Once again St Kilda was the highlight of the year, with fog-bows all over the place, Brocken spectres with a triple halo, and Risso's dolphins round the boat. Three nights wild camping in Pairc on Lewis also rated pretty highly, as did a February week winter climbing in the Lakes in the best conditions for years. Probably the best proper hill day was a trip up the north buttress of An Caisteal in the Cuillin, coming in over Bidean Druim nan Ramh - only 10km but with over 1500m of scrambling on a stunning day. Finally getting round to doing Ardverikie Wall and Eagle Ridge must be up there too.
The only list I completed last year was all the 2000ft Irish tops with at least two contour rings; 251 in total. A trip to Kerry finished off the last four in brilliant winter conditions, with snow to sea level. I also picked up 50 Graham and Corbett Tops, leaving 77 to go, but as usual spent much more time on old favourites.
A scrambling trip to the Pyrenees picked up a couple of dozen 3000m tops. I wish I had discovered them about 30 years ago as I have probably left it a bit late now to get all 212. Epic of the year was definitely an attempt to climb Mount Olympus in April - food poisoning, a broken knuckle and a flight cock-up.
The guy with the hut key was away on holiday, which led to a bivvy in the snow outside the hut, with a non-functioning stove and wolves paying a visit. The last 150m to the main summit was avalanche city so we just waded over the second and third tops before retreating to the seaside. Ending up in isolation in Raigmore hospital with suspected swine flu put the icing on the cake.
