UKC

Nice wee write up of an epic day on the Munros in Scotland by Carnethy HRC.  Enjoy a gripping tale here:

www.carnethy.com 

282 Munros will give over 282 stories.

This story started when Iain Whiteside spotted that the 214 Wainrights (named tops in the Lake District) had been done in one day. That covers four OS maps. We convened a planning meeting on Zoom to consider how to do the Munros In A Day.

This was a much much bigger challenge over a much larger area covering Islands, peninsulas and the remotest corners of the UK. It would require complex logistics, planning, commitment, teamwork, reasonable weather and a dose of luck. Some impressive spreadsheet wizardry by Ian broke the problem down in to short, medium, long and extra-long hill days. Safety issues discussed, the likelihood of success considered and dates suggested. Should it be next year in June 2022 with long days and better weather?…no, let’s do August 14th 2021 – in just 53 days’ time. Crazy?

Nicki Innes set about rustling up the Carnethy ladies and others were given the date to reserve. After all of the slots were filled on the spreadsheet, then unfilled due to injuries and drop-outs, then back-filled with replacements, over 125 Carnethies plus friends and family members had signed-up and it was game-on with 10 floaters ready to leap into action to fill gaps if needed. Ken Fordyce sorted the communications plan for the day with his son to semi-automate reporting which doubled as a safety check on the day. Nicki sorted a master Whatsapp group. Sub-groups formed in regions quite seamlessly to arrange shared transport, accommodation, safety plans, food and end of day beers. Guidance for a safe day went to everyone on the basis that if Storm Apocalypse did not hit Scotland on the 14th a common sense approach would prevail and we would go anyway and see what happened.

Fittingly, the first Munro was Beinn Dearg, north of Bruar, bagged at 0755 by Carnethy veteran Keith Burns, who at 79 years young, continues to put many of us to shame. An Coileachan fell next at 0839 in the Fannichs by your President and his dog Barra who saw nothing all day but clag and rain on their 9 hills. [Actually these timings may not be correct! Data still emerging] The youngest Carnethy to summit was Rowan Rawlik who at the tender age of 3.5 years old, ticked her 5th Munro – Carn Liath across Glen Tilt from where Keith had been earlier. She has with her Mum, Dad and Moss so was in good hands.

Some big days were put in:

Alex McVey, Iain Whiteside and Eoin Lennon on the 12 Munro Mullardoch Round, 57km, 4,400m in 12hrs,

50km, 4,300m, 14hrs 20mins by Michelle Hetherington over the Monar Munros,

44km, 2,700m, 7.5hrs by Alan Renville across from me on the Beinn Dearg 6 – described as “A character building day out. Rain, thick cloud, wind and a swamp underfoot.”

Everyone put a shift in across Scotland so it is a toss-up as to who had the toughest day:

Sasha Chepelin, Ali Masson and some pals (who Carnethy need to sign-up) managed 65km, 5,100m in 12.5 hrs on a new ‘South-of-Glen Shiel Round’ which was “Longer than I signed-up for. A pretty spectacular day out though.” It was 14km to get to their first Munro. They did twice as much as me in a similar time!

Kudos though may have to go to Declan Valters who committed solo to the remotest of Munros in Knoydart adding then adding in the Munros South of Loch Cuaich to make a huge round of well over 55km, 5,000m ascent on the roughest terrain in Britain.

*The jeopardy* that followed, that had us on the edge our seats like the finale of Line of Duty, was the race by Jamie Paterson and his pal on the Skye Ridge to get Sgurr Nan Gillian done before midnight (having arrived on Skye after 0830!). This team was one of the youngest in the club. The other was for Declan to be helped out by Mick James and Jonathan Marks. John Busby had worked out that Declan could not make Gairiach in time. At 2210 Mick and Jonathan set off and raced to summit Gairich at 2348 just as Sgurr Nan Gillian was confirmed by Jamie. Poor Jamie then had to run/walk from Sligachan back to Glen Brittle as the Hotel was shut – well it was 0200 in the morning.

In 1988 over 2,000 people tried this in the Boots Across Scotland challenge. They failed to summit two Munros. Water Aid has tried several times and in 2007 came close…. <Waiting for confirmation>. We are certainly the first single group or club to do this, possibly the first ever.

There are so many stories and minor epics so there will be a Carnethy Journal telling them along with the 282 summit shots. Please send in your stories to Ken which I am sure will make great reading.

My hat is doffed to everyone who participated and I am sorry for those who could not make it this time. It was courageous. We did it: we pulled together as a club a quite audacious plan; we committed in short time and executed it safely from bagging the first top to ticking the last top.

282 Munros in 16hrs 48mins (tbc).

That will take some beating… What next…

Mark Hartree

“The Jeopardy”

This day was without doubt the most thrilling hill-related event in my life and I barely left my kitchen table in 17 hours. My phone was pinging non-stop. It was tremendous watching the hills get knocked off, although it was very difficult to keep up with the in the early to mid-afternoon. A few people went off grid for a while but thankfully re-emerged to confirm another set of hills to turn blue on the Walk HIghlands map. It was very hard to work out if it was going to be possible or not. I personally couldn’t see how the Cuillin ridge guys were going to get that done, but they assured me they would, and they did, comfortably!!

I knew Declan had a lot on his plate (and only found out later he set off later than planned; later = 5.30am) because of the awful weather overnight. At 19:35 he messaged to say he had done Sgurr na Ciche” and wrote “4 more, next couple are closer and along a ridge, but looking like a late finish…”.

I then updated the Twitter feed (seems to have gathered quite a crowd during the day) to say Declan had 4 more to go and at 20:16 John Busby (new dad at home) tweeted back “Is anyone close enough to get up Gairich? Not that I don’t have faith in Mr Valters… This intervention/nudge would prove key to achieving the final hill. There followed some back-and-forth between John, myself, and Nicki Innes (whenever she could find the one square meter with reception in Cluanie). Mick James established what was required to get to Garicih (40 mins by car, 5 miles uphill, around 700 metres of ascent). Remarkably, he had “done the hill several times”. At around 9.15 the decision was made that it was now or never. At 21:23, I spoke with Nicki and Mick and Jonathan Marks (fresh from 7 munros earlier in the day) who were ready to set off. We wouldn’t hear from them again until 23:48.

Declan – who was worried about the fact that he was supposed to be picking up the Cuillin Ridge guys – reached Garbh Cioch Mhor at 20:19 and Sgurr na Coireachean at 21:37 but the last two were quite far away. It was now clear that it had been the right decision for the Cluanie guys to head out (driven by Lindsay Marks). Between 10 and 11 news came through that the incredible Cuillin ridge guys had finished.

Jim Hardie, caught up in the moment, had a premature ejaculation of joy on hearing this news. But all attention now turned to two hills: Sgurr Morr and Gairich. And then silence descended. The pinging on my phone that had gone on all day, stopped. No messages from Declan (who was sensibly saving phone battery by switching to airplane mode between summits) and Nicki had said Mick and Jonathan would be out of range. Silence. It was a weird, tense silence. I was thinking of Declan out on the hill, was it silent or was there a raging wind. The clock ticked by. My heart was racing (I’m sure I wasn’t alone). At 23.35, I decided to take Nicki’s advice and head to bed myself accepting we wouldn’t know the outcome until the early hours when they were back with signal. Just as I settled down for the night. PING!! Declan, “Sgurr Mor. 23.46″. And then, just 2 minutes later 23:48, PING!! A photo of Jonathan celebrating on Gairich Beag. And, then, Jim Hardie, more careful this time, “So …. we did it?”. Yes, we had!!

There will be so many stories to tell from this day and each piece of this collective endeavour (such as Neil Mclure taking the ferry over to Mull or Joel bagging two way up in the far north) was vital to the whole. Every domino had to fall, each piece of the jigsaw had to find its place, and everyone – so impressively – turned up and did their bit, with just one tense and dramatic twist in the tail to round off a stunning day.

Ken Fordyce

That's a cool story cheers

Excellent. The Edinburgh clubs (CHR and HBT) are really good at doing interesting club challenges involving running, hills, distance and beer.

Anyone have any info/a link to the 214 Wainwright in one day this got the idea from?

I'm sure the 'Munros in a Day' idea isn't original. I was involved in a charity event 20 (?) years ago when we bagged some of the Fannaichs. The idea was to get all of them ticked (by anyone) all on the same day.

I recall the Scouts trying this as part of the 'Go for a Million' challenge in the late 80s.

I seem to remember this was a charity called Boots across Scotland who tried several times to achieve this but not sure they ever succeeded.

Could be? It was someone else in the club who was 'doing' it and I went along for the walk and to bag some Munros.

Yes, you are correct. I reference the 1988 attempt you were involved in and the Wateraid attempts in following years in the piece.  There are no new ideas, just copies and variants. We copied , varied and succeeded.

Get a team together for the next Edinburgh 7 Hills, 7 Beers and get in touch...

Inspiring - absolutely brilliant!  Well done to everyone involved in whatever capacity.

What next? The Alps 4,000's in a day? Now that would be some challenge!!!

The tale of the final Munro, just before midnight - http://carnethy.com/2021/08/are-you-geocaching-the-bizarre-tale-of-a-run-fo...

I took part in Boots Across Scotland in 1995 and I’m pretty sure the the organisers communicated afterwards that the aim of submitting all  Munros in a day had been achieved for the first time. The weather was very settled and organisation very good for an era when hardly anyone had mobile phones

But that was run across the country, and there were only 277 hills to climb then. It’s a really good effort for a club to manage - well done.

Yes. Followed by all 14 8000-metre peaks

Good effort by Carnethy. There's an old web page about Boots Across Scotland here:

http://www.nemt.org.uk/views/48/48_1.htm

I was never involved, but vaguely knew a few people who were. From memory they had several attempts (which fits with StovieDisco's recollection combined with the web info) and eventually managed it after one or two near-misses. I'm also pretty sure there was a fatality on one of the Boots attempts - possibly the last - and this unsurprisingly undermined some of the organisational enthusiasm. I think the Boots idea was to put people on top of all the Munros at the same time, which is a different and harder thing to organise than the recent Carnethy effort. There have also been one or two similar schemes by other groups and charities over the years.

I'm not sure of details or date, and a brief search on my computer hasn't produced any notes, but I seem to recall there was an attempt at all the Munros in a day by the Corriemulzie Club of St Andrews University sometime in the 1960s or 70s. I don't think they succeeded, but (assuming I'm not imagining the whole thing) it would very likely have been the first attempt at such a scheme.

I was involved in the first 2 Boots events, 1988 and (I think 1992). I don’t remember if the target was achieved other than raising money for charity. Yes, the summit time was 1pm. Well done to the Carnethy too!

Mountain Aid, the successor to Boots Across Scotland, are currently checking this out. We think it was achieved by Boots in 1996 after 2 unsuccessful attempts in 1988 and 1992.

And replying to myself !!!

It says on the Mountain Aid website that Boots did achieve it in 1996 (on the corbetts for courses page). I'm the current web author for Mountain Aid and this text was provided to me by another committee member. However, we do need to follow this back just to be 100% confident that it was achieved.