Friend's inspiration drove Ralph to reach new heights

Published on Saturday 10 January 2009 09:52

IT was pitch black and the temperature was dropping with every minute that passed.

The two walkers, experienced enough to know how treacherous the Scottish landscape can be, were completely lost in a maze of the forest paths.

However, rather than terror, it was hysterical laughter that was gripping them. "We just couldn't stop laughing at the ridiculousness of our predicament," remembers Ralph Storer, one of the pair.

Ralph, now 61, and his climbing partner, fellow Edinburgh man Allan Leighton, made it home from the Rothiemurchus Forest unhurt on that occasion, but the story has a tragic postscript.

Allan died four years ago at the age of 42 when he slipped on ice near the summit of Binnein Mor near Kinlochleven, Argyll, and fell 600ft into the north-east corrie.

Rather than stopping Ralph, the author of a new series of books on the Munros, Scotland's highest mountains from taking to the hills, it has instead reminded him to appreciate the time he spends outdoors.

"When I met Allan, quite by chance, his enthusiasm rekindled mine after years of guidebook research had turned a passion into a job," Ralph explains.

"With Allan I found myself, in my fifties, undertaking some of the longest hill walks of my life, such as the South Glen Shiel Ten – nine Munros and a Corbett, and we insisted on counting that darn Corbett. We became part of each other's support system on the hill, in the pubs and dance clubs of Edinburgh, and in each other's daily life.

"Allan was a good man to have at your side on the hill – good-humoured, reliable, challenging. He was someone who always went for it. It was one of those accidents that can happen to any of us, but I still wonder if I could have prevented it if I had been there."

Ralph has spent thousands of days in the Scottish hills since discovering them more than 40 years ago, keeping fit between visits to the Highlands by climbing Arthur's Seat and the Pentlands a couple of times every week. Having already discovered a passion for writing about his hobby, the former computer programmer left his post lecturing in computing at Napier University ten years ago to become a full-time writer.

Being his own boss is something Ralph relishes, but isn't without its down side.

"My quality of life has improved considerably, but it is a very solitary job. My first book, Scotland's 100 Best Scottish Mountain Routes, was published in 1990 and it is still on sale. It has become the book that most people know me by."

Ralph's newly-published Ultimate Guide to the Munros, Volume 1: Southern Highlands provides details of various routes up and down 46 Munros in areas such as Tyndrum, Loch Tay and Bridge of Orchy. The first in a six-part series, he is already working on Volume 2, which will focus on walks around Glencoe.

But Ralph is not the only contributor to the Ultimate Guide series. He has created seven fictional members of the "Go Take a Hike Mountaineering Club" to offer different perspectives. From Entertainment convener Baffies, who keeps note of the best cafes and other points of interest to F-Stop, the controller of the camera, so named because he's always f***ing stopping to take photos.

Ralph says: "One of the things I wanted to do with this book was make it for people like me who are just hillwalkers, not climbers. Hopefully it is very detailed and informative, but I wanted to make it a bit more irreverent."

Despite so much time walking, including all of the Munros in Volume 1 of the guide, Ralph deliberately missed out one peak to avoid the label "Munroist".

He explains: "In a professed desire not to join the burgeoning ranks of completers of 'hill lists', I suggested that I would choose one Munro whose summit I would circumvent at a sufficient distance for it not to count.

"I can tell you that my chosen Munro was in the Northern Highlands. I therefore don't have to concern myself further with such matters until Volume 6. Should I eat humble pie and stand head bowed in shame at the summit cairn or should I nominate a trusted assistant to go there in my stead and report back? I shall canvass readers at the time."

The Ultimate Guide to the Munros, Volume 1, is published by Luath Press, priced 14.99

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