Go fourth: Munro bagger on going around again
At 2,500ft up with the wind in her hair Joyce Stephens reaches out and takes a firm grip on another craggy rock.
The 64-year-old has just completed her fourth round of all of Scotland’s Munros and, after finishing the last one, returned four days later for a better view.
Fresh from her ascent of Ben More on Mull she spoke about her love of Scotland’s hills which began 40 years ago. The retired IT security specialist’s mammoth round of mountains over 3,000ft high was mostly done without the obligatory woolly tammy or safety ropes.
“I am my happiest and safest on a mountain,” said Stephens, from East Lothian. “It is a wonderful feeling to have the wind in your hair, even in the rain and snow, and climbing to a fair height with great views and even better company.
“On Skye’s rocky Cuillin Hills, I will wear a safety helmet and scale it with a guide. Other than that, I am a free spirit and am happiest in a jacket in sleet and freezing rain. Often, I am the only one without a hat and white frozen hair. If the weather has been poor at the summit, I will sometimes go back when it brightens up for a clearer view over Scotland.”
Her love of mountain climbing has most likely slowed down her biological ageing, medical experts have told her. She said: “When I broke a leg in 2016, I was airlifted off by helicopter and the orthopaedic surgeon who repaired it told me hill climbing has probably kept my body young. I would recover from an operation to repair my tibia and fibula bones much quicker than most people. Being rescued by helicopter from a hillside in the Torridons in the north-west Highlands did not faze me, nor did injuring a cruciate ligament in my leg which left me having to hobble down the hillside. I just put it down to the price you pay for a love of Scotland’s hills and breathtaking summits.”
She started climbing Munros in 1987 and completed the first round of ascents in just over four years. Her love of the outdoors began when her mum Iris, who was widowed young, took her children for cycles. She said: “I lost my dad at a young age to lung cancer, and my mother was keen to help us invest in our health with a love of outdoors.”
Her most magical moments include seeing a rare and beautiful Brocken spectre after climbing Ben More recently.
The weather phenomenon is a mysterious glow which appears further down a summit and reflects the climber’s own shape on to a cloud or mist and is named after the highest peak of Germany’s Harz Mountains. Stephens’ favourite spot is a peaceful slope by Elgol on the Isle of Skye which looks on to the Cuillins and she has only visited once to date. She said: “I sat there for five hours looking at the views 15 years ago but have never been back.”
Meanwhile, a 10-year-old girl from Inverness has become one of the youngest people to conquer all 282 Munros. Quinn Young began Munro bagging with her dad Ian when she was just four. She said: “I feel proud of myself, but also a little upset because the adventure with my dad’s kind of finished.”