Over the winter of 2019-20, Kevin Woods set out on a grand venture - an attempt to climb all 282 of the Munros inside a single winter season. Wild is his account of this feat. This self-published book - currently in hardback - is both a gripping read and an inspiring visual record of Scotland's greatest mountains at the most mountainous time of year. It's a book that should excite keen walkers and winter climbers alike, and without question the most engrossing thing I've read about Scottish hills this year.

No stranger to the hills, with three Munro rounds already under his belt - including one completed as a teenager in a single summer - Kevin nevertheless took a huge step by committing to a winter round, pushing his ability, fitness and motivation as never before. The resulting journey - sometimes in company or with some logistical assistance, but mostly alone - sounds like a wild ride, loomed over by the constant imperatives of short daylight and moody or often downright violent weather, and menaced towards the end by the approaching global emergency of Covid.

There must have been many moments of doubt - indeed we're offered frequent windows into his thoughts and feelings along the way - and yet in the event he pulled it off, just as the shutters came down for lockdown. 

Wild is compelling and atmospheric 

We're used to seeing big hill records knocked over by capable athletes, but a winter Munro round is still nothing like a routine achievement, demanding as it does mountaineering competence, unusual reserves of gumption, and not a little luck. There have been only four to date, and Kevin's was the third. He acknowledges his precursos, Martin Moran (winter 1984-85) and Steve Perry (winter 2005-2006) at the start, and there's a pleasing awareness throughout the book of being part of an ongoing bigger story. It's a sad coincidence that both Perry and Moran were killed in separate accidents in 2019, the year Kevin set out in their snowy footsteps - there's no doubt both would have been thrilled to see him succeed.

Like Martin (Steve pushed the masochism by walking the whole way), Kevin wisely based his season from a van, sleeping in it overnight and using it as transport between hills. In this way he was able to follow the weather and pick off the Munros as a series of opportunistic day trips - albeit many of mammoth size. 

Winter Munros can be gnarly beasts, and in Kevin's account there's a particularly exciting near miss on a full-on Alpine style winter Cuillin day; but there's no bombast here, and he approaches his writing - as he does his hills - with a sense of humility. The simple, unaffected prose is very effective, and we're there with him out in all weathers (mostly minging), sharing his travails, his doubts and his moments of triumph.

The photos are very 'real' too, taken on the day, and clearly snapped on the hoof in fleeting weather windows - as well as plenty for which 'window' would be an optimistic term. Moments of glorious light and grand vistas pop up amongst the doomy and gloomy, and from this pictorial record alone you're left in no doubt what a tough, but ultimately uplifting experience it must have been. In its visuals, as with its writing, Wild is compelling and atmospheric. Hats off to him for managing to get a publishable image out of even the grimmest storm battle.  

It certainly was a stormy winter - few nowadays aren't - and the feeling of being harried by the weather, of having to work within its mercurial moods, accompanies you through the book in much the way that it clearly dominated his journey around the country. This is brought home via the clever device of quoting the day's Mountain Weather Information Service summary at the start of each chapter. Weather and conditions really are the predominant concern of every winter walker and climber, and it's striking that on mornings when most wouldn't dream of going high he would often head out, in a let's-see spirit, and reap the reward. Pushing these fine margins takes confidence and experience.  

Already a talented mountain film maker - the film of this journey, Winter 282 toured around the UK over 2023-24 - Kevin Woods has now added authoring to his list of achievements; and he couldn't have made a better start than Wild. If the winter round was a major undertaking, there's no doubt that producing a big glossy book like this would have been its own sort of challenge too. It is written with an immediacy and an enthusiasm that suggests the memories of his life-defining mission are still buring bright, and that he relished reliving the experience in the telling.

Kevin Woods has become a considerable authority on Scottish hills, and Wild is a great piece of work, which I hope will inspire many readers to think big and plan mountain adventures of their own. Kevin is now working on a couple of interesting film projects - watch this space.  

Disclaimer: Kev is a friend of mine. I've tried not to let it influence this review. And that outdoor journalist he mentions towards the end, who advised him to consider whether he should finish, as lockdown began in the world outside the hills? That was me. I know he agonised at the time, but in hindsight I'm glad he made the call to press on!

"This time would pass" he writes "but I'd only have one chance to finish the Munros in winter..." 

Wild is available to buy in hardcover on Kevin's website, and it's £35 well spent. A paperback edition will be out soon.