On Easter Saturday (April 11th) my fellow Ramblers and I were hoping to climb Beinn Na Lap with our friend Joan to celebrate her completing her last munro- that's number 282!!! Such a fantastic achievement which we normally celebrate as a walking community but sadly this has had to be postponed until October due to the COVID-19 outbreak.  

What started as a bit of a joke, "we should all climb our STAIRS on this day instead and raise funds for Scottish Mountain Rescue" has quickly become a reality so here we go!  The ascent of Beinn Na Lap is 562m from Corrour so that’s  3122 stairs!!! That's about 237 climbs (depending on stairs height) so that's what we'll be doing from 11:15am on Saturday 11th April (roughly the time we would have started). 

To work out your stairs you measure the height of your stairs (mine are 19cm) X the number of stairs (I have 14) then divide the height of Beinn na Lap (562m) by the height of your stairs 

E.g 

19X14= 266 (2.66metres), 562/2.66= 212 climbs (rounded up 😁) 

Many hill walkers are missing being among the hills at this time (although we appreciate how essential this is).  Hill walking for many people isn't just fitness and exercise, it's their social life- a way to make friends, connect with others and for some people their walking pals are like family.

As a very active walking group, we greatly appreciate the comfort and support that Scottish Mountain Rescue can bring and knowing that they are there if we need them is such a privilege. 

What we want to achieve most in this challenge is to make people smile, reconnect the walking community and have a bit of fun!  We'd encourage any other Ramblers or other walking groups or just individuals to join in and would suggest a £10 donation to take part (not compulsory) and we'll be sharing the challenge on Twitter and Facebook with the hashtag #hikeinthehoose

Nothing compares to a day on the beautiful Scottish hills but at least the weather in the hoose will be a bit more predictable! Don’t have stairs or unable to climb them? No problem! You can walk the distance, which is 10KM. This has to be something equally monotonous like round your garden or around your house, in keeping with the challenge and social distancing rules. 

Anything you can spare would be greatly appreciated!