At 13:00 Hrs, team member Pete Ellwood finally got to stand on M57, 3553 feet high according to the Right Rev’d, or 1083 if you are now fully decimalised, thereby ending a tremendous achievement, first started in May 1989.
What are we on about?, well Pete Ellwood has become the first Munroist in Bolton MRT’s history, (and we think one of the few Munroists in the general MR community), a Munroist being somebody who has ascended all the mountains over 3000 feet high in Scotland, according to a list originally drawn up by the Reverand Munro, and now modified to take account of modern mapping.
Pete’s final summit came on Schiehallion (Fairy Hill of the Caledonians in translation), in the company of the many friends and colleagues who have accompanied him on his many trips up north, “munro bagging”. The summit party included current team members Geoff Seddon, Alan Livesey and Dave Sarti, alongside ex team members Glynn McGann, Lee Budworth and Adrian Dellbridge. Throughout this tremendous personal acheivement, Pete has kept various accounts of his ascents, including the fact that 89 summits were made solo, 69 in snow, 17 in the wet, 35 in cloud, 1 in icy conditions, 10 in mixed cloud and sun, 7 in cloud and snow and a fortunate 142 in sunny weather! (or 143 including his last summit).
And what next? Well, there’s always a repeat round, or a completion of the “Corbetts”, or maybe just a rest. (highly unlikely given Pete’s constant fellrunning and mountaineering interests). Congratulations, Peter, from everybody in the team.