[Charts corrected 13 December]
Having compleated the Munros last
year and the Furth Munros last week, I was curious to know what company I was
in. I turned to the SMC website and fired up my Excel spreadsheets. But I am a
data fiend, so I quickly got drawn deeply into the world of Munroists, Toppists,
Furthists and more.
Below I offer answers to such
exciting questions as: how many people have climbed all the Furths? How many
have climbed all the Furths and all the Corbetts? What is the typical gap in
years between compleating the Munros and the Furths? Has anyone bagged all the SMC lists?
Of course there is the usual
caveat that not everyone who compleats these lists necessarily logs the
information with the SMC… And I also had to remove two Munroists before
starting the analysis: #284 (the Unknown Munroist) and #666 with its blank
data!
Overall
popularity
Munros compleations grew rapidly
during and after the 1980s and appear to have settled at around 250 per year –
with 2001 and 2010 as notable dips, perhaps due to the impact of 9/11 and
certainly due to the impact of the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull.