In 1981 my Ben Lomond to Ben Hope walk begins

 

On Ben Lomond, 25th June 1981

On this day forty years ago I set out to walk from Ben Lomond to Ben Hope. Actually the continuous walk was from Ben Vorlich to Ben Hope as Roger Smith, then editor of The Great Outdoors magazine, accompanied me up Ben Lomond and then drove me round to Inveruglas so I could climb Vorlich the same day. 

Ben Lomond was the 220th Munro of my first round. The aim of this walk was to finish all the mainland Munros I hadn't yet climbed, which just happened to include Ben Lomond and Ben Hope. That made for a somewhat meandering route that included the other Arrochar Alps, the other Ben Vorlich, Ben Chonzie, Buachaille Etive Mor, Aonach Eagach, Meall Chuaich, the Moine Mhor Munros, the Monadh Liath Munros, Fionn Bheinn, Ben Wyvis, and Seanna Bhraigh. In total I climbed 55 Munros, leaving just the Skye Munros, which I did that summer.

This was the fourth of four long walks, starting in 1979, on which I did most of the Munros. Having been inspired by Hamish Brown's wonderful book Hamish's Mountain Walk I always thought of climbing the Munros as part of backpacking trips rather than day walks. There are still many I've only ever done on multi-day trips.

On this day twenty-five years later I was on my walk over all the Munros and Tops and climbed all the Glen Shee to Glen Clova hills.