A 2020 Summary

2020 was a year like no other in living memory.  The COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic spread around the world causing millions of deaths and resulting in the restriction of freedoms we used to take for granted.  These restrictions, including lockdowns, hugely limited the opportunities to head for the hills.

At the start of 2020 I had 280 summits on my combined ticklist of TRAIL 100, Nuttall, WASHIS, Dawson, Dewey, Bridge and Buxton & Lewis summits.

The publication of Mark Richards’ updated and revised Fellranger guidebooks added 3 new summits to my list.  TRAIL magazine’s reboot of its TRAIL 100 list added another 5.

Overall I :

            went on             6                                  walks

            walked              47.6                              miles

            ascended          17,890                          feet

            walked for         29 hrs 50 mins            (including rest stops !)

            reached            11                                 individual summits that I hadn’t been to before

            reached            3                                   individual summits that I had been to before

            reached            8                                 summits on my combined ticklist

            reached            0                                   previously unclimbed TRAIL 100 summits

            reached            3                                  previously unclimbed Nuttall summits

            drove                678                             miles on trips to and from walks

The only significant achievement of the year was a re-completion of the Fellrangers.

All of this meant that after additions and my walks, my ongoing ticklist remained static at 280 summits.

A 2019 Summary

At the start of 2019 I had 441 summits on my combined ticklist of TRAIL 100, Nuttall, WASHIS, Simpson, Dawson, Dewey, Moss, Wright, Bridge and Buxton & Lewis summits.

The year was another in which ambition exceeded activity, although the start of the year showed some promise.  After April, no targeted summits were ticked and only a few “boots on” days happened after then.

Overall I :

            went on             9                                  walks

            walked              68.9                              miles

            ascended          17,890                          feet

            walked for         44 hrs 24 mins            (including rest stops !)

            reached            20                                 individual summits that I hadn’t been to before

            reached            6                                   individual summits that I had been to before

            reached            15                                 summits on my combined ticklist

            reached            1                                   previously unclimbed TRAIL 100 summits

            reached            5                                   previously unclimbed Nuttall summits

            drove                2195                             miles on trips to and from walks

I’ve detailed this in previous blogs but this year saw the removal of the Moss, Simpson and Wright summits from my ticklist.  This resulted in a list with 146 fewer summits!

The most significant or memorable walks included Pendle Hill, a traverse of the Howgills, Arenig Fach and Sàil Mhòr in Scotland.

All of this meant that after removals and my walks, my ongoing ticklist decreased from 441 to 280 summits.

Britain’s 40 Finest Mountains – the Top 10

Following the publication, by The Great Outdoors magazine, of their “Britain’s 40 Finest Mountains” supplement, the magazine’s staff canvassed attendees of the 2018 Kendal Mountain Festival to find out their opinions as to which should be top of the list.

It was acknowledged that the list might be skewed against Scottish mountains because the festival was south of the border.  Despite that, it is a reasonably impressive list.

1              Tryfan

2              Buachaille Etive Mor

3              Great Gable

4              Cader Idris

5              Helvellyn

6              Lochnagar

7              Cnicht

8              Moel Siabod

9              An Teallach

10           Schiehallion

I would argue against the inclusion of Cnicht and Moel Siabod; they’re good hills but I suspect that their accessibility to major centres of populations ensured their prominence.

I’m also surprised that neither Snowdon nor Ben Nevis made the top 10 but perhaps their 3 Peaks notoriety went against them.

And also the exclusion of any or all of the Torridon giants was a bit of an eye-opener.

For the record, I’ve ticked 7 of the 10 with the outstanding 3 all being in Scotland.

Britain’s 40 Finest Mountains

The Spring 2018 issue of The Great Outdoors magazine, as part of its “40^th Birthday Collectors Edition”, included a supplement called Britain’s 40 Finest Mountains.

In the introduction to the list it is said that “Of course, any such list is highly subjective…” but it would be hard to argue against many, or perhaps even any, of the mountains that are included.  Although there are a few that I haven’t yet climbed – all of those are in Scotland – their reputations alone make me think that the list has been chosen on merit and I haven’t spotted any obvious exclusions.  Having said that, only Scafell Pike of the National Three Peaks does not appear but its neighbour Sca Fell does!

Some years ago TRAIL magazine published a list of “the 100 finest UK mountains” which I always felt contained some entries that were chosen based as much on their geography as on their mountain characteristics.  The TGO 40 doesn’t appear to suffer from that bias and I feel that it is a purer list, albeit quite a bit smaller.

Of the TGO 40 list, 37 of the mountains are also on the TRAIL 100 list.  The three that aren’t are Ben Loyal, Braeriach and Creag Meagaidh.

Of course, I now have to amalgamate the TGO 40 into my own combination of hill lists, but I only have to add two of the mountains as Braeriach is already on my list as a Scottish 4000 foot summit.