It was a difficult year that started with the death of my father in January. Whilst I miss him, he was a top hoarder and I seem to have spent much of the year climbing mountains of junk.
I managed three trips north of the border Simm and Marilyn bagging. At Easter, Julie Brown, Tove and I had a great trip based in Lairg and then Helmsdale. I was lucky to walk away from a minor navigational error and fell through a cornice on Ben Klibreck as I was walking out to Meall Ailein in a white-out. I fell nine metres through the air and had a slide of 15 metres down the northern snow slope, with wet snow helping to arrest my slide. It took 20 minutes to work my way across the face back to the ridge and tunnel back through the cornice to get back onto the ridge. So, if you wondered who made the Herman Buhl Chogolisa-like hole on Ben Klibreck, it was me.
The memory of the Simms bagged on Meallan Liath Coire Mhic Dhughaill and Beinn Direach will last long in the memory for the walking challenge and fine views. The bike ride out and climb of Ben Armine was another highlight. I was sorry to see the golf club and balls had disappeared since my previous visit. Climbing Scaraben and Morven gave the wildlife highlights of the trip, with an owl jumping into flight out of the heather. This was followed by watching three eagles in aerial combat over Scaraben.
Simm-bagging ptarmigan on top of Meall Ailein (photo: Alan Dawson)
Over the May bank holiday, I managed a trip based at Pitlochry YH bagging Simms off the A9. I had a senior moment whilst bagging Simms north of Dalnamein Lodge and forgot to pick up my map after a break at the ruined bothy at NN732774. If you find it, you are welcome to it. It took me ages to re-label its replacement.
The final trip of the year was spent with Tove and friends in a rented cottage near Spean Bridge. We had some great walks up Glen Roy and around Loch Arkaig. The highlight was Tove bagging her 600th Marilyn: Sgurr Cos na Breachd-laoidh. Clearly, my first ever present to her of a copy of RHB had proven inspirational. A repeat of Mullach Coire nan Geur-oirean in torrential rain ended in excitement as the back axle of my bike shattered on the track back home. Time for a new bike.
The year ended up with 60 new Simms and tidying up from 2014's Marilyn revisions. We have a cottage booked in Gairloch in 2016, so I hope to clean up 2015's outstanding Marilyn revisions.
Abroad, courtesy of a cyclone, we had a wet trip to Sri Lanka over Christmas 2014. Some good walking, but marred by pneumonia. In August we enjoyed a trip to Morocco with a repeat of Jebel Toubkal and an ascent of the Ultra, Irhil M'Goun, a great four-km walk along a 4000m high ridge.
