Marhofn 255.14 - May 2012

Less relative hills of Britain:

Humps Hall of Fame

Chris Watson

The Humps Hall of Fame has expanded from 26 members at the end of 2010 to 41 at the end of last year. There were eight new entrants to the Hall in 2011 plus seven who outed themselves during the year, several after buying Mark Jackson's excellent book, 'More Relative Hills of Britain' from www.lulu.com. The difference between using the e-book and having the real thing in your hands is amazing. A few are approaching the Upper Hall but there were no new members of this exclusive club in 2011. Less than half of those who had bagged 1200 Marilyns at the end of 2010 have confessed to moving on to the Humps. This is possibly because they do not wish to be distracted from completing the Marilyns or, more likely, the thought of working out their numbers is too daunting. A couple are also having trouble persuading their wives that this is not a list too far. We have had a few notable events during the year:

• In June, Rob Woodall became the first person to fully complete all the English and Welsh Humps when he climbed the Old Man of Mow. He was led up it by a friend and Phil Cooper took photographs - but didn't offer to follow him up.
• Seven of us joined Martin Richardson on his final English and Welsh Hump (excluding the OMoM) in early October. The weather and the going underfoot on the last mile along the ridge to the top of Glendhu Hill were both abysmal, and celebrations on the top were, to put it mildly, muted.
• Not so at the end of October when Chris Bienkowski, Jonathan Woods and myself entered the Humps HoF on Harter Fell in the Howgills. Nineteen people, including 11 members of the HoF, joined us on the top and there was a smashing cake (made by the Woods family) and lots of booze. Lindsay and Janet Munro also came up with a new chant to be used on these occasions.
• A week later, Rob Woodall (who else?) reached 2700 Humps on the island of Sanda along with 14 fellow baggers, including a couple of still undeclared Hoffers.



A smashing cake (photo: Douglas Law)

As before, an Excel version of the Humps Hall of Fame will be posted in the Files section of the RHB Yahoo group.