Munro perspective

That's me. I have bagged my first munro. No, I have not kidnapped some poor soul named Munro.

Munros are hills in Scotland with a height over 3,000 ft (914.4 m) and considered a "separate hill". There are 282 munros. Munros are named after Sir High Munro (1856-1919) who produced the first list of these hills as a founding member of the Scottish Mountaineering Club.

Along with munro, other classifications for Scottish hills include:

• Corbetts - 2,500-3,000 ft with a relative height of at least 500 ft. named after John Rooke Corbett who compiled the first list in the 1920s.
• Donalds - Mountains in the Scottish Lowlands over 2,000 ft compiled by Percy Donald. This has a somewhat complicated criteria.
• Grahams - 2,000-2,500 ft with a drop of at least 150 metres between peaks. Originally these were called "Elsies" (LC, short of Lesser Corbetts) but later given a much more distinguished name after Fiona Torbet (born a Graham) who had compiled a similar list at the same time.

Although I have never met a Donald or a Corbett, the one Munro I have met is reasonably taller than the Grahams I know. So it makes sense to me!

After work Friday, a friend and I crossed the Erskine Bridge and wound our way up into the Highlands. The destination was familiar - Glen Affric - which I visited in February. This time the plan was to walk into a bothy to stay Friday and Saturday night. It is quite a long drive to wind your way into the glen. We started our walk around 11pm. It was a calm night with some moonlight. While we found a nice place to stay, it was not the bothy. So in the morning, we walked further into the glen to a hostel.

You can just see the roof of the main hostel building

Although the hostel had not opened for the season, one of the bunk rooms is accessible. It is a comfortable place to stay. No heat in the bunk rooms but there is no draft, just 10 bunks and a table. We had it to ourselves. The bonus is you are deeper into the most impressive glen I have visited so far. There is a bothy another 3km which would have more character but that would have been about 15km from the car.

Sleeping bags, etc. dumped, we headed up the nearest munro, An Socach. Admittedly it is barely considered a munro at 921 metres. Although the clouds prevented a real clear view of the surrounding peaks, I was elated to be up there. It is more than just bagging a munro for me. It is a sign that I am figuring out how to manage achilles tendinitis. It has been a long time since I have been hillwalking. And walking about 32km in one weekend! A big difference from the end of last year. It feels wonderful! And I have my eyes on the next milestone.

View from An Socach

After the munro, I made my way slowly back to the hostel. A nice view for an afternoon laze in the sun.

Friendly reminder of home

By late afternoon, a weather front arrived and I eventually retreated to the hostel after taking in this well-made bridge spanning the river running through the glen.

With new snow on the hills by morning, I made my way out to the car. It was a day of sun, rain, sun, rain...you get the point. What a beautiful walk. You really get the sense of the vastness of
the glen.

This time I walked on the north side of Loch Affric, enjoying the birdsong and fragrance of the pines as I neared the car park. With the recent warmer temps and precipitation, the water flowing down from the peaks into the glen meant many stream crossings and one that forced me to ford barefoot. Yay for wool socks and warm boots!

Again all these photos are with the iPhone.