It's been a long time coming....
Rudolph climbed his first Munro at the age of twelve. It was Lochnagar, not very far from his home, and he remembers it being very cold.
I climbed my first Munro a week or two before my eighteenth birthday. It was Bidean nam Bian on a school trip from Yorkshire. I remember it being BIG! This was followed by Liathach, Bein Alligin, Beinn Eighe and Slioch, then Ben Nevis. A fantastic introduction to the mountains, and no doubt helping the teachers with their bagging lists.
By the time we were "an item" we'd each climbed a few more, and before we had children we had a few memorable trips including meeting Hamish McInnes on the big Bookle, the clouds parting on An Teallach and giving us an unexpected view, the Ring of Steall on a gorgeous day, the Tarmachan Ridge, four of the Lawers group (it took us many years before we went back and bagged Meall Greigh), the Aonach Eagach ridge - there was no internet to tell us how scared we should be - and a few others.
Then we had children, and the opportunities for mountain expeditions disappeared somewhat.
In 2010, when our youngest was 11, and the boys were 16 and 18, Rudolph's parents offered to keep house for us to have a week away, and we decided to dig out the tent and sleeping bags and go and climb some hills. We walked from Tyndrum and camped at the foot of Ben Lui. Over the week we climbed 8 Munros, and turned into baggers. Later that year our youngest, whose WH username is Coldwetandhungry, climbed her first two Munros, Meall Corranaich and Meall a'Choire Leith, with her first wild camp. Fortunately that experience doesn't seem to have put her off.
CWH has climbed a few Munros with us, so have no. 2 son, my sister Shish, our good friend Mother Goose, and various other friends and family. Particularly memorable trips included four adults squished into a 3 person tent drinking wine on the wee Bookle in revolting weather, Brocken Spectres on Meall Buidhe, and the eastern Mamores in July heat and sunshine.
But for most of the Munros we have been just ourselves. We've been wet, cold, hungry, hot, sunburnt, midged, clegged and infested by ticks, sleepless and argumentative. We've changed plans innumerable times, seen Scotland's Favourite View (ie the inside of a cloud) quite a lot, been blown off, got lost, found ourselves again, had our food nibbled by mice, forgotten our food, forgotten our gas, had our milk go off, had our tent almost blow away, and appreciated our house and our comfy bed.
We initially thought we'd compleat a couple of years ago, but Covid put paid to that. I retired in 2022 but various family events (lovely weddings and not so lovely crises) kept us from the hills. We started 2023 with only 8 to go, and thought that would be the year, but arranging a suitable date which would accommodate family didn't happen.
So here we are, half term, and a bank holiday weekend. Shish and her husband sadly were unable to come at the last minute. So the party consisted of me and Rudolph, no. 2 son G and his wife C, and CWH with her spaniel Heidi. Bynack More is the hill, and we all congregated at CWH flat in Rothes. G and C drove up all the way from Birmingham. C has never been up a Munro before, so this was her first.
We followed the WH recommended route, so I won't describe it any further here.







We were into the clouds at about 750 metres.




























We set off from the car park at 10.10am and arrived back at bang on six o'clock, which was a really good pace for us these days (I was definitely the slowest going uphill).
We continued our celebrations by hobbling into the Skiing-Doo in Aviemore for burgers/steak/macaroni cheese depending on preference.
So what's next? I don't know. Maybe we will be able to visit parts of Scotland that don't have Munros, maybe we will repeat a few of our favourites, or the ones where we saw nothing, maybe we will sink into an insignificant retirement - I certainly hope not!
But just now it's time to thank all the people who have made this possible, in particular Paul and Helen for this wonderful site, and for all the Walkhighlanders that we have met in person on the hill or who have encouraged and helped us on these forums. As they say in the Oscars (well I don't really know but I think they do) - we couldn't have done it without you, and we love you all .