On Bagging and Hill Lists

In the past 12 months or so I’ve rekindled my interest in hill lists. Not in an attempt at completing any, more out of curiosity and an effort to use them to discover walks I might never have been on. I’ve had some mixed results, mostly I found some pretty decent new spots with a few that whilst diverting, not places I ache to go back to. These photos are from one of the latter walks so I thought I’d pad things out with some words on what I’ve come to find a fascinating topic.

When I started my hiking journey back in my university days the list of the day was Scottish Munros. We were all pretty obsessive and between 1984 and 1998 I managed to pick up 200 (my first munro was Rudh Stac Mhor on Beinn Eighe and my 200th Ben Lomond in case you’re interested). Since then after moving too far south for regular trips to the Highlands that pace has slowed dramatically such that my grand total is still only 213 over 20 years later (although they took two off me in the last revision). I hope to complete them sometime before I shuffle off although I’ll need some help with the Skye ridge (where I’ve only done a few of the easier ones) and a whole heap of fuel and passion for walking in rain and bog!

The other big Scottish group are Corbetts. Only 55 of 222 for me due to the fact they are harder to tick off. The rule around what constitutes a Corbett is much tougher and strictly applied so they tend to be isolated such that more than one in a day is a big ask. Chances of completing them are zero not least because some are seriously dreary and uninteresting.

The recent obsession was with Marilyns (any hill with 150m drop on all sides, strictly applied). How to find them was the challenge as there are quite a few, 1622 in fact in the UK. I discovered the well known Hill Lists App and it was a couple of quid well spent. Its devoured a good deal of my life recently as I populate with data from my memory banks and in poking around looking for new places to go.

It was the reason that this walk found its way into my life. Its Mynydd Twyn Glas, just above Cwmbran in the Welsh Valley’s. The forecast looked ok, sunshine and showers but the latter was the end result. This may be fine hill on a fine day but in ceaseless, cold rain it was a dreary and cheerless experience. Still another one ticked off I guess.

Long way to go though. I’ve only done 59 of the 158 in Wales, 68 of 175 in England and a paltry 227 of 1219 in Scotland. I suspect that completing the list is a big ask. Not because I’m not a keen hiker you understand, but some of them are seriously obscure and many are on private land and need some discrete trespassing. Worse there are some sea stacks in the list and some on St Kilda, not exactly easy to get to!

I’ve also been poking around with other lists. Wainwrights are an obvious one and I’m at a respectable 143 out of 214. A few days in the eastern fells around Shap and I wouldn’t be far off completing them. I exclude the Outlying Fells as there are some seriously obscure ones in there.

Nuttalls was the only other one on the lists I recognised (England & Wales summits over 2000 feet with 15m drop all round). My proudest achievement is in here as I’ve completed all the South Wales ones. Sadly, not that much of an achievement really seeing as I live in the neighbourhood and only completed them on my next walk to post up but the map in the app looks good! I’ve done 113 of 189 in Wales (so plenty left in North Wales to get my teeth into) and 113 of 189 in England.

Humps are the other that fascinate me. Basically Marilyns but with only 100m drop (name stands for Hundred Metre Prominence). There are bloody thousands of them even more obscure and remote, 3100 to be precise of which I’ve done only 489, less than 20%. I might really struggle to complete these! Still nearly 500 summits of various heights and dimensions is not a bad reward for 35+ years of hill obsession.

I’ve found it endlessly enjoyable and fascinating filling in the stats, looking at maps, trying to remember which one’s I’ve climbed and when, what route we took and which other insignificant (at the time) bumps and tops I’ve been over and can tick off. I’ve not become obsessed or anything, honest!

The Hill lists App is well worth a couple of quid of any obsessive outdoor types money considering the effort the creator goes to produce and update it and its very easy to use. It has a whole load of lists I’ve never heard of if you are so inclined (Archies anyone) and has a direct hook into MWIS which is very handy. You can backup and export between devices so you always have an up to date copy somewhere.

Hope you enjoyed my little reverie into hiking by statistic. Pictures of a proper long hike in the snow (with a new Marilyn/Hump/Nuttall summit thrown in) in the next post.

Footnote 1: I’m doing well in the TGO 40 best UK mountains list, only 4 left!

Footnote 2: All stats subject to a margin of error due to poor memory going back 35+ years!