Route Vetter's Comments Received

My route was vetted, in super-quick time, by Colin Crawford, who wrote:

"Well, here I am vetting your route for a second time [he vetted my route for 2012 - and might have saved himself the bother, as I walked so little of it!!]. I see that you're planning a genuinely demanding route for this year, one which will require fitness and stamina. I also note an innovative, rather tongue in cheek, use of the new start point at Kilchoan. You're remaining within the Challenge boundaries though so I'll treat it as a refreshing independence of mind."

Tongue in cheek???? Hardly! I've been trying and trying to devise a route which would sensibly make use of the fact that North Mull is in the Challenge area, and just couldn't do it. Going to Mull just to walk between Craignure and Fishnish never made any sense, and that meant it was always going to have to be the Kilchoan - Tobermory crossing. But whether you went from Oban to Craignure and walked to Tobermory, or walked from Acharacle to Kilchoan and crossed to Tobermory, the problem was always the same. It took too long to get to Tobermory, and the rest of the crossing would be plagued by the need to take every opportunity to shorten the route and hurry to the East Coast. In short, 15 days just wasn't enough time for a crossing from either Acharacle or Oban which took you to North Mull. But now we can START at Kilchoan ... well, I thought that was the whole POINT of having Kilchoan as a start point!!!

Anyway, Colin is largely happy with the route; but cautions that day 2/3 might be problematic due to the Glen Sanda quarry and its associated facilities. I suspect that passing through on the shore path would not be an issue - but I do not want to assume it. If there are any access issues, then that would kill my crossing stone dead. I have therefore sent a slightly revised route, and I will post this in the next post.

Colin has ALSO poitned out a couple of Corbetts on my route which I had not appreciated for what they were. So, if I complete the route exactly as it appears on the card, I shall this year take in 19 Munros (16 of whcih are new to me) and 4 Corbetts. Even if a little bit of weather gets in the way, the chances of achieving a High Level crossing are still more than fair.