Not sure quite how long ago I decided, but it’s certainly some years (and umpteen Munros) since I moved from thinking ‘how come I’ve never climbed Slioch?’ to ‘I’m saving that for last!’ And what better peak for the job when you’ve already run out of candidates within a couple of hours drive of home and a major ‘singleton’ with one of everything (Munro, Top, Deletion) has to be the perfect finish to an ‘all-time’ round of everything that’s been listed in Munro’s tables? So Slioch it’s been going to be for so long, and now Slioch it was (yesterday) with my 601-top round complete…
But did it work out quite as expected? Well, no, because for starters it was so nearly scuppered by that little accident on the way into Carnmore four weeks ago (on which note I might confess to wearing the Hokas yesterday for their swelling-accommodating space and comfort rather than hill-going qualities!). And the smart idea of meeting my clockwise Slioch Horseshoe racing friends as we tackled the round anticlockwise to get Sgurr an Tuill Bhain (Top) and the trig point (Deletion) on the way to that final Munro rather came to nothing as a combination of slow progress in somewhat trying conditions and an unexpected race diversion meant we missed almost the entire race field at the summit. As well as the ‘much finer’ view from this more northerly vantage point, though we can blame neither our lack of pace nor the race diversion for that! But there were compensations, like being able to share my bottle of The Singleton (Spey Cascade) with the Scots/Norwegian party who arrived there more or less simultaneously with our magnificent seven. And the belated clearing that at least gave us some decent views of Beinn Eighe on the descent. And the ‘Compleation’ certificate presented (along with a bottle of Prosecco for our dinner party) by the hugely welcoming Andrew and Gail Staddon at the Kinlochewe Hotel, with photo taken by Andrew joining the others on their board of Kinlochewe completers by the time we got home today! :-)
So to everyone involved, including (but not limited to) Andrew and Gail and some of their guests (thank you John Irvine for the drinks, and hope you finish your Munros on Beinn Sgulaird this year!) and my small, but select, summit party of Jamie Bankhead, Lisa Corse, Anne MacRae, Marie Meldrum, Angus Duggan and Andrew Johnson, what can I say but thank you for helping to make a special occasion even more special and an iconic peak even more iconic (to me!)? Still not sure how I feel now it’s all ‘over’ because it still feels oddly ‘wrong’ to have none left to do but, hey, we had a great time and…
Slioch done:
6-0-1! :-)
Well done Peter! Awesome stuff
Comment by Sandra mcdougall — 31 May 2015 @ 10:16 pm
Well done Peter xx
Comment by Sandra mcdougall — 31 May 2015 @ 10:17 pm
A huge and significant achievement. There are many Munroists, some with the tops as well but you’ve got the cask strength edition with the deleted ones also in yir collection! WELL DONE ☺
Comment by Graham Kelly — 31 May 2015 @ 10:25 pm
Honoured to be involved. Thank you for a great day out.
Comment by Lisa — 1 June 2015 @ 8:31 am
Well done Pete! Nice to meet you yesterday at the trig point, as we were descending off the hill after marshalling the race. Hope the celebrations went well – maybe you got a view on the way down?
Jonathan
Comment by Jonathan Appleby — 1 June 2015 @ 9:09 am
Congratulations Pete. You’ve been through the mill but what a way to finish off. I’m fascinated by your “end of racing” blog as well – if you look across the loch sometime, underneath Stob Coire a Chearcaill, you’ll see a fellow runner who feels exactly the same these days and who has also been wrestling with this question and with the strong feeling that I “ought” to be racing and yet find that I can’t be arsed with it anymore, or the hyperbole that seems to surround a lot of races. That said, I’d be interested to compare how WHW/Ramsay have affected you with how the BG affected me (and others I know).
I guess we’ll meet on a hill somewhere sometime. I had threatened to head out when Marie was posting about runs on that facebook page….but chickened out a bit thinking my slow plod these days wasn’t up to it. I should just get out there and do it! Anyway, I’m away to get some work done before heading up the slopes of Slamain to marshall Jon’s race tonight.
Keep doing the things you love and doing them for the pure enjoyment.
Comment by Richard Airlie-Gilbert — 2 June 2015 @ 2:12 pm
Oh, the obvious question is also, possibly, what’s next? Have you ever followed the bagging exploits of Rob Woodall? If there’s a list, Rob’s working his way through it. Trig points of Scotland perhaps? I quite fancy the long trek out to the one on the side of Loch Eil that stands at, approximately, 0ft!!
Comment by Richard Airlie-Gilbert — 2 June 2015 @ 2:49 pm
Some cracking comments, folks…
Graham, as I said on Facebook, so appreciated… so ‘you’ and (dare I say it?), so true! :-)
Richard, clearly on my wavelength and again much appreciated! Re. what next, yes, I’m aware of both Rob Woodall’s Marilyn round (not for me!) and pedigree as a hill runner (if only!). But, to answer your main (?) question with another copy-and-paste from FB (where I’ve already been asked twice):
‘In no particular order… more climbing, sorting the boat to get back to sailing, finishing the Corbetts (still a *long* way to go), lots more running but not running racing, supporting my star triathlete (who’s one of my dearest friends as well as provider of reflected glory!) and hoping I can just keep that elusive life/life balance somewhat balanced!’ :-)
And you know ‘my star triathlete’… just hope I’m not embarrassing her (if such a thing’s possible?)!
Comment by admin — 2 June 2015 @ 5:23 pm