My only English Marilyn was a walk of 16 miles to the elusive Sighty Crag on a cold, dry March day. The trip was notable for a narrow escape. Unwittingly I dropped my car keys thirty metres from my car in gathering darkness but fortunately was able to spot them by retracing my steps and shining my headtorch along my route.
I concentrated on Scotland, as I still have lots of Munros, Corbetts and Grahams to do. I took a chance on the weather, booking a ten-day campervan trip to Killin at the end of March. Amazingly it fitted neatly into a spell of unseasonably mild and dry days. I climbed 13 Marilyns, eleven of them Munros, and three non-Marilyn Munros. The best day was on the Invervar Munros in Glen Lyon, seven tops in all, with great views to Schiehallion, Ben Lawers and across Rannoch. On the day I left, snow fell widely in the area.
Another trip north followed in April, to Loch Creran, but without the good weather. I managed to bag the two Loch Creran Munros and the Marilyn An Grianan, chasing a persistent rainbow as I descended from Beinn Sgulaird. As the weather seemed better in the west, I escaped to Ardnamurchan, climbing a very windy Ben Hiant and then Ben Resipol, direct from the Resipole campsite.
In early May we went to Morvich in Kintail, another short spell of decent weather, climbing Sgurr an Airgid on arrival, the 'brothers' ridge on a peerless day, followed the day after by Conbhairean and its attendants. We then went north but the weather went south. I only managed Meall Doire Faid, and a very blustery Corbett, Sgurr a'Chaorachain, when returning over Bealach na Ba in our campervan.
Walking-wise the summer was a write-off. Firstly, in late May, my wife and I enjoyed a trip to Norway's North Cape by the Hurtigruten coastal ship, an excellent voyage despite cold conditions, with a surreal midnight thunderstorm in the famous Troll Fjord and a force-nine gale at the Cape. On our return I was booked in for four weeks daily radiotherapy treatment and it was not until the end of August that I got back on a hill, albeit only to the Hump, Hampsfell, behind Grange-over-Sands.
A trip to Speyside in September yielded three Corbetts and two small Marilyns, as I began to slowly get my hill legs back, before heading north in another change in the weather to be blown up Ben Griam Mor and separately Ben Klibreck in between the frequent showers.
After attending the annual gathering of the LDWA Hillwalkers Register group in Grasmere in early October, I came north again and was pleased to claim Ben More and Stob Binnein on another excellent day. These two and Ben Challum were sandwiched between Beinn Bhreac, Glen Douglas, on the way up and Arthur's Seat on the way back.
An Grianan (photo: Eric Hardman)
