At Christmas 1998, I gave my late father a Wainwright book. He did not particularly care for it, and he swiftly exchanged it for Andrew Dempster's Grahams book. A month or two later, I glanced through the introduction and I noticed the paragraph about RHB. I cannot remember exactly what attracted me, possibly the words 'enormous list'. Anyway, in April 1999 I was bagging Marilyns. By the year-end I was on the RHB Yahoo group and I had a subscription to the Angry Corrie. There was no way back.
For 2015, one of my targets was to start camping in the hills. So on a January night I was high in a beautiful snowy Cairngorm glen. I should perhaps have guessed, but this was really cold. The next day I was too sleep-deprived for Ben Avon, but Carn na Drochaide was good.
A trip to Skye brought only one Munro, and it was not the In Pinn. Something has changed, and this all feels much scarier than the Torridon hills did when I was 16. But I will probably try again.
I made my first ever visit to Ireland. I was there for work, but there is a bus from the airport to the slopes of Great Sugar Loaf, so that was the first thing I did. I definitely intend to return to the island soon.
The good thing about Tumps is that they are everywhere. Driving down to England there is usually a Tump just off the road. And so every occasion becomes a little more memorable. The bad thing about Tumps is that they can be a distraction from the bigger hills. Bings and being attacked by herring gulls on Inchcolm are interesting; however, in 2016 the plan is to head for the Highlands a little more.
