route (more accurate) I like to have a belt and braces approach when heading into unfamiliar ground

In reply to LJJ77:

If you take a grid from the map, 6 figures is easy. 8 Figures is also ok with care, and gives you sufficient resolution and accuracy for normal nav (10m resolution if I remember correctly). Putting a 10 fig grid into your GPS won't give a significant real world advantage over 8. Why don't you get your map out and find them yourself? Or have I missed something? Is it just that you want the extra resolution of a 10 figure grid ref?

In reply to LJJ77:

If you actually look at a map to get the hang of the topography, you'll see that the descent from the summit to the top of Coire na Tulaich is straightforward with pacing and compass. If you're desperate to get GPS coords, try looking the mountain up in WalkHighlands. Depending on what the weather does between now and when you're there, your main concern may need to be avalanche risk both from the top of Curved Ridge to the summit and in Coire na Tulaich.

In reply to LJJ77:

If you are after a gpx route to follow, I'd recommend http://www.bikehike.co.uk/mapview.php

This gives access to OS maps (only 1:50k i think) and you can use it to plot your route and then export it as a .gpx file. Stick that in your GPS and away you go!

In reply to galpinos:

If you register (for free) then http://walkhighlands.co.uk/maps/ gives you access to 1:25K maps

In reply to Simon Caldwell:

Didn't know that, thanks Simon.

In reply to galpinos:

If only they'd get round to mending the UKH mapping...

In reply to LJJ77:

Ta, it was as noted just in case.

In reply to LJJ77:

I wasn't pretending to be looking to for a heart of gold, what was your headtorch for?