Hillwalk Scotland

Valentines Day Quiz for Hillwalkers

Today is, of course, Valentines Day and keen hillwalkers of both sexes may well be interested in taking part in a fun quiz that appears on the Outdoors Magic website. In my humble experience hillwalking and relationships have always been somewhat awkward bedfellows. The perfect couple who love to get out onto the hills together, who climb at roughly the same pace and who have equal tolerance of bad weather is not a common occurance. The quiz captures some of the tensions that hillwalking brings to relationships and is a nice bit of fun if you've nothing better to do on Valentines Day!

Naked Munro Baggers

What is it about Munro baggers that constantly drives them to find different and unique ways to climb them all. Stuart and Karla are planning to stand naked on the summit of all 284 mountains in Scotland over 3000ft. So far they've done 11. Now as someone who has stood on them all, my very firm recommendation is Get Yer Kit On. I doubt if anyone has yet stood on the summit of every Munro on a nice day, far less stripped naked.

Nevertheless I wish them well on their venture and will be casting an eye (purely in the interests of research) on their website which displays the photographic evidence of their achievements! Incidently the site is graphic so don't surf there if your kids or boss are in the vicinity - you may have a bit of explaining to do

Fly Around Liathach!!

On a recent visit to the wonderful Kelvingrove Museum in Glasgow my young son had some great fun playing on Google Earth. For those unaware of it, it's a wonderful piece of virtual satellite mapping technology that allows you to fly across the world and zoom in on various locations. Its very clever, great fun and the basic version is free. Back home, I decided to download it onto my laptop as I thought the kids would enjoy it - and, yes, I thought it might be fun to play around with myself.

When you open it up there is a built in sightseeing tour of some of the world's greatest landmarks such as Big Ben, The Eiffel Tower, the Vatican and Manhattan. Of the three natural wonders included in the tour, two are in the US - Mount St. Helens and the Grand Canyon. The third is our very own Liathach, a wonderful Munro in the North West Highlands. Now I'm a great fan of that part of the world but to see it in such a high profile tour on Google Earth was, to say the least, a bit of surprise albeit a very pleasant surprise.

I couldn't help but wonder how on earth it was included. Is there some Scotsman(or lover of the Scottish mountains) working hard on Googles Californian campus who was feeling a bit homesick. I'd love to know how Liathach got in there before any of the other great mountains in the world.

Most Munros in a Day

When Sir Hugh Munro first classified the 3000ft plus mountains in Scotland, he had no idea of the ways people would find to utilise the list to find a way into the record books. The quickest round, the youngest, the oldest etc etc.

I only became aware quite recently of one of the most remarkable - the most Munros ascended in 24 hours. I came across it on the Scottish Hill Runners excellent website. In 1988 John Broxap did 29 Munros in an incredible 78 mile (33,000 foa). The full list is

Creag a'Mhaim, Druim Shionnach, Aonach air Chrith, Maol Chinn-dearg, Sgurr an Doire Leathain, Sgurr an Lochain, Creag nan Damh, Sgurr na Sgine, The Saddle, Sgurr Fhuaran, Sgurr na Carnach, Sgurr na Ciste Dubh, Saileag, Sgurr a'Bhealaich Dheirg, Aonach Mheadhoin, Ciste Dubh, Beinn Fhada, A'Ghlas-bheinn, Sgurr nan Ceathreamhnan, An Socach, Mullach na Dheirgain, Beinn Fhionnlaidh, Carn Eighe, Mam Sodhail, Mullach Fraoch-choire, A'Chralaig, Sail Chaorainn, Sgurr nan Conbhairean, Carn Ghluasaid

That is an absolutely astonishing list - I can remember how shattered I was after doing the seven on the South Glen Shiel ridge in a day. There are others who have also achieved remarkable totals and the details are here.