Munroists, Toppists, Furthists and more

[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.

Ireland's Munros - an outline for Furth-baggers

Ireland boasts 13 delectable Furth Munros - a Furth being a mountain outside, or ‘furth’ Scotland but high enough to have been a proper Munro were it lucky enough to reside within Scotland. See Dave Hewitt’s account of the history of this term here; broad discussion here.

Based on my visit earlier this week, this post aims to help the Furth-bagger with the summary logistics, a taste of the routes, and pointers to detailed route descriptions as they are not included here.

My favourite Irish Furths are Brandon Mountain with its commanding views over the sinuous and convoluted coastline of Dingle; and the 10 summits spiking along the sometimes knife-edged ridgeline of Macgillycuddy’s Reeks (a ridge that invites you to risk traversing its full length in one go despite the fact that the preferred 10 hours of visibility does not fit into the 8 hours of sun up in early winter).

The Faha Ridge en route to Brandon Mountain:

How the British Isles were created

This animation shows how the British Isles were created from the collision of two entirely separate tectonic plates, and how Scotland itself was assembled from a jigsaw of many pieces.

The Call of the Mountains - Book launch - Waterstones, Piccadilly - Oct 2013

Thank you one and all for coming along and packing out Europe's largest bookshop! The video is on the Youtube channel here:

The Call of the Mountains - Book launch - Waterstones, Piccadilly - Oct 2013

The Call of the Wild

When the rain pelts the flysheet, what better than to slot in the ear-plugs and listen to a book by the likes of adventurer, gambler, and raconteur Jack London. 

Pilgrimage to the Delectable Mountains

Flicking through The Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan the other day, I was reminded of how he introduces us to the Delectable Mountains. These are havens of rest for pilgrims en route to the Celestial City. From House Beautiful, the pilgrims are shown “a most pleasant Mountainous Country, beautified with Woods, Vineyards, Fruits of all sorts; Flowers also, with Springs and Fountains, very delectable to behold."

Above the Aletsch Glacier

This summer, I hiked with a friend across Switzerland via the Alpine Pass Route. A later posting will talk about that. But we added on a day at the end, which I recommend highly: a trip up above the Aletsch Glacier.