HE is halfway through a challenge that would test the hardiest of hillwalkers but even some of Scotland’s wildest weather hasn’t dampened one climber’s spirit as he takes on the challenge of bagging all 282 Munros in winter in a single trip.
Kevin Woods, 28, from Bearsden, East Dunbartonshire, set off on his ambitious expedition on December 22, the day of the winter solstice. The following day he climbed the four Munros around Ben Cruachan, covering over 20 miles and 2,450 metres of ascent.
He spent Christmas Day around the Crianlarich hills, and on Hogmanay ascended the mountains of Glen Coe.
Now he has reached the halfway point of his epic journey, 43 days after starting up Ben More on Mull.
On February 2, Mr Woods, who over the course of 2019 summited 215 peaks, stepped on to the icy summit of Stob Choire Claurigh, Lochaber, in the pre-dawn gloom at 7.30am. It was his141st peak, halfway to his target of completing the ascent of the 282 Scottish mountains over 3,000ft.
Despite the early hour, it was already his second mountain of the day – he had bagged Stob Ban, a mile back down the ridge, after a 5.30am start by head-torch from Lairig Leacach bothy. He then continued over the Grey Corries range and after nine hours climbing he crossed the plateau of Ben Nevis, in thickly falling snow.
Mr Woods is being supported by friends and relatives who are delivering food and other supplies, but normally he climbs alone because he is too fast for most to keep up
He said: “The season so far has been one storm into another, we’ve just had westerlies off the ocean for weeks, since I started.”
Late January saw some of the worst ground conditions so far, with deep soft snow piled in the wilds of Atholl, north of Pitlochry.
In Glen Diridh he was “wading through it, slipping, falling over, on your knees, up again. It was one of the few points where I felt, this is very, very tough.”
The next day he was on Beinn a’Ghlo when the Cairngorm summit weather station was recording110mph gusts.
He said: “It was just like flicking on a switch. Suddenly I was clenching my walking poles, digging them into the ground, and staggering forward between the blasts, the wind roaring in my ears.”
Three days later, the Ben Nevis range provided his biggest haul of peaks – 10 – in a single day since setting out, and one of his few rest days followed – only his third in the 44 days of his expedition to date.
On February 8 he crossed the Great Glen into the north-west Highlands, summiting Meall na Teanga and Sron a’Choire Ghairbh above Loch Lochy with blue skies above.
But on Tuesday, his fears were confirmed when he had to abandon the climb. He said: “The hills were wild, a hard wind with big snow showers moving through. Ten minutes out of Achnasheen and rumbles of thunder made a decision for me. We don’t play God. Some days aren’t to be.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here