How wonderful it is to have a catalogue of all these hills so that followers are given the opportunity to tramp up hills and gain perfect solitude, view tremendous scenery and of course achieve the feel-good factor. As the years progress, hillwalking for me becomes less risky, I think. I now avoid the temptation of climbing in horrendous weather just to gain a high point in zilch visibility. This used to happen before my retirement. I have been fortunate that in over 40 years of walking the hills I have been caught out in a white-out only twice; Ben More (1C) on 3 Mar 1991 and Aonach Buidhe (12B) on 5 Apr 2006. Both were scary experiences. Risk, I suppose, is relative. Having time and choice to select a good day's weather (using the Met Office five-day forecast, which I find most reliable), most of my hills are solo experiences. However, I am very fortunate to be able to call on my partner Glenys to accompany me on perhaps a quarter of the walks, and our dog Judy comes along as well, although she has arthritis, so I must weigh up how steep and demanding the hill might be for her.
Ben More and Stob Binnein (photo: Alan Dawson)
