Corridor Corner

There are plenty of Marilyn baggers outside the Hall. Those who have climbed between 400 and 600 inhabit a virtual 'corridor of obscurity'. Some of these 'corriadors' also have a tale to tell....

Jonathan Groves

I am now attacking the Welsh Marilyn list, whenever possible with my 6 month old daughter in her brand new Karrimor papoose. It's a case of adapting hobby to lifestyle (or is it lifestyle to hobby?). I think she is now into double figures. I am finding the list to be a really useful tool to exploring those other, unfrequented places. Corbett bagging (50-60) is a bit slow down here in Bristol.

Barbara Jones

Completed all the prized island Marilyns of Section 24D, all but Beinn a'Charnain on Pabbay from 24C, and visited all the trig points on the Isle of Wight. A pretty good summer on the whole. It certainly helps to have a husband with a boat.

Jon Metcalf

82 in the bag over 1998 (avg height 485m) These included the 501m Carn a'Bhodaich, which was tick no. 400. Corriadordom claimed! Favourite five of the year: Beinn Sgulaird - merciful release from the Munros (I can now do clear, unpopulated, and interesting hills). Ace hill top party. Meallan Liath Coire Mhic Dhughaill - brilliant topography (limited hints of this from the OS who spread it over n maps). Whitbarrow - go see the limestone pavement before it all ends up in suburban gardens. Crowborough - not a hillwalk as we know it Jim, but even better trig point concealment than Hill of the Wangie. Beinn Lora - a mini jewel. Is it possible to pack any more beauty into so few feet?

Ken Whyte

Devon and Cornwall was new ground. Most ugly hill: Dundry Down (41) - the summit is a dump and a landfill site. A close second would be Hensbarrow Beacon (40) where quarry spoil over-tops the trig point in more than one location. Most difficult to locate trig point: Mochrum Fell (27C) due to windblown trees. Future difficulty of access: Woodhead Hill (27C). New planting right over summit, no cairn plus high fence just below summit.

And then there are those who have not even reached the corridor yet:

Rupert Weare

Mouthwatering views of the M25 await you, and the tricky ethical question of whether to begin the ascent from the car park conveniently situated 7 metres below the sumit, or seek to maintain the purity of the mountaineering experience by starting from the coast 30 miles to the south. Such are the decisions you face when accepting the challenge of Botley Hill. We compromised, and started from another car park 10m below the summit and more than a kilometre distant. This proved a little over ambitious, as we failed to find the North Downs Way and ended up descending almost onto the hard shoulder of the M25 in our attempt to contour east. Still, with the help of some road signs we regained the summit plateau. Although the map shows the trig point actually obstructing traffic on the B2024, reality was, as I had feared, somewhat different. It was to be found on the wrong side of a barbed wire fence, in a field of sheep with their newborn lambs frolicking around them. An extremely tall person could have touched it by leaning over the fence, but being somewhat under 2m, the only option would have been negotiating with the farmer living right next to the field. I was not confident that I could adequately explain the vital nature of my mission to a simple country agri-capitalist. So I comforted myself with the observation that other parts of this flat field seemed to be even higher than the trig point, and decided to claim the summit from the middle of the road. Not all Marilyn bagging expeditions are so crap.

Roger Chapman

I did Mickle Fell (35A) in clear visibility and do not think that the grid ref of 804243 can be correct. As far as I could tell the cairn marked on the map is the summit and that is between 805245 and 806246 (I would go for 806245 myself). I paced it back to the boundary fence and found it to be 640 paces which I would have estimated to be about 600 yards which is the distance (550 metres) on the map between the boundary fence and the cairn.