As if it were not enough to be collecting Marilyns, Corbett Tops, Graham Tops, Donald Deweys, Deweys and Nuttalls, I have now added the Lake District lists by Birkett and Synge to my targets, along with the Wainwright Outlying Fells. The main purpose of these extra categories is to provide new hills for day trips, as they are under two hours away. However, although I do intend to complete them, I am finding these rather unsatisfactory. In many cases they are nothing more than a point where the angle of a ridge eases and disappears from view from the valley floor. They have wedded me even more firmly to the Marilyn concept that a hill must have re-ascent as well as altitude, and so I have downloaded the list of Humps and begun calculating how many of these I still have to do.
The year started inauspiciously, with encounters with a convoy of some ten vehicles engaged in a pheasant massacre above Cynwyd and then with a keeper baiting traps on Rawburn Head, but they improved with a magnificent flying display by two courting golden eagles above Glenmoidart.
My only island hill was Carn Breugach, where I had the enjoyable company of Ken Whyte, the most senior Hoffer I have bagged to date, whom I encountered waiting for the Kerrera ferry. Like many who have hit the Wall, Ken is now busy collecting and photographing trigs.
As always, I do not recognise bad days on the hill; just good ones and great ones. Some of the most notable were:
My Scottish target for the coming year is a Graham completion (only 11 left) after which I hope to make continued inroads into Corbett Tops and Graham Tops.
