No new Marilyns since Stob Dubh (Glen Etive) in February 2003, climbed via an ambitious snow gully. I have however been active elsewhere, with trips to Ecuador, India, Nepal, New Zealand, and most recently Antarctica. This was truly a trip of a lifetime, during which we retraced Shackleton's route across South Georgia. It took our group two long days (11 and 15 hours), with many crevasses to negotiate. What Shackleton and crew managed was incredible. A by-product of the travelling is that I have now climbed a Marilyn on each of the seven continents, albeit not the highest on each, so I thought I'd list my favourite seven:
Europe: Kinder Scout! There's a lot of competition, but I'd be lost without our local bog-trotting fix.
Africa: I've only done two Marilyns, so it's got to be Kilimanjaro, from where I watched the sun set on the twentieth century.
North America: Half Dome - a pure rock hill, and a drop to end all drops.
South America: Volcano Pucan in Chile. I paid (the only allowable way) to join a group ascent. From the rim we peered 800 feet down into the spitting magma. As we retreated, further spits threw rather hot bombs onto the area where we'd been standing.
Asia: Tiger Hill, near Darjeeling, in India. Humour and frustration, as a large and tightly-packed sized crowd shivered at 5 a.m. to watch the sun rise on distant Kanchenjunga. And got dense mist and drizzle instead.
Australasia: Purple Hill near Arthur's Pass in New Zealand. A 2000-foot conical hill with a great scree-run descent into the hell of thorn bushes, only avoided by building stepping stones along the lake edge (Lake Pearson!). Later we found a guidebook which suggests swimming across the lake to avoid the bushes.
Antarctica: Only one Marilyn - 252m Couverville Island, used as a warm-up for the South Georgia mountaineers. We carefully cramponned our way up steep snow slopes above the smelly penguin rookery. Our summit glory was rather reduced by the penguin-watching tourists who followed us up in their wellies - a fine effort.
Ernest Shackleton (the real one, not Kenneth Branagh)
