I had been steadily accumulating summits over the years (Munros, Nuttalls, Deweys etc) and so began to turn my attention to Marilyns. My 600th was Myarth on a dark and wet January night - always my favoured conditions for tackling hills for which access is awkward. Progress since then has slowed somewhat, having exhausted the supply of nearby Marilyns (England complete and just three left in Wales), so I now have to travel to Scotland (a long way from Milton Keynes) to further boost my tally.
I recently discovered an old diary, from a 1991 trip backpacking around the Outer Hebrides, which included accounts of ascents of four Marilyns on Barra and South Uist that I'd previously not counted. I didn't tick lots of lists in those days and had never heard of anything apart from Munros. So I've found that my entry into the Hall of Fame wasn't on Myarth after all but the one four before that. I did five that day, so the 600th must have been my first one, which was Wentwood. Not as memorable as my night-time ascent of Myarth, but it could have been worse; 599 was Crowborough, almost certainly the least attractive and most pointless hill I've 'climbed'. I suppose people's records must change all the time as new hills are deleted and added.
