Brilliant effort Tim. Very well done. Good to work you today. Congratulations. ![]()
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All 3 ops worked on 40m despite my local noise. Well done everyone .A real pleasure to work you all, especially Tim on this momentum occasion.
73, Gerald
Well done. Despite some careful listening you were below my low noise floor so the skip must have been slightly too long. Hope the whole walk was great and you saved a good one to finish. 73
I’m not sure whose journey was the longest: Tim’s 30 years to climb 282 munros from the south of England, or Fraser’s and my journey from Aberdeen(shire) to Corrour! Scotland’s not that big, but there are no shortcuts. It’s only about 110 km from Fraser’s house to Beinn na Lap, but it was about 4¼ hours each way - including sneaking through a closed road, and getting the last parking spot at Crianlarich.
We met Tim at the station and boarded our train. Luckily Fraser has excruciatingly detailed knowledge of the trains, and so we knew to find the right carriages, and avoid heading off to Oban. The train ride offers views of many summits, and Shadow received much attention from a group of German/Austrian lady hikers.
We had plenty of time, so took a gentle pace up the hillside. The route is pretty straight forward, although without a beeping Garmin watch we’d have walked to Fort William without noticing. A few false ridge tops later, and we were on the final ascent. The weather was very variable, brief showers would pass nearby, or overhead, clouds would loom then disappear, but the wind was fairly consistent in blowing from the SE.
At the top 
When the final cairn came into sight (not too far away due to the cloud) the moment of realisation hit Tim
, as he paused before taking his final few steps….and compleat!
Celebrations were held - cake and booze aplenty for us and two others who were enjoying the peace of the summit before we came along. (Turns out this was his penultimate munro). With bellies full of birthday cake, fizzy wine, and whisky, it was time to get down to serious business.
Tim setup on the top, and was starting on 40m, I was going on 20m and Fraser was trying 2m. 40m was good, 20m was average and 2m very quiet! 15m was decent, I heard a couple of US stations but didn’t manage to work any, however, Tim did work ND0C on 15m. It was good to work many familiar callsigns and hopefully everyone who could managed to work Tim.
Head down in the radio meant I nearly missed the views opening up as the cloud lifted. Spectacular views all round from Ben Alder to Ben Nevis, but the next time I looked up the cloud was back and the rain was starting. We packed up and sat out the rain in the cairn and helped lighten Fraser’s hip flask.
The rain eased off and we started back towards the station. As we stopped to admire Leum Uilleim, GM/WS-110, Tim spotted a golden eagle soaring overhead - it’s huge wings and brown plumage contrasted dramatically with the white sky. We watched it rise higher and higher, as we tried to think what else could happen today to make it more special! ![]()
Back at the station and it was time to continue the celebrations! Dinner options included venison casserole, venison burger or venison curry!
It was soon time for our train back to Crianlarich. We wished Tim well on the rest of his Scotland trip, and Fraser and I headed back around and up to Aberdeenshire. What the roads lacked in traffic, they made up for it with cones, road works, and most painfully, 10 mph convoys.
What a truly enjoyable day! 
Epic Journey.
Andy
MM7MOX
A great write up @GM5ALX, well done all and especially Tim!
@G5OLD Not having ascended any munros (nearly got to the top of Ben Nevis with my father some years ago but we were forced to retreat due to horrible weather and ice at the top), I’m intrigued whether you made a conscious decision to end this fantastic adventure at this particular summit or whether it was just circumstance that led to this one being the final one?
A day out that money couldn’t buy
Fantastic report of a fantastic day, Alex. Not much to add from me, except a couple of shots of the lads at work, and a nice view.
GM5OLD GM5ALX bonny view pints back at Corrour stationIt’s a funny old feeling… years of anticipation wondering if you will ever get there… then suddenly you realise it’s all about to be over.
Beinn na Lap and Ben More on Mull are the two most frequent “last Munros”. It seems in both cases these summits don’t get done until later on in a round of the Munros… then when you realise they are still available they become a good choice.
Beinn na Lap, interesting adventure by train and easy enough for most family members of average fitness.
Ben More, island Munro with fantastic views.
Ben na Lap was my wife’s last Munros too.
Like getting promoted to the Premier League from the Championship. ![]()
Thanks for that info Gerald. That explains why Beinn na Lap is actually one of the (few) Munros we’ve ticked off. This was when our walking group booked 3 or 4 cottages on the Corrour estate for a week in May 2005 and we knocked off the odd hill with some care as there was still the odd cornice around. It was good to see a picture of Corrour station whicn I visted on a fairly dreich day when i seem to remeber seeing the odd comatose body (trains weren’t very frequent) and no sign of any venison or even the spoor of a haggis. ‘In fact nothing to laugh at all’.
Oh, by the way, many congratulations Tim on a marvellous achievement and don’t worry about the thought that you have finished and you have nothing to aim for now. This is apparently quite wrong as you’ve got to go back to all the ones in your pre-SOTA days and activate them, otherwise the job is only half done. ![]()
Viki
He’s doing all the Corbetts now. So that’ll keep him quiet for a bit.
Do Ronnie and Matthew know?
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Shadow is playing the part of Sooty.
Choose life…Choose SOTA ![]()
Thank you all for a fantastic day and comments ! Was great to work so many and a couple of really nice summit summit on the day:
@M0RWX in France on FL/VO-126 on 40m! and
@M0JLA giving me a complete of Ysgyryd Fawr GW/SW-016.
I didn’t take many pictures, enjoyed the day and have to say special thanks to @GM5ALX and @MM0EFI for making sure it was.
Also, thanks for the random group on the summit who ate half the cake and saved me walking it back down !
Well done, Tim.
I was so surprised when you came back to my call - I had spent several minutes listening at all the spots for your summit and assumed I had missed you. Very many thanks for the s2s and very glad to give you the complete. Apologies for being so late but I managed to get the mast guys tangled in the bracken - this took some time to sort out ![]()
Enjoy the Grahams!
73,
Rod
Tim, G5OLD, recently had email contact with me, and in my reply I included this photo of Shadow (copied from Munro #282 - Tims (G5OLD) big-day-out) …
Indeed, I was most surprised myself as I listened out for you the day before on 40m and could not hear you.
Again, well done on a fantastic achievement.
The Corbetts await….





























