Winter Munro challenge, anyone?

So MMs, when can we see one of your names on this list?

Activating them all too, of course!

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It isnā€™t only MMā€™s that bag Munros! Many Munros are absent from our summit list and are not very distinct when you walk over them, but who cares? Its another tick on the list!

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Hi Matt,

not in winter I admit but already been done Scottish (GM) 10, 8 and 6 pointers completed and no doubt done by others.

A note of caution, with 282 summits and if we assume only an hour per activation and 12 hour days, it would take almost an extra 24 days to radio from them all, and then the winter season would be over before you finished!!!

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Thats seriously impressive, I was wondering if someone had SOTAā€™d all the Munros (At least the ones which are true Marylins). Now I know! and such an impressive commitment with a bunch of Corbetts in there - I am due to compleate this spring and it will have taken me about 154 ā€˜hillā€™ days over many many years.

A very interesting thought - how much time is added to your round through activating - I suspect that most of Scotland needs to be HF too, so added faff/time.

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I had a quick look at the Munroā€™s which are not Marylins. Some really surprising suspects i found: Cairngorm!!!, Most of the Cullin ridge, Sgurr Fiona on an Tellach, Most of the summits around Lochnagar including Mayar and Driesh, the list goes on.

The most extreme example I can remember is probably The Devils Point, which is only about 60m of re-ascent from Cairn Toul. I remember this as being a ridiculously easy climb from the bealach of Cairn Toul ā€¦ ā€œwas that itā€!. But the view from the valley/Larig Ghru is certainly fine;


The Devils Point with Corrour Bothy at its foot.

Most I would class as fine summits or mountains in their own right, I guess thats why Sir Hugh Munro was so arbitrary on classificationā€¦ summits he saw as worthy !

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I believe GM4WZP had QSOā€™s from all the Munroā€™s but before SOTA was set up.

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Learn something new every day.

There I was thinking the Scottish winter lasted from October - Mayā€¦ :snowman: :grinning:

I donā€™t know about May, but I have certainly safely cramponed up snow and ice routes in late April! OTOH I have sunbathed shirtless on a Munro in February.

When I first started to go to Scotland - wow! sixty years ago now - I was keen on working my way through the list of Munros, but gradually I became disillusioned. I started to find some Munros were, shall we say undistinguished? Some had about as much character as a slag heap, just heathery lumps. Some of the most memorable summits were too low to be Munros. For instance I would swap a dozen run of the mill Munros for Stac Pollaidh GM/NS-086, worth only two points but what fun! Then there is Suilven, NS-060, and Ben Loyal, NS-052, both worth 4 points, and my favourite Streap, WS-105, 6 points but just short of Munro status. I know a number of people who laboriously worked their way through the list of Munros but never set foot on any of the fun summits that I mentioned above and, as they and I are contemporaries, will sadly never know what they have missed!

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When you leave your crampons back at base in April, you risk what happened to me last year. Meall Corranaich GM/CS-010 should have been an easy ascent, but I needed them to get traction to climb the final slope. Mission incomplete! I am still miffed a year onā€¦ :angry:

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Iā€™ve done that, but fortunately had my ice axe with me. Cutting steps op the last couple of hundred metres gave me sore muscles and a lot of respect for the Victorian climbing pioneers, who had no crampons and cut steps quite routinely.

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Iā€™m aching just thinking about some of the massive days Anna completed. All the Fannichs, then ā€œpop alongā€ and do the two summits on An Teallach, starting up these last two as it went dark. Thatā€™s just one of them.

Near the end she started at Stob Ban, then the Grey Corries, Anaoch Beag/Mor, the massive drop down and up to CMD and just finish with a ā€œstrollā€ along the CMD Arete to reach Ben Nevis.

Next day after this do all the 5 summit around Ben Starav, before drving north nearly to Ullapool to start late afternoon/evening to pick off several she had missed by Beinn Deargā€¦ all at night in foul weather.

Just so she could finish that afternoon on Cairngorm and match the 83 days by Martin Moran.

Iā€™m in awe of these people who do so many summits and big days back to back.

I remember in the early 90s having a week in autumn when the weather was just perfect and I did 28 (plus a dozen or so Munro Tops). I needed a month to recover after that week. I was a similar age to Anna then.

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It often does. But less so recently!

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So true but for me the highest bar has to be Jamie Arrons who did a self propelled round in 31 days last summer, smashing the record. The days she did were unbelievable, with very little sleep and just huge: https://jamiesmunrochallenge.run/

I ran into her support crew when I parked up the night before attempting Beinn Sgritheall at about 9pm in June. By the time I started my ascent of Beinn Sgritheall at 4am (to avoid the heatwave) she had been up and down Ladhar Bheinn, Kayaked across Kinlochhorn and already summited Sgritheall ! Just at a different level of stamina, ability and fitness, and to avoid an injury during that timeā€¦

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Agreed. Had a similar experience on a February (think UK August) Fiordland Traverse. About day 17 of 21, and a long way back, no obvious alternative routes and the only bail options involving choppers or boat trips. 100 vertical meters down an dark ice-chute that probably never saw any sun - cutting steps with a single long-handed tramping axe, and wearing leather tramping boots (i.e. not my alpines). Donā€™t think Iā€™ve ever been so cramped in my life from toeing in, clinging on and cutting steps and handholds! Crampons (or a second, short-handled climbing axe) would have made all the difference. But in February - whoā€™d have thought ā€¦

Anywhere else Iā€™d probably have turned back ā€¦ which strongly suggests that that is exactly whst I should have done. But the reality of Fiordland is that day after day you find yourself forced to take risks youā€™d never contemplate anywhere else.

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