0:00:09 > 0:00:15Welcome to the mountains of Scotland - the greatest, the wildest landscape in Britain.
0:00:15 > 0:00:20They're a Mecca for hillwalkers - ten of thousands come here every year.
0:00:20 > 0:00:23And the key destination - the only destination for many -
0:00:23 > 0:00:30are the mountains over 3,000 feet, the peaks we know today as the Munros.
0:00:36 > 0:00:40The Munros are in a class of their own.
0:00:40 > 0:00:44They are Scotland's highest mountains and they define this land...
0:00:50 > 0:00:56Hundreds of summits that stretch for over a hundred miles across the Highlands and islands.
0:00:59 > 0:01:03And getting to the top of the Munros has become an obsession with a name
0:01:03 > 0:01:10of its own, Munro bagging, the quest to climb all Scotland's highest peaks.
0:01:13 > 0:01:16I love these mountains too.
0:01:16 > 0:01:18I've walked them since I was a teenager.
0:01:18 > 0:01:22I know their shapes and their names like old friends.
0:01:24 > 0:01:28From the legendary - Ben Nevis...
0:01:31 > 0:01:32An Teallach...
0:01:34 > 0:01:36Liathach...
0:01:38 > 0:01:40Sgurr Alasdair...
0:01:42 > 0:01:45to the secretive and obscure -
0:01:45 > 0:01:47Beinn Tarsuinn...
0:01:47 > 0:01:49Spidean Mialach...
0:01:49 > 0:01:52Or Sgorr Ruadh.
0:01:52 > 0:01:58Their very names a mantra which stirs the hearts of those who have been enraptured by them.
0:02:01 > 0:02:04On whose slopes friendships are forged.
0:02:04 > 0:02:08On whose summits life-long journeys begin and end.
0:02:08 > 0:02:10Done it!
0:02:12 > 0:02:17From razor-sharp ridges to desolate plateaus to gaunt cliffs,
0:02:17 > 0:02:21they are among Europe's most varied mountains.
0:02:21 > 0:02:22Yet, incredibly,
0:02:22 > 0:02:28a little over a hundred years ago, they were virtually unknown.
0:02:28 > 0:02:31Until Sir Hugh Munro.
0:02:33 > 0:02:38So who was Munro, the man who brought order to these mountains
0:02:38 > 0:02:43and gave birth to an obsession that has lasted a hundred years?
0:02:47 > 0:02:49His story is one of discovery,
0:02:51 > 0:02:52altitude
0:02:52 > 0:02:55and intrigue.
0:02:55 > 0:03:00It tells us what happened when the Victorian passion for rationalising
0:03:00 > 0:03:06the natural world collided with an all-consuming love of mountains.
0:03:09 > 0:03:14This is the story of Sir Hugh Munro, the magnificent peaks that
0:03:14 > 0:03:19bear his name and the people who have been possessed by them.
0:03:43 > 0:03:45I'm in the North West Highlands
0:03:47 > 0:03:52on my way towards one of the mountains I love best anywhere in the world...
0:03:53 > 0:03:56An Teallach.
0:03:56 > 0:03:59There's nothing like being high up on a mountain.
0:04:02 > 0:04:07I've walked and climbed among the world's greatest mountain ranges,
0:04:07 > 0:04:10but I always come back here.
0:04:10 > 0:04:12I think of these magnificent mountains as home.
0:04:14 > 0:04:17My father introduced me to these mountains as a teenager.
0:04:17 > 0:04:20We used to come up here every winter.
0:04:20 > 0:04:26Just over there I had the adventure of a lifetime, and it isn't really one I'd like to repeat.
0:04:28 > 0:04:32These peaks have been trodden by countless walkers and climbers.
0:04:32 > 0:04:35They're well past being what you'd call wilderness.
0:04:41 > 0:04:46But I know only too well how easy it is to underestimate them.
0:04:49 > 0:04:58This is a place where violent winds, mist and snow can quickly turn a day out into a life-or-death epic.
0:04:58 > 0:05:03This mountain here, An Teallach, bit me good and proper when I was a youngster.
0:05:03 > 0:05:10A group of us had climbed the entire ridge in perfect winter conditions, it was plastered in snow and ice.
0:05:10 > 0:05:12Everything was going according to plan until we reached
0:05:12 > 0:05:15the final peak, that one up there covered with crags.
0:05:15 > 0:05:19The mist came down and we just couldn't find a route down through the icy rocks.
0:05:19 > 0:05:24Well, we descended a gully for 3,000 feet on a rope and 30 hours later
0:05:24 > 0:05:30got back to where we started thanks to one of these, an accurate map.
0:05:30 > 0:05:33It's amazing to think, then, that a hundred years ago there were no
0:05:33 > 0:05:38detailed, reliable descriptions of this landscape.
0:05:40 > 0:05:44The Victorians were fanatical explorers.
0:05:44 > 0:05:50The world's great unknowns were falling one by one to the methodical tyranny of the mapmakers.
0:05:50 > 0:05:57By the 1880s, the course of the River Congo had been traced, the Matterhorn had been climbed
0:05:57 > 0:06:01for the first time and the height of Mount Everest had been measured.
0:06:04 > 0:06:11But thousands of miles from the Himalayas, much closer to us, was a vast area still relatively unknown
0:06:11 > 0:06:18to adventure-obsessed Victorian Britain - the Scottish Highlands.
0:06:18 > 0:06:22We were waiting for an explorer in our own land, someone who could
0:06:22 > 0:06:26reveal the secrets of our very own mountains to the wider world.
0:06:28 > 0:06:31But that pioneer had yet to step forward.
0:06:34 > 0:06:40Let me show you how sketchy our knowledge was of these mountains 120 years ago.
0:06:40 > 0:06:42Here are some maps of that era.
0:06:42 > 0:06:46On this one, one mile of reality is compressed into one inch
0:06:46 > 0:06:49on the map, and at first glance it looks quite modern.
0:06:49 > 0:06:54But when you look closer, you realise how much is missing or questionable.
0:06:54 > 0:06:58Here's a mountain with a summit, according to the map, at 2,750 feet.
0:06:58 > 0:07:03Well there it is over there and in reality it's over 3,000 feet high.
0:07:03 > 0:07:07In other words, the map tells me there shouldn't be anything above
0:07:07 > 0:07:11the height of my hand, it's just a complete blank.
0:07:11 > 0:07:16The thought of navigating through these mountains with maps like this is fairly terrifying.
0:07:16 > 0:07:21They're just all full of holes, and there were no convenient guidebooks to fill in the gaps.
0:07:24 > 0:07:30No reliable, detailed record of this landscape existed and without that,
0:07:30 > 0:07:34there could be no widespread knowledge of what was out here.
0:07:36 > 0:07:39Entire mountain massifs were known only to the locals.
0:07:39 > 0:07:45These were days when the great landowners prevented ordinary people from crossing their territories.
0:07:48 > 0:07:53As a result, no one person had climbed sufficiently far and wide
0:07:53 > 0:07:57to get a true picture of Scotland's mountains.
0:07:57 > 0:08:01In fact, nobody even knew how many mountains there were.
0:08:05 > 0:08:09Not even the newly-founded Scottish Mountaineering Club.
0:08:09 > 0:08:13Some of the members already had impressive Alpine climbing
0:08:13 > 0:08:20experience and from its beginning in 1889, there was an air of exploratory zeal about the club.
0:08:20 > 0:08:27The founders knew their home-grown hills and glens were a whole new world waiting to be discovered.
0:08:27 > 0:08:30And one of the club's first resolutions was to address the appalling
0:08:30 > 0:08:37ignorance of their own backyard, by having Scotland's mountains listed in a scientific way.
0:08:38 > 0:08:42To undertake this, they turned to one of the club's own members.
0:08:42 > 0:08:47His name was Hugh Thomas Munro, heir to his father's estate
0:08:47 > 0:08:49in the foothills of the Eastern Cairngorms.
0:08:49 > 0:08:51Hello, Robin.
0:08:51 > 0:08:53Oh, hi, Nick.
0:08:53 > 0:08:55I've joined mountaineer and historian
0:08:55 > 0:08:59Robin Campbell to help me understand the origins of Munro's task.
0:09:01 > 0:09:08It looks like that in 1890, Munro was given the task by the committee,
0:09:08 > 0:09:15or by the first editor Joe Stott, of gathering information about every hill over 3,000 feet in Scotland.
0:09:15 > 0:09:20But why 3,000 feet? Why was he only interested in mountains 3,000 high?
0:09:20 > 0:09:24The highlands are an eroded plateau, eroded by glaciation,
0:09:24 > 0:09:31and probably the low point of that original plateau would be round about 3,000 feet.
0:09:31 > 0:09:33So it's an accident of geology and the Ice Age
0:09:33 > 0:09:36that the Scotland's mountains tend to cluster around 3,000 feet?
0:09:36 > 0:09:40- And it's a nice round number. - What exactly did he do?
0:09:40 > 0:09:45For each hill, he collected basic information.
0:09:45 > 0:09:53He collected its height, name, where it was, what county it sat in, where it was best ascended from.
0:09:53 > 0:09:55So this is a paper exercise?
0:09:55 > 0:09:59- He's climbing library shelves rather than climbing mountains? - Oh, absolutely.
0:10:01 > 0:10:06It was maps, imperfect as they were, and documents or word of mouth,
0:10:06 > 0:10:11not mountains, that were the raw information Munro had first turned to.
0:10:11 > 0:10:16His great work had begun indoors.
0:10:16 > 0:10:19And he's annotated it in his own hand.
0:10:19 > 0:10:21- Yes, he has.- Corrected it.
0:10:21 > 0:10:29This book is the first attempt ever made to list all the 3,000 foot mountains in Scotland.
0:10:29 > 0:10:32It's the Holy Grail for people who love Scottish mountains.
0:10:32 > 0:10:35- Indeed.- He must have been a keen mountaineer already?
0:10:35 > 0:10:37He was a keen mountaineer.
0:10:37 > 0:10:40What we have here,
0:10:40 > 0:10:43his application form to join the mountaineering club...
0:10:43 > 0:10:45Mountain after mountain, yes.
0:10:45 > 0:10:49His early days climbing in the Alps, beginning in 1873.
0:10:49 > 0:10:52Yeah, I mean he's climbed the Wetterhorn, Zugspitze, these are pretty serious mountains.
0:10:52 > 0:10:54- Monte Rosa.- Monte Rosa, yes, exactly.
0:10:54 > 0:10:56I tried, didn't get to the top.
0:10:56 > 0:10:59- Yes, well, it's high.- Exactly!
0:10:59 > 0:11:04So he was a great mountaineer, he was clearly dedicated to...to...
0:11:04 > 0:11:07to keeping records, he was very good at doing that...
0:11:07 > 0:11:11- Yeah.- Why was he temperamentally suited to this great work?
0:11:11 > 0:11:16We know that he was a stickler for correctness, because this is
0:11:16 > 0:11:21the second volume of the club's journal, and right at the end of this
0:11:21 > 0:11:24volume we have a contribution from Munro.
0:11:24 > 0:11:27Oh, yes, "Additions, corrections and remarks..."
0:11:27 > 0:11:29- "Additions, corrections and remarks..."- By Hugh T Munro.
0:11:29 > 0:11:31"For rcck read rock."
0:11:31 > 0:11:33He's correcting other people's work!
0:11:33 > 0:11:35He's correcting other people's mistakes.
0:11:35 > 0:11:38- He was a bit of a nitpicker, wasn't he?- A bit of a nitpicker, yes!
0:11:40 > 0:11:44Meticulous attention to detail was precisely what the huge task of
0:11:44 > 0:11:47cataloguing Scotland's mountains demanded.
0:11:50 > 0:11:52When Munro started compiling the information he needed from maps,
0:11:52 > 0:11:59notes and word of mouth, he worked methodically and he worked fast.
0:11:59 > 0:12:04In September 1891, at the end of less than a year's work,
0:12:04 > 0:12:08Munro's List was finally published for all to see.
0:12:08 > 0:12:11Munro's results were astonishing.
0:12:11 > 0:12:17Until then, the true scale of the Scottish mountains had been something of a mystery.
0:12:17 > 0:12:23Some reckoned the total number of peaks exceeding 3,000 feet might be as few as 30.
0:12:23 > 0:12:31The number of peaks exceeding 3,000 feet identified by Munro was 538.
0:12:39 > 0:12:45For even the most knowledgeable of his mountaineering colleagues, the list was a revelation,
0:12:45 > 0:12:53the first ever comprehensive source of information about the peaks in their own backyard.
0:12:53 > 0:12:57They had read about the Alps and the Himalayas, some had even climbed there.
0:12:57 > 0:13:05Now they felt Munro's List had laid bare for the first time the secrets of Scotland's landscape.
0:13:07 > 0:13:10But Munro himself was far from happy.
0:13:10 > 0:13:14The list did not satisfy his desire for precision.
0:13:17 > 0:13:20The information he'd been working from hadn't allowed him
0:13:20 > 0:13:28to say with complete confidence which mountains were above 3,000 feet, and how many there were.
0:13:28 > 0:13:31Most peaks in Scotland had not been measured with any accuracy.
0:13:31 > 0:13:35At best, their heights were rough approximations.
0:13:38 > 0:13:42So here was Munro, an absolute stickler for rigour and order,
0:13:42 > 0:13:48putting his name to this list yet knowing from the outset that it was riddled with uncertainties.
0:13:48 > 0:13:53A mountaineer of Munro's honour had to personally vouch for the information,
0:13:53 > 0:13:59and that meant he had to find some way of checking the heights of the mountains on his list.
0:13:59 > 0:14:03It would turn out to be the greatest task of his life.
0:14:09 > 0:14:15It's fascinating to me that what began as an obscure clerical exercise would grow into a modern
0:14:15 > 0:14:23phenomenon - Munro bagging, the systematic climbing of the mountains in Scotland over 3,000 feet.
0:14:23 > 0:14:31But I've never really understood why people choose to climb hills just because they're on Munro's List.
0:14:31 > 0:14:36Glencoe's Clachaig Inn is one place I might find answers.
0:14:36 > 0:14:40It's within spitting distance of over ten Munros and has
0:14:40 > 0:14:46always been a favourite watering hole for Scotland's mountaineers, even in Munro's day.
0:14:46 > 0:14:50Do you know, one of the things about the Munros and the Munro List is you
0:14:50 > 0:14:57get to go all over this wonderful country and you get to see places you would never otherwise see.
0:14:57 > 0:15:01I think Scotland's so big it'd be a structureless way to climb hills
0:15:01 > 0:15:04if you just tried to pick whichever one suited your mood at the time.
0:15:04 > 0:15:07Having that list there to work your way through
0:15:07 > 0:15:10gives you some idea of progress and some sense of purpose.
0:15:10 > 0:15:14What are the pleasures of going up the Scottish mountains?
0:15:14 > 0:15:17Today, absolutely none cos it was miserable!
0:15:17 > 0:15:21You work all week, you've only got the weekend to climb mountains,
0:15:21 > 0:15:24and someone's luckily written a book,
0:15:24 > 0:15:29and you can go and do it without doing a lot of preparation.
0:15:29 > 0:15:32What's the point of going up there if you don't get to the top?
0:15:32 > 0:15:35It doesn't matter how tired you are, you've got to get to the top.
0:15:35 > 0:15:40So you started doing them and, Claire, you suddenly found yourself trying to catch up?
0:15:40 > 0:15:43Yes, I'm only on about five or six at the moment!
0:15:43 > 0:15:46Claire likes lists. One thing that you really like is...
0:15:46 > 0:15:49- Are you a list person? - I like ticking them off.
0:15:49 > 0:15:50- You like ticking boxes?- Yeah.
0:15:52 > 0:15:54'Dedicated? Definitely.
0:15:55 > 0:15:57'Slightly crazy? Perhaps.
0:15:59 > 0:16:02'Munro, in 1891, was off to revise his list,
0:16:02 > 0:16:04'and for that, he needed reliable figures
0:16:04 > 0:16:07'for the heights of his mountains.
0:16:12 > 0:16:14'Some Scottish peaks had been measured accurately
0:16:14 > 0:16:19'by the Ordnance Survey. But most had not,
0:16:19 > 0:16:25'because surveying demanded vast manpower, heavy equipment and time.
0:16:25 > 0:16:29'A single mountain could take days to measure precisely.
0:16:29 > 0:16:32'Munro needed a simpler, faster method.
0:16:32 > 0:16:37'Mountaineer Graham Little from the Ordnance Survey knows all about it.'
0:16:37 > 0:16:39Munro was one man working on his own.
0:16:39 > 0:16:45It would have taken many lifetimes to survey the mountains in the way that the Ordnance Survey were.
0:16:45 > 0:16:48So what was Munro's solution? What was the answer?
0:16:48 > 0:16:51Well, he had a very simple solution - he used a barometer.
0:16:51 > 0:16:55It's like a beautiful little pocket watch. It's lovely!
0:16:55 > 0:16:58It is, and it measures air pressure. As you gain altitude,
0:16:58 > 0:17:03air pressure drops and so you can calibrate the barometer
0:17:03 > 0:17:04to read height.
0:17:04 > 0:17:08So the calibrations round the outside give you height above sea level?
0:17:08 > 0:17:11Absolutely. It gives you a good result.
0:17:11 > 0:17:15But this device can't be used by standing at the bottom of a mountain looking upwards, can it?
0:17:15 > 0:17:19- It involves climbing every hill! - When you see how many mountains there are here,
0:17:19 > 0:17:21we're talking about an enormous challenge.
0:17:21 > 0:17:26- An enormous challenge. - An epic feat of mountaineering. - Absolutely. I'm sure he enjoyed it.
0:17:28 > 0:17:34With only a handful of mountains having been measured accurately by the Ordnance Survey, for the rest,
0:17:34 > 0:17:38Munro was going to have to do the next best thing -
0:17:38 > 0:17:41take his own measurements with his own barometer.
0:17:43 > 0:17:46To do that, each would have to be climbed.
0:17:47 > 0:17:51It planted the seed of an audacious notion,
0:17:51 > 0:17:56that a single individual could climb all Scotland's 3,000-foot peaks.
0:17:56 > 0:18:01This was an idea that grew to proportions Munro could scarcely have imagined.
0:18:01 > 0:18:04It shifted the way these mountains are regarded.
0:18:04 > 0:18:07Their wilderness could be tamed.
0:18:08 > 0:18:11Standing here with my barometer,
0:18:11 > 0:18:15surrounded by these wild mountains, I'm just beginning to sense how
0:18:15 > 0:18:21excited Munro must have been at the start of his incredible adventure.
0:18:21 > 0:18:24He had a lot to deal with - the measuring, the terrain,
0:18:24 > 0:18:27everything from bogs to narrow mountain ridges, the weather.
0:18:27 > 0:18:32These mountains can get so windy you sometimes have to crawl on all fours to reach the summit.
0:18:32 > 0:18:35Then, of course, the navigation, the thick mist.
0:18:35 > 0:18:37But these were just practical difficulties,
0:18:37 > 0:18:40adversities he'd have to deal with every day.
0:18:40 > 0:18:43But there was something much bigger going on.
0:18:43 > 0:18:46He was setting out to be the first person
0:18:46 > 0:18:50to climb every 3,000-foot mountain in Scotland.
0:18:50 > 0:18:52And being first, if you manage to do it,
0:18:52 > 0:18:56is something you can carry in your pocket for the rest of your life,
0:18:56 > 0:18:59and I'd love to have been in his boots.
0:19:13 > 0:19:16Munro was a bit of a loner.
0:19:16 > 0:19:18He climbed most of his mountains on his own.
0:19:18 > 0:19:20It was a...solitary endeavour,
0:19:20 > 0:19:24and I do understand the attraction of that.
0:19:25 > 0:19:31You trade companionship for complete freedom of movement...
0:19:31 > 0:19:33and that's a good trade.
0:19:36 > 0:19:40I really have to marvel at the sheer ambition of Munro,
0:19:40 > 0:19:43embarking on THAT journey in THAT age.
0:19:43 > 0:19:46And I'm a little envious, too -
0:19:46 > 0:19:50his was the privilege of being the first person to set out to explore
0:19:50 > 0:19:53Scotland's mountains on such a scale.
0:19:56 > 0:20:02The photographs of him are at odds with the epic nature of what he did.
0:20:02 > 0:20:06He doesn't exactly look like a mountaineer.
0:20:06 > 0:20:10And you get the sneaky suspicion this hat is being worn without a trace of irony.
0:20:10 > 0:20:13And yet occasionally, we get glimpses of a man
0:20:13 > 0:20:17as tough as old climbing boots. Just listen to this.
0:20:17 > 0:20:20"Heavy walking all day in soft snow.
0:20:20 > 0:20:26"They had to scrape me down with a knife to get the frozen snow off before I could enter the house."
0:20:36 > 0:20:40'Munro's great journey would test every fibre of his resilience.
0:20:45 > 0:20:48'He had left the library shelves far below.
0:20:54 > 0:20:58'Munro's odyssey might have begun as a scientific endeavour,
0:20:58 > 0:21:03'but exploring these mountains would be sheer visceral adventure.'
0:21:12 > 0:21:18Tackling so many summits would take him the length and the breadth of the Highlands.
0:21:18 > 0:21:21Here was the chance to become an explorer in his own land.
0:21:36 > 0:21:38But he was not alone.
0:21:40 > 0:21:44Deep in the mountains, somebody was following his footsteps.
0:21:46 > 0:21:49Someone else had heard the call of The List.
0:21:54 > 0:21:57This is the Scottish Mountaineering Club hut
0:21:57 > 0:21:59beneath the north face of Ben Nevis.
0:21:59 > 0:22:02It's a long time since I've been in here.
0:22:02 > 0:22:07It's got a wonderful atmosphere. This table...has a long history.
0:22:07 > 0:22:10It was made by the Reverend Archie Robertson.
0:22:10 > 0:22:13His carpentry is as robust...
0:22:13 > 0:22:14as his reputation.
0:22:14 > 0:22:18He was one of the most indefatigable, charismatic figures
0:22:18 > 0:22:21in the world of Victorian mountaineering.
0:22:23 > 0:22:27It was on the tops high above this hut that the Reverend Robertson
0:22:27 > 0:22:32was struck by lightning and catapulted 1,000 feet down a gully.
0:22:32 > 0:22:35He picked himself up and walked down to the valley bottom.
0:22:35 > 0:22:38He claimed later not to have remembered much of the incident,
0:22:38 > 0:22:40but he did leave a few lines about it.
0:22:40 > 0:22:46"Left Imperial Hotel, Fort William, at 9:05 for Ben Nevis via a path.
0:22:46 > 0:22:51"Struck by lightning about one on ridge of corrie overlooking Glen Nevis.
0:22:51 > 0:22:53"Got home at 4:15.
0:22:53 > 0:22:56"Dr McArthur dressed my head for two hours.
0:22:56 > 0:23:00"20 stitches! Temperature about one degree above normal at 10pm."
0:23:04 > 0:23:07Like Munro, Reverend Robertson was tough,
0:23:07 > 0:23:11and like Munro, he was a member of the privileged classes.
0:23:11 > 0:23:15But although they knew each other, their paths seldom crossed,
0:23:15 > 0:23:18and their outlook on who should be allowed onto the hills was,
0:23:18 > 0:23:20well, different.
0:23:31 > 0:23:36Munro climbed many of his hills with one of these, a heavy candle lamp.
0:23:36 > 0:23:41The reason? Well, believe it or not, he often climbed at night.
0:23:41 > 0:23:43Why on earth, you might ask, was he doing that?
0:23:43 > 0:23:47Well, Munro was a dyed-in-the-wool member of the gentry.
0:23:47 > 0:23:52He believed that landowners had the right to prevent ordinary people from going on their land.
0:23:52 > 0:23:56Munro didn't want to upset those landowners.
0:23:56 > 0:24:00His solution was to climb at night to avoid bumping into the laird's gamekeepers.
0:24:05 > 0:24:08Reverend Robertson, on the other hand, was a defender
0:24:08 > 0:24:12of the right of ordinary people to climb wherever they chose.
0:24:12 > 0:24:17His passion for the mountains had begun the year before Munro's List was published.
0:24:17 > 0:24:24But once the list had gone public, the Reverend's hill climbing turned from enthusiastic to unstoppable.
0:24:27 > 0:24:30Whilst Munro was out to correct the fine detail of his list,
0:24:30 > 0:24:34Reverend Robertson had his eye on the bigger picture.
0:24:34 > 0:24:38Here was the first-ever compendium of Scotland's high mountains.
0:24:39 > 0:24:43The Reverend soon found himself having climbed enough of Munro's peaks
0:24:43 > 0:24:49for a new ambition to take shape - the possibility of bagging them all.
0:24:49 > 0:24:53And along with that came the possibility of him being first.
0:24:54 > 0:24:59The Reverend doesn't give much away in his writing, but being first
0:24:59 > 0:25:05to climb all of Scotland's 3,000-foot mountains must have seemed an irresistible temptation.
0:25:05 > 0:25:07But he had a huge challenge on his hands.
0:25:07 > 0:25:11The Reverend might have been lightning-proof, but Munro had a head start,
0:25:11 > 0:25:14and he had some serious catching-up to do.
0:25:19 > 0:25:21But the minister was a clever man.
0:25:26 > 0:25:29In the technicalities of Munro's List,
0:25:29 > 0:25:32he saw a tempting and radical possibility.
0:25:32 > 0:25:36A legitimate short cut, if you like.
0:25:36 > 0:25:40A way to catch, even perhaps overtake, Munro himself.
0:25:45 > 0:25:48So how did the Reverend go about it?
0:25:48 > 0:25:51Ironically, the foundations of the minister's shortcut
0:25:51 > 0:25:56lay in the meticulous way that Munro had presented his list.
0:25:56 > 0:25:58And to understand it for myself,
0:25:58 > 0:26:02I've met up with extreme mountaineer Alan Hinkes.
0:26:02 > 0:26:07Alan was the first Brit to climb all 14 of the world's 8,000-metre peaks,
0:26:07 > 0:26:09the highest in the world.
0:26:09 > 0:26:15That was Alan's list, but he harbours ambitions to bag Munro's List as well.
0:26:15 > 0:26:21What part do the Scottish mountains play in training you as a world-class mountaineer?
0:26:21 > 0:26:22Well, they did for sure.
0:26:22 > 0:26:26Coming here and going out in this gnarly weather, often it's dark,
0:26:26 > 0:26:30you're in a blizzard. It is tough, the Scottish hills.
0:26:30 > 0:26:34You have to be prepared to suffer to go out in the Scottish hills.
0:26:34 > 0:26:38It sound like I'm a masochist, doesn't it? But it's nice suffering!
0:26:38 > 0:26:41This is where I like to be, really. Even in the rain, honest!
0:26:41 > 0:26:46It's about two degrees minus and pouring with rain and you just said you like to be here!
0:26:46 > 0:26:49I do, it's great! It's another hard day in the office.
0:26:49 > 0:26:54It's not great weather for May, is it? What do you reckon, shall we go on or not?
0:26:54 > 0:26:57I think we should bash on. I mean, is it...?
0:26:57 > 0:27:00It's Scottish weather, we've just got to crack on.
0:27:00 > 0:27:02You're the leader, off you go!
0:27:05 > 0:27:07We're climbing what was for Munro
0:27:07 > 0:27:10one of the very finest of all Scottish mountains,
0:27:10 > 0:27:12Bidean nam Bian in Glencoe.
0:27:14 > 0:27:17Its name in Gaelic means "peak of the mountains",
0:27:17 > 0:27:20a high peak surrounded by other, lower summits.
0:27:23 > 0:27:27Its complex structure illustrates perfectly a loophole in Munro's list
0:27:27 > 0:27:31that allowed Reverend Robertson's peak-bagging to surge forward.
0:27:37 > 0:27:41The crucial point is what we mean by "climbing a mountain."
0:27:42 > 0:27:46You have to get to the top, of course, the very highest point.
0:27:49 > 0:27:53But surrounding it are very often ridges with their own lower summits.
0:27:57 > 0:28:00These are satellite peaks.
0:28:00 > 0:28:02The question is this -
0:28:02 > 0:28:05to claim the mountain, do you have to climb
0:28:05 > 0:28:08just the main summit or the neighbouring satellite peaks as well?
0:28:12 > 0:28:17For the nitpicking Munro, there was only one possible answer -
0:28:17 > 0:28:20he had to climb every main summit...
0:28:22 > 0:28:24..and every satellite peak.
0:28:27 > 0:28:31If we look at Munro's...lists,
0:28:31 > 0:28:36Munro's divided his 3,000-foot mountains into an A list and a B list.
0:28:36 > 0:28:41The A list are here in this column. They've all been given a number.
0:28:41 > 0:28:46You can see that Bidean nam Bian, where we are now, is here.
0:28:46 > 0:28:47It's a main summit.
0:28:47 > 0:28:51- 24.- 24 - that's the 24th highest mountain in Scotland.
0:28:51 > 0:28:54There's Bidean up there somewhere, and we're underneath it.
0:28:54 > 0:28:59But you can see Bidean nam Bian has two other names beneath it -
0:28:59 > 0:29:03Stob Coire nam Beith and Stob Coire nan Lochan.
0:29:04 > 0:29:07Bidean nam Bian isn't just one summit.
0:29:07 > 0:29:12Somewhere up there in the mist are two lower satellite peaks as well.
0:29:13 > 0:29:15Now, those are B-list summits.
0:29:15 > 0:29:20Those two are part of the same mountain, but Munro treats them as lower satellite peaks.
0:29:20 > 0:29:24The question is whether, if you're going to climb Bidean nam Bian,
0:29:24 > 0:29:26you have to climb all three peaks -
0:29:26 > 0:29:29the main one and the two satellite peaks -
0:29:29 > 0:29:31or whether you can just go to Bidean nam Bian.
0:29:31 > 0:29:34Just to Bidean nam Bian. Especially today!
0:29:34 > 0:29:38You go to the top of Everest, or you go to the top of Annapurna,
0:29:38 > 0:29:41or you go to the top of K2, and you go to the top.
0:29:41 > 0:29:44You don't think, "Ooh, I'd better do all them little peaks as well."
0:29:44 > 0:29:46Life isn't long enough.
0:29:51 > 0:29:55And Reverend Robertson thought the same. Forget the satellite peaks.
0:29:55 > 0:29:59He would climb straight to the highest summit.
0:29:59 > 0:30:04This strategy gave him a chance to catch up with Munro.
0:30:17 > 0:30:21And, in conditions like these, it's easy to see why.
0:30:25 > 0:30:28WIND HOWLS
0:30:28 > 0:30:33We've reached to top of Bidean nam Bian but it's a real blizzard.
0:30:33 > 0:30:36Now, if we were going to climb the two satellite peaks,
0:30:36 > 0:30:39we'd have to spend... What do you reckon, Alan?
0:30:39 > 0:30:43Another hour going along the ridge in that direction, then in that direction.
0:30:43 > 0:30:46It's just too late and the weather's too awful to do that.
0:30:46 > 0:30:49What it tells you is what ambition that man Munro had
0:30:49 > 0:30:52to climb all the main peaks AND all the satellite peaks.
0:30:52 > 0:30:54And we're not down yet. I hate to point it out.
0:31:03 > 0:31:04This is the real thing.
0:31:04 > 0:31:06It's really tough!
0:31:06 > 0:31:08Just heard my heart pounding!
0:31:23 > 0:31:26'After three-and-a-half hours in atrocious conditions,
0:31:26 > 0:31:29'Alan and I finally make it back to the road.
0:31:29 > 0:31:32'And we only managed to climb the main summit.'
0:31:32 > 0:31:36- Never let it be said that Munros are easy!- They certainly weren't.
0:31:36 > 0:31:41But for this man here, we'd be sleeping up there overnight.
0:31:41 > 0:31:43It was...fun.
0:31:43 > 0:31:46It required a determined approach up there, let's say!
0:31:51 > 0:31:56Munro's fastidiousness had left him facing a Herculean task.
0:31:56 > 0:31:59538 peaks to climb.
0:32:03 > 0:32:08The Reverend's methodology meant he only had to climb 283.
0:32:08 > 0:32:11Still stiff but much more manageable.
0:32:13 > 0:32:17Here was a chance to complete the List
0:32:17 > 0:32:20ahead of the List-maker himself.
0:32:25 > 0:32:31First Munro and now Robertson had been entranced by the List.
0:32:31 > 0:32:35Each had their opinion on the rights of people to roam the hills
0:32:35 > 0:32:39but neither could have anticipated the mass appeal of the List.
0:32:39 > 0:32:42Come rain, snow or, yes, even sun!
0:32:44 > 0:32:49Dave Hewitt is editor of cult hill-walking fanzine The Angry Corrie.
0:32:49 > 0:32:52He's become the country's foremost expert
0:32:52 > 0:32:55on the social phenomenon that Munro-bagging has become.
0:32:57 > 0:32:59Now...Dave...
0:32:59 > 0:33:01it's a strange obsession, isn't it?
0:33:01 > 0:33:04What sort of person wants to come here to get wet and cold and eaten by midges?
0:33:04 > 0:33:07Who's your average Munro-bagger?
0:33:07 > 0:33:08I don't think there is an average.
0:33:08 > 0:33:13It covers all ranges of occupations and classes.
0:33:13 > 0:33:16A right variety of people. Probably more men than women.
0:33:16 > 0:33:21Maybe about 75% men, perhaps, insofar as you can put a figure on it.
0:33:21 > 0:33:25- So, all walks of life but a male bias?- I think so, yeah.
0:33:25 > 0:33:27There's an academic thesis to be written
0:33:27 > 0:33:31about why men are more interested in ticking lists than women! But, yes, I think so.
0:33:31 > 0:33:34What's the scale? How many people are Munro-bagging?
0:33:34 > 0:33:38It's difficult to say but in the thousands. Probably in five figures.
0:33:38 > 0:33:41It's extraordinary people do this in such numbers.
0:33:41 > 0:33:46People keep doing this and keep coming back to do more of it.
0:33:46 > 0:33:50It's not rational, at some level, why people do this.
0:33:50 > 0:33:53What do you think Sir Hugh Munro would say
0:33:53 > 0:33:57if he saw thousands of Munroists going off bagging his mountains,
0:33:57 > 0:34:00tramping across these sacred hills and glens?
0:34:00 > 0:34:04I think he would have stroked his beard in a certain puzzlement!
0:34:04 > 0:34:06Probably quite proud, in a way, I think.
0:34:08 > 0:34:11I would hope he'd be pleased if he could see it now.
0:34:11 > 0:34:16It's a tribute to him, I suppose, the diligence he had
0:34:16 > 0:34:20in putting the List together and the success of the List,
0:34:20 > 0:34:22in terms of it's pretty accurate from the word go.
0:34:22 > 0:34:25Who would you rather spend a day in the hills with, Robertson or Munro?
0:34:25 > 0:34:27Bit of both.
0:34:27 > 0:34:31Munro appears to be something of a pedant, and a diligent pedant,
0:34:31 > 0:34:35and I warm to that, as I've got tendencies that way, I suppose.
0:34:35 > 0:34:37But after half an hour of him droning on about this,
0:34:37 > 0:34:39I think I'd have had my fill
0:34:39 > 0:34:43and I think I would then have hopped across to see the Reverend Robertson,
0:34:43 > 0:34:47who I think was a more rounded character.
0:34:47 > 0:34:51I suspect a bit more of a gleam in his eye, perhaps, in terms of humour.
0:34:51 > 0:34:55He was in more of a hurry, wasn't he, Robertson?
0:34:55 > 0:34:57He was in a hurry. I quite like that.
0:34:57 > 0:35:04I like that he almost re-invented the rules of a game that hadn't yet been invented to become the first person.
0:35:04 > 0:35:07Some people disapprove of that, and I can see why,
0:35:07 > 0:35:10but he was a bit of a pioneer in his own way.
0:35:13 > 0:35:16The game, for both Munro and Robertson,
0:35:16 > 0:35:19was climbing the mountains on the List,
0:35:19 > 0:35:22but with his radical idea of only climbing their main summits,
0:35:22 > 0:35:26Robertson had opened up the game to many more players.
0:35:27 > 0:35:32Today, not many hill walkers are prepared to tackle
0:35:32 > 0:35:35Munro's challenge of 538 peaks.
0:35:35 > 0:35:37Instead, most follow Robertson,
0:35:37 > 0:35:41ticking off the main mountain summits only,
0:35:41 > 0:35:44which has become known as "doing the Munros".
0:35:48 > 0:35:55It's Robertson's 283 main mountain summits that we now call the Munros.
0:35:55 > 0:36:00Today, over 4,000 people are recorded as having done them.
0:36:00 > 0:36:04Munro himself could have scarcely dreamt his empty mountains
0:36:04 > 0:36:07would soon be trodden by so many.
0:36:08 > 0:36:11Munro's List ceased to be his own personal property
0:36:11 > 0:36:14almost from the moment he put pen to paper.
0:36:14 > 0:36:18Starting with Robertson, it's been adopted by thousands
0:36:18 > 0:36:21who have used it to chase their own dreams.
0:36:21 > 0:36:24It's really just a list of mountain names
0:36:24 > 0:36:29and yet it's luring more people than ever into Scotland's wild country.
0:36:32 > 0:36:34The List has had an addictive mass appeal
0:36:34 > 0:36:39but it casts a very personal spell on everyone who follows it.
0:36:47 > 0:36:50- Nice to meet you. - How do you feel, last one?
0:36:50 > 0:36:52Good. I feel good. A bit windy.
0:36:52 > 0:36:54- It's a better day than I thought. - Are you excited?
0:36:54 > 0:37:00- Absolutely. I'm just beside myself. - I'll let you get your things together.- I'll get my boots.
0:37:00 > 0:37:05Today, Douglas Grieve hopes to be the next of Munro's successful acolytes.
0:37:05 > 0:37:08- Hi, everyone.- >
0:37:08 > 0:37:13Sgurr a' Mhaoraich, near Kinloch Hourn, is the very last Munro he has to climb.
0:37:13 > 0:37:17- It's going to be very windy on the top, Douglas.- I bet it will be, yes.
0:37:17 > 0:37:20- Have you got enough clothes? - Yeah. I've got this jacket as well.
0:37:20 > 0:37:23- Have you got stuff in there? - I've got loads.
0:37:23 > 0:37:25I've got a lot of clothes with me!
0:37:25 > 0:37:28I've seen the forecast - blowy up top.
0:37:34 > 0:37:39Douglas has gathered around 20 of his friends and family for this final ascent.
0:37:39 > 0:37:42It's a day that deserves to be marked.
0:37:45 > 0:37:51He has climbed all the Munros, bar today's, in little more than six years.
0:37:51 > 0:37:56It's been all-consuming, a life-changing journey.
0:37:56 > 0:38:00It began soon after Douglas retired, when his wife died.
0:38:01 > 0:38:06Getting off up into the hills and getting lost in yourself,
0:38:06 > 0:38:09I've heard people so often say it's a sort of a spiritual experience.
0:38:09 > 0:38:13That's why I've done more than half of them on my own,
0:38:13 > 0:38:15and I do thoroughly enjoy it,
0:38:15 > 0:38:16and filling in the day.
0:38:16 > 0:38:19I'd leave home at 5:00 in the morning, as I said,
0:38:19 > 0:38:23and get home at 10 or 11 at night and be utterly exhausted,
0:38:23 > 0:38:25and utterly exhausted the next day!
0:38:25 > 0:38:28And so time moved on, and things healed.
0:38:30 > 0:38:34Has it been like opening a window on Scotland you hadn't known before?
0:38:34 > 0:38:38That's true because I'm quite sure I've stood on places in Scotland
0:38:38 > 0:38:43where 99 point something per cent of the population never have stood and never will stand.
0:38:43 > 0:38:46To have stood on the 284 highest places is something pretty special.
0:38:46 > 0:38:50So how important, Douglas, is today, climbing your final Munro?
0:38:53 > 0:38:57It's... Yes, you get a bit of a mixed feeling about that.
0:38:57 > 0:39:00I'm absolutely elated, I'm thrilled to bits.
0:39:00 > 0:39:04I'm really proud of myself to be able to show off for once,
0:39:04 > 0:39:09and...a bit relieved because I started off...
0:39:09 > 0:39:12I'm getting a year older every year, obviously,
0:39:12 > 0:39:17and I started off by doing 50, then 70, then 64, then 60,
0:39:17 > 0:39:20then 24, then 12,
0:39:20 > 0:39:22and I still had these four to do,
0:39:22 > 0:39:25and three of them were really remote for me.
0:39:25 > 0:39:28I was imagining myself lying on my slab there, Nick,
0:39:28 > 0:39:33with the minister saying, "Douglas was a very keen hill walker,
0:39:33 > 0:39:36"but unfortunately he only managed to do 279 Munros!"
0:39:36 > 0:39:40- I haven't done this one yet, so let's get going!- Yes.
0:39:42 > 0:39:47For Douglas, finishing the Munros has only been conceivable
0:39:47 > 0:39:50because of Reverend Robertson's idea of climbing
0:39:50 > 0:39:53just the main mountain summits.
0:39:53 > 0:39:57It's a shortcut that's brought the hills within the grasp of thousands.
0:39:59 > 0:40:03But at the time the Reverend came up with this radical innovation,
0:40:03 > 0:40:09was the man himself falling ever deeper into obsession?
0:40:09 > 0:40:13Was the Reverend more interested in climbing the mountains,
0:40:13 > 0:40:16or more interested in completing the List?
0:40:16 > 0:40:21The clue is in a mistake that Hugh Munro made at the very beginning.
0:40:21 > 0:40:26This is Munro's original list, the one that Robertson was using.
0:40:26 > 0:40:29Buried in here is the clue that I'm looking for.
0:40:29 > 0:40:33It's in section 17, if I can find it, dealing with...
0:40:33 > 0:40:38Here it is, the section dealing with the Isle of Skye. Now, look at this.
0:40:38 > 0:40:42Munro has listed a mountain called Sgurr Dearg
0:40:42 > 0:40:45as having a height of 3,234 ft.
0:40:45 > 0:40:48Furthermore, he's given it a number in the left hand column,
0:40:48 > 0:40:53157, which means he's treating it as a main mountain summit.
0:40:53 > 0:40:55Now, right beneath Sgurr Dearg,
0:40:55 > 0:40:58he's listed that mountain's immediate neighbour,
0:40:58 > 0:41:03the Inaccessible Peak, as having a height of 3,250 ft.
0:41:03 > 0:41:08In other words, the Inaccessible Peak is 16 feet higher than Sgurr Dearg
0:41:08 > 0:41:13and yet Munro has demoted it to a satellite peak of Sgurr Dearg's
0:41:13 > 0:41:17and you can tell that's the case because he hasn't given it a number in the left-hand column.
0:41:17 > 0:41:21So, even though it's higher, the Inaccessible Peak has been demoted to the B-List,
0:41:21 > 0:41:27whereas Sgurr Dearg has been promoted to a main mountain summit.
0:41:27 > 0:41:30Well, what's going on? Could it be a clerical error, perhaps?
0:41:30 > 0:41:33You could imagine Munro sitting up late at night,
0:41:33 > 0:41:37his mind falling apart with all these numbers and tables,
0:41:37 > 0:41:41and he simply gets the two summits the wrong way round.
0:41:41 > 0:41:44But this slip of the pen becomes very revealing.
0:41:44 > 0:41:50Because if Robertson wanted to be the first to reach the top of all Scotland's 3,000-foot mountains,
0:41:50 > 0:41:54he would climb the highest summit - the Inaccessible Peak.
0:41:54 > 0:41:58On the other hand, if he wanted to be first to complete Munro's List,
0:41:58 > 0:42:01he would stick to what was published in black and white,
0:42:01 > 0:42:06Sgurr Dearg, even if it was wrong.
0:42:06 > 0:42:11So the big question is which one did the Reverend climb?
0:42:11 > 0:42:14Well, I've never been up the Inaccessible Peak,
0:42:14 > 0:42:19so I'm heading to Skye to take a closer look at this conundrum.
0:42:25 > 0:42:26For Munro-baggers,
0:42:26 > 0:42:31the Black Cuillin of Skye evokes either twitchy excitement
0:42:31 > 0:42:33or sweaty-palmed terror.
0:42:36 > 0:42:3913 kilometres of razor-back ridge,
0:42:39 > 0:42:42bounded by yawning precipices...
0:42:44 > 0:42:48..interrupted by summits like the teeth of a saw.
0:42:54 > 0:42:59It's the stronghold of the most difficult Munro of them all.
0:42:59 > 0:43:03I'm so excited about this, Martin.
0:43:03 > 0:43:08'And I can't think of anyone better qualified to take me up there than mountain guide Martin Moran.'
0:43:08 > 0:43:13We've got about two-and-a-half hours of fairly steep uphill walking.
0:43:13 > 0:43:16Easy to begin with on a footpath,
0:43:16 > 0:43:20then you're going to be scrambling up the front of the west ridge here.
0:43:20 > 0:43:24- That one there?- Yep, and then it's an easy walk up the scree
0:43:24 > 0:43:27and a final 20 minutes of scrambling.
0:43:27 > 0:43:30You won't see the pinnacle until you actually get there.
0:43:30 > 0:43:32It's the only major mountain in Britain
0:43:32 > 0:43:36which you need to do a graded rock climb to reach the summit
0:43:36 > 0:43:39and you definitely need a rope for it.
0:43:43 > 0:43:46'Somewhere up there is the Inaccessible Peak.
0:43:46 > 0:43:50'Nowadays it's called the Inaccessible Pinnacle,
0:43:50 > 0:43:52'nickname "In Pinn".
0:43:52 > 0:43:57'Today, Martin's guiding me up there under a burning sun
0:43:57 > 0:44:01'but he's Scotland's foremost authority on climbing the Munros in winter.'
0:44:04 > 0:44:10'He successfully did all of them in a single winter season.'
0:44:10 > 0:44:13Did you have any bad moments when doing your Munros in winter?
0:44:13 > 0:44:16The worst moment was when we got avalanched...
0:44:16 > 0:44:19- You're kidding!- ..on what was quite an innocuous hill.
0:44:19 > 0:44:23A storm came in and we veered off our compass bearing.
0:44:23 > 0:44:27And I walked onto a cornice and the cornice collapsed
0:44:27 > 0:44:31and the worst thing was that my wife was right next to me,
0:44:31 > 0:44:33so she came down with me.
0:44:33 > 0:44:35And when we hit the snow below,
0:44:35 > 0:44:38the slope under it avalanched under our weight
0:44:38 > 0:44:43and so we were carried down in a very large avalanche for about 300 feet.
0:44:43 > 0:44:45And we were lucky that we picked ourselves out
0:44:45 > 0:44:48and we were able to climb back up to the top.
0:44:51 > 0:44:56'Hidden behind these formidable defences is the Inaccessible Pinnacle.'
0:44:58 > 0:45:00'Despite being the highest point of the mountain,
0:45:00 > 0:45:04'the In Pinn was mistakenly relegated to the status
0:45:04 > 0:45:08'of mere satellite peak on Munro's list.
0:45:09 > 0:45:15'Could Reverend Robertson have believed it was just a satellite peak when he came here?
0:45:15 > 0:45:18'Would it have been obvious, or difficult to tell?
0:45:18 > 0:45:24'I've never been here in clear weather, and I'm itching to see what faced him.'
0:45:24 > 0:45:29Wow! It's a... a lot bigger than I remember...
0:45:29 > 0:45:35and an awful lot steeper. It looks rather un-climbable, Martin.
0:45:35 > 0:45:37Hence the name!
0:45:37 > 0:45:41Getting, er... It's one of those moments where...
0:45:41 > 0:45:43I knew one day...
0:45:43 > 0:45:46I'd have to come and do this...
0:45:46 > 0:45:52and now that day has arrived, I'm feeling slightly anxious! God!
0:45:52 > 0:45:55I don't think you've got an excuse in this weather.
0:45:55 > 0:45:58'There's no backing out now,
0:45:58 > 0:46:02'but I'm not the only one here to fulfil my fevered dreams on the In Pinn.
0:46:02 > 0:46:05'There's a queue.'
0:46:05 > 0:46:07- What do you feel about going up there?- A bit nervous.
0:46:07 > 0:46:10I'm not a climber so this is a bit of a rite of passage,
0:46:10 > 0:46:12- going up one of these things. - Me too.
0:46:12 > 0:46:15I've been waiting a good part of my life to have a go at this.
0:46:15 > 0:46:18- Is that right?- Yes. It's the big one, isn't it?- It is.
0:46:18 > 0:46:21I've been watching people going up slowly. Some slow, some quick.
0:46:21 > 0:46:25It's a long wait, if you're wondering what's happening up there.
0:46:25 > 0:46:28I would like to get it over with!
0:46:30 > 0:46:34- Rope. So, how many pitches is it, Martin?- Two pitches.
0:46:34 > 0:46:37Each pitch is about 30 metres...
0:46:37 > 0:46:40of the rope, and we've got 50 metres of rope, which should be long enough.
0:46:40 > 0:46:43And what rock-climbing grade is it?
0:46:43 > 0:46:45He asked anxiously!
0:46:45 > 0:46:48- Moderate.- Is that moderately horrible or moderate-moderate?
0:46:48 > 0:46:51Which means it isn't easy, but it isn't difficult.
0:46:51 > 0:46:52OK...
0:46:57 > 0:47:01So, remember, Nick, it's all on footwork.
0:47:01 > 0:47:03If your footwork's good, the rest will follow.
0:47:03 > 0:47:08I first stood in this spot when I was a teenager.
0:47:08 > 0:47:12My dad brought me here one January, we were trying to climb
0:47:12 > 0:47:17a section of the Cuillin ridge, and the weather was absolutely desperate.
0:47:17 > 0:47:21It was a white-out, the whole pinnacle was covered in...
0:47:21 > 0:47:27water ice and rimed-up, and it looked utterly, utterly terrifying.
0:47:27 > 0:47:30I've been back once or twice since, close to the bottom of it,
0:47:30 > 0:47:37but never ever tried to go up, so this is a really big moment in my life. It's the...
0:47:37 > 0:47:40It's rather haunted me, the thought that I've not been up it.
0:47:40 > 0:47:43Quite a special moment.
0:47:43 > 0:47:46It looks fantastic from down here.
0:47:46 > 0:47:49It's just a needle, poking straight into the sky.
0:47:52 > 0:47:54OK. Climb when you're ready.
0:47:54 > 0:47:56Climbing.
0:48:03 > 0:48:07'This is what the Reverend Robertson would have had to climb
0:48:07 > 0:48:09'to reach the highest point on the mountain.'
0:48:17 > 0:48:21It's not until you get part way up,
0:48:21 > 0:48:24that you realise this is a rock pinnacle,
0:48:24 > 0:48:26balanced on a ridge,
0:48:26 > 0:48:28so it's really...
0:48:28 > 0:48:32a 3,000 ft high rock pinnacle...
0:48:32 > 0:48:35with an awful lot of air underneath it.
0:48:39 > 0:48:42Now, what do I need...?
0:48:44 > 0:48:46Now, how do I get up here?
0:48:47 > 0:48:49This looks...
0:48:49 > 0:48:52like a rather interesting little move.
0:48:52 > 0:48:54Right...
0:48:57 > 0:48:59Need a hand-hold...
0:48:59 > 0:49:02Oops...! That'll do.
0:49:02 > 0:49:05Once you...
0:49:05 > 0:49:07get your hands on the rock...
0:49:08 > 0:49:13..it suddenly becomes...fun.
0:49:17 > 0:49:20OK, Nick, you're coming up to the hard move, now.
0:49:20 > 0:49:23Move out right onto the arete itself.
0:49:23 > 0:49:25Right.
0:49:25 > 0:49:27Just collect myself a good hand-hold.
0:49:27 > 0:49:33So you've got to make a high step up, and there's a spike about two foot further up.
0:49:33 > 0:49:35Oh, I can see it, yep.
0:49:35 > 0:49:37Ooh... This is a bit tricky.
0:49:38 > 0:49:41This might not...
0:49:41 > 0:49:42be...
0:49:42 > 0:49:44very elegant, but...!
0:49:44 > 0:49:46That's it. Grab it.
0:49:46 > 0:49:48Go it!
0:49:48 > 0:49:49- You're there.- Wow!
0:49:55 > 0:49:57Right...
0:49:57 > 0:50:01This is, er...an exciting bit, isn't it?
0:50:01 > 0:50:03That made your heart stop, didn't it?
0:50:03 > 0:50:06Right...
0:50:06 > 0:50:10Lovely. Thanks very much.
0:50:13 > 0:50:14Now what?
0:50:16 > 0:50:18So if you just come up to me, Nick,
0:50:18 > 0:50:22we're gonna clip you into the world's most exposed armchair, here.
0:50:22 > 0:50:26NICK LAUGHS As you did before,
0:50:26 > 0:50:31gently paying out the slack, so it's never tight to me, so that, then, I can move.
0:50:31 > 0:50:36I've got a nice little exposed traverse along here.
0:50:36 > 0:50:39'One last rope-length to the top,
0:50:39 > 0:50:42'and the answer to my Robertson conundrum.'
0:50:42 > 0:50:45How's that doing?
0:50:45 > 0:50:47- NICK LAUGHS - Well, it looked...!
0:50:47 > 0:50:51It looked pretty dodgy to me, I must say!
0:50:51 > 0:50:53Yes.
0:50:56 > 0:50:59- Off belay, take in.- Taking in.
0:51:08 > 0:51:12Oo-er, it's a slightly tricky bit.
0:51:20 > 0:51:23- Nearly there.- The final steps.
0:51:23 > 0:51:28Hands in pockets on the last bit(!) NICK LAUGHS
0:51:28 > 0:51:31Oh, that was fantastic!
0:51:31 > 0:51:33Martin, thank you so much.
0:51:33 > 0:51:37- Been a pleasure. - That is...an ambition fulfilled.
0:51:37 > 0:51:40It was a long time coming.
0:51:43 > 0:51:47Seen God knows how many photographs of it, stood at the bottom of it,
0:51:47 > 0:51:51often wondered about it... Never had the nerve to come and do it.
0:51:52 > 0:51:58'I finally got to the top, and what an amazing place this is.
0:52:01 > 0:52:04'But now for the moment of truth.
0:52:04 > 0:52:07'Would it have been possible for Reverend Robertson
0:52:07 > 0:52:11'not to realise which was the highest summit on this mountain?'
0:52:11 > 0:52:17We're at the top of the In Pinn, and Sgurr Dearg is down there.
0:52:17 > 0:52:20This is obviously the highest part of the mountain.
0:52:23 > 0:52:26To say you've climbed this mountain, you have to be up here.
0:52:26 > 0:52:29But that's not what Robertson chose to do.
0:52:29 > 0:52:34He bagged Sgurr Dearg down there, a much easier task.
0:52:38 > 0:52:41It's fairly certain that Reverend Robertson
0:52:41 > 0:52:43had not climbed the In Pinn
0:52:43 > 0:52:46when he claimed to have finished the Munros.
0:52:46 > 0:52:49Here's what he wrote...
0:52:49 > 0:52:53"I only wish I could tell the club of some faraway, unknown peak
0:52:53 > 0:52:56"bristling with difficulties on all sides,
0:52:56 > 0:52:59"but the fact is, there are none".
0:53:03 > 0:53:05So, lean right out, Nick. That's it.
0:53:05 > 0:53:10Well, if this isn't a peak bristling with difficulties on all sides, I just don't know what is!
0:53:12 > 0:53:18'It's hard to be sure what tale this mute blade of rock tells us.
0:53:18 > 0:53:22'Perhaps Robertson came here planning to do the In Pinn,
0:53:22 > 0:53:25'but the weather was just too treacherous.
0:53:25 > 0:53:27'What I cannot believe
0:53:27 > 0:53:30'is that Robertson was entirely innocent in all this.
0:53:30 > 0:53:34'He must have known that he'd missed the main mountain summit here.
0:53:34 > 0:53:38'But he was able to tick off Sgurr Dearg,
0:53:38 > 0:53:41'the mountain that was printed on Munro's List.'
0:53:47 > 0:53:53Reverend Robertson went down in history as the first person to complete all the Munros.
0:53:53 > 0:53:59On 28th September 1901, he climbed his final peak in Glencoe.
0:53:59 > 0:54:03What we know, though, is that although he'd ticked off everything
0:54:03 > 0:54:07on Munro's List, he hadn't climbed all the main mountain summits.
0:54:07 > 0:54:11The List had become more important than the mountains.
0:54:11 > 0:54:18'Munro had devoted years to the task of cataloguing Scotland's mountains.
0:54:18 > 0:54:22'He must have felt, in some sense, that the mountains on the List were his.
0:54:22 > 0:54:26'But with Robertson laying claim to being first to complete the List,
0:54:26 > 0:54:29'he'd been beaten to the finish.
0:54:29 > 0:54:33'Munro was more a man of figures than letters.
0:54:33 > 0:54:36'Whatever he felt about Robertson being first
0:54:36 > 0:54:40'to reach the end of his list, he kept it to himself.
0:54:44 > 0:54:46'One...
0:54:46 > 0:54:48'Then there were two...
0:54:48 > 0:54:51'then ten, a hundred, a thousand...
0:54:51 > 0:54:55'As the numbers finishing the Munros grew,
0:54:55 > 0:54:58'the question of who was first faded,
0:54:58 > 0:55:01'but the triumph of completing them hasn't.
0:55:01 > 0:55:05'Today, the hills are still just as high,
0:55:05 > 0:55:07'and there are still just as many.
0:55:07 > 0:55:11'283 Munros, six years,
0:55:11 > 0:55:16'1,000 miles and 500,000 feet of ascent,
0:55:16 > 0:55:22'and, at last, the final slopes of Douglas' final Munro are done.'
0:55:24 > 0:55:26Congratulations, Douglas.
0:55:26 > 0:55:29Congratulations. You did it!
0:55:29 > 0:55:31Thank you.
0:55:31 > 0:55:33- Well done. Well done.- Wonderful.
0:55:33 > 0:55:35So that's it.
0:55:35 > 0:55:38Hang up the boots. What size do you take?
0:55:38 > 0:55:41No, no, no, you're not hanging up your boots! You can't do that.
0:55:41 > 0:55:43CHEERING
0:55:49 > 0:55:52Come on, then...! CHEERING
0:55:53 > 0:55:56- Did you get it? - Quite a lot of movement!
0:55:56 > 0:56:00- Cheers.- Cheers.- Come on, Get the rest of that champagne out.
0:56:00 > 0:56:02Douglas...?
0:56:02 > 0:56:07Through mountaineering, you have been given friendships, joys and lasting memories
0:56:07 > 0:56:12far more precious than accumulations of gold.
0:56:12 > 0:56:15There's no theory invented in days of idle incredulity
0:56:15 > 0:56:19but the knowledge gained from the battle over adversity. Well done.
0:56:19 > 0:56:21Thank you. CHEERING
0:56:23 > 0:56:28- I feel very, very honoured to have been up here to see you do it.- Thank you very much.
0:56:28 > 0:56:32Any messages for other people who are struggling through the Munros?
0:56:32 > 0:56:34No, just keep on struggling!
0:56:36 > 0:56:40'The cruel irony is that unlike Douglas,
0:56:40 > 0:56:44'Munro himself never did finish climbing his Munros.
0:56:44 > 0:56:49'He continued to toil over the 538 main summits
0:56:49 > 0:56:52'and satellite peaks on his list.
0:56:52 > 0:56:55'But by the outbreak of the First World War,
0:56:55 > 0:56:57'rheumatism had taken over his body.'
0:57:00 > 0:57:03As the prospect of completing his final summits
0:57:03 > 0:57:08became increasingly remote, Munro joked stoically to his friends
0:57:08 > 0:57:13that they would have to "Haul me up on a rope, otherwise the ascents would not be made!"
0:57:13 > 0:57:16His joke turned out to be prescient.
0:57:16 > 0:57:19Munro died with only three peaks left to climb.
0:57:22 > 0:57:24'But he left us a unique gift.
0:57:24 > 0:57:29'It still seems unbelievable to me that barely more than a century ago,
0:57:29 > 0:57:33'only a handful of people knew about these mountains,
0:57:33 > 0:57:38'and it's largely because of Munro so many now do.'
0:57:49 > 0:57:51Hugh Munro brought a sense of order
0:57:51 > 0:57:56to the extraordinary chaos of these mountains. He loved them.
0:57:56 > 0:58:00I'm not a Munro-bagger myself, although I have just totted up
0:58:00 > 0:58:04that I've climbed about 75. But I do understand the passion
0:58:04 > 0:58:08that draws people to try and complete the list.
0:58:08 > 0:58:10Munro, Robertson, the thousands of people
0:58:10 > 0:58:14who have followed in their bootprints, people like myself,
0:58:14 > 0:58:16ultimately we're all drawn here by the same thing -
0:58:16 > 0:58:21the desire to explore these magical mountains.
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