Soapbox

Steve left a phone message today to say that he's halfway round his winter Munro attempt and still going strong. He also wanted to stress that it's still possible to sponsor him via his site, see the story linked above.

I met Steve last year and he's a lovely fella who's extremely determined and he deserves all the support we can give him. What he's doing really is seriously hardcore.

He's a remarkable bloke. He seems to have the grit and determination to make any Yorkshireman proud. Reading that bit about his ribs made me open my wallet - come on the rest of you, it's for a great cause.

<ribby bump>

Ecco - yeah i agree its a great cause, and Steve Perry obviously deserves to be backed. Its a shame that he has attracted so little sponsorship to date, and i imagine this is the hardest bit of the whole challenge.
but thats the trouble - there's so many great causes every day fighting for our attention and our money.
i walked around central london today - in the space of 2 hours, there were 6 attempts by charity people to stop me and tell me about their particular cause, then a sponsored something or other at my local supermarket.
i for one feel that i do enough every year in volunteering both time and money.
Are many people outside of OM aware of what he is doing ?

Peter,

Yes, there's a lot of demand for our cash these days (and that's besides the mortgage, family etc) but the thing that impressed me was the scale of Steve's challenge. Whereas most sponsorship challenges are literally "a walk in the park" or a marathon at most, Steve's is a massive undertaking, only complteted (I think) before by professionals (martin moran).

Even so, I'd fancy a go at Steve's cchallenge (if only I could get out of this armchair !). The difference is though, that I'd have packed it in now or checked into a nice hotel for a week, particularly if I'd broken some ribs.

It's a great challenge, a great cause, done by a bloke with the stoicism that's a rare commodity these days. It's well worthy of our cash.

Actually no-one has backpacked all the Munros in winter before so if Steve succeeds (and he's ahead of schedule at present) it will be a first. Martin Moran used a vehicle as backup and to travel between the Munros and it was still a great achievement. No one else has completed the Munros in a single winter at all, though Mike Cawthorne did all the 1,000 metre summits in winter (137 peaks) and wrote a good book about it called Hell Of A Journey.

Point taken about Martin Moran, I remember now that his wife used a camper van to support him.

I've read Mike Cawthornes book - outstanding. He really can write - shame he hasn't follwed it up with anything.

without sarcasm please...

am new to walking / climbing - why are the scottish mountains called "munros" and where are they? and what is "bagging" ?

thank you for your patience ..

a walker

The Munros are hills of 3,000 feet or more, named for Sir Hugh Munro who first compiled tables of them in 1891. There are 284 Munros, all in the Scottish Highlands. Munro's Tables are published by the Scottish Mountaineering Club (SMC). Munro bagging means setting out to climb all the Munros. The SMC keeps a list of all those who've climbed the Munros and let them know. You can find it here:

http://www.smc.org.uk/munros/munros.htm

At the last count there were 3,550 Munroists.

I think they were named after the surveyor, Sir Hugh Munro who measured them. A munro is a scottish hill over 3000 ft ( I think) and there are 284 of them (I think). Some people like to climb all of them, either during a lifetime or all at once, as in the case of Steve Perry (or Chris Townsend)and the process is termed bagging.

It's a fine pastime but so is just hanging out in the hills. Don't feel that you have to be a bagger to head to the highlands.

Ah - CT beat me to it.

Incidently Chris, having done the continuous round yorself, how much harder do you think it would be in winter?

Obviously it depends on the weather! But in winter you always have much less daylight, colder weather and snow and ice plus a very good chance of much stronger winds. It's always going to be a lot harder, which is probably why no one has done a continuous on foot round before while a dozen or so people have done one in summer.

Winter does have one great advantage though. No midges!

I think Mike Cawthornes journey was a special one , no sponsorship, no media coverage just himself in love with the winter mountains. His book is one of the most inspiring ive ever read. I hope Steve Perry can write as well, that should be worth waiting for

Thanks Chris. I read a good quote in a book by Iain Banks about the difference between a scottish summer & winter.

"In winter it's cold and rarely light. In summer, it's cold and rarely dark."

hi
thanks for all your clear explanations guys...don't think Munros are for me just yet! and it must be b****y cold for that guy at the moment!

cheers
a.walker

I want to give that man a nice warm hug...please pass on this message

Actually, it's easier to be warm and comfortable when the temperature is below freezing and it's very cold and dry than when it's around or just above freezing and it's cold and damp. The problem with Scottish winters it's that damp cold is often more common than dry cold. Keeping dry enough to feel warm can be a big problem. Today it was calm with drizzle here in Strathspey and around +2C, which is miserable weather though at least not windy. Steve is currently west of here, where it's hopefully drier and clearer.

He'd probably prefer a donation than a warm hug! I can only afford a fiver but its worth it, I know what people mean about everyone wanting your money but in this case this guy who's doing something extraordinary and that requires some amazing emotional hell and bliss all in one, is doing something we all relate to and I'm sure he's hoping that those like ourselves who understand what he's going through the most will donate whatever we can. ;-)

I've been very interested by how many people doing these type of things recently are choosing the Terra Novas over the Akto? And all seem to be very happy so am thinking of maybe trying out the Laser or Laserlite for a while and seeing if the smaller porch is something I can live with aswell to save some pounds in both weight and currency?

Jamie, Don't forget lightwave either. I've just bought a zr0 cycq. Although I haven't used it in anger yet, the design is superb for its 1.3 kg weight.

Jamie - I've noticed the rise of the Laserlite as well but, having tried them both, I'd have the Akto every time.

Just my $0.02 :]