A few days ago Martin on his blog highlighted this:
http://summitandvalley.blogspot.com/2009/08/yawn.html
The list of Munro’s is being revised, once again.
They are named after Sir Hugh T Munro, who in 1891 published a list of Scottish mountains over 3,000 feet.
283 made the list, it also included “tops” which are peaks over 3000 ft but do not have enough re-ascent to be classed as mountains in their own right. This brought the list up to 530.
That could well have been that but Munro either was fortunate or unfortunate in the timing of his list depending on your viewpoint. OS Maps appeared soon afterwards and they were not in whole-hearted agreement over the classification of the 3,000 ft hills.
Munro died in 1919 while revising his original list. Life is a work in progress, but this does seem somewhat harsh on Sir Hugh.
The first two people to achieve compleation, that is bagging (what normal people call climbing), all the munro’s were men of the cloth. First to do so was in 1901 and then it was done again 22 years later. There seems to be many energetic clergy during the Victorian era. It probably bears out the joke about only working 1 day a week, or it might be a desire to experience all god’s work, or it might be because they were stuck into the wrong job as something to do with the “spare” who was not going to inherit the family fortune. Every hole in Dartmoor at the time seemed to have a clergyman at the bottom of it scraping away, finding “little of interest”. When not doing that, they could be discovered repairing stone rows and circles, although “re-imagining” might be a more modern term for some of their efforts.
We have got more sophisticated with our measuring techniques over the years, which may or may not include metrication. This now means Munro’s are 914.4m or higher. Metrication has not improved the romance of Munro bagging. The list is revised, like Saints, some hills are promoted, some relegated.
The Munro’s are now a product, and part of the tourist industry. On the understanding “there is no such thing as bad publicity” change that gets talked about is good and who doesn’t like the idea we can still disagree about the height of a mountain in this day and age? Local newscasters with that slightly bemused expression they develop when such stories are about to be shown, just love them. It is a chance to send the new-boy/girl out in hideous weather, hopefully up to their waist in a stinking bog.
So another revision is pending. In 1997 eight Munro’s were discovered, and one thought to be a Munro was revealed to be an imposter. One of the new Munro’s was 4,127 ft in height.
All good news for guidebooks, tourism, and generally getting your product back in the public eye. “New and Improved”
Like any other successful formula people love to repeat it. Developmental costs of original thought is very high afterall, much easier and quicker to adapt someone else’s work and stick your name on it. “Winterings, made with Munrovium technology”, this sort of thing being a favourite of advertising. Vaguely scientific names that on reflection are daft. I spend rather to long making up pseudo-scientific names in this manner.
So now we have a most unlikely series of named elevations.
Corbetts · Donalds · Fells · Grahams · Hewitts · Marilyns · Munros · Murdos · Nuttalls · Wainwrights
Humans just love naming and categorising things, even better if you can get your own name on it. I realised this many years ago with the discovery axes went by different names, weight and handle length being the criteria. In the absence of names you make your own up. A classic example for me being “Rabbit log”.
Rabbit log defines a patch of ground about 10 foot by 3 foot. It is featureless, it has no name on any map. 25 years ago a friend’s dog caught a rabbit, much to everyone’s astonishment, but having caught it was at a loss as to exactly what to do next. By the time we caught up with it, the rabbit was in a sorry state, but still alive. I had the job of dispatching it. The rabbit met a swift, violent end involving my boot and a log seat, not pleasant. Rabbit log has long since gone, it is a bare patch of ground, but it will forever be so named on my mental map.
The naming of it has made it a destination, part of a dog walk.
Wainwright created the Coast to Coast walk to show people they did not need to follow guidebooks, there were plenty of walks just waiting to be discovered by those able to see. Few of us have Wainwright’s vision, so we simply follow his footsteps on a walk that although pre-existing, would never have been done. Now it is an industry, grinning fresh-faced TV presenters jog along it with rucksacks which put ultra-light hikers to shame. All you need is a camera crew to achieve this effect.
I am currently walking The Essex Way, among various more nebulous walking ideas. There is no way on Earth if that named walk did not exist would I be walking from Harwich to Epping. Why on earth would I do it?
Map it, name it, produce a pamphlet about it and it becomes more attractive. A few years ago I fell into conversation with another hiker, it is a rare event. He tells me about his Essex Way experience, it was a group thing. The idea of getting away from it all with 20 other people talking about blisters has a distinct lack of appeal. I tell him about my early forced march version of it over a long weekend. We really are on different wavelengths but the walk is a point of reference we both understand. If he had said, “I walked from Harwich to Epping last month with 20 people” the conversation would have been totally different, probably non-existent, as I took a few steps back from what was clearly a mad-man. The name gives it legitimacy.
More and more walks are being “created” for us, pre-packaged by a tourist industry which knows heritage sells but to keep it selling new angles have to be created to keep it in the public eye. As our attention span shortens the changes have to come faster and faster, the internet feeds into this.
All this by way of saying, no need to be shocked to discover you cannot even rely on a list of 3,000 foot mountains. This opens up a whole can of worms regarding what compleation actually is. That road is for another day.
Great philosophical writing, very enjoyable read. Rabbit log is a nice little anecdote, makes me wish I would have a dog again to take out on my walks.
ReplyDeletehi there, just visiting from summit and valley's blog- it's certainly a good topic, probably best discussed post fell, over pint of ale with a roaring fire.
ReplyDeletei like your point about the changing nature of 'the lists' and what it means about completion. in some ways every walk/run/climb/ride will never be exactly the same. conditions may make it more challenging or the navigation easier. winter rounds, summer rounds, solo and unsupported rounds, all need to be taken on their own merits. the naming and creation of routes, like you say gives validation to our hobbies. and if these 'made for tv walks' get more people off the sofa then it can't be a bad thing. now where can i order my revised munro list ;)
It might not get revised Kate as the SMC might not agree with the MS who claim they have done some surveying. Old Winter that cheeky 4,127 ft mountain. Not getting noticed as a full Munro all them years. Hid himself behind his near by friends. Lists have a place and so does imagination. How did the old grumpy guts work out his Coast to Coast?. " Maps" What ever happened to getting out maps and making our own adventure. Don't take me wrong I like a good classic walk like the WHW. I want to do Cameron's Sutherland Way. But I like my own walks and adventure. Are we such a busy society we need others to work it all out? Is it like a pre cooked meal?. Surly the spirit of adventure and free thinking is out there. Go find adventure linking up summits you like the look of on a map regardless if it goes over the magic 914.4M mark. I will get my coat now.
ReplyDelete'Course, you forgot to mention a few other lists: I give you Birketts, HuMPs Deweys, Yeamans and the now defunct (of course) Bridge's. And there's a chap curently busy listing every single hill in the British Isles with 30 metres of re-ascent. I beleive he's up around the 12000 hills mark at the moment.
ReplyDeleteSheer madness - who would attempt such a list?
I wonder if there's another nation on earth so desperate to categorise and train-spot it's landscape. There's something very woolly hat and, maybe, a bit civil-service about the British culture....
Hendrik M.
ReplyDeleteThankyou and indeed you should indeed get a dog, they are great reasons to get out and about. I have 3, so always have two, it vaguely softens the heartbreak when one drops dead and the "I'll never get another dog" syndrome. Years later you buy another puppy and wish you had done it sooner.
Kate:
I agree whole-heartedly with the thinking you can never repeat a walk. Often you only notice this when you actually wish to repeat some experience by re-walking an area. It is always different.
If the "made for TV" walks bring people that remember to take their litter home fine, another scar can be walked into the landscape for them. My concern is if it gets mainstream enough people will be wanting more cafe's stuck on the top of mountains and perhaps the odd road in and out and a carpark of course. The leisure industry is just that, industry.
Martin:
A valid point. A cynic might suggest that arguing about the status of a mountain could have a lot more marketability than just saying it is or isnt a Munro.
Named walks have the advantage of not usually disappearing, a number of my own constructed walks seem to run through barb wire hedges. I like both ventures but they certainly have a very different quality about them.
Mike:
Forgive my hilly ignorance, I currently exist in East Anglia, a kerbstone represents major challenge for a lot of the populous. There certainly is a strong desire to collect and categorise and where-ever possible but a fence around it, and CCTV in more modern times.