[Just in case you are unaware, the Munros in a Day was achieved with 12 minutes to spare after Mick James and Jonathan Marks made a late charge for the summit of Gairich near Loch Quoich – here’s Mick’s version of events].
We’d both got back to Cluanie from our our original (separate) Munro rounds of about 26km and 2500m of ascent around 5.30pm and had spent the time until 9pm firing up the hot tub, having a nice pasta feed and seeing off a few beers. We’d been musing at the likelihood of the Skye boys completing in the light and wondering when the Sasha and his 4 mates would get off the South Shiel ridge. Both teams had been casual that morning when they left Cluanie. The Skye team not leaving until 8.30am for the drive to Glenbrittel, after all, how hard could the Cuillin Ridge really be on a damp and foggy day? Sasha’s team were in buoyant mood and I heard snippets such as “How far do you think it is?” …Answer… “Maybe 30-35km”, and “How long do you recon to run back along the ridge (from the Saddle to Clunie)?” …Answer… “Maybe an hour.” With a cry of “Come on Carnethy” they left after a porridge fest with youth and enthusiasm gloriously triumphing after what turned out to be a 65km day … as a footnote to this epic achievement the guys found that no one had actually packed any food for dinner that night but a second porridge fest was alleviated by Kate’s monster pasta bake (always take a project manager with you for massive days out on the hill – they will always anticipate and fill in the gaps in your planning and, in this case, your stomach). But, back to Gairich. Blissfully ignorant we were having a fine time waiting for folk and watching the Munro map change colour as more and more ascents were reported and theG&T was flowing. In steps Nikki Innes…”Err, Mick it looks like we have a problem, can you get up Gairich, Delcan’s running a bit late”. Conflicting thoughts of ‘sure I can get up it’ collide with ..’really.. right now?’ What can you do though, its now 9pm we are at least an hour from the start and its about a 2 hour ascent so not much time to think. Unfortunately, we actually had a sober driver (Lynsey) in the group so couldn’t get out of it on that account, so put on my last remaining dry clothes, re-pack my sack, find a map, find I have no headtorch, rummage around the bothy and find an old one we’d found on Ciste Dhub a couple of months ago – no spare batteries and already looking a bit dim. Jonathan’s been sitting quietly, the lure of the hot tub clearly playing on his mind but he manfully steps up and actually has a fully charged and fully working torch so we are set to go. The drive round to the dam was a blur, Lynsey, dodging deer all down the single track road. We arrived at 10.10pm leapt out and started up. Fair to say it was a dark boggy stumble for most of the way with the occasional submersion, but the track is good and we were making progress by using Jonathans single headtorch. The rocky top section was a welcome relief as we knew we were in touching distance and then we are on the to plateau and wtf, there’s a tent….with a light on. Has Declan made it up already and we didn’t really have to come out at all? Too tired to process this we head for the cairn take a photo at 23.48 – the last of the Munros in the bag. No time to celebrate thouggh as we realise its actually now very cold and we are shivering in our wet t-shirts. Pile on all the clothes we have and start to realise how poorly we’ve planned this. We’d genuinely not thought this through…if Declan’s not here we will have to wait – after all, you can’t leave your mates out on the hills. We’ve no bothy bag and are not really equipped for sitting around for hours, but … hold on … there’s a tent over there. Unsure of the etiquette for approaching a strangers tent, at midnight, on the summit of a Munro, when you are soaking wet I just unzipped it and crawled in. Our two new best friends were actually happy to see us! Buoyed up by the empty prosecco bottle at the far end of the tent and a genuine sense of incredulity the young lovers asked us “Are you geocaching?” I didn’t really know how to reply. Inside the tent, and now about 10 degrees warmer, we set about trying to explain why we were there and what our plans were. We’d had the phones off for the ascent, trying to save battery in case of a forced descent by iPhone torch, but now the messages came flooding in. Declan had made his summit 2 minutes before us and, for a horrible moment we calculated he must then be about 8km and 6-700m of ascent from us, a good few hours away, but no, a phone call from Kate confirms Declan is going to bivi and that means we can get the hell out of there. Our new tent besties gave us some gels, in return for a story that no one will ever believe, and then its back outside for an equally stumbly and occasionally submersive return to the dam. We wake Lynsey up for a deer infested drive home – could not have made this without you Lynsey. 3am and we are back at Cluanie for the remains of the pasta bake and a welcome bed … the hot tub had to wait until the morning, a great story to tell of a great adventure with new friends in the hills. “Come on Carnethy!”