x + 1

X + 1, where x is the number of Munros I had bagged until yesterday and the previous 18 years or so.
 
I used to be a very keen hill walker, ticking off two or three every other weekend. Self employment and arrival of babies changes weekend priorities. To be clear I have still continued to get out for wee walks but it has usually been Munros I had already done or smaller hills closer to home. I used to keep a journal of those early outings, date, weather and a little story of the day. Despite the lengthy gap in addition of Munros I have bagged some cracking sub 3000 feet hills in the Munro holiday, Beinn an Oire on Jura, Ben More on South Uist, the Clisham on Harris, Goat Fell on Arran and Bohuntin Hill a million times. Anyway, today was the day the adventure resumed and it was a new Munro for Caley too.
 
If you drive north to Inverness on the A9 (and you can divert your attention from the speedo needle for fear of picking up a ticket from the new average speed camera system and instantaneous speed check vans) you reach the top of Drumossie brae. Your eye is led past the ugly tower of Raigmore hospital, the Caley Thistle Stadium and the Kessock Bridge. Beyond this the horizon is dominated by the hulk of Ben Wyvis. From here there is a perception that the mountain is just a mile or two beyond the bridge but you drive a good twenty miles to get to the roadside departure point for climbing the hill, beyond Garve on the way to Ullapool.
I have previously read about the hill and studied the ascent route. It is a notoriously cold summit exposed to the icy blast from the North Sea. Today I expected it to be warm even higher up but the hill lived up to its reputation. It is a tremendous viewpoint and bit of haze didn’t affect the photo opportunities.
It is obviously a well tramped hill and a substantial path of man made boulder steps carves an easy rake up the one steep shoulder. Once on the broad summit ridge it takes about 25 minutes to reach the slightly higher trig point at the true Munro summit. While the remaining snow looked like it was receding it remained rock hard and with no sign of thawing round the edges.

If I continue ticking the boxes at this rate I will complete the Munros in about a thousand years.