Have worked too hard again and my targets to finish the Murdos and do more Grahams have suffered badly. Just when will I learn to get my priorities right? What has been lacking in quantity has been more than made up for in quality though. In addition, I seem to have perfected the art of work-related bags, with all-expenses-paid trips to Skye, South Uist, Harris and Lewis. The result was some superb and occasionally serious mountaineering in wild winter conditions on some spectacular mountains in Harris and Skye early in the year, and a whistle-stop tour from Stornoway to Eriskay in glorious December sunshine, with quick romps up Beinn Mhor (South Uist) and Ben Sciathan (Eriskay) on the way. Ski-touring in 2006 was a total non-event and I despair of the prospects for snowy winters to add to my collection of skied Munros. I've currently skied 47 but I guess many ski-mountaineers will have done more than that, particularly those lucky people who were ski-touring in the 1960s through to the early 1980s, when there were reliable quantities of decent snow. My partner Andy and I are continuing to combine kayaking with hillwalking and had several memorable trips. Highlights of the year included:
Uisgneabhal Mor (24B). This walk (or rather stagger, grunt and crawl) was completed with two relatively novice hillwalking colleagues/friends who had never experienced anything quite like it. Harris was in the throes of an extremely wild Scottish winter day. Snow was down to about 150m and there was a considerable amount of it: deep and slabby lower down, brick hard neve and verglas higher up. Demonstrating much good sense, my friends bailed out in zero visibility a few hundred metres from the summit and crouched down behind a boulder, sheltering from the teeth of a violent, screaming, hailstone-laden gale. They were unable to believe that they'd allowed themselves to be dragged up there and completely at a loss as to why anyone should wish to waste time, let alone risk life and limb crawling with the aid of an ice-axe, inch by inch, to the summit precipice. It felt more like an alpine peak than a little Graham on Harris - magic!
Creag Ghuanach, Beinn na Cloiche, Leum Uilleim (4A). This walk almost ended in disaster when Andy won the route choice argument and we set off up the craggy east face of Creag Ghuanach in pursuit of some rock. Rock there was, amidst the vertical bog, slimy dripping tussocks, lichenous loose blocks and tenuously anchored rowan trees. Thankfully we'd taken a long sling, but sadly not a rope. Much cursing and regret followed as we slithered on the vertiginous slime and debated whether retreat was safer than attempted ascent. However, eventually tenacity and a determination to survive paid off and we emerged, puffing, sweating, traumatised and smeared in bog on to the summit. What a peak and what a view! I got my own back later in the day, after an ascent of the second Graham, by insisting that we take a 'short cut' over Leum Uilleim back to Corrour station. The ensuing extra 400 metres of ascent nearly did for the rock athlete and he almost had to be carried back to the station. Incidentally, he wishes to be classed as a non-bagger but, as a close friend of his pointed out recently, he stands a good chance of being the first person to enter the Marilyn Hall of Fame who has no wish or intention of doing so. (AD: That is not how it works. I know of several people who stick to the SMC lists of Munros, Corbetts and Grahams but choose to deny that they are baggers and are not in the Hall of Fame, despite evidently having bagged at least 648 Marilyns. There's also someone with over 900 bags who doesn't want to declare his total in case Marilyns distract him from other goals. Entrance to the Hall is voluntary not compulsory.)
Slioch. We had a fantastic camp high up on this most magnificent of mountains, in warm, perfect summer weather. Spent the night and early hours alone at the summit in the cool morning and descended as the heat arrived and the hot sweaty walkers began to slog up the path. Surely this is the best way to do a popular mountain in the height of summer.
Glenelg. We enjoyed two superb summer weeks based at Eilanreach near Glenelg, with the same two pals who regretted the attempt on Uisgneabhal Mor (it can't have been that bad) plus Tony Kinghorn (recent entrant to the Corridor) and his wife Fiona. The weather was not perfect but we had several truly superb days for kayaking and hillwalking. Highlights included the round of Beinn Sgritheall and Beinn a'Chapuill from Gleann Beag; the magnificent Druim Fada, from Corran, and the superb Graham of Meall nan Eun (via kayak/canoe from Arnisdale). If doing any of these hills, be sure to visit Sheena's tea hut at Corran, on the north shore of Loch Hourn - good cakes and an extremely friendly stag.
Audrey Litterick (right) sharing an intimate moment with friends at Sheena's tea hut, Corran (photo: Tony Kinghorn)
Stac Gorm (9B). A classy wee peak with a lovely view, but has anyone had the accident I nearly had? I was asked to pose for a photo on a little crag just below the summit to the west. I trotted obediently down to the spot, slipped on some cunningly sited damp heather and narrowly avoiding crashing down into an almost completely hidden chasm in the hillside. Had I fallen down this 6m-deep gradually narrowing cleft of rock, the best I could hope for would have been a broken leg or two. Had I been alone, and become wedged down at the base of the cleft (easily done), I guess I'd still be there. Be careful on this innocent-looking wee hill.
Beinn Mhor (19A). The week around new year 2008 was not a good one if you happen to have been spending it in Crianlarich. However, Tony had the idea to take a trip west to chase the sun, and we found it on Beinn Mhor. What a magic wee hill. An easy (if rather muddy in places) track to the top and stunning wide-open views over the Firth of Lorn to Mull, Kerrera, Scarba and away out to Colonsay and Islay in the far distance, over fifty miles away.
Sunset over the Firth of Lorn from Beinn Mhor (photo: Tony Kinghorn)
'This is it. This is what I should have been doing all those years back at art school, and carried on doing for the rest of my life. Standing stones, Ordnance Survey maps, bleak landscapes. The power of minimal words, and walking. Walking: the only way to travel. Walking as an art form?'
Bill Drummond, 45
