Most of my new Marilyns in 2015 were also Corbetts.
Braigh nan Uamhachan (photo: Jonathan Appleby)
Highlight: An overnight camp near the summit of Braigh nan Uamhachan. Still a bit on the chilly side in April, but it was just wonderful to be sitting by the tent watching the sky and the hills at sunset - changing colours and deepening shadows. Marvellous.
Easiest hill: Win Green, on a rare foray south of the border. I think this must count as the shortest hill walk I have ever done. It was so un-hilly that my wife, Sue, climbed it with me without realising that I had tricked her into climbing a Marilyn.
Toughest hill: Suilven. Not really tough, but sufficiently steep and exposed in parts that it needs to be treated with respect. I set off with a client from the Glencanisp road and we had a great time on the walk in to Loch a'Choire Dhuibh. Paul was a keen photographer and I think I learned more from him about landscape photography than he learned from me about hill-craft. We snapped away merrily on the exposed pull to the summit and then reversed the route back to the bealach. Descending south from the bealach was steep and loose, but we managed it and had a long but enjoyable bog-trot back across the moor to reach Inverkirkaig. Twenty-two kilometres for this route, which is pathless in places on the return to the Falls of Kirkaig.
High point: Ben Nevis again - reached the summit cairn nine times, mostly during guiding work on the hill.
Low point: Creag an Amalaidh. How many times have I driven past this wee gem of a hill? A steep climb the way I tackled it, and there was a ferocious wind blasting across it, which did not encourage me to hang around at the summit. This would be a great place for a picnic on a calm clear day.
Marhofn has been a source of inspiration for me - opening my eyes to the beauty and interest to be found on the lower hills of Britain. I now do not consider any hill dull, no matter where it is. Even the conifer-infested lower tops that are sprinkled liberally across Scotland have some attraction to them (honest). Maybe it is an age thing.
My back copies of Marhofn are lovingly filed away in a box file - and do occasionally see the light of day if I am trying to remember what other folk have said about a particular hill or route.
Eighteen years ago, I did not even know what a Marilyn was. I am still about as committed now as I was in 2001 when I first discovered the RHB website. But then with only 635 I still have a long way to go and plenty of hills to discover.
I feel rather sad really about the magazine ending. I am not a great fan of the Internet and prefer paper and pen to a computer even though circumstances often force me to turn to Microsoft Word. But all good things must end, as they say (whoever they were).
As for the future? Keep calm and carry on bagging. I plan to continue bagging Marilyns, although I doubt I will ever bother to criss-cross England and Wales to mop up the lower Marilyns south of the border - possibly more hassle than it is worth.
Man walks into a bar. Ouch.
