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Elwyns Munro’s
My Munro career started in 1994 when I went up Ben Nevis with Elen, Dewi, Anwen and Carol and went on a holiday to Scotland. It seemed a logical progression having walked extensively in Snowdonia and the Lake District. We went up Ben Nevis and then on to Meall na Teanga and Sgron a’ Choire Ghairbh and Clisham mountain on the Isle of Lewis where we stayed with a friend. Whilst there I bought Cameron McNeish’s book on the Munros and thought I would try and do a hundred and cherry pick the best. I also bought a logbook so that I could keep a count of what I had completed. I reached my hundredth Munro on Sgairneaqch Mhor in 2004 that is in the Drumochter hills. I still did not think that I could do them all as I knew the Skye Munros were very difficult and needed to be attempted. I went with Elen the following year to Skye being led by Gerry Ackroyd, a well-known guide on Skye and head of the mountain rescue! Surprise, surprise we had some terrible weather on Skye and only managed a few Munros but returned the following year with another guide (Tony Hanley)but had even worse weather with snow on the tops at the end of May. However we did manage a few more and decided to give it one more go and finally had some sun and managed the Innaccessible Pinnacle, Sgurr na Gilean and other difficult ones. We had our best day in Scotland going up Am Basteir and Sgurr na Gilean via some awkward chimneys and exposed ledges! Finally we had completed the Skye Munros and that was when I realised that I could finish off the rest as I was approaching 150 completed! My family accompanied me on holidays in Scotland during this time and Elen has now completed almost 100, Anwen and Carol about 30 and Dewi passed the 150 number this year.
Three years ago I had a conversation with Colin Bradley, Steve Williamson and Peter Thompson and we went up to Invergarry to do some “Munro Bagging”. It was the first time for Steve and Peter in Scotland and they also caught the Munro bug but Colin was an old hand having been up to Scotland many times! The following year I went to Glen Cova, Braemar and Pitlochry with the Nor’ west Sgurramblers that I had been introduced to by Colin. I had a number of very remote Munros in these areas including Beinn a’ Bhuird, Ben Avon, Beinn Lutharn Mhor and Carn an Fhidleir that I needed to complete. I suggested to Steve who accompanied me that we needed to use a mountain bike for these and we had great fun and some bone rattling descents on the bikes with some long days on these mountains.
I also needed to do some backpacking for some of the remote Munros and I had a great weekend on Ben Alder staying in the bothy with Steve, Pete and Nic who was my future son-in-law. We went on then to Corrour bothy and the Hutchinson Memorial bothy to finish off the Cairngorms and suddenly I had completed over 200 Munros. In 2010 Dewi and I took a tent to do Lurg Mhor and Bidein a’ Choire Sheasgaich (affectionately known as cheesecake) and others in the area in what was another memorable few days on the Scottish mountains. This left me with 17 Munros left at the beginning of 2011 and I set aside three weeks in May (supposed to be the best time in Scotland as far as weather and midges is concerned) in order to complete the Munros. I booked the whole of Corran bunkhouse by FortWilliam for one weekend in September 2011 for the final Munro that would be Sgurr a ‘Mhaim in the Mammores. Unfortunately May 2011 turned out to be one of the wettest on record in Scotland with high winds and I returned early with only four Munros completed. I encountered 3-4 inches of snow on the Strathfarrar Munros in late May and I was the only one in the Glen. The woman who looked after the locked gate into the Glen said to me on my return, “You Munro baggers are nuts” and she is probably right!
For the next few weeks I watched pretty well every weather forecast on the television and the MWIS website but no improvement so in the end I took a chance and went up at the end of June with Dewi and Pete to try and finish them off bar one. The first day down Glenn Dessary gave us torrential rain and a good soaking – typical Scottish weather! However the next day we had brilliant sunshine for Liathach with a good forecast for the next few days. We walked into Shenavail bothy and completed the six Munros in the Fisherfield in a day leaving my final Munro for September 2011.
By this time I had filled the Corran bunkhouse with 22 people consisting of Clwydian Ramblers, Norwest’ Sgurramblers, family and other friends. However some bad news came with the weather forecast as the tail of Hurricane Katia was due to hit the UK that weekend. The Corran Ferry pub next door to the bunkhouse had also shut down. However it was possible to get a free ferry to the Inn at Ardgour and this was taken advantage of by a number of us during the weekend! We got up on the Saturday morning and the weather was much better with less wind than predicted and no rain. So sixteen of us set off on the final Munro with some rain and clear weather on the way up to reach the top! Colin had bought a bottle of Champagne for us all to celebrate this final Munro for me and got his son Luke to carry it up!
On returning to the bunkhouse I was given a glass Eagle that Elen had commissioned for me to commemorate the event with the words of the Welsh Poet Eifion Wyn, “Myfi yw Mab y Mynydd” (I am the son of the mountains) engraved on the plinth. I also received a large mug with “Munro Man” written on the side and a special cake from Gwen Evans (Carol’s mother-in-law) showing a mountaineer sleeping in a tent on a mountain to celebrate the occasion. Everyone went to the Clachaig Inn afterwards in Glencoe for a meal to complete a memorable weekend.
I can now call myself a Munroist and am able to join the Munro Society and I am number 4,876 that has completed them. It has taken me 17 years to complete all 283 Munros and climbing all of them is the equivalent of climbing Mount Everest 14 times! Do I have another challenge? Krys Lotoczko of the group came up for the weekend and gave me a book “The Call of the Corbetts” that will keep me occupied for another few years!
The only tinge of sadness in the weekend was that Steve Williamson was not there with me as he was killed tragically in Snowdonia during January 2011. I introduced him to Scotland and we had completed well over 100 Munros together in a very short time and he was badly missed during this year.
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