January: avoiding the UK winter we found our way up Cerro Tancitaro. Not the most exciting of summits, but it is an Ultra and my hundredth.
February: a winter wander up Meall Ghaordaidh with Dave Hewitt, for the trig and a few tops.
March: good day on the Beinn a'Ghlo group. Bad day on Ben Alder - flu or just incipient old age? Cracking day above Arkaig - Ciche, bits of three trig generations, and along the ridge to Fhuarain.
April: Crete: snowy Psiloritis summit in a gale. But it is an Ultra. And it is Andrew Tibbetts' fiftieth.
May: a long overdue revisit to Canna. Next day on Eigg, I miss the boat back and have to Strangeway* it.
June: John Mackay's island madness. Of the many highlights, Flannan is way up there, ten P30s needing to be bagged. Also, being stared out by a razorbill during a rather interesting ascent of Lord Macdonald's Table off Trotternish.
July: a different kind of ultra: I briefly find some running form to complete the Joss Naylor round, 48 miles across the Lake District in less than twelve hours - the classic fellrunning challenge for over fifties. About 17000ft of ascent, including half a dozen Marilyns, although that is not the point.
August: Cloud Peak in Wyoming, remote, cairngormesque. An Ultra and the last in Petter Bjorstad's set of 57 to complete the USA lower 48 states.
September: Marilyn baggers' trip to Japan for eight Ultras, with Adrian Rayner, Andrew Tibbetts and three US friends.
October: AGM fest. Hofferspotting at the LDWA Hill Walkers Register weekend, Grasmere this year.
Trigbagger spotting at Tiverton: the Unofficial Flush Bracket Register group collectively bags its last OSGB trig pillar; between us we have bagged all 6257 known pillars over several decades.
Joss Naylor Lakeland Challenge annual dinner - hard-earned.
November: a rainy Cowal Hump is my 2800th.
Adrian Rayner and I join Richard and Denise Mclellan for a couple of Egyptian Ultras.
December: to Guildford with Myrddyn and Del, to celebrate the life of the prolific hill-lister Clem Clements, with a wide range of people reflecting his wide range of specialisms.
My year ends in central America, with Adrian Rayner and two US friends, bagging Guatemala's six Ultras plus the El Salvador national highpoint. We are assured the New Year's Eve explosions heard from our Guatemala City hotel are only fireworks. Probably.
*Strangeway: verb (used without object) to take the rest afforded by a suspension of voluntary bodily functions and the natural suspension, complete or partial, of consciousness whilst on a Scottish island. Origin: From Andy Strangeway, who has slept on all Scottish islands in his own list. See www.island-man.co.uk.
Canna (photo: Martin Richardson)
