Retirement Compleators
RETIREMENT COMPLEATORS
Although we had climbed Ben Lawers early in our married life, our Munro journey really began in 2019 when we were 60 and 61 respectively, and partially retired. That year we climbed Schiehallion in the Spring and, crucially, that autumn we joined our great friends and fellow Club members Robin Gordon ( past president of HF) and Audrey McFarlane in Ullapool, from where we climbed with them Ben More Assynt and Conival, and two of the Western Fannichs.
The flame was ignited by that trip but then Covid intervened and we were grounded till mid 2020 when we at last got North again and climbed another 25 Munros over the following six months.
Then the pace quickened and the ambition began to take hold: we climbed 48 in 2021, reaching 50 in the 4 Munro round in the Beinn Dearg range South of Ullapool; 55 in 2022, reaching 100 on the Glen Strathfarrar 4 and ending that year on 132; 46 in 2023, back in the Fannichs for our 150th; 40 in 2024 reaching 200 on Beinn Fhionnlaidh in Glen Crerar; 46 in 2025 passing through 200 on the Mullardochs; and the final 18 this year, finishing on a magnificent day in mid July on Carn Mor Dearg with the wonderful backdrop of the Ben’s forbidding North Face towering clear above us on the ascent.
Being mostly retired, we had the huge advantage of being flexible about choosing our days and weather, and we are lucky to only look back on a handful of days of really poor visibility. We tried to do as many Club days as we could, but as our timetable accelerated and because we could use weekdays we were often off on our own.
We tended to stop going North from our home near Biggar from the end of November till March, so our Munro year was typically 8 months. We love the snow but we were very wary of it at high levels in the winter. We did do an invaluable one day Mountaineering Scotland Winter skills Course on Cairn Gorm which taught us the basics of crampons and axes and the most valuable lesson of all: to know when not to go and always to beware being driven against one’s better judgement by the momentum of the plan: you’ve waited and planned for this mountain for so long , let’s give it a go and see what happens etc- if it’s wrong, it’s wrong, don’t go! We have, like many, carried crampons and axes far more times than we have used them but you just never know and it’s always safest to shoulder the extra weight.
We decided early on we would tackle the hard ones as soon as we could while we felt relatively fit ( and brave!). In the end we joined guided trips to the Aonach Eagach, Liathach, An Teallach and for 9 of the 12 Cuillin Munros. The Cuillins took four separate trips to complete, including three guided, and we are not likely to forget that intoxicating mix of exhilaration and terror on the In Pinn, the western pinnacles of Sgurr nan Gillean (we do not know to this day why our guide took us up that way), the Bad step on Am Basteir and the long, long day on Sgurr Nan Eag and Sgurr Dubh Mor. Lucy proved much more intrepid on the rock although Barry, perhaps in enthusiasm to get off it, was the better abseiler. Although as one guide said, you can run out of courage on the Cuillins, the vistas of mountains, sea and islands from the tops and the incredible sense of achievement made up, and more, for the hard moments.
We did not do a lot of camping over the 6 years but there were memorable nights under canvas in Glen Affric, at Lochan Fada in the Fisherfield wilderness and on the greens at Loch Arkaig, although the midges were never far away. We took the odd cottage for a longer trip in hot spots like Glenshiel, Invergarry and Glen Etive and Glencoe. Otherwise we gained an encyclopaedic knowledge of dubious highland hotels and hostelries.
A key factor in our eventual compleation was deciding to invest in electric bikes and it is hard for us to imagine now how we could possibly have managed access to the Ben Alder, Glen Geldie and Glen Ey hills without them. As for Lurg Mhor, the bike trip alone out from Attadale to the start of the hills practically killed us.
It would be hard to overemphasise how brilliant the Walkhighlands App is, not available when we first started but giving us huge confidence and security when it came online. Beside that, we always plotted an OS route, carried a Garmin as back-up and, most importantly, a physical map and compass. It is certainly true that you shouldn’t just rely on machines and technology and indeed a couple of bad moments for us were firm evidence of that: taking a wrong turning to the lip of a very snowy drop off on the notorious plateau below Ben Macdui en route to Cairn Gorm on a day of intermittent whiteout ( so bad that later on we were within 25 metres of the Ptarmigan Restaurant and could not see it); and finding we were travelling in completely the wrong direction on a misty day at the west end of the Ben Alder 4. In both cases compass bearings told us we were wrong, and put us right. We eventually also took to carrying a Zoleo satellite communicator and were registered with the SMS emergency message service.
Looking back it is hard to answer definitively the inevitable question as to our favourites, but the seascapes from the summits of the Western hills will always stand out in memory: coming out on the top of A’Mhaighdean on a wonderful day to see the Dubh and Fionn lochs stretching out to the western sea; seeing the Small Isles in the haze and in the calmest of seas from the Cuillin Ridge; looking West from the end of the Glen Dessary Ridge; and approaching Sgurr Mor and Glen Kingie by canoe across Loch Quoich
Unusually we never turned back once over the years, to a great extent the result of being able to pick our days and just deciding not to go if the weather looked problematic: Robin taught us to fear wind most of all. On a few occasions we did decide to cut out a more distant hill from a recommended circuit, which was usually the right decision on the day but was of course regretted at leisure when we were left at the end with a handful of outliers, necessitating two notable expeditions this year to bag Beinn Fhionnlaidh in Affric and the two Westerly Mullardochs which we did from Glen Strathfarrar.
Inevitably you leave some of the hardest days to the end : the weather made Lurg Mhor even more of a trek and it was even worse on Maoile Lunndaidh in Achnasheen( who doesn’t have a few left in Achnasheen towards the end?!) which combined pelting rain on long bike rides in and out with horrible broken, boggy ground most of the way up, together with mist and midges. We also ended up doing our longest day of all in the final push towards 282: 13 hours from the Linn of Dee car park- including biking to and from Derry Lodge- to do the Devil’s Point, Cairn Toul and Sgor An Lochan Uaine. Early on we used to think 8 hours was a long and hard day, by the end we knew it was an easier one.
We always knew Scotland was marvellous , and we thought we knew it pretty well but we never knew how just how marvellous it was and how little we knew of its true grandeur and beauty till we did the Munros. We came also to have a huge respect for the Scottish hills; although not the world’s highest by any stretch nevertheless the severity and changeability of Atlantic weather makes them formidable adversaries. There were all the incidental pleasures: memorable wild swims including two in one day on a sweltering round in Affric; the wonderful wildlife experiences too, Pinemartens and Eagles at the top of the list but on that terrible wet day on Maoile Lunndaidh we saw in two minutes on the summit, Ptarmigan, stags, Ravens, Golden Plover and Mountain Hares.
It was a special blessing and gift to do the Munros together as a couple, to have that amazing experience shared with each other. We are sure other Munroists have the same feeling we do, that other people just don’t know how hard it is but also how fulfilling. It is unquestionably the best thing we have ever done.
We should at the last pay special tribute to Robin and Audrey who began us on this journey and despite themselves becoming Compleaters long since, selflessly joined us and saw us safely up numerous hills they had done before: thank you.
Barry and Lucy McCorkell
July 2026
Comments