Munros list reduced to 282!

[ASC1951]

Surely you have to do all the "deleted" ones as well in any case if you're a true compleatist.

Yes, I would say you do. When I did all the Munros and Tops I was very careful to do every summit that ever had or ever would be one of either - just in case. And doing the Tops is important, first because you see the whole mountain properly and second because some of them (e.g. the Northern Pinnacles on Liathach) are very fine places in their own right.

People who don't go hill walking or climbing often have completely the wrong idea about Munro-bashing. Yes, there is a list, but it's as much a historical document as a tick-list; and the advantage of any arbitrary list is that it takes you to places you wouldn't otherwise have thought of going to - "It gives a purpose to wandering feet", as Hamish Brown put it http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hamishs-Mountain-Non-Fiction-Hamish-Brown/dp/1905207336

The scoffers have this notion of bands of obsessives, trudging up well-worn paths, never raising their noses out of the sacred text and never doing a hill that wasn't on it. That hasn't been my experience and, believe me, I've met lots of them. All the Munro-bashers that I have come across go to plenty of places that aren't Munros and do many things other than hillwalking. If you want tedious obsessives, try TT cyclists or, worst of all, triathletes.

 

[Profpointy]

Asc 1951 puts the joys of it very well indeed, and my geeky comments were tongue in check and indeed, self deprecating. Munro's list really does help get you to different parts of Scotland and to visit the lesser and out of the way hilss. It also helps motivate you to that extra summit, or to leave your digs on those, admittedly rare, bad weather days you sometimes get in january and february in the highlands.

And also in answer to asc - i whimped out of liatach's north top, despite perfect conditions due to loss of nerve. It was -15C at sea level, cold crisp and clear. Crampons stuck in about 2mm into rock hard snoe. My best ever day on the hills, not a soul out, but that ridge to the north top just a bit too intimidating.

 

[ASC1951]

And also in answer to asc - i whimped out of Liathach's north top, despite perfect conditions due to loss of nerve. It was -15C at sea level, cold crisp and clear. Crampons stuck in about 2mm into rock hard snow. My best ever day on the hills, not a soul out, but that ridge to the north top just a bit too intimidating.

Cramponing in hard snow? You were lucky. I did the Northern Pinnacles ridge on Midsummer's Day (!) and two inches of snow arrived out of nowhere, on top of wet rock. I don't take ice kit to Torridon in June, so it was a dry-mouthed buttock-clenching hour.