I started going up mountains doing the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, and visited Scotland for the first time, back in 1985 for my Gold expedition on the Isle of Skye. It was a long time ago, but I remember being completely blown away by the mountains and how absolutely stunning the Scottish Highlands are. I was hooked!
Fast forward 40 something years and I’m still climbing Scotland’s mountains. Luckily, I live a lot closer to them now than I did growing up in London. So close in fact that I can walk up my nearest mountain from my front door.
In spite of many years saying that I wasn’t a Munro bagger (mainly because I wan’t keeping count, not because I wasn’t going up them), I now find myself among their ranks. Running a hostel where the majority of our guests are Munro baggers I inevitably got round to counting for comparison and discovered that I was almost halfway through. I had inadvertently joined the club and have been doing my best since then to add to my tally. Just before Easter this year I reached 200 (out of 282).
We’ve hosted a lot of final Munro groups at the hostel over the years and it’s always lovely to welcome back guests whom we’ve got to know well on their Munro bagging adventures for their big “compleation” celebration.
I recently took part in a friend’s final Munro on Schiehallion (a second ascent for me and not number 201!). It was great fun to be on the other side for once and to take part in the walk and the party afterwards.
I still have 82 Munros left to climb. I hope to be able to say, one day, that I’ve climbed them all. More importantly than reaching the magic number, though, I’m looking forward to some fantastic days out on new mountains as well as revisiting Munros I’ve been up many times before. I’ll also be going up a Corbett or two but that’s a whole new bagging journey!!