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24hr Munro Record Attempt
21 June 2008
The longest day of the year saw an attempt by Staffordshire Moorlands' Stephen Pyke (Spyke) to break the 24hr Munro record, held by Jon Broxap since July 1988.
Ellie and I tagged along to take some photos, provide a taxi service and give general encouragement on the hill.
Spye's planned route of 31 Munros started at Glen Affric Lodge at 11am on Saturday 21st June. Ellie and I met him at the summit of the first hill, Mullach Fraoch-choire, then legged it along to A'Chralaig before getting dropped and heading down to the Cluanie Inn junction, before Spyke arrived after about 4.5 hours, stopping for all of 1 minute before heading off towards the South Glen Shiel Ridge.
We met him later along the ridge coming off Creag nan Damh, before a fast traverse of the Corbett Sgurr a'Bhac Chaolais and the ultra steep Sgurr na Sgine before getting dropped again and heading down to the Glen Shiel road crossing. He arrived pretty much spot his 9pm schedule, stopping for 3 or 4 minutes before crossing the river and launching up the 1,000m climb to Sgurr Fhuarain, the highest of the Five Sisters.
We baled out to the pub and slept for a bit before returning to Glen Affric, but overnight the weather had turned foul, wet and windy, so the attempt was abandoned after 21 Munros near Camban bothy at around 3am.
Some photos | Planned route of 31 Munros
Posted by Chris Upson on Mon 23 Jun 2008 | 8 comments
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Comments
Jason said...
What a brill effort by all involved. Your photos look great and Spyke seems to be going some, I expected it to look like walking over these distances and climbs, but not from your pics. It looks like you caught the best of the wether on your bit too.
Monday 23rd June 2008 9.47pm
Chris said...
It was a fun day out to be involved with the attempt, but I was happy to drop out at 9pm and retire to the Cluanie Inn, while the others ploughed on up Sgurr Fhuaran and along the north Glen Shiel Ridge into the night with the weather closing in.
They don't come along every day, these 24hr Munro Record attempts, and Jon Broxap's round of 28 or 29 Munros done in 1988 has never been fully repeated.
Summary of better photos
Tuesday 24th June 2008 1.56pm
Ellie said...
It was quite inspirational; I'm off to buy some Montrails.
Tuesday 24th June 2008 2.36pm
Chris said...
Mark Hartell's version of events
The attempt was eventually scuppered by the weather, but the first 10 hours or so were a very impressive combination of teamwork and relentless pace.
Tuesday 24th June 2008 2.47pm
Jason said...
Ellie, Jon Broxap was talking about your pace and strength on the hill. You being tempted by something like this?
Tuesday 24th June 2008 3.36pm
Graham K said...
Jesus ...impressive indeed !
Along with ma pal Joe Coll ...we headed north for an attempt at the much smaller Tranters Round on Thursday. Bailed out before we even started due to the weather forecast (which turned out accurate in terms of low cloud, wind and pishing rain) and headed into the Ben Alder area for a long ramble instead.
If tranters appears tough ...and the ramsay round insane, what does that make the Spyke Round ???
Hope he feels up for another attempt soon !
Tuesday 24th June 2008 7.22pm
Ellie said...
Jason - I think I'll just stick to the dreaming at this stage. It's easy to look strong on the hill when you're only running for 10 minutes and you're at risk of being dropped by a herd of toned and adrenalin-pumped men! What an incentive to keep up!
Wednesday 25th June 2008 8.49am
JasonsTonedToo said...
So I'll see you chasing Tigger, Don & GK tonight at Red Moss then :-)
Wednesday 25th June 2008 2.54pm