What is "your" hill?

[flipside]

i enjoy Ben Lomond for a bimble, it is too busy at best of times so i am up there at night or as close to sunrise as possiable

Favorite mountain would have to be An Caisteal, have got a clue why

[Frasmck]

Aye , Aye. Whos Dundreich though.

That T shirt Owdjockey made up looks the part are they available in the shop. He could of stuck a few familiar faces on top there.

[mountain coward]

Probably Pen-y-ghent as it's the nearest hill of any distinction to where I live and I've done it like a million times. In the Lakes, I have a soft spot for Grisedale Pike and Bow Fell, both for different reasons. In Scotland, Sgorr Dhearg above Ballachulish as it was my first Munro (hence my user-name).

It seems there might be some ownership conflicts with Mountain Coward on some of these though ...

Nah - I'll let you share Grisedale Pike with me if you like If Penyghent is your nearest hill, you must be pretty near to me!

[blueyed]

heh arthur's seat, yeah, me too, 20 mins from home, the same as pentlands

[Dundreich]

Current favourite for me is Sgurr Ghuibhsachain.

[Dave Hewitt]

Kinley / blueyed -

Re Arthur's Seat, as regulars, do you have a feel for just how often some people are up there? Reason I ask is that I'm interested in multiple ascents of things (there's a lot more of this goes on than is commonly understood, I think), and A's Seat could well have some of the highest repeat totals for any UK hill, given where it is / how accessible it is.

Do you think there are runners who work in nearby offices and climb it in their lunchbreak four or five times a week? That would give some people a total of around 200 ascents a year, well into four figures if they stayed in the same workplace (and stayed fit) for a decade or two. I've chased up / dug out figures for repeat-ascent totals on all sorts of hills, but as yet I've never come up with any definite figures for anyone on A's Seat. Of course lots of people don't keep count, but a ballpark figure out to be possible for some people.

I also reckon Arthur's Seat could well be the busiest hill in the UK - if the people who drive past but don't visit the actual top of Marilyns such as Bishop Wilton Wold, Crowborough etc are discounted. Pretty sure Arthur's Seat sees more ascents than any of Ben Nevis, Ben Lomond, Helvellyn or Snowdon.

[Dundreich]

Do you think there are runners who work in nearby offices and climb it in their lunchbreak four or five times a week? That would give some people a total of around 200 ascents a year, well into four figures if they stayed in the same workplace (and stayed fit) for a decade or two.

Dave, I suspect the vast majority of runners don't actually go to the summit. If they're anything like me they'll do one or more circuits of the park (one circuit = 3.5 miles) following the road. Highest point would be where the road passes Dunsapie Loch.

[colgregg]

In Scotland my summits are limited to a handful on Skye but Gars Bheinn, at the southern end of Cuillin Ridge, stands out purely for the occasion. A rare day of unremitting sunshine, seeing the beauties of Coir a Ghrunnda and doing the ridge southwards to end up viewing a scene forever etched in my memory. If it were a foretaste of heaven I'd die happy.
England. In the lakes Lingmell, so tranquil after visiting an overrun Scafell Pike. Like MC torn between Ingleborough and penyghent. Reckon the former just wins.
Wales. Also very limited but liked Y Lliwedd for same reasons as lingmell. Just replace Scafell Pike with Snowdon.

[kinley]

Kinley / blueyed -

Re Arthur's Seat, as regulars, do you have a feel for just how often some people are up there? Reason I ask is that I'm interested in multiple ascents of things (there's a lot more of this goes on than is commonly understood, I think), and A's Seat could well have some of the highest repeat totals for any UK hill, given where it is / how accessible it is.

Not much of a feel Dave - I only head up on weekends when we're stuck in Edinburgh. It is very busy though - can see the summit from my kitchen window and there are usually folks on it.

[Dave Hewitt]

Dundreich -

Yes, you're surely right re a lot of them, but I reckon a few will go to the top each time (shoving German tourists aside on the last bit), then tap the trig and head back down. Useful target - and I know from various hill-runner friends how irritated they can get on races where it doesn't go quite to the top and they're thus denied their tick, even though it's something they've been up heaps of times already. (I'm not a runner any more, too crocked, but that's still my own mentality as well.)
Even if only 10% of Arthur's Seat regulars go to the top every time, that could still throw up some hefty numbers.

[Scotjamie]

North Berwick Law - on one side a quarry face for rock climbing practice (not that I do), another side offers scrambling routes up, with great rock outcrops on grass slopes, an easy main track all the way up a third side for fitness training, and a fourth side that is very steep, from which silly people occasionally have to be rescued - all with great views out to sea.
Similar to Sgurr nan Gillean really....apart from being 615 feet high..... and on the east coast....in the middle of farmland.....and with a giant whalebone on the top...apart from that very like SnG
but it is my hill, behind my house
http://www.north-berwick.co.uk/thelaw.asp

[Dave Hewitt]

Scotjamie -

North Berwick Law is a good example of a hill that people become very fond of and treat as an uphill constitutional over many years. You maybe know a local chap named Denis Carr. He had, last time I heard (June 2008) climbed it 2289 times - he made his 2000th ascent on Hogmanay 2000. First time up was in 1977.

[agentmancuso]

I tend to think of Tinto as my home hill, even though I've only climbed it three or four times, as it's the nearest hill of any size to where I live (EK), and a sort of homecoming landmark.

[icemandan]

Scout Scar behind Kendal. My local hill. Long limestone escarpment with aerial views over the Lyth Valley, Morecambe Bay and the Lakeland Fells.

[Scotjamie]

Scotjamie -

North Berwick Law is a good example of a hill that people become very fond of and treat as an uphill constitutional over many years. You maybe know a local chap named Denis Carr. He had, last time I heard (June 2008) climbed it 2289 times - he made his 2000th ascent on Hogmanay 2000. First time up was in 1977.

Hi Dave
Have heard the name, thanks for the reference - now keen to find out more
Regards