Scottish Hill Runners

[Dan]

On Sunday 1 February, while the rest of Britain was snowed under, Jon Gay, Paul Manson and I completed a Tranter's round of the 17 Munros comprising Ben Nevis, the Aonachs, the Grey Corries and the Mamores. We started at the Glen Nevis Youth Hostel at 6:02am, completing the round in 18 hours 59 minutes and 6 seconds.

Despite forecasts of a 90% chance of cloud-free Munros, we encountered near whiteout conditions on the Aonachs and Grey Corries, with 40mph+ winds from the East/Southeast. The snow was plentiful but hard, giving reasonable conditions underfoot. I wore six layers, including a warm belay jacket, and two hats. The lightweight running crampons that Paul and I had recently bought came in particularly handy.

Upon reaching the summit of the easternmost Stob Ban at 1.33pm the sun poked through over Loch Trieg to the East and the cloud lifted long enough for us to look back West across the Mamores. With the wind dropping, we had hopes of finishing before midnight.

Our efforts upwind over the Grey Corries, however, must have taken their toll since we slowed over Binnean Beag and Sgurr Eilde Mor, reaching the latter summit at 4.32pm. A plod up to Sgor Eilde Beag to avoid the cornice running along the ridge northwest saw us reach Binnean Mor just before nightfall.

From Am Bodach onwards the occasional glimpse of the guiding lights of Fort William and Kinlochleven were welcome reassurance. By this time Paul’s feet were almost completely numb, so we tried untying his frozen laces – with little success. We considered peeing on them but luckily for Paul we were all too dehydrated.

My brother Jon’s local knowledge came to the fore for the descent off the Devil’s ridge and on to Stob Ban, which he claims to have summited dozens of times. Mullach nan Coirean seemed to drag on forever despite Jon’s insistence that it was ‘really only an extension of the previous hill’; and the descent through the forest was distinctly less than the dream that I had been anticipating for the previous 18 hours.

We hurtled down Glen Nevis so fast that we missed the turnoff to the youth hostel and had to double back up the road, with Jon winning the final sprint to the phone box. None of us remembered to take a victorious picture, still less strike a victorious pose – and sleep was the grand finale.

Dan Gay

[tom smith]

awesome, well done guys. usually only pee on my feet by mistake after a few beers!

[colinw]

Fantastic run guys - 1st sub 24 winter round I believe - congratulations!

[Malcolm Patterson]

Hi Dan,

That really is an impressive achievement, many congratulations.

And, as Colin says, so far as we know, its the first Winter Tranter Round in under 24 hours.

Malcolm
_________________
As the late, great, Billy Bremner said: "You get nowt for comin second."

[Peter Duggan]

Hey Dan, been meaning to post to say well done ever since Jon mailed me a link to this, but thought I'd already registered and have finally just got round to sorting that...

Anyway, fantastic achievement, so very well done! Know how cold and windy it was that Sunday because I was out on the Ben (retreat forced by adjustment spring failure on new crampons), and can imagine what it must have been like running in that.

Cheers
P

[Alec Keith]

This is a tremendous achievement, and I'm green with envy. Sub-24 hours always seemed likely, however you need the right kind of snow, good weather, and a full moon would be nice...and if you wait for all that lot it never happens. So well done guys on a great effort.

But it's surprising that the SHR site hasn't hummed a bit more with general excitement at this news as it's one of the top hill days out in Scotland (far more enjoyable and do-able than the over-rated Ramsay round), and one that everyone who is keen on long hill days should have on their hit list whether in summer or winter. The summer record is 12h 55m - get out there!

[colinw]

Joan & I managed a Tranter last weekend(11/12 July) and thoroughly agree on quality of route. Its something we've always wanted to do but didn't think we could manage until recently decided to give it a go. Only just made it (23:16) as bad weather slowed us down towards the end but even so we'd only just have broken 22:00 at best. Couldn't even contemplate a Ramsay Round and I've even more respect now for those who can ,but, as Alec says, the Tranter is absolutely fantastic & we're currently feeling very pleased with ourselves having had a hill day that I'm sure we'll never forget!

[Oscar]