50 Munro Challenge

2016 definitely hasn’t been year of the salmon, what it has been though is year of the mountains. Helen and I bought ourselves new bikes and began planning a year of Scottish adventures. As the snow melted across Scotland we came up with our challenge for the remainder of the year ahead – 50 Munros in 2016.

The first was a Ben Alder weekend, trying out the new bikes and getting some classic hills under our belts. The cycle in confirmed our choice of hard tail bikes was the correct one, with the rocky track almost defeating Helen! A very windy but clear couple of days under canvas followed and left us six hills lighter and with very sore back sides! The best of the hills by far being Ben Alder itself, with a fair amount of snow still on the tops.

Next big trip was a sunny weekend just south of Torridon, again with the now not so shiny new bikes. The first midges of the year reminded us why you should always make sure bags are packed before you open the car door. We set off from Achnaschellach at 10.30pm after a Friday flyer from work and a good five-hour drive north. Tired, covered in midges and faced with a seriously steep forest track – morale wasn’t great, and it didn’t improve when I took a wrong turn and cycled up an even steeper track, which eventually defeated me (and lopsided heavy bag) by dropping me into the ditch. We finally reached the top of the valley as darkness fell and pitched the tent in a swarm of midges just before midnight… things could only get better!

Thankfully they did get better, but not before we got through a very misty morning and some tricky navigation. The mist was so thick at one point that before 10am we passed a couple heading home off the ridge, as they couldn’t find the way! Our first hill of the day, Bidein A’ Choire Sheasgaich (Cheesecake), finally poked through the cloud and as we scrambled up, we were left with an amazing inversion. The day only got better and as we lay down for a nap on our second top in blazing sunshine I couldn’t help but chuckle at the couple we had seen earlier who had called it a day! We heaved our heavy bags over a couple more hills before finally pitching our tents at 9.30pm just short of our fifth Munro of the weekend. And without a midge in sight ate a well-earned mountain of pasta as we watched the sun set over the hills or Torridon. Our spectacular campsite has more surprises in store as we awoke early enough to be above a full inversion with clouds filling the valleys below. The tough couple of hills left, were soon polished off and we finished the weekend with an awesome 10 min downhill cycle back to the car. That had to be one of my top weekends this year.

Fifty hills is a big ask and we really did try and make the most of weekends… too many to go into the detail but other notable weekends include a wet 50 mile cycle/march Cairngorm epic over 2 days and eight Munros and an amazing long weekend in Torridon which we managed to get up one of my now favourite hills – Beinn Eighe (the photo says it all) and the brilliant Strath Farrar horseshoe. Throw in some big single days, including Glenshee hills, Lochnagar five, a pair in Blair Atholl and we soon found ourselves with only a handful to go.

The last two outings couldn’t have been more different. Autumn is my favorite time of year, and it was on a fine crisp autumn morning that we jumped off the sleeper train at Corrour Halt (the most remote station in Britain), and climbed the three hills surrounding Loch Ossian. With stags roaring in the valley below and Ptarmigan coveys lifting on each of the three tops, we were spoilt to another fine day in the Scottish hills. Our challenge finished a couple of weeks later in Glen Shiel. After a wet and windy blow out on Saturday, the clouds parted on Sunday and we joined the north ridge heading east along the brothers of Kintail towards Aonach Meadhoin, our fiftieth Munro in six months! We were treated to a final highland scene from the top as half a dozen stags roared at the harem of hinds below them, with the king pin stag herding the ladies away from us.