Walkhighlands

This is to celebrate the little things that make this hobby a good one. Not getting your 200, not climbing the inpin; the little things.

A couple to start:

That feeling when your ears pop on the descent and all of a sudden you can hear the full bassy glory of the wind and the streams and the waterfalls. I'm sure the pressure differential is not too significant but I'm also sure it's not just me that this happens to. A small reminder that you're pushing yourself, if only a bit, into the realm of the birds and the aeroplanes

Also that time of year when only the very highest summits are pure shimmering white, so you can spot a barely overtopping munro in a panorama which you never noticed it in before

That feeling when you're out on a clear blue sky day, walking in the crisp cold snow and ice with your crampons on and a panoramic 360 degree view around you.
You feel you could walk and just not stop.

Stopping high up by a waterfall, filling a bottle with cold fresh water and drinking way more than you need.

Those are both exactly right, aye keep them coming. Waterfall one makes me think specifically of the Red Burn coming off Nevis

I adore coming round the side of Carn aM'haim to see Corrour bothy in the distance. I recall the first time I saw it and the excitement it brought.

Similarly, seeing the car after a 30k day, HEAVEN

Noisy grouse on a frosty morning.

Smelling the wood-smoke when you're still a mile from the bothy in the dark and frost...

*assuming this is not the smell of the bothy burning down.

The fresh, sweet scent of Scots Pine and heather. Most noticeably in Rothiemurchus but occurs in lots of places. For me, that smell is a sensory trigger for a happy day

.....the rain starting 10 minutes after the tent has been erected instead of 10 minutes before
.....not finding any hidden, embedded rocks under the sleeping mat
.....one minute thinking you'll be in clag for the day then the next minute coming out of it to an inversion

Peanutbutter sandwiches.
The quiet, almost holy moment of concentrated staring at the boiler when it's almost boiling, for your cup of tea or bouillon.

Just-for-you flybys courtesy of the RAF.

Rushing to get the tent up and food cooked before the light fails, then ending up with half an hour to sit and watch the sunset.

Enjoying your warm flask of soup, hidden from the wind behind a dyke on a bitterly cold winters day.

Taking a chance on not putting the waterproofs on as the cloud advances toward you, and getting away with it

turning round to your walking partners to say "looks like broken spectre weather" just as the broken spectre appears
or my favourite touching the cairn on the hill your walking

Sitting drinking tea, watching the shadows of the clouds move across the view, waiting for that perfect photo moment.

Actually, this isn't a little thing for me, it's the main reason I do it