Rick's Last Munro

After waking at 1.30am, and being far too nervous to get back to sleep, I wasn't in the best form as we drove off at 5 am to meet our friends C and R to accompany them on his last Munro.

A little band of 9 set off from Crainlarich at 9 am, under serious midgie attack. We had a squelchy haul up through trees till we attained the hill, Cruach Ardrain. From there it was a steady pull to reach the shoulder. (Not that we could tell where we were as the cloud was down, and it was raining.). We slogged on, my knees screaming, as every step was a steep one. I had been nervous as they are all 10-20 years younger and very fit climbers, triathletes etc etc, but they were kind and we usually walked in little groups.

This is Rick reaching the top. Would you believe this is Midsummer's Day? Like us, he has now climbed all the Scottish Munros, the mountains over 3000 ft. This one was almost 4000ft. He'd taken close on 40 years to do it, as he's spent most of his life doing other stuff like running, cycling and rock climbing.

Mr C and I started our Munros in 1992 as a result of me reading a book by Muriel Grey called "The a First Fifty" - the book was funny and she made it sound like fun, as well as a great way to see parts of Scotland we'd never be able to reach except on foot. So I thought I'd challenge myself and aim to do 50 by the time I was 50. Chris and Rick were the only friends we knew who we thought might be up for joining us on our first week. So our Munroing history together goes right back to our first Munro. After completing 50 we then decided we'd do 100 as we were enjoying it so much. and then we were addicted and carried on to "compleat" 7 years ago, with C and R among our friends who joined us for the last one. Hence it was important to be here for his last one. (Chris is still 38 short so if she decides to finish, we'll try to be there)

It was a hard slog of 13 miles over rough and steep country, rewarding with a good dinner and some drinks in the local hotel, organised by Chris. It was a good day, despite the wintry weather, in splendid company.