The DURC entry: 3 years in 15 minutes!!!

Where to start???

Well I joined the Rucksack club a wee fresher back in '03, I recall my first day trip quite distinctly....

Thurst into a minibus at 7am on a Sunday morning surrounded by strange faces, I promptly fell asleep for the tow hour journey to Arrochar. We were fed wonderful chocolate muffins and I naively signed up for a random walk that some of the people on my bus were going on, with the delusion that I had relatively good fitness.

Needless to say I was the stereotypical fresher, with heavy weight trousers on that may have well been jeans, a waterproof that could have been replaced with a bin bag, a gormet lunch that required table, chairs, cutlery (I wouldn't have said no to a wine glass either) and walking boots that were not waterproof at all and had a squeak. I was the envy of all as I trooped up the hill, which to my eyes at the time may as well have been Everest, I became a sheep, but a lame one trying to keep up with the group.

Actually, considering its suprising why I ever went up a hill ever again; the weather was awful, it wasn't properly raining just misty and damp but with my attire I was drenched within the first hour (of a 6 hour day). The low cloud also shrouded the mountain, so we had very little view. I was also clearly the unfittest of the group, my previous delusions were well and truely washed away.

But in the pub, still damp, I was smiling and drinking one of my first Scottish ales. I think many of us that climb hills have yet to understand why we realish in the challage of reaching the summit of a hill, despite a view or weather conditions. I recently wrote this that is the nearest I can get for the moment " One never descends a mountain, Physically ascending, One always remains at the top."

Soon after this trip I invested my student loan (thankyou very much) in some shiney new gear, so to speak. Infact I have learnt that one can never have enough new gear despite dwindling finances.

In the coming years, not only did I attend the trips, I also took part in the orgainsation of meets and social events. It did become an obsession for a while, where I misunderstood the reason I was really in Dundee.....studying, but I now have had counselling and its under control.

With the club I have been to Skye, Glencoe, Glen Etive, Glen Nevis, Glen Affric, Achnasheen, Glen Clova, Barisdale and the Isle of Mull.

Last year, I went cold turkey and was a social member, not that there's a difference in membership fees! But my fees went far, with the Autumn Ceilidh, Christmas dinner, Burns' Supper, Annual Dinner and every Wednesday night in Speedies (Mennies for purists).

This year, I actually plan to do some walking, not just to the pub, after some training this summer from living in Glencoe. (I was running up them 'ills, honest)