By best estimates dad started his Munro journey 40 years ago with an ascent of Cairngorm. His companion that day – mum, has gone on to summit some 70 munros herself – that is more than myself or Col.
Dad now has about 20 munros to go – none of them easy ones as when he started he didn’t set out to do the munros. It has kind of evolved, perhaps starting when we got him a Munro book and he started ticking them off. He used to spot trains, so that could explain that.
He has been on the final push for the last 5 years or so. On his 70th birthday he got the Inn Pinn. But had he planned it the remaining munros probably would not be on his preferred list.
The final push was halted a year ago when he suffered a heart attack. It threw into doubt a lot of things but for him there was no doubt he would be back up in Scotland slogging up a hillside. The first tentative steps was a family trip halfway up Snowdon in February, the second was a full ascent with mum in May, the 3rd was a 3 hour hike with full bivvy sack as I trudged behind with a lightly loaded day sack.
It was with a great deal of trepidation that I set off, I had convinced myself that we might get one munro at best – I was wrong.
I have done a fair bit of hillwalking, but as with anything, if you haven’t done it for a while you get rusty. You forget things like – just how cold can it get on a Scottish mountain in May, what should I carry for emergencies, what is the worst than can happen – and if it does how do I deal with it?
I packed a Hunka bivvy with PD250 – after all a bivvy bag is pretty cold by itself and there was a frost on our first night.
It wasn’t until coming down off Sliach that I realised if I had an accident these items would be as crucial to me as they would for dad. The weight I was carrying served a dual purpose.