Marhofn 133.07 - May 2005

Baglogs:

Baglog: Jon Metcalf (+72=855)

New Marilyns ranged from Shetland to south Wales, with regions 22, 29, 34, 38 and 39 completed, while The Saddle and Moruisg added to my round of Munro completions.

Best trips of the year:

• Club trip into Coruisk for fresh lobster barbecue with iced margaritas (thanks to 2kg of ice lugged in from Broadford), followed by 48 hours of continuous rain. This meant I was robbed of the Sgurr na Stri panorama, but the Last Night of the Proms on the hut's wind-up radio, and the epic river crossing and bad step on the walk-out, left me feeling more alive than I have for years.
• Weem bash, despite the noisy yuppie infestation at the hostel and the 'are-you-the-Inland-Revenue-in-disguise' attitude of the warden to full fees for two late call-offs.
• Isle of Man day trip from Lakes family holiday. Very average hills dispatched in a few hours, but memorable unrestricted velocity driving experience on the mountain road in the M5.
• Shetland revisit, particularly for Out Skerries, visited on a spare day. I could very happily spend more time in this amazing area.

Best hills of the year:

• Saxa Vord: if you can mentally suppress the militaria, the views are just sensational to the north. Saw a weird mirage in the heat haze whereby a passing tanker seemed to have a cruising altitude of 20000 feet or so. Very constructive response from the station authorities about visiting the summit trig, in spite of threatening notices about penalties under the Official Secrets Act.
• Carn Ban (15A): on a generally foul day, a sudden break in the clouds provided a shockingly beautiful summit vista.
• Mellbreak: rare hill outing with the junior terrorists to mark the last new Marilyn of region 34. They would insist on going up the steep end, wouldn't they?
• The Begwns: easy romp to the best stone seat in the world, ever. Sculpture of the highest order.

Curate's eggs:

• Rogan's Seat: superb approach with fine fossils and interesting mining relics, leading to the most bland and depressing summit of the millennium to date.
• Carn an Fhreiceadain: gave up the unequal struggle with thigh-deep drifting powder in February, to find it much easier in 70mph winds in September. Both times the unmapped stalkers' hut at around 600m provided blessed relief from conditions for a sandwich stop.