Sunday 25 April 2010

Hamish's Mountain Walk: Book Review

In April 1974 experienced Scottish mountaineer Hamish Brown set out to climb all 279 Munros (3,000 foot summits in Scotland) in one continuous walk, something that had never been achieved before. After 112 days, 1639 miles and 449,000 feet of ascent he completed the walk. Continuous rounds have been done quite a few times since - sometimes in winter, in much faster times and with the addition of other summits - but Hamish Brown was first. Four years later the story of his pioneering walk was published. I bought a copy as soon as it came out and read it several times over the next few years. This is one of the books that inspired me and my hardback copy is dog-eared and well-thumbed. The book has been in print most of the time since 1978 but the last edition, published in a volume with Hamish’s Climbing the Corbetts, went out of print a few years ago. Now Sandstone Press has published a new and welcome paperback edition, making this classic book available to a new generation of mountain lovers.

Whilst the story of the Munros round is at the heart of Hamish’s Mountain Walk and is an inspiring and exciting tale in itself there is much more than this in the book as Hamish covers history, geology, natural history and more as well as stories of people he meets and from his past taking parties of schoolboys out in the hills. This mix produces an entertaining, informative and enthralling story that is written with verve and passion.

The latest edition has a new preface by the author and a selection of colour photos of the Scottish hills, many of which were clearly not taken during the walk. The original edition had black and white photos, which Hamish says are no longer available, which is a shame as they capture the feel of the walk well and show Hamish at various times during it, including on Ben Hope, the last Munro.

The appendices from the first edition have been omitted too and I miss these even more. The statistics of the walk and the equipment and food used are still of interest and valuable for planning. Indeed modern ultralight and lightweight backpackers could well study Hamish’s gear notes and realise that it was possible to travel very light back before most of today’s lightweight materials were available. Yet Hamish’s pack averaged around 23 lbs, including food, and only twice went above 30lbs. Most backpackers in the Highlands carry more than this today.

Despite these omissions I welcome the new edition. The story of the walk is still there, intact and untouched, waiting to inspire new walkers to explore the Highlands.

As the equipment list is missing from the new edition here are some notes taken from the first one. Hamish’s pack - a Tiso Special - was a simple frameless bag with no hipbelt, no back padding and no pockets. His tent was a single-skin nylon ridge tent with a floating groundsheet attached by elastic tabs that weighed “a bit over 3 lb”. The heaviest item was his down sleeping at 4lb, which he says “gave reasonable weight/quality ratio” – at that time light downproof fabrics didn’t exist. Weight was saved by not bothering with a sleeping mat – “except on snow these are just bulky extras. The rucksack, tent-bag, waterproofs and any spare clothes did just as well”. And this for a walk in the Highlands starting in early April. For cooking Hamish used a Camping Gaz Bleuet stove, changed for a solid fuel stove for a section where he used bothies instead of the tent, and a two pint pot whose lid doubled as a mug. His spoon was “edged sharp enough to cut” so he didn’t carry a knife or fork. His boots were “light, fairly soft” and with them he wore “good, soft wool stockings”. Clothing consisted of nylon waterproofs (non-breathable – this was before Gore-Tex), a long-sleeved Damart synthetic vest, a cotton shirt, a Shetland wool pullover, flannel trousers and a sun/rain hat. No gloves - long shirt sleeves pulled down did instead. Nor did he have an ice axe even though there was still much snow on the hills. Instead, when necessary, he used iron fence posts or even rocks instead.

15 comments:

  1. Damart, possibly the smelliest underwear ever invented. At the time, though, it was the best sythetic base layer available. I walked the Pennine Way in a Damart t-shirt in 1978. I also had one of the first commercially available GoreTex jackets from Mountain Equipment. By the end of the walk it was destroyed. The material blistered and I had to exchange it for a new one! We are spoilt now.

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  2. Chris,

    I once came across a website about Scotland's toughest hill. This website, which I can't find anymore, referred to a list and booklet that, I think, Hamish Brown wrote. The tables in this booklet apparently referred to some 6000 bumps in Scotland and listed each not only in their height, but also listed how much calories one would use to get to each particular bump from the nearest logical access point. Ever since I'd be keen on getting hold of this booklet. Are you familiar with it and could you provide title or ISBN number of this booklet?

    Regards,

    Michiel

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  3. On the Pennine Way in 1976 and Land's End to John O'Groats in 1978 I wore a cotton string vest under a wool or cotton shirt. Later in 1978 I discovered Helly Hansen Lifa Supa polypropylene underwear, which I would argue was at least as smelly as Damart (which I did try after reading Hamish's Mountain Walk). On the Land's End to John O'Groats walk I also had one of the first Gore-Tex jackets - a Berghaus Mistral. It worked fine during that walk but on a trip that autumn in the Lakes it failed completely and I got soaked. That was first generation Gore-Tex, which was extremely breathable but clogged easily with dirt and body oil. Second generation Gore-Tex lasted much longer but was less breathable due to the thin PU layer that protects the membrane.

    Michiel, I'm afraid I've never heard of such a booklet or of any list of 6,000 summits in Scotland. Does this ring bells with anybody else?

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  4. Well Chris, a list of summits already is too much credit for some of the bumps that apparently are on the list. As I understood that website any bump that is to some extend bigger than the surroundings was listed, hence my use of the word bump.

    The website wasn't really about the list however; it only referred to it in regard of a hike to a 'summit' somewhere on the outer Hebrides which wasn't particularly high, but only very distant from the nearest access point and thus required a very long walk in, with many bits of going up and down. Apparently this would require some 11 thousand calories, if memory serves well about 3 thousand calories more than it would require to go up Ben Nevis.

    Michiel

    Michiel

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  5. PS, this website was called 'Scotland's toughest hill', but using Google I cannot find this website anymore.

    Michiel

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  6. Michiel, the list sounds like Alan Dawson's Relative Hills of Britain, which you can find on the web here:

    http://bubl.ac.uk/org/tacit/marilyns/index.html

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  7. I always wondered how he avoided tripping over as he worked his way through various paperbacks to avoid the more boring walk-ins.

    Or perhaps he didn't?
    ;-)

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  8. Chris, I think I've seen this website before and though useful, it's not the list I am looking for. It is specifically the caloric rating I am interested in. I mean if you tell your mate you've climbed K2 that sounds pretty impressive. If you would then say you did it from the car park 100 m next to the summit (would there be one) it sounds a lot less impressive.

    The same goes for a list of hills based on their (sea level) height. Climbing Nevis, being the highest, might be strenuous, but a small insignificant hill somewhere way out North might be much more strenuous because of its remote location.

    Michiel

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  9. Not just the walk-ins John. He reads along the South Glen Shiel Ridge!

    I've read while walking but only on wide tracks. I can't imagine doing so on a mountain path.

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  10. Michiel, the only way any small hill could be much more strenuous than Ben Nevis is if there was a very long walk-in. There are some remote small hills that require long distances to reach but then there are some Munros like that too.

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  11. Michiel

    The list you are talking about sounds like the Yeamans. The toughest one is considered to be Caiteshal, a not-very-high-but-extremely-awkward hill in Pairc, Lewis.

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  12. Robert,

    Indeed, while reading further on the website Chris suggested I found reference to Eric Yeaman's book and Caiteshal hill or bump on Lewis, which I think are indeed the book and bump I was looking for. Do you have any idea if the hills in this book are indeed rated with calories or something like that?

    Amazon UK at least has it in its database (the book, not the hill), but it is unavailable unfortunately.

    Michiel

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  13. The book is definitely Yeaman's. The hills are 100m prominence or 5km or more away from another hill. This is the forerunner of Dawson's book.
    The difficulties of the hill were rated in Mars Bars. Caiteseal was the hardest, but it is often done by boat from Scalpay. Pairc is an extremely good backpacking destination as well.

    As for Broon's walk - that book inspired me more than any other on the subject and was extremely influential. It is always worth a read and a good tip is to read it in real time, day by day - the way he documents Spring turning into Summer is magical

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  14. Indeed I'm sure it's Yeamen's book. Would like to have a copy and Caiteseal has made its way onto my hiking itinerary. Thanx for the help folks.

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