The first anniversary of my Munro compleation is coming up soon, and having a bit of time available with the COVID social restrictions in effect, I decided to put a few thoughts down on paper about my experiences.

I climbed Ben More (Crianlarich) in 1969, and continued with 281 other Munros over the following 50 years, with Ben More (Mull) being the last, on July 2, 2019, accompanied by 8 friends and family. I am now aged 72.

I started climbing Munros on day trips when my girlfriend, now wife (Lorie) told me about the Scotsman bus, while we were students at Edinburgh University. The bus used to leave from outside the Scotsman offices on Sunday mornings. We also joined the Edinburgh University Mountaineering Club (EUMC), and enjoyed many weekend camping trips, mostly in the winter. Since 1972, we have lived in North America, mostly in Canada (Toronto area), which made it much more difficult to make progress with my compleation. I managed to do a few Munros each time during UK visits on business or visiting family, but since my retirement a few years ago, I have had the opportunity for more extended visits to Scotland. In each of the three years 2017 - 2019, I spent a whole month or more, climbing every day, and managing about 35 peaks on each trip. Lorie, while not quite as crazy about Munros as I am, nevertheless accompanied me on hikes to about 100 summits.

Best memories?

1) Traversing the Five Sisters of Kintail in deep snow on New Years Eve with EUMC, on a spectacular winter day, starting from a bothy, and reaching Shiel Bridge long after dark, but in time to join the Hogmanay celebrations;

2) a solo camping trip to Lochan Fada, to do the Fisherfield round in one very long day, with an amazing view when reaching A’Mhaighdean, arguably the remotest Munro;

3) (of course), the In Pin. When I see videos of hikers doing that, I can’t believe I actually did it myself!

This is the first time I have submitted anything to Walk Highlands, which is something I feel a little guilty about. Once I discovered the existence of the WH website a few years ago, it has proved invaluable to me in route planning. It also gave me a sense of community, in reading about other people’s adventures and misdaventures on the Scottish Hills. So my apologies for that lapse. My thoughts are with Scotland during this difficult pandemic, and I hope that we will all be able to get out there again soon.

Stephen Walter