How did you first take to the hills?

[PeteR]

The "Old Man" was a PoW in WWII and held toward the end in a camp near Dingwall. On the ceasing of hostilities I believe he had the option of repatriation to family in East Germany or remain in the UK. He chose the UK. Initially he worked as a herdsman on farms/estates in and around Inverness/Beauly before heading off to seek his fortune in South East England........where he was to meet my mother.

Fastforward to the droubt year of 1976 and my one and only family holiday.............2 adults, 4 children in a Morris Marina towing a caravan all the way from East Sussex to Fassock Farm near(ish) to Kiltarlity to visit old friends (of the Old Man's)............and not a seatbelt in sight Unbeknown to the Old Man an 8 year old boy had been exposed to the Highlands. Unbeknown to that 8 year old boy, he had been exposed to the highlands. The seed had been sowed.

At this stage no hills had been climbed, which was to remain the case as he an I returned every other year on our caravan towing pilgramages to the Highlands. Two weeks touring and visiting old friends. The disease was taking hold, even on those driech, midge infested days we were to enjoy on many an ooccasion

Fastforward to the early 1990s and a tourist trip to Scotland with a previous wife (let's just say my love of the Hghlands lasted longer than that particular arrangement) and my first Munro - a tourist trudge up Ben Nevis.

Third and final fastforward - 2006 and my official emigration to Scotland, following another previous wife deciding she wanted an upgrade. Initially I spent my free time driving round, too fearful of getting out of the car and walking anywhere. A colleague suggested one day I do just that. So the adventure proper started in April 2007 with a trial walk into the Lost Valley. Ben Lomond, The Cobbler and a few other "standards" soon followed and I was hooked.

The rest, as is so often said...............is history.

[malky_c]

Grew up just outside of Snowdonia, so I've been on the hills as long as I can remember (although my first 'big' hill - Moel Siabod - wasn't until I was about 9). We used to go to Ballachulish for our summer holidays every year and accidentally got interested in Munros because of the guidebooks that my dad had bought. It didn't take me long to decide I was going to go up all of them, and when I got a chance to go to university, I chose somewhere in Scotland so I could be close to the Highlands. Joining the mountaineering club followed, along with lots of winter stuff, bothying, camping and occasionally climbing. That's about it really - I've never felt the desire to leave, although its occasionally forced on me by work.

[jupe1407]

My parents were, and are as far from hillwalkers as it's possible to imagine. My old man's singular attempt to do some outdoorsy stuff when I was about 13 ended abruptly when his fear of heights resulted in him panicking on the path from Glen Clova to Davie's Bourach. By the time we got back to the car park at Glen Doll my feet were aching (shite trainers) and I was drinking from a stream because we had no water. It was an utter shambles

Fast forward to 2012 and I'd spent the last 5 years on a constant cycle of playing football and getting completely wasted at weekends. One night on such a bender I bumped into my pal who was doing a charity climb of Ben Nevis in a few weeks, Completely pished, I agreed and didn't remember until he sent me a sponsorship form. Despite my frequent pub-related misdeeds I was reasonably fit, and presumed a 5 mile walk up a path would be a complete piece of ****, and indeed it was. I was up in not much over 2 hours. Descending was absolute hell and took just as long and I returned to the car park, absolutely battered, but had got clear views at the top and was absolutely hooked.

A month later I walked Mayar and Driesh on a fine day, before badly dislocating my ankle. I recovered quickly then did two of the West Drumochters that winter in perfect alpine conditions. My first WH meet followed in the April '13 and Hills had replaced going out on the lash and football. A total change in lifestyle seemed to take place and I am now often leaving for walks at the same sorts of times I'd get home in years gone by.

It's been brilliant and getting into the outdoors has by a mile, been the best thing I've ever done.

[peter4lc]

My Dad was the early influence. The first walk I clearly remember was the Walls of Chester in 1969; then the Great Orme on a family holiday to Llandudno in 1970, Moel Famau a couple of years later, and the footpaths of Wirral. Dad was there for all those walks. When I completed the Welsh Hewitts on Tal y Fan in 2006, he accompanied me. That was the last hill walk he did, although since then he's walked the City Walls at York.

When we were old enough, my brother and I and friends began to explore the local footpaths independently, and I devised a walk which we did annually from about 1975 to 1982, from Arrowe Park to Thurstaston via Royden Park and Caldy and back via Irby. It linked a number of footpaths in "Ten Walks for Motorists in Wirral", and there was one sentence in the introduction which has been with me all my life: "They are a heritage enabling us to see the countryside at close quarters by right, with benefit to both body and mind."

[Pastychomper]

...
For my 40th, I randomly bought myself an inflatable canoe, and paddling has become my biggest passion since. Luckily this works perfectly with walking in Scotland, so I'm now getting up there more than I have for 20 years or so. Fortunately, I'm also fitter than I've been since my 20s, so loving it!

You really should be more careful with comments like that. I'm approaching 40 and used to love canoeing as a kid!

As for me, I've loved the outdoors (and walking in them) as long as I can remember. May parents used to take me out to the country a lot, walking and sometimes camping, partly I think because I was a high-stress child who became a lot calmer when in the sticks. Mind you we have some Cornish ancestry so a tendency to walk in wild hills is probably in the blood.

By mid-teens I'd got to know most of the footpaths near where I lived, which was mercifully within walking distance of the Derbyshire countryside. During school holidays I'd sometimes set off with food, water and the dog, then 'phone from about 10 miles away asking if my Dad would come and pick us up if we did another 10 miles out instead of walking back. He didn't seem to mind.

My brother must take some credit for the Scottish hills part - he's a very keen walker and meticulous planner who finds great routes, and so far every Munro I've done was with him. This in spite of me having lived in Scotland for some years now.

[Robinho08]

Bought a campervan and started touring Scotland, said to the missus let's do Ben Nevis to say we've climbed the highest mountain in the UK. Done it, got home and discovered the Munros and well the rest is history.

[Caberfeidh]

Rumours that I was involved in the Donner Party are probably false rumours and should not be talked about. As a nipper, knee-high to a mountain hare I was dragged, against my better judgement, up hills all over Ayrshire and Galloway, Perthshire and anywhere else we ended up in family holidays. I hated it with a passion. But in my teens and early twenties I was a mad-keen fisherman; this coupled with mass unemployment at the time meant I was skint and bored. Fishing near home was too expensive and so I explored the Galloway Hills for far-flung fishing lochs and burns. When fishing season finished for the winter I carried on exploring, seeking out lochs to return to in summer. I moved up to Aberdeen to attend college and exchanged my Galloway Hills for the Cairngorms. Having little money meant that most gear was from army & navy surplus stores, thus in old photos I look like an extra from a war movie. The Cairngorms being seriously icy in winter I evolved into a winter mountaineer and ice-climber before I took up rock climbing. A book in the college library inspired me; "In High Places" by Dougal Haston. He described his own rise to prominence in mountaineering, and I realised that impoverished ordinary folk could do this, not just well-funded big expedition types like I'd see in the glossy magazines. Another excellent book is "Hillwalking and Scrambling" by Steve Ashton which also inspired me and gave me the knowledge and confidence to explore the Cairngorms in winter.

Note ex-army DPF trousers, Y-Gully, Corrie an Lochan Uaine, Derry Cairngorm.

My first axe

[rabthecairnterrier]

In my teens it was fishing and cycling that got me out of doors. I rediscovered cycling in my twenties, but after moving north and spending some time cycling through the hills I thought it might be an idea to climb some, so – along with my regular cycling buddy - I did, having taught ourselves the rudiments of navigation by reading about it. We did a few hills and enjoyed it, then a work colleague invited me to join him on my first ever bothy trip, in Wester Ross. It was then I realised this was what I was born to do. That was over 30 year ago and I’ve not looked back since.
(Folk sometimes describe being out in the hills as a "hobby"; I tell them it's not a hobby, more of a way of life.)

[DarrenJeffrey]

I grew up in the shadow of the Pentlands however barring the odd trip up them to sledge was never interested in being "in" the hills.

in my late twenties my GF at the time booked us a surprise week at Glen Clova Lodges and we went a wander up Corrie Fee. I feel in love with the outdoors that very day and the following day we hiked up to Loch Brandy and over to Ben Tirran. The seed was sown.

I spent my first few years obsessed with the Munros and even based holidays in Scotland around which Munro I could bag however 8 years down the line I have realised the "lesser" hills are as much a pleasure as their larger cousins so the Munro tinted glasses have been binned and I enjoy being up any hill.

It is a great pursuit to have, if I ever have kids I will be introducing them to the outdoors at an early age as I wish my father had done for me

[rockhopper]

Summer and October holidays with the family in Assynt in the 1970s when we used to go on many walks into the surrounding area and hills but not actually up any hills. Late 70s/early 80s started getting a little more adventurous but didn't actually go up a "listed" hill until The Cobbler in May 1984. A few more hills incl munros, mainly winter, during the rest of the 80s until getting married and having a family put it all on the back burner. A few trips in the 2000s but restarted again properly in August 2010 after a family holiday to Canada and some walking in Glacier National Park.

[gaffr]

Long before the Education Department in Edinburgh Corporation had Outdoor Centers and picnic teachers in Schools the was a good practice of 'getting pupils away' from their own roots. In Primary school there was good use made of the several, I guess maybe, displaced persons camps. The one that our class was sent to in the early Fifties was Middleton Camp near to Gorebridge in Midlothian where the part that I enjoyed was the walking to visit the old castles in the area along with lots of other activities. The walking and exploring was what it was about. I think that even today that Middleton and maybe a few others, my sister went to a place in the Trossachs with her class, are still used today as places for school based folks?
Living in Edinburgh and having the Pentlands and the Border hills within reach using the SMT buses from St. Andrews Square felt like we were making our way and camping on hills beyond the big smoke.
Again the Education Department and the youth organisations got us up to the Cairngorms and also into Europe to have eyes opened even further. So before hitching up to the 'bigger folks' who arranged buses and new how to get about the highlands we had visited several Hills and most of the big Cairngorms hills had been visited.
Foundations Maybe?

[Sunset tripper]

Rumours that I was involved in the Donner Party are probably false rumours and should not be talked about.

Is that when everyone buys a kebab and goes back to someone's flat with a crate of buckfast?

PS. did you steal that axe off of George Mallory?

[Sgurr]

Having little money meant that most gear was from army & navy surplus stores, thus in old photos I look like an extra from a war movie.

I don't quite know what I looked like. After this outing in the Brecon Beacons (allegedly training for Austria) I swapped woolly hat for headscarf , jacket for nylon mac, gloves for socks and eventually waterproof trousers for nylon trousers.]

[Jon and Jen]

I was in a children's home in the late 80s/early 90s. One of the staff members was a munro bagger and organised a few trips out camping and bothying for me and two other lads. He liked to find old aircraft wrecks in the highlands. I don't remember what munros we climbed on these trips but we were in and around the cairngorms and out the west coast a few times.

Just getting back into this now after a divorce and finding myself bored now I don't have the kids. My partner Jen first got out through the Duke of Edinburgh. We are both unable to work due to disability so life is incredibly meaningless and dull. Can't think of a better way to keep us entertained than a few long walks around our beautiful country, currently walking short routes around Dundee with daypacks as we gather equipment and build up to some bigger walks with the ultimate goal of linking the A9 trail from Perth to Inverness then the great glen and finishing down the West Highland way at the end of summer. Taking in a few Munroes on the way. Will be an epic few weeks.


I'm very grateful to that long forgotten man who planted the seeds of love of the outdoors so long ago and Jen and I are excited about the coming year.

[rockhopper]

Having little money meant that most gear was from army & navy surplus stores, thus in old photos I look like an extra from a war movie.

I don't quite know what I looked like. After this outing in the Brecon Beacons (allegedly training for Austria) I swapped woolly hat for headscarf , jacket for nylon mac, gloves for socks and eventually waterproof trousers for nylon trousers.]

Think I still have the tartan scarf in the loft........................