David reaches height of ambition
SELKIRK community council secretary David Bethune completed a 35-year quest on Saturday by reaching the summit of Aonach Mor – his final Munro.
The Munros are the 283 mountains in Scotland more than 3,000ft high.
“I climbed my first back in 1976 as a student, so it has taken me a long time, but I’ve enjoyed them all,” said David this week.
“Part of the fun is the planning required, but getting to each Munro has taken me to some beautiful parts of Scotland never seen by the average tourist”.
Each Munro has its own challenges and characteristics. Some require long walks or cycles from the nearest road while many others need the use of hands as well as feet on steep rocky sections.
And one, the infamous “In Pinn” (the Inaccessible Pinnacle) in the Skye Cuillins, needs some rock climbing expertise.
“It’s hard to pick a favourite, or even to select a top 10 because each has its merits and some of the best mountains in Scotland are not Munros, like Stac Pollaidh or Suilven in the north-west Highlands,” said David.
“I often climb alone, enjoying the solitude, and leaving behind the cares and concerns of work and my other commitments”.
However, David’s wife Anne has accompanied him on about half of his trips, and seven family and friends joined him on Saturday for the final summit with champagne and cake.
He now joins the ranks of approximately 4,800 “compleatists” who have climbed all the Munros since the Rev Archie Robertson first did so in 1901.
“Sometimes we are known as Munro-baggers, but Munroist or compleatist are the correct, and more respectful terms for those who have climbed them all,” said David. “I am not the first Selkirk resident to complete the Munros. The recently retired Dr. Wilson has done so, and I suspect there may well be others.”
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Weather for Selkirk
Thursday 24 May 2012
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