Jen Hatfield on the summit of her final marilyn, Cruinn a' Bheinn
A woman has become the first to complete one of the UK’s toughest hillwalking challenges.
Jenny Hatfield summited Cruinn a’ Bheinn, north of Ben Lomond, on Sunday to complete a round of the marilyns.
There are 1,556 of the hills throughout the UK, each of which must have a drop around them of 150m.
Ms Hatfield reached the 632m (2,074ft) top of her final marilyn with her partner Rick Salter, and the pair became the first couple to bag the full list.
The list includes all the highest summits of Scotland, Wales and England, plus many more hills including 236 on islands, and two remote sea stacks.
Mr Salter was only the ninth man to complete the marilyns. The couple were joined by a group of 40 of their hill-bagging friends, who helped them celebrate their achievement.
Ms Hatfield said: “It’s a great feeling to have climbed all 1,556 marilyns. There’s a sense of relief after all those strenuous climbs, but also regret that such an amazing adventure is finished.
“To be joined by so many of our hill-bagging friends made the final hill so special. A big thank-you to everyone there. Not to forget Alan Dawson, whose book The Relative Hills of Britain was the start of it all.”
Jen Hatfield and Rick Salter also became the first couple to complete the marilyns
She said she realised the opportunity of becoming the first woman marilynist when she climbed the St Kilda sea stacks last October. These are the UK’s highest sea stacks, and situated 40 miles west of the Outer Hebrides, their remoteness and difficulty of landing means that they are the ultimate challenge for anyone wishing to complete the marilyn list.
“At that time I still had nearly 500 marilyns to climb. I worked on the plan and realised that by devoting myself full-time to hill-bagging, I could aim to finish within a year, which would give me a good chance of being the first woman marilynist.”
The push to complete the list has been physically demanding. In just the last year Ms Hatfield estimates that she has climbed 243,000m (797,233ft) to achieve her goal, the equivalent of climbing Everest from sea level 28 times, with the distance covered being some 5,370km (3,337 miles).
“Hill-bagging days are often tough either due to poor weather, or difficult terrain. When doing the marilyns both often conspire against you.”
Based in the north of England, Jenny climbed many of the hills in the North of the UK including all the munros, corbetts and wainwrights, before moving on to tackle seriously the challenge of the marilyns in 2013.
“The list is great because it covers the whole of the UK, with hills of all sizes, and a huge range of character. It’s a massive list too, but not so big as to be unachievable,” she said.
The marilyns were first listed in Alan Dawson’s book, The Relative Hills of Britain, published in 1992, and they have since become a lifetime’s ambition for many hill-baggers.
The name is a tongue-in-cheek nod to the term munros, the Scottish 3,000ft peaks named after Sir Hugh Munro.
Rob Woodall and Eddie Dealtry were the first men to climb all of the marilyns, finishing in 2014 on Stac Lee, reputed to be the hardest of them all.
Mark Tomlinson
27 September 2016Well done and congratulations to you both, a fantastic achievement. Mark T
stigofthenest
27 September 2016Echo the above comments, seriously impressive. I'm light years behind.
Wilf from Keswick
28 September 2016Great achievement but how do they actually know she is the first woman to do this. After all, there are lots of people who don’t actively seek their moment in the limelight that do this type of thing.
Dave Hewitt
28 September 2016Good point - I've researched this kind of stuff a lot over the years and Jenny appears to be the first known woman, but there could have been others. Ann Bowker might well have been the first woman had the Kilda access situation been different 20 years ago. There are certainly big-number Marilyn people around who don't want to be named - I know of a couple (both male) and there will surely be others, especially as it's become quite clubby in recent years and some people are allergic to clubs. Is the same with all the lists, eg there's at least one Munroist with an unlisted tally of rounds in double figures. Good effort by Jenny - and Rick - anyway. Nice choice of hill for the last one.
Jon
01 October 2016Considering the nature of the 1556 hills, particularly the St Kilda sea stacks and the many obscure and not terribly exciting hills, it takes a lot of dedication to complete them. It's very unlikely that there are people who have completed this list incognito.
stigofthenest
02 October 2016Agree 100% with Jon. Only a bagger would ever willingly visit Crowborough!
Wilf from Keswick
03 October 2016“only a bagger would willingly visit Crowborough” that’s absolute nonsense. People walk in the outdoors and up & down hills for lots of reasons other than ’bagging’.
And just as much of a nonsense is “It's very unlikely that there are people who have completed this list incognito.” Why is that? Or did you not read the comment by Dave Hewitt
Jon
03 October 2016There are very few options for reaching and landing on the St Kilda stacks. Those who have climbed the stacks would surely have been told by the boat operators that others had done so. Very few people are known to have climbed Stac Lee and Stac an Armin before 2014 when Marilyn baggers are known to have done so. It is possible, but I maintain very unlikely, that there is a secretive person who has gone to the immense trouble and significant expense of arranging successful ascents of the St Kilda stacks AND has visited the other 1550 or so hills on the list, many of which are too obscure for all of them to be visited "for lots of reasons other than 'bagging'".
In reality, it's likely that there would need to be at least two such secretive people, working together, as soloing Stac Lee would be quite a bold undertaking.
Dave Hewitt is an admirable journalist who has a long history of being sceptical, as befits his trade. It is entirely predictable that he would be a little sceptical of claims of being "first". He has been similarly sceptical about the precision claimed by amateur height surveyors such as G&J Surveys, but where independent height measurements have been taken on separate occasions by different surveyors their results have agreed within the stated precision.
I don't think there is any conflict between Dave's comment above and mine. Both he and I think a previous female Marilyn completion is possible; I think it is very unlikely.
stigofthenest
03 October 2016Wilf, The Crowborough comment was a light hearted comment. Sorry you didn't get the joke.
I think its entirely feasible that there could well be folk out there who have visited every Wainwright, Hewitt, Nuttall. I think the liklihood that anyone has visited every Marilyn undetected or without fanfare to be seriously unlikely. It's only my opinion mind and as I speak "absolute nonsense" I suppose my opinion wont matter.
Margaret
04 October 2016Baggers are so serious - not everyone is part of the Bagger Club and don't advertise what they do remember.
John B
04 October 2016Margaret is right when she says not everyone advertises what they do so there could very well be people out there (women included) that have already visited ‘bagged’ all those hills.
Trevor Lane
30 October 2016A wonderful achievement, well done Jenny. A far more worthysome adventure than the peaks of Risedale. However did you find the time & energy ?
Trevor Lane