A Munro logbook.

It’s Summer 2024, I set a rather unrealistic deadline of 4 years hence to get all the Munros done – so far I’ve climbed about 77 of them.

Another 205 to go. So it seems like a good time to start tracking. I’m off this weekend for a lightning trip while “on my way” to a conference in England. The target is 4 in a round trip, with a couple of bonus odds and ends if weather, knees and time holds. Wish me luck.

2024-08-03 Geal Charn, A’Mharconaich, Beinn Udlamain, Sgairneach Mor

Louise and I made it through the western part of the Drumochter hills. A fantastic catch-up with an old friend, hill days are often as much or even more about the people you are with than the landscapes you’re walking through. Mixed weather, sunny, windy, showery but as so often in Scotland, the combination of lowering skies, sudden sunlight and bare hillsides mean distant views and sudden grandeur. Lower down in hidden parts, many blaeberries and crowberries, glorious heather in full bloom and little sparkling flowers here and there. On the tops, extremely bare, some signs of fossil permafrost activity in the boulder fields. The rude bulldozing of deer hunting tracks continues though, and lots of feeding stands around for grouse. I wonder if the natural vegetation could ever recover here after centuries of sheep and deer and grouse?

We talked as we hiked for hours, and a plan was laid for next year, which is going to mean quite some training, so it’s back on the running and climbing again….