It took me until 1989 to reach 100 Marilyns, but then I made fairly steady progress, with the last 100 coming in less than two years. I recently moved to Aberdeen from southern England, so I've had lots of new hills to climb. My largest yearly total of 56 allowed me to enter the Hall of Fame in 2004, when I climbed Hard Knott (34B) in superb weather. I wasn't able to persuade my wife to accompany me (she rarely comes up hills with me, though we did climb Pendle Hill together in lovely evening light), so I had the summit to myself. I hadn't planned Hard Knott as my 600th; it simply happened that way during a week's holiday in England.
Other highlights of the year included Ben Newe (21A) when my choice of wellingtons was the most appropriate footwear for the deep snow. I climbed Cam Breugach on Kerrera (19A) in cold and clear winter conditions when blizzards were raging on many of the mainland hills. I had an epic day on Beinn Dearg Bheag and Beinn Dearg Mor (14A), approaching from the north-west and discovering why the map shows that the path on the SW side of Loch na Sealga ends suddenly. The going NW of that point is quite horrendous.
Lowpoints included Tom an t-Saighdeir (19A) and the Corbetts of Sgurr Dubh and Sgurr nan Lochan Uaine (13B), where both the terrain and weather were very rough. I climbed Leagag (2A) on a poor day and wondered whether the nearby summit of Meall Chomraidh was a Marilyn (I didn't have my copy of RHB with me), so I thought I'd better climb it just in case, even though the intervening ground was on the wet side of boggy (wise man, AD).
Having reached 600 Marilyns, my 601st was Coyles of Muick, which is 601m high. This made me get out my records and I found two near misses: my 443rd was Dun Caan at 444m, and my 478th was 477m Gwastedyn Hill. I decided not to pursue this further since it was rather a long way from home to Peel Fell (33), the only 602m hill listed in RHB.
I've also been visiting trig points, long before I realised anyone else might be doing so. At first it was simply because I knew there should be a good view, but I then started to plan expeditions around them. My record for a self-propelled day's trig bagging is 12 (around Edinburgh and East Lothian, with the aid of a bike, in 1983) and my tally now stands at 517.
John Owen reaches 600 on Hard Knott, October 2004
