The year started off on a sad note with the passing of my father. Although not taking to hillwalking until he was in his late forties, he became a keen hill-goer and loved nothing better than spending time with family and friends in the great outdoors. His favourite mountain was Merrick and his ashes were duly buried there overlooking Loch Enoch. He will be greatly missed.
This year was one dedicated mostly to completing my New Donalds. Having climbed sixty of them during the scorching hot weather of summer, my final summit of Carrifran Gans was a wet, misty and windy affair. I nevertheless was accompanied by a small but resolute party of friends and a bottle of Springbank. These stalwarts are now getting used to my strange habit of completing tick lists on foul weather days.
By contrast, one particular traverse in the heat of July was enjoyed from Comb Law to Queensberry. Having reached the summit of Queensberry via seven other hills in 30C heat, I planned to return by the shortest route to Daer Reservoir where the car was parked. Alas, I discovered that I had lost my new pair of sunglasses en route and, in a vain attempt to find them, retraced the whole route. It was ultimately an unsuccessful, sunburnt, parched and cleg-bitten individual who finally stumbled the last few metres to the car.
I ended the year with Hogmanay week spent at Glenelg. Whilst most of the rest of Scotland appeared to be lashed by rain, we stayed almost dry and had some grand days out. Most memorable was an ascent of Beinn Mhialairigh which, at a lowly height of 548m, provided stunning views of Beinn Sgritheall, Loch Hourn and Knoydart. Having bought a wee cottage up in Strathcarron, I am looking forward to spending more time on the west coast bagging Grahams in 2014.
Beinn Sgritheall from Beinn Mhialairigh (photo: Martin Cole)
