Random life update
- My supervisor, who's been away in Barcelona for the last month, dropped in for a flying visit last weekend. We had two mammoth three-hour meetings in two days, which was excellent in that I now have lots of stuff to work on and some idea of how to fix up things that were broken, but utterly knackering. Momentum has been lost a bit (hence the Fine ( Read more... )
Munro-bagging's a fairly big thing up here - well, maybe not big, but you meet quite a few people who are into it. Over a thousand people have collected the set and informed the SMC. Actually, it's a bit of a divisive issue among hillwalkers: some people think the stamp-collecting aspect detracts from the experience, and sensibly argue that a hill that's only 2998ft high might be much more interesting and characterful than one that's technically a Munro. Another argument is that baggers tend to climb hills by the easiest possible route, increasing erosion on that path; the ethos of mountaineering is generally to take the most challenging and elegant routes up that you can manage. I know one guy who says he'd deliberately avoid climbing all the Munros, possibly by turning back just shy of the top! Which I think is much sillier, to be honest.
I've been hillwalking off and on for most of my life: my parents were both into it, and took me on walking holidays in Wales when I was a teenager (and a couple in the Tatras and Krkonose when we lived in the Czech Republic). I got into Munro-bagging via my ex-flatmate Philipp, who's much more determined about it than I am. The good things about it are, to me:
- It gives you an extra incentive to get out of bed early on a Saturday morning when it's still dark and cold;
- It makes you keep going to new places, so you see more of Scotland;
- You're more likely to go out walking whatever the weather or conditions, so you gain more experience, which is invaluable for the day when the weather comes down unexpectedly
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