In February 2012 I stood at the summit of Ben Macdui (4295ft) in a freezing gale. I had reached Britain’s second highest mountain via a snow gully climb to Cairn Lochan and a walk across the windswept Cairngorm plateau. With a group of fellow aspiring mountaineers and our guide we continued on to the Hutchinson memorial hut. Two firsts in one day: my first munro and my first bothy trip.
Hutchinson Memorial Hut, Cairngorms, February 2012
At the time, I knew nothing of Sir Hugh Munro’s famous compilation of Scotland’s highest mountains. Atop Ben Macdui I realised that the only people standing higher in the land than me would be on Ben Nevis. But I had no idea that either mountain was known as a ‘munro’ or that there were hundreds of these peaks to climb. What I did know was that I delighted in being in this mountain environment, despite (or perhaps because of) the harsh winter conditions.
Two and a half years previously, I had left London for Washington, D.C., where I would spend two years working for an international organization. At the time, hiking, hill walking and exploration of the outdoors were not pastimes that I pursued actively at all. As a teenager I had enjoyed running around in the woods and zooming around in training aircraft with the air cadets – but I had not been especially active or engaged with the outdoors.
If anything, the urban environment had fascinated me more than any wild places. Travelling whilst a university student at the end of the 1990s to cities such as Havana, Mumbai and New York I developed a passion for photography. Nothing excited me more than street photography in the classic style. Snatching a moment in time and recording it to film absolutely thrilled me, as did reliving that moment in the darkroom, printing my photographs.
Mumbai, September 1999
Back to 2009 and my arrival in Washington, D.C. The first few months were hard. D.C. is a very different place from London. Much, much smaller and strangely provincial in feel for a capital city, I took my time settling in. In October, already feeling somehow bored by the District and, honestly, homesick for London, I decided to spend a weekend hiking in the Shenandoah valley.
Just an hour from Washington by car, Shenandoah National Park boasts beautiful scenery. That weekend I hiked the White Oak Canyon trail, descending from the parking spot on Skyline drive (in true American style – the lofty mountaintop views of Shenandoah are very much accessible to those in four wheels!) through dense woodland, past beautiful, bubbling waterfalls and climbing steeply back up to the road. It was a crisp, clear fall day. With leaves turning and the sun coating the landscape like treacle I was almost overwhelmed. Beginning the drive back to D.C. along Skyline drive at sunset felt terrific. Like a scene from a film or an advert.
West Virginia, October 2010
I returned several times to Shenandoah over the next couple of years and also explored further into the mountains of West Virginia. In summer of 2011 I climbed Old Rag Mountain (3291 ft) – my first taste of scrambling. It was during this two year period that I fell in love with the outdoors. The National Parks are truly the greatest treasures in the United States. I had the fortune to see Yosemite, Death Valley and Denali. Plus, my travels for work during the same period had taken me all over the world. I had seen the mountains of Tajikistan, Armenia and Georgia. Arriving home in London in September 2011 I craved similar landscapes and adventures. I remember sitting in a cab trundling along the A40 from Heathrow early on that September morning, in part glad to be home, but also wondering where I would find wilderness in this crowded island?
It was that craving for the wild and remote that eventually led me up to the Cairngorm plateau just a few months after arriving home from D.C. Two years later and munro madness has struck. Still with just four munros under my belt (but a good few more ‘furths’ – the Welsh and English mountains being that much more accessible to me) I have decided to start this blog to record my efforts to climb all the mountains of the British Isles above 3000ft.
I don’t want this blog simply to narrate ascents and routes. I also want to share with you my thoughts and feelings about this pastime and how it sits alongside a busy and stressful day job in Western Europe’s largest metropolis. To many, the idea of any sort of peak bagging must seem ridiculous – a more painful version of stamp collecting. Perhaps it is ridiculous, but for me, it’s still fun and positive in so many ways. Another theme that I hope to explore through my blog is the particular challenges which exploration of the British and Irish mountains pose for someone stuck in the South East of England. My munro story will be a tale of motorways, airports and railway stations as much as it will of ridges, gullies and mountain passes. I hope that you will enjoy reading it and that for any fellow ‘baggers’ it provides you with a source of inspiration and encouragement.
The Incompleatist. 22 March 2014
4 down. 278 to go.
incompleatist 