Mountains and Motors

Mountains and Motors

Sir,

I have been a keen reader of MOTOR SPORT for nearly twenty years but cannot remember seeing any letters from enthusiasts who combine long distance motoring with mountain climbing or fell walking.

This is surprising because quite a few people (myself included) have driven from London to Ben Nevis, Scafeli Pike and Snowdon, reached the three peaks and returned in quite impressive times. A group of Esso people recently accomplished this within 46 hours.

I would like to relate my recent variation on this theme in which I traversed the famous Five Sisters of Kintail in a most interesting but fairly stiff weekend.

I set out along from Chelsea in my Marcos 3-litre (Ford) at 4.15 a.m. on Saturday, October 6th and drove to Loch Dutch in Ross and Cromarty. My recorded distance was 605 miles which took I 1 i hours with a driving time of 93 hours; a time somewhat influenced by two endorsements. Arriving at 4 p.m. gave me a chance tu get the lie of the land for an early start the following morning.

I stayed the night at the local hotel and was on the mountain side at 8 a.m. Sunday morning. The “walk” took 93 hours in rather wet and misty weather. The scenery was fantastic (mist permitting) but the walk which involves more than 10,000 feet of ups and downs made my other mountain experiences like the “Snowdon Horseshoe” seem a relative picnic.

Returning to Loch Dutch at 5.30 p.m. I got a lift to the Marcos and started my return journey at 6 p.m.

The 600 miles back took 1 li hours again but with about 103 hours of driving in wet conditions with dense ‘patches of mist. I was back in Chelsea at 5.45 a.m. Monday and in the office a little late and feeling rather the worse for wear. The Marcos behaved faultlessly returning about 28 m.p.g. I consider it to be the best sports car I have owned out of about twenty high performance vehicles over the years including two Elans, a Europa twin cam and a couple of Healey 3000s, I hope other MOTOR SPORT readers who are mountain enthusiasts will have found this of interest and will perhaps write to you

describing their own driving and climbing p 1 oits.

Chelsea BARRY J. WHITE Mr. White Should read of the exploits of the Glegg brothers and-others in this field, pre-war.— El).