I suppose I got fed up with hills in July, a bit of teenage rebellion. Dad was pretty unhappy when I sat in the car all day instead of going on the hill.
My last hill was the gathering on Minto Hills with the group celebrating Ken Whyte's final Scottish mainland Hump. I did my last Marilyn of the year that same afternoon with dad and Jonathan de Ferranti - Sighty Crag, which was a reasonable moorland walk and pretty dry considering apparently many had said it could be a horrible bog-trot.
A few days later he took us to stay at a bothy in the Ettrick valley and wanted me to do a full day round three Marilyns to get me over 300. I was not going to do it.
Dad says my first one this year was in May when he collected me from school and drove up into northern Lancashire to Pendle Hill that evening. Apparently this is now the fourth hill that dad has done with both me and also my other brother Toby, though the only time we were all together on a hill at the same time was Gummers How when I was five and Black Hill, the day after I was twelve.
Cadair Idris was great during May half-term. It was also pretty good camping just below the summit of Place Fell in the Lake District, after I finished school for summer holidays. I think dad is taking me to Mull in May 2014 for a friend's final Munro which will probably be OK.
Ghost-written by Charles Everett
