Corbetts - Complete Round

Longer on the ground but perhaps less obviously 'glamorous' than the complete Munro round, the continuous round of the Corbetts seems to have attracted comparatively few takers before Manny Gorman's 2009 effort effectively defined the challenge. To quote Dave Hewitt (as quoted in turn on the FRA Forums, and repeated here with his permission):

I only know of one previous Corbetts-specific single-take round, that by Mike Wilson-Roberts in 1992. I corresponded a bit with Mike about this a few years ago and as I recall he wasn't trying to set any particular target time, just to trundle round them all during a summer. He started with the Brack on 3 March and ended on White Coomb 13 July, so that comes to 133 days all in.

There have been three other continuous Corbett rounds, but they have all included at least one other hill group as well and hence were much longer: Craig Caldwell (Munros+Corbetts) 1985/86, Peter Lincoln (Munros+Corbetts+Grahams) 1997/98, and a rather mysterious massive effort by Andrew Allum in 1996/97 taking in M+C+G plus Donalds and also E+W 2000ers.

Now, the full story of Manny's round (undertaken as much for the joy of it as establishing the 'time') is recounted on his engrossing Corbett Round 2009 blog, but the following summary was written especially for SHR and sent to us in June 2012:

The 2009 Corbett Round

A continuous journey over all 219 Corbetts entirely by non-motorised transport, covering a total of 2633 miles; 998 on foot with 420,673 feet of ascent, 225 miles under sail, 1410 miles by bike; achieved in 69 days and 3 hours; 5 days lost to injury and 1 lost to AC/DC live at Hampden Park!

_

Blizzards, storms, sunburnt, frozen, torrential rain, zero visibility, force 8 sailing, drifting aimlessly, thunderstorms, epic sunsets, midges, clegs, ticks, trench-foot, intestinal worms, stunning mountain wildlife, hypothermia, hypoglycaemic, tendonitis, 2 major bike crashes – one wrecked knee, one reconstructed shoulder joint, dozens of friends, one fight with a farmer, one bump in the van, beers every night, early starts and late finishes, one hell of a journey.

A fantastic sailing journey of 10 days south from An Clisham on Harris through 6 beautiful Scottish islands landing at Troon; 3 days of hell in the Borders then a 100 mile leap by bike to the West Highlands; enormous zigzags across the country from west to east, and ultimately north, taking in the most majestic and remote areas of Scotland, Ardgour, Knoydart, Assynt to name but a few. Dozens of new mountains to cross as well as many old favourites; travelled in all 4 seasons, and of course sometimes all in one day.

The logistical colossus was professionally handled almost entirely by my partner Brenda Paul, but with an invaluable blog-site managed by Chris Upson and priceless support along the way by dozens of other Westies club mates, family & friends and even some wonderful complete strangers.

A truly memorable Scottish adventure, with a cruel violent final twist to the story when Brenda seriously injured herself in a bike crash, missing the final day to Ben Loyal.

_

The Corbett Round was about the journey and all the people who shared in it, rather than setting a record which was a nice bonus.

So congratulations to Manny and co. for that, and perhaps others might be inspired to take up the challenge now we have that documented (and very impressive) 'sub-70' benchmark? To which Manny would just like to add '50 days is possible and I'd love to help you, whoever you are...'

Page new 20th June 2012 and last updated 21st June 2012