Welcome to “On the hill with…” a series of short interviews with members of the Rucksack Club.
This edition features Margaret Hart, and of course her husband Mike, it’s rare they’re not on the hill without each other.
Margaret is the current chair of YHA, and this Friday (9th May) is the Chair’s Challenge – a Yorkshire Three Peaks.
Please follow the link below to contribute to the work YHA does (more details below).
YHA charity fundraiser to help ALL children get an adventure away from home – JustGiving
Margaret on Helm Crag, February 2025
How did you get into walking and climbing?
I was brought up in Leeds. My father had been evacuated during the war to the Yorkshire Dales, years which he described as “the best years in his life”. He regularly took my siblings and myself for walks in the Dales, and also the Lake District and Snowdonia when on holiday. Alongside this, as an A’ Level geography student, we went to places such as the “Doline of Douky Bottom” above Littondale, the Norber erratics (above Austwick) and Stickle Beck and Tarn to study karst limestone and glacial features. But it was later, when my husband Mike (a southerner who knew very little about mountains) and I spent our honeymoon on the Isle of Arran, then properly discovered the Lake District, that hills “got into our bones”. We started ticking off the Wainwrights, walked the Pennine Way and the Tour du Mont Blanc in the late 1970s and then children came along. We continued to climb Lake District mountains with our two small boys in a papoose each. They tended to wake very early in the mornings so we were up and out early. I remember the bemused look on the face of people climbing Coniston Old Man mid-morning when they met the four of us already descending.
Mike carries both rucksacks up Teesdale whilst Margaret suffers from the “bog bug”, Pennine Way 1978
Tour de Mont Blanc, 1979
Tour de Mont Blanc, 1979
Now with the first two children, Lake District 1983
Who has had the most influence on your mountain experience?
My father, my geography teacher and my husband, Mike “got me going”. I also had an influential trip as a Girl Guide, walking across the Lake District from one youth hostel to another. More of that later. Much later in life a work colleague, Dave Atkinson, fellow RC member and a previous OTHW interviewee, encouraged me to try climbing. This scared me and exhilarated me in equal measure. I am not a natural climber, but it extended my mountain experience and increased my confidence in the two legged activities Mike and I undertook together – scrambling over Munros, various Alpine expeditions and the GR20 in Corsica.
Bocca Muzelle, 2210m, Still only 10:00
On the GR20, Corsica in 2010
How did you come to join the RC?
That happened relatively late in life. Mike and I began joining Dave Atkinson and his friends on visits to Garth, the Anabasis hut at Capel Curig. Eventually we became members, and have many happy memories of walks and climbs in North Wales, with sociable evenings, music and log fires at the lovely but basic club hut. When the farmer who owned the hut ended the lease, Anabasis was absorbed into the Rucksack Club. Having discovered that Anabasis members matched adventure, experience and mountain skills with unending gentleness, patience and encouragement, I was initially somewhat in awe of the Rucksack Club, but as friendships develop, of course perceptions become more rounded, and these same attributes, are, happily, found widely in the mountaineering community.
Outside the Anabasis hut, Garth, with Mike, Simon Letts and Dave Atkinson
What does a perfect hill day consist of?
Great location, sunny and clear with a good breeze, interesting route, wonderful view from the top, good company and sufficient challenge to end the day with a sense of achievement. It may often be part of a multi-day walk or involve a wild camp. The Fisherfield Six from Sheneval is a contender – though16 hours of walking was just a bit too far to be “perfect”. A more recent ascent of Ruadh Stac Mor and A Mhaighdean from Carn More with two still Munro bagging friends was perhaps more perfect. The long walk from Glendessary over Sgurr nan Coireachan and Garbh Chioch Mhor to Sgurr na Ciche with its amazing view over the Small Isles was another. It is probably no coincidence that these are all in NW Scotland, which we have visited almost every summer for well over 30 years and which we know and love better than anywhere else.
On A’Mhaighdean, 2021
On the ridge to Sron na Ciche, 2021
Over many years in the hills, what have been the most memorable times?
Three separate themes here I think.
First, the large number of days Mike and I have spent together on the hills, sometimes with friends or groups but often on our own. Some of the most memorable are our “firsts”; our first long distance path – the Pennine Way in 1978, the first Lake District mountain with Mike in 1976, the Langdale Pikes, followed the next day by the full Coniston Round, our first Munro in 1988 -Ben Lawers with our three sons – all old enough to ascend under their own steam now but young enough still to be happy to come with us. The Stubai horseshoe was our first return to the Alps when our sons were old enough to leave behind – and incidentally, where we met Richard Evans who after a gap of 20 years or so, we met again through the RC. This was followed by other trips with guided groups to Austria, the Pyrenees, the Himalayas, Morocco, Corsica, Sicily and elsewhere. I loved the combination of mountains and cultural experience as we trekked through Himalayan villages and Morocco, but from a purely mountain perspective, there was nothing to beat the challenge of Corsica’s GR20. Our final Munro, Ben Hope in 2013, climbed in classic cloud and rain with our sons and some of our closest hill walking friends was memorable, as was the Cape Wrath Trail the following year – an exercise in self-sufficiency, staying mainly in bothies and camping with just a couple of luxurious YHAs and one memorable hotel night where a shower and a non-rehydrated meal were much appreciated. In 2016 we celebrated my retirement from work with a two month trip to New Zealand, using youth hostels as bases for “tramping” the Great Walks. There we experienced glaciers, dense rainforest, alpine pastures and beautiful beaches and were introduced to dehydrated bacon and eggs, and Fiordland rain many times wetter even than Scotland.
Compleation on Ben Hope, September 2013
The second theme is the climbs with Anabasis friends. I got into climbing relatively late in my mountain life but it was wonderful to find a new way to experience the mountains, with all that it entails – fun, fear, apprehension, learning, challenge, good company. I am told we did not do anything hard grade-wise – though it felt pretty hard to me. Dave assures me we did a VS – Grooved Slab at Helsby, first ascent by Rucksacker Harry Kelly. But for me, the standouts were: first, climbing the Cioch in the Skye Cuillin by way of Cioch West and the Arrow Route, with Dave and now fellow Rucksackers Billy Murphy and Stan Eccles; second, reaching a sunlit and deserted Tryfan summit after finding our way up a never-ending Grooved Arete.
On the Skye Ridge with Stan Eccles and Billy Murphy
On the Cioch with Dave Atkinson
Knight’s Move on Grooved Arête, Tryfan
And the third theme is days spent with groups of people who are new to the hills. Mike spent much of his retirement supervising Duke of Edinburgh expeditions and leading for HF Holidays. I became a trustee and then for the past five years, Chair of YHA (England and Wales). Alongside keeping YHA afloat through some of the most turbulent and challenging years facing charities across the board, we have refocused on our charitable mission to make adventure accessible to all children and young people, and to groups who are traditionally under represented in the outdoors. Walking over the South Downs with a school group including young people who had never before seen a sheep, and who were amazed that they could see the sea was uplifting, but sadly, not unusual . Traversing the Great Ridge from YHA Castleton in a howling gale with 100 Moslem hikers who later gathered round a campfire, was an inspiring experience. So too was walking from YHA Malham along the accessible path to Gordale Scar in torrential rain with Debbie North, Cabinet Office Disability and Access Ambassador in her all terrain wheelchair, and a group of people with a range of disabilities from a community group in Leeds.
Have you had any mishaps in the hills?
Thankfully nothing major. Mike broke his arm near the summit of Grisedale Pike, and I fell off a rock on the GR20 in Corsica, badly bruising or cracking a rib. Completing the route seemed less than certain on a number of occasions, but ultimate success owed much to Mike’s care, encouragement and support.
What makes a great hill partner? Has anyone come close?
Mike and I have done the vast majority of our hill walking together, and think we are unusual in having completed the full Munro round as a partnership*. He loves planning and spends endless hours poring over maps on winter evenings. He is also an excellent navigator, only recently moving into the world of GPS and still with a preference for the cerebral challenge of map and compass. He honed his skills through gaining his ML when he retired from teaching in 2008 and we now attract amused expressions when spotted on the hills with paper maps. I have learnt not to interfere with route finding – my intuition is often incorrect. My role is ensuring we have adequate supplies of food and water – quite straightforward on a day walk, but more of a challenge on the Cape Wrath Trail, which involved sending food parcels ahead. Mike is always sensible, totally reliable and veers towards caution. I can be impatient, sometimes unrealistic and over ambitious. So we complement each other well and seem to be a pretty good partnership. Dave was an excellent climbing partner – although this was more of an expert/beginner relationship than an equal partnership. He always led, reliving, in later years, some of the easier climbs he had enjoyed in his younger days – I suppose getting the same satisfaction from introducing a beginner as I do from the YHA experiences I have described, or Mike’s years with HF. Dave always inspired confidence and trust and had endless patience, enabling me to extend my mountaineering experience beyond what I would ever have thought possible.
[Ed. – a rare example of Munrosis matrimonialis]How do you keep active in the hills?
By doing it! We are fortunate to live on the edge of the Peak District with endless scope for walking “from the door” or very nearby. During Covid, Mike had a map and a pink highlighter with which he marked every path we walked. There was little map to be seen at the end of it. I also run several times a week – though not very fast. Visiting our son in London recently, I took the chance for a Sunday morning run round the perimeter of Richmond Park. On my return Robert asked me how many people I had overtaken. I scratched my head before answering “none”. With a continuous stream of people overtaking me all the time, we concluded that I had the distinction of being the slowest runner in Richmond Park that day.
What future hill plans do you have?
A trip through the Outer Hebrides in May/June with bike and walking boots, and next year, hopefully a trip to the Lofoten Islands to celebrate a significant event. But before that, our YHA Chair’s Challenge will be the Yorkshire Three Peaks early in May this year. Fifteen trustees and senior staff have signed up for this, which will be a fundraising event for “No Child Left Behind”, YHA’s bursary fund for children from disadvantaged backgrounds who would otherwise be unable to join their classmates on school trips. If you would like to support this – and the next generation of outdoor enthusiasts – perhaps the next generation of the Rucksack Club – please visit our Just Giving page
YHA charity fundraiser to help ALL children get an adventure away from home – JustGiving
Do you have any regrets/missed opportunities?
Not really. There’s always more things it would be good to do and more places to go. But life has been about balancing family, work and a host of other things, and I think I’ve been incredibly fortunate in having a partner and good friends, good health and sufficient time and resources to enable me to pursue what has been – and continues to be – such an important part of my life – helping me wonder at the natural world, find time and space to ponder and reflect, stay physically and emotionally well, and enjoy the company of so many inspiring people.
What have been the benefits of RC membership?
We came to the RC late, but have been made very welcome and it is good to be part of the community. We enjoy Wednesday Walks from time to time, but the biggest single benefit for us has been Craigallan. What a wonderful place to stay! We have used it on several occasions for two or three night stays en route further north, and planned to do the same last summer. But incessant wind, rain and unpredictability put paid to any attraction to camp, so we stayed put at Craigallan for a full 10 days, developing a real sense of belonging, meeting interesting people, revisiting the Mamores, Glencoe and Ardgour, and finding all sorts of new places. We eventually gave up on the mountains and found some sunshine on Colonsay – a beautiful and fascinating “new to us”, low lying island. For anyone who has ticked off Munro, Corbett, Graham etc lists, it has 22 MacPhies to bag!
We’d like to extend our thanks to all those dedicated RC members who commit so much time and energy to keeping the club going and with such a wide programme of events, and to the inspiration that so many of you provide.