Season’s Greetings
IT doesn’t feel like a year since I wrote “It doesn’t feel like a year” in these pages, but once again Christmas is almost upon us.
Winter’s not everyone’s favourite season. Autumn, with its spectacular shows of colour, has more fans – as does spring, with its green shoots and promise of new life. And then there are the endless days of summer – which might even, on occasion, be a bit more than mild…
Winter, of course, brings short, dreich days of rain, sleet, snow and ice. But I love it – and not just because of Christmas and Hogmanay.
I look forward to winter because heading into Scotland’s hills becomes a real adventure. I love nothing more than battling through the elements with ice axe and crampons to reach some snowbound summit.
Since finishing the Munros, Scotland’s 3000+ft mountains, I’ve had great fun climbing the “lesser” peaks. The photo above, taken by my friend Ron Dorn, is of me on Beinn an Lochain, a Corbett – hills of 2500 to 2999ft.
It’s one of the Arrochar Alps and a superb minimountain, “lesser” only in the sense it doesn’t top the arbitrary 3000ft mark. Munros tend to hog the hillwalking limelight, but the more accessible Corbetts are often ideal targets for shorter winter days. It’s not all about Munros…
Donald Irvine, another of my friends and who features in this issue, rarely ventures above the 3000ft contour. He reckons he gets a nosebleed at such lofty heights.
Donald’s one of a select band of mountaineers who have completed hillwalking’s “Full House” – all the classified hills of Scotland. That’s every Munro, Munro Top, Corbett, Graham and, appropriately enough, Donald. It also includes hills known as “Furths” – the 34 3000+ft hills found elsewhere in the UK.
When he registered his achievement with the Scottish Mountaineering Club earlier this year, he was the 49th person to do so, compared to 6500 registered Munroists.
Fiona Russell tells his story on p68 – and those of Anne Butler and Norman Wares, two others who completed a Full House this year. You’ll be exhausted just reading it.
Merry Christmas everyone!
@Scotsmaged